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My Career Shift from Coding to Coaching: A Quest for Joy and Purpose
How often does a dream come true? For me, it did when both my husband and I received job offers from Microsoft – The Mecca for tech professionals at that time. On November 28, 2000, we moved to Seattle from Austin, Texas. It felt like I had finally boarded the right train—life on track, career on point—or so I thought. But less than a decade later, everything shifted. This week marks 16 years since I walked away from my role as a software engineering manager at Microsoft to pursue something completely unknown—the “people stuff”—coaching, connection, and deeper impact. This milestone made me pause and reflect: How did I find the…
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Job Searching for a Career Path Change? Act Like a Farmer
A job change is a daunting task. It becomes even more challenging when it involves a discipline, industry, or role change. A common misconception is one can do it by keyword search and then submitting resumes through the job boards; it is like throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks. For those wanting a career path change, this rarely gives a positive outcome and becomes very frustrating. I met a leader at a non-profit; let’s call her Tricia. Tricia wanted to move to the for-profit sector. She had been applying through the job boards but didn’t get much traction. On top of her super busy schedule, this was…
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How I Decided On Career Change- Software Engineer to a Coach
In 2009 I made this big leap. I left a high paying software job to find what really brings the best in people – started pursuing coaching as a career. My family, friends, and ex-coworkers were surprised if not shocked. They asked me so many questions – “How did you decide that you wanted to be a coach?” Someone even asked, “So how did it happen, one fine morning, you just decided on this?” Some commented, “I wish I knew what my passion is”. My short answer, “it took me a few years of dissatisfaction and trying out different activities, and finally one year of rigorous thinking to find out…
