Before I started the coaching process with Diego, I was in the middle of a professional mid-career crisis: I was freshly unemployed due to work force reduction in my last job, after a few unsuccessful interviews with tech companies and my personal life was going down the slope. I felt like I needed someone to talk to, to share my concerns and my frustrations, to get some clear and unbiased feedback on my current situation. I was looking for an actionable advice and a structured plan.
My decision to start the process with Diego was slightly biased, as I know him for many years, and I am aware of his successful professional career and dedication to continuously improve his knowledge and experience as mentor and a coach. For me, Diego was the perfect combination of someone I can trust with personal and sometimes intimate details of my life and current status, as well as a relentless and significant source of professional knowledge and mentorship experience. I knew that I won’t be able to recover on my own or even with a supportive circle of friends and family, as I realized that this process would require someone, who can invest in the it as much as I would.
The most significant result of the process was to finally have to courage to start “going against the flow”. For many years I was feeling a sense of incompletion in my professional career, I was eager to blame the job, the management, the role, the market and many other unrelated conditions, when in fact, deep inside, I knew that what I am doing is not what I want to do. My job was convenient and acceptable by people that surrounded me, yet I constantly felt unsatisfied. I understand now that becoming unemployed was the actual trigger to make the change, the pivot, towards the profession that I wanted to have all that time. The process that I experienced with Diego, gave me the tools and the plan to realize my desire for change and provided the supportive environment I needed so much to finally “break the cycle”. To my surprise, once the decision was made, and I started to work towards the goal, I received an unexpected support from my friends and family. Today I have a clear vision of my next steps towards a satisfactory professional career, as well as more openness in my personal relations.
What works best for me in the coaching process with Diego is the lack of formality, it’s mostly a friendly conversation, yet it has all the aspects of professional coaching session with homework, progress discussion and feedback. For me such combination was crucial for the process success.
Arie S, Project Manager, US