What was going on in your business & life when you began to work with Megan?

When I started working with Megan, I was in a state of analysis paralysis regarding a career path to pursue that was authentically my own. I was constantly comparing different career trajectories that I could pursue, but those comparisons without a decision framework or deep understanding of my own values prioritization just left me more lost. I was finishing my MBA at a top business school, but despite all my academic preparation, I felt completely stuck for where I wanted to go next, limiting my ability to take full advantage of the on-campus resources available to me..

Despite a background that well-prepared me for a career in finance, I knew from experience those jobs are a bad match for me, and business school had reinforced this personal truth. I knew what I didn't want – finance didn't align with my values or desired lifestyle – but I had no clear vision of what I actually wanted to pursue.

The pressure was mounting because my university program was ending, and those deadlines didn't care about where I was mentally with my plan. I was caught between multiple potential career paths that seemed mutually exclusive, and I had a significant networking aversion that really didn't play well with trying to contact alumni cold.

Perhaps most challenging was my relationship with planning itself. While I was naturally disciplined and prepared, I had become trapped in endless preparation mode. I knew what I needed to do and had the habits to stay disciplined, but I had to acknowledge that I was done with that step and needed to move on to actually engaging and taking action.

What hesitation or concerns did you have about working with Megan?

My introduction to Megan was through a “First 90 Days as a Climate Executive” event during Climate Week. I admired the offering of a free session, but as a job-seeker in an MBA program I’m not a great match for that content. Additionally, I have access to career coaches, professional development resources, and a supportive peer group via my school. I wasn’t initially confident that a VIP Day with Megan would yield positive results in a way that was not already available to me. Megan offered a free pre-VIP Day meeting where we reviewed the VIP Day brochure and had an honest conversation about what the experience is and is not. This gave me the confidence to know this was a coaching experience that would allow me to take advantage of those on-campus resources by clarifying the direction I’m pursuing, with milestones that I work with a career coach to help me achieve.

What specific results have you achieved?

I feel I’ve been given a mirror into myself, valuable tools and frameworks, and empowered to take action on my own, knowing my path is true to myself. Most importantly, I gained crystal-clear direction- pursuing a career in corporate responsibility that offers geographic flexibility, a work calendar over which I have agency, and the resources and time to recharge away from work so I'm at my best at work. The more I thought about it, the more I saw how my background and interest in proving quantitative arguments and business cases for sustainability activities could be applied to working directly for one company or organization, rather than applied as an investor or consultant, careers that mandate a different lifestyle. And I can be very selective about identifying a company or organization that aligns with my values, as I’m not as selective about office location or salary, a good way to ensure I’m seeking out a long-term career that I can grow in happily and successfully.

My networking aversion has waned meaningfully. Megan’s framework gave me structure and accountability, that made networking feel natural and reciprocal, rather than daunting and disempowering. Logging a “daily seed”, or brief note on the action which advanced my career search, was a surprisingly effective tool at catalyzing action from my state of analysis paralysis. I’m now regularly doing informational interviews and identifying potential connections across my professional network.

By mapping my values and how they interrelate, I developed a sophisticated decision-making framework for key choices moving forward. Rather than staying stuck in the status quo due to inertia, this gave me clear criteria for making major life decisions, which I’m already implementing.

Perhaps most significantly, I solved the ‘perfect job’ trap by creating a portfolio approach. I realized that if I have a job that can cover 80% of what I'm looking for and I find the other 20% through volunteering, that's the same outcome. This eliminated the pressure to find one role that checked every single box.

My relationship with time and boundaries also transformed. I established clear parameters around what I need – for example, I want to be able to ask for time away from commitments if my job is busy, and I want that to be okay. I created structures like monthly Friday afternoon check-ins to maintain course-correction habits.

What did you like most about working with Megan?

Her preparation prior to all sessions, and her adaptability to the style of VIP Day that would work best for me (a thorough questionnaire before starting and splitting the day in half with mid-session homework). Her commitment to understanding my personality and situation, tweaking the structure so it would be most effective, and her asking very thoughtful questions which demonstrated that understanding of me were major factors in this experience being very positive for me. I’m confident the recommendations and frameworks I got were deeply personalized, and I greatly appreciated the candor with which we were were able to talk about my personality and challenges.

What was the biggest thing that you took away from working with Megan?

The biggest revelation was understanding how my values cascade in logical progression from those I hold most core to those which cannot be actualized without satisfying those core values (it’s in a map hanging in plain view on my desk). I came to see that I view my values as a progression outward, from who I am innately, to how I can impact other people's lives for the better. This insight helped me see that my various interests and goals weren't conflicting, but were part of an integrated system that I could invest in knowing it supported all my major values.

The values mapping exercise was transformative. It helped me understand that patterns I can get stuck in when one or two particular values end up dominating. I can end up stuck in busywork, feeling I’m aligned with what’s important, and never getting to the things further down the line that actually matter more.

This led to a crucial realization about networking. I had been viewing it as somehow unfair or selfish, but I realized that not doing everything I can to achieve the best job for myself directly limits my ability to hit that outer layer of helping people. By limiting my own opportunities, I was actually limiting my ability to give back – which was one of my core values.

Megan also introduced a powerful sailboat metaphor to me, which has reshaped my thinking about how I move forward in life. I now have a very effective framework to help understand what I can control versus what I can’t. This has helped me focus my energy much more effectively.

What do you think would have happened if you hadn’t worked with Megan?

Without this work, I likely would have remained trapped in what I now recognize as analysis paralysis disguised as preparation. I would have continued avoiding networking due to my existing beliefs about what networking had to look like. I told myself I had to know the exact path I was going down before I began talking to people. But actually, this approach would have severely limited my opportunities.

Linked to that, I would have kept searching for the perfect job that checked every box, likely leading to continued indecision and missed opportunities. Without the portfolio approach insight I took away from our coaching, I would have remained stuck in this impossible quest.

The end result would have been more months of spinning my wheels, increasing anxiety as graduation approached, and potentially settling for opportunities that didn't truly align with my values – simply because I would have run out of time to make a thoughtful decision.

Who would you recommend to work with Megan?

Like any exercise in deep personal reflection with the intent to formalize tools and frameworks to use as guides and reference points, your own preparation and honesty is paramount. If you’re looking for clarity on how your values and goals can be thoughtfully connected into a plan that’s authentic to you, and you embrace this as foundational to then pursue a traditional recruitment or job search, I highly recommend the VIP Day. I believe this day is best for those in a position to make major change in their life, as that agency makes the takeaways more actionable. I believe a coach of such a process must be invested in fully understanding who you are, an excellent listener and question asker, and knowledgeable about the types of workshops that most sanguinely address the challenge itself. I fully found Megan to be that type of coach, and for a prospective client willing to dig deep for the inputs, I think she is terrific at working with you to develop useful outputs to carry with you in life.