Why I founded The Career Lounge

Life has many ups and downs. Sometimes when it looks like things cannot get any worse … they do.  However, it is by going through these situations that we can learn the most about ourselves.  We can discover our inner strengths, find out how resourceful we are in being able to turn threats into opportunities and achieve positive outcomes we could not have dreamt for ourselves.  

My career to date has been shaped by:

• FEAR of not being able to fulfil my full potential fast enough

• The RESTLESSNESS I would feel whenever I found myself in a position where my environment was getting in the way of me achieving my full potential

• LIFE EVENTS that just happened

As a result of all this, my career has spanned different industries and sectors in different countries.

However, through coaching I ‘joined the dots’ and realised that a consistent thread throughout my career has been helping people progress in their personal and/or professional lives.

After gaining my coaching accreditation in 2017, I set up my coaching practice with the aim of supporting experienced professionals to access meaningful job opportunities. This practice was initially focused on supporting women to get back to work after a career break. This is a group of people I strongly identify with, as I found myself on a career break after giving birth and moving countries.

In my day-to-day practice I soon realised that regardless of their career trajectory, the top three challenges faced by my clients were lack of direction and guidance, relevant job market information and the right networks and connections.

My motivation for coaching comes from one of the key lessons I have learned from my 15 years of experience working with people:

‘Become aware of the things that we cannot change, have the courage to change the things that we can and gain the wisdom to know the difference.’

I see my role as coach to facilitate this for my clients. I offer a non-judgmental, listening ear; and become an accountability partner who will challenge and encourage them to build resilience by turning weaknesses into strengths and failures into future successes. My own work experience has given me the knowledge and tools to effectively support my clients to overcome these challenges. I have written about these experiences and how they interact with my practice in newspapers and websites, including Sassy Mama Hong Kong and China Daily Hong Kong.