career
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Emily Worden, a career coach in Boston. It’s been edited for length and clarity.I meet with maybe 10 new job seekers a week, and I’d say at least four or five of them cry during our first meeting.Not only are they…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nitya Kumar, 25, an Adobe employee who lives in India. The following has been edited for length and clarity.I landed a product design role at Meta straight out of college in 2022. By 2024, I saw the industry pivoting toward AI…
Growing up in Florida, I always pictured a future in New York City.I attended law school in Manhattan, then worked my way up the corporate ladder after graduation. Big Law was never my dream, but it felt like a stable career path.Over time, though, I started realizing that working as…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Matthew Willsey, a neurosurgeon who specializes in brain-computer interfaces. It has been edited for length and clarity.Before I became a neurosurgeon, I was an electrical engineer.I graduated from MIT with my undergraduate degree and pursued my master’s in electrical engineering. I…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jareb Dougherty, 29, the co-owner of Donovan’s Irish Pub in St. Augustine, Florida. When his professional basketball career didn’t work out, he went on to manage a restaurant with his mother.It has been edited for length and clarity.When I say I…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Samir Shah, Target’s senior vice president of Northeastern stores. He’s based in Philadelphia. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.When I was 18, I somehow convinced my parents that I needed to go to the US to learn English…
When I returned to Japan at 50, it was to keep a promise.Fresh out of university in 1990, I had the opportunity to teach English through Japan’s Ministry of Education. I had no idea how to teach, but I wasn’t about to pass up the chance to live in Asia.I…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jennifer Martinez, a 35-year-old product manager based in New York City. It has been edited for length and clarity.I’ve worked as a product manager at an AI startup in New York City since 2017, in a fully remote role that allows…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Dominic Imwalle, the founder of DxConsulting, which focuses on one-on-one career coaching with professionals seeking $100K+ roles. Imwalle also runs a newsletter called “Conversations > Applications,” which discusses how to create purposeful conversations for job opportunities. Imwalle was formerly a senior…
At 38, I gave myself one year and £15,000 (nearly $20,000 USD at the time) to completely change my life. I told myself that if it didn’t work, I’d go back to the life I had spent so long trying to leave.At the time, I was a VP of Sales…
