Where I Came From
I have always had a yearning for both the left-brained, linear stuff, and the right-brained creative, less tangible stuff. Combine being good at math and science with being female, and the forces aligned for me to study engineering at Cornell. Knowing that I wasn’t ready to work yet and thinking that I wanted to dig deeper in the technical side, I went on to receive a Masters Degree from Stanford.
I took a job out of school in a highly technical structural engineering consulting firm with the narrow specialty of anti- terrorism design. Not long after I started, I knew that engineering alone would not fulfill me and started looking around for what would.
Psychology had always been a hobby of mine, and one day I realized: “there is no reason this can’t be my career. This comes naturally to me, and I enjoy helping people get clarity on their issues.” I hesitated at the thought of four more years of schooling and its associated costs, and took an introductory psychology course to feel out the situation. The class mentioned life coaching, and although it didn’t hit me right away, the seed was planted.
By the end of August 2006, the seed slowly began to sprout. Once I had decided to pursue coaching, the idea kept growing and growing. After a few weeks, my website was up, business cards were ordered, and I had joined SF Coaches, the local International Coach Federation (ICF) chapter. I was really enjoying learning about coaching, but still none of my engineering colleagues knew. After awhile it began to feel like I was living a double life. It was a constant tug-of-war between my unexciting day job and my passion for coaching.
I began slowly to divulge my “secret” to the people in my everyday life. Some seemed supportive at first, but I mostly saw and felt evidence of the opposite. Many people asked me – are you sure you just wouldn’t like to work at a different engineering company? How could I explain that once you find what you’re meant to do, questions like that just seem silly? Others told me they were “disappointed” in me, that they had “high hopes” for my career as an engineer. I felt abandoned – these people supported their own ideas for me more than they supported me, the person. Well, I definitely wasn’t disappointed in me - not in the least bit.
Some asked me what it felt like to decide to just throw away a recent masters degree. This took me by surprise, as I viewed my whole past as a journey and wasn’t about to go regretting a degree from Stanford. Besides, many of my friends who graduated with me were on their own tracks, veering away from the confines of our major. Even though I didn’t regret my choice to move away from my area of educational training, I did wonder how I would use that experience as leverage. Then one day it hit me – duh! – I should be coaching engineers! I understand how we tend to think in black and white, and I now also see that the world can appear gray, even with a little color sometimes.
Where I am Headed
Almost three years after graduate school, I have left my full-time engineering job to pursue my passion for coaching. The transition into coaching has been an eye-opening experience that has given me a window into others’ perspectives on work-life balance and the purpose and meaning of “career”.
Coaching is perfect for me; by providing a safe space, I help people find their own truth, challenge them to be their best, and hold them to their own highest standard. This allows them to see their current situations more clearly and talk about future possibilities. I won’t let my clients shy away from their own truth, allowing them to realize that it isn’ t as scary as it might seem at first.
I love the idea that you can choose your level of happiness and fulfillment, no matter what circumstances may bring; that you are not the victim of your life, but an active participant in its creation.
I love working with these two groups of people:
Young adults who are beginning to realize that the path they carved for themselves in college isn’t fitting now that they’re in the working world. There are some sharp corners ahead and they know that if they continue straight on their present course they just might end up in the bushes.
Engineering and other technical executives who are learning how to bring awareness to the work environments they create. Intentionally designing positive environments contributes to the success of each individual employee and the business as a whole. In short, I help take the “BS” out of business.
With Vision, Goal, Action. Coaching, the left and right sides of my brain can now peacefully co-exist.