I found my way to career counseling in 1999, and in the intervening years have helped hundreds of clients identify and achieve their career goals. When I started this work, I focused on career exploration and job search. Over the years, I’ve retooled my practice to reflect the type of work that I found most motivating.

When I started doing career counseling, I focused on helping clients identify the right job or career, and on executing a job search. Once they landed the job, we both thought our work was done. But then clients would come back, seeking help managing their career. I realized that career management is a critical part of a successful career. Every career hits bumps in the road— difficult supervisors, reorganizations, layoffs, and gender or racial discrimination. Providing support through the growth periods of careers is some of the most satisfying work I do.

Helping clients figure out what work will suit them best continues to be at the heart of what I do, but I’ve expanded that work to focus on all types of career clarity. I’ve learned that periodically, you need to re-evaluate where you are and what you want next.

A number of my clients have realized through our work that they didn’t want a job, they wanted a business of their own — so I’ve had the privilege to support the creation of many new consulting and private practice businesses.

I honed my skills as an international trade negotiator in my first career and discovered that negotiation was also an important career skill. I’ve developed a specialty in workplace negotiations of all types. Not only do I help clients prepare for negotiations, I’m also an expert consultant on negotiation skills for my career development colleagues. I wrote Coaching Clients Through Career and Other Workplace Negotiations to help my fellow career counselors and coaches become comfortable with negotiations.

I also created, under the auspices of the Career Planning Academy, the Certified Salary Negotiation Specialist (CSNS) credential. There’s nothing I love more than to think through a negotiation with a client and help them develop their own negotiating skills.

After more than 20 years in the business, I’ve had a number of clients who are CEOs, executive directors, or on the senior leadership team, and many more who were headed there. I realized that developing an executive mindset is a lifelong effort, and that even young professionals can benefit from thinking strategically about their career growth.