Match Score

Your Career Discovery Results

Top Match: Staff Engineer at Series B 95% fit confidence

"You're a technical leader who values impact over prestige, with strong clarity on goals but ready to expand your options beyond the obvious path."

🎯

Overall Fit Score

📊

GROW Average

⭐

Top Strengths

Full-Stack Mentoring Systems

✅

5/5

Phases Complete

⏱️

22m

Time Invested

📅 Demo Report

Sample Data

📊 Your GROW + Life Design Assessment

Based on our coaching conversation, your overall profile score is 84/100. This reflects excellent clarity moving from your authentic Goals through honest Reality assessment to exploring viable Options and making concrete commitments (Will). Your Life Design shows strong alignment across Work (building impactful products), Play (technical learning and teaching), Love (mentorship and community), and Health (sustainable pace with growth).

Key strengths: Clear understanding of authentic career aspirations, strong technical and leadership competencies, excellent self-awareness about what energizes vs drains you. Main area for growth: Deepening product/business acumen to complement technical skills, and building strategic network in target companies.

🎯 View Demo Execution Plan →

🎯 Your Life Design Profile

💼

Work

Strong clarity on energizers

🎮

Play

Technical learning & teaching

❤️

Love

Mentorship & community

🏃

Health

Sustainable pace priority

💰

Money

Clear compensation targets

📊 Framework Analysis: GROW + Life Design

How we calculated your 84/100 overall score:

We used the GROW coaching framework (Goal → Reality → Options → Will) combined with Life Design principles (Work, Play, Love, Health) to assess your career readiness and clarity. Your overall score is: 60% Life Design Balance + 40% GROW Journey Effectiveness = 84/100

💼 Work

88/100

Strong clarity on what energizes you (solving hard problems, mentoring, impact) and what drains you (repetitive work, bureaucracy).

🎮 Play

85/100

Clear understanding of flow activities (building side projects, teaching, open source) that bring joy and learning.

❤️ Love

82/100

Strong support network (Berkeley alumni, mentorship relationships) and clear values around community and collaboration.

🏃 Health

85/100

High energy with clear boundaries (45-50 hrs/week, gym 4x/week). Prioritizes sustainable pace and work-life balance.

🎯 GROW Journey Assessment

Goal (Clarity, Authenticity, Time-boundedness) 88/100

Excellent - Articulated specific, authentic aspirations: leading 5-8 engineers at high-growth company with social impact, meaningful equity, and flexibility.

Reality (Honesty, Comprehensiveness, Evidence) 92/100

Outstanding - Demonstrated strong self-awareness of strengths (full-stack, architecture, mentoring), constraints (Bay Area COL, need $140-180k), and resources (Berkeley network, 50k+ views content).

Options (Quantity, Diversity, Feasibility) 75/100

Good - Explored 3 diverse paths (Staff Engineer at Series B, Founding Engineer at climate tech, Engineering Manager) with honest assessment of tradeoffs.

Will (Commitment, Specificity, Ownership) 85/100

Very Good - Made 3 concrete commitments with timelines: network with 10-15 engineers (next 2 months), create investment thesis one-pagers (next 2 weeks), deepen product acumen (next 3 months).

✨ Key Findings from Your Interview

Passion drivers: Building products that solve real problems, Social impact through technology, Leading and mentoring teams while staying technically sharp

Core strengths: Full-stack development (5+ years), System architecture and scalability expertise, Technical leadership with proven mentorship track record (5 engineers to promotion)

Economic clarity: Target compensation $140,000-$180,000 with equity upside, driven by Bay Area cost of living and wealth-building goals (home ownership in 5 years, international travel, entrepreneurship savings)

Culture fit priorities: Collaborative and transparent culture, Fast-paced but sustainable environment (45-50 hrs/week), Hybrid remote setup with innovation focus

Life stage & capacity: Early career professional (late 20s) with high energy, flexibility, and strong foundation - Can commit fully while maintaining work-life balance (gym 4x/week non-negotiable)

Authentic tension: You're genuinely torn between the "safe bet" of Staff Engineer at Series B-C (great comp, structure, sustainable) vs the excitement of Founding Engineer at climate tech startup (maximum ownership, direct impact, higher risk). This tension is healthy - it shows you're thinking critically about tradeoffs rather than just chasing prestige.

💼 Career Recommendations

Best Match

Staff Engineer at High-Growth B2B SaaS Startup (Series B-C)

$$$$

$160-200k base + equity

Notion

Figma

Vercel

Connects to your GROW journey: This path directly addresses your Goal of "leading 5-8 engineers at high-growth company building products that improve lives" while honoring your Reality constraints ($140-180k need, Bay Area location, hybrid preference). It's the strongest Option you explored for balancing impact + sustainability.
Why this fits your Life Design: Aligns with your Work energizers (solving hard problems, mentoring, seeing tangible impact), supports your Play through technical depth and innovation, leverages your Love of collaboration, and respects your Health priority of sustainable pace (no crunch culture).
Timeline & Next Steps: Begin outreach immediately - these roles take 2-3 months to close. Use your Will commitment to network with 10-15 engineers and create investment thesis one-pagers for 5-7 target companies.

Overall Fit Score 95%

Founding Engineer at Mission-Driven Climate Tech Startup

$$$

$130-160k + 0.5-2% equity

Watershed

Recoolit

Crusoe Energy

Connects to your GROW journey: This addresses your Goal passion for "technology driving social impact" at maximum intensity - you'd be solving climate crisis while building from scratch. Your Reality constraint is the economic tradeoff ($130-160k lower than target), but your Options exploration showed genuine excitement about mission-driven work over pure comp maximization.
Why this fits your Life Design: Exceptional fit for your Work values (meaningful problems, autonomy, building something new) and Play drivers (learning, innovation). The Health consideration: early-stage startups can be intense, so you'd need to actively protect your sustainable pace boundary.
Timeline & Next Steps: 3-6 months - network with climate tech VCs and accelerators first. This leverages your Will commitment to strategic networking.

Overall Fit Score 90%

Engineering Manager at Product-Led Growth Company

$$$$

$170-220k base + equity

Slack

Zoom

Canva

Connects to your GROW journey: This tests whether the leadership Goal you articulated ("leading and mentoring teams") means management or technical leadership. Your Options exploration revealed uncertainty: "I worry I'd miss the technical depth." Worth exploring to know for sure.
Why this fits your Life Design: Leverages your Work energizers (mentoring, seeing others succeed) but may not satisfy your "staying hands-on with code" driver. Good Health fit (established companies, work-life balance, structured training).
Timeline & Next Steps: 4-6 months - May need 1-2 years as Staff IC first depending on company. Consider if you want management track over IC track before committing.

Overall Fit Score 85%

💡 Additional Recommendations

Build Strategic Network in Target Companies & Get Warm Referrals

high

Connect with 10-15 engineers and engineering managers at your target companies (Series B SaaS or climate tech startups) through LinkedIn, Twitter, and alumni networks. Have coffee chats to understand their culture, projects, and hiring needs. Warm referrals increase interview rate from 2% to 40% and give you inside information about team dynamics and opportunities. Focus on Berkeley alumni network and tech conference speakers in your interest areas.

Timeline: Start this week - dedicate 3-4 hours weekly for next 2 months

Impact: Critical for accessing best opportunities before they're publicly posted. Increases offer rate and quality of role fit. Essential foundation for any career transition.

Develop Strategic Product & Business Acumen

medium

Your technical skills are excellent, but to maximize impact in your target roles (Staff Engineer or Founding Engineer), deepen your product strategy and business acumen. Read "Inspired" by Marty Cagan, follow product leaders on Twitter, and volunteer to lead a feature from customer discovery through launch metrics. Understanding unit economics, user acquisition, and retention will make you invaluable in product-focused engineering roles and significantly increase your compensation potential.

Timeline: 3 months - read 2 books, lead 1 feature end-to-end, attend 2 product meetups

Impact: Elevates you from "strong engineer" to "strategic technical leader" - increases compensation by $20-40k and makes you competitive for Staff+ roles. Essential for founding engineer positions.

Create "Investment Thesis" One-Pager for Target Companies

high

Rather than mass applying, create a one-page document outlining why you're specifically excited about 5-7 target companies, what you'd build there, and how your background aligns. Send this with personalized messages to hiring managers. This approach has 10x response rate vs standard applications, demonstrates initiative and product thinking, and helps you stand out. Include specific feature ideas, architectural improvements, or growth strategies you'd pursue.

Timeline: Create this within 2 weeks, iterate based on responses

Impact: Dramatically increases response rate from target companies, positions you as strategic thinker, and makes your applications memorable. Critical for competitive Staff Engineer and Founding Engineer roles.

🎯 Areas for Growth

These gaps emerged from analyzing your GROW journey and Life Design balance. Addressing them will strengthen your decision-making and career outcomes.

Economics - Financial Milestone Specificity

medium

What we noticed in your GROW journey: In your Reality phase, you mentioned wealth-building goals (home in Bay Area in 5 years, international travel, entrepreneurship savings) but didn't specify exact financial milestones or timelines. Your Options exploration compared roles on salary ranges but not on equity value or total wealth creation potential over 3-5 years.

Impact: Without specific financial milestones (e.g., "I need $X saved by year Y for house down payment"), you may: (1) Undervalue equity in negotiations, (2) Choose roles based on base salary rather than total wealth potential, (3) Miss the timing window for your 5-year home ownership goal. This affects your ability to make strategic economic tradeoffs between the 3 career paths.

Recommendation:

Calculate specific numbers: How much do you need for Bay Area down payment? What's your annual savings target? How much equity (in dollars, not %) would make the climate tech lower base salary worthwhile? This will help you evaluate offers more strategically.

Culture - Company Stage Preference Clarity

low

What we noticed in your GROW journey: In your Options phase, you explored both Series B-C companies (Notion/Figma) and early-stage startups (climate tech founding engineer), suggesting openness to different stages. However, you didn't deeply explore what stage actually fits your Work energizers and Health sustainability needs. Do you thrive in 0-to-1 building (seed/Series A) or 1-to-100 scaling (Series B-C)?

Impact: Without clarity on stage preference, you might: (1) Join an early startup expecting structure and get chaos, or (2) Join a Series C expecting scrappiness and get process-heavy bureaucracy. Stage mismatch is a top reason for early departure and dissatisfaction, even when role/comp align.

Recommendation:

During your networking coffee chats (from your Will commitments), specifically ask people at different stage companies about: pace of work, level of process vs autonomy, how decisions are made, typical work week. Reflect on what sounds energizing vs draining to you.

Options - Decision Framework for IC vs Management Track

medium

What we noticed in your GROW journey: Your Goal mentioned "leading and mentoring teams," but you explored both IC (Staff Engineer) and management (Engineering Manager) paths without a clear framework for deciding between them. In Options you said "I worry I'd miss the technical depth" about management, but this was surface-level exploration.

Impact: This is a critical fork in the road. Choosing management when you want IC work (or vice versa) can derail your career satisfaction for years. The difference isn't just "coding vs meetings" - it's about energy source, identity, and day-to-day fulfillment.

Recommendation:

Try this thought experiment: Imagine a perfect day in each role. Staff Engineer: solving a gnarly distributed systems problem, doing architecture review, mentoring through code review. Engineering Manager: doing 1-on-1s, helping someone through a career crisis, resolving team conflict, setting quarterly goals. Which day sounds more like "you"? Also talk to people who've done both tracks.