Instructor
Richard Kirby
Executive Career Coach and Business Consultant
About me
When I graduated college at 22, dinosaurs were long gone but their corporate offspring were hanging on. I found the majority of business managers had rigid ideas about the value I could add to their company, no plans to develop my abilities beyond making me a more efficient worker bee, no concern about what I wanted in return for being a productive employee, and no vision for my career future. Sound familiar?
Given my situation, I had to plot my career course on my own, with trial and error as my "guide". I don't want you to have to go through that, wasting years and missing great career opportunities that could offer you better income and self-fulfillment.
Because one-on-one coaching only allows me to support a limited number of clients, I created my online courses to share my career secrets with a broader audience. I am using multiple AI resources to convert my original content into avatar videos from text and podcasts from text. I combine perspectives from four years in HR as a learning and development manager, work as a recruiter finding and screening job candidates, many years as a hiring manager in the corporate world, and more than 5,000 hours of one-on-one career planning and job-search coaching with clients. My courses are grounded, actionable, and designed for real life—not theory or "common advice" found on the internet or in job seeker groups run by people who mean well but are not experts and have not seen the employment process from ALL sides.
After graduating with honors in Electrical Engineering, I began my career in engineering management, where I spent seven years building strong problem-solving and leadership skills and became a registered Professional Engineer. Over time, though, I realized something important: success on paper isn’t the same as fulfillment—and I didn’t want a “good” career that didn’t feel like a good life.
That insight launched a career adventure that took me through managerial positions in human resources, marketing, and eventually sales. Along the way I changed employers seven times and shifted professions four times, learning firsthand how to navigate uncertainty, reposition my strengths, and keep moving forward—especially after one unexpected downsizing event. In every move except after the downsizing, where I landed an interim role at somewhat less pay, I was able to increase my income and expand my options by getting clearer about my value and learning how to communicate it. I landing a job in marketing with zero marketing experience, followed by a high-paying sales job with zero sales experience. If I could do it, you can do it with the strategies I have developed and confirmed through successful client engagements!
After years in Corporate America, I made my biggest leap of all: I left a $200,000 role years ago to start my own coaching firm. Today, I get to do the work I care about most—helping people build careers that reflect their strengths, align with their values, and support the lives they want.
I am confident the strategies you will learn will provide you clearer direction, stronger confidence, and a plan you can act on right away because they have been proven to work countless times for my clients.