Jeremy was working with Intel in Portland, Oregon when he first contacted Curt, but was ready to make a wholesale change. “I was dissatisfied with the work I was doing,” he says, “and not feeling like I was living up to my own potential. I felt like I was running in sand.” He recognized that his own career explorations weren’t working for him. “I had done things on my own for long enough that I really needed someone to help me make a change.”

The biggest catalyst for deciding to work with Curt, says Jeremy, “was wanting to make some progress and make some changes. I wanted to get to the point where I could, instead of just taking opportunities randomly as they came, identify opportunities I wanted to chase after and feel confident that I was doing what I would be successful at and would enjoy.”

And now…

While he was prepared to make a change to a completely new path outside of Intel, Jeremy was able to make the perfect change to a path within the company. He discovered an entirely new direction in his career (changing from software development to a communications focus) where he could still build on the experience and insights he already had from years with the company.

While his previous path left him feeling like a bored underperformer, his current work is energizing and filled with potential.

Landing his new job

At one point while he was working with Curt, Jeremy and his team at Intel were restructured. “Everyone was given two months to find another job at Intel.” He decided that it was the perfect opportunity to explore the possibilities within the company.

When he discovered a position in employee communications, he threw his hat in the ring. The clarity and confidence he got from identifying the underlying characteristics in his Passion Core played an instrumental role in landing his new position. It made a huge difference, he says, “to be able to say why you should hire me to do this thing that’s so much different from anything I’ve done before. It’s opened a lot of doors that way.” It helped him focus on what he brings to the job that would make him stand out.

He even used the Passion Core as a focal point in his first interview. “When I interviewed originally with the hiring manager, I brought it with me and showed it to her. It was a great conversation starter to bring it in and talk about it and say, this is why I want this job.”

The process

“It was intense,” says Jeremy, describing his experience, “but the process itself flowed naturally. It never felt forced. Curt was able to balance my progress with the process itself, in a way that felt natural to me.”

For Jeremy, the process covered a wide range of what he was looking for. “I wanted to not just figure out, ‘What’s my perfect job,’ but also to clarify pragmatic steps along the way to make incremental moves towards that. From figuring out the small barriers to investigating different kinds of opportunities, all that was really helpful.

Describing what people should expect out of the progress, Jeremy says, “The should expect real progress, and being able to identify where should they be, and being able to make the changes both within themselves and with their life to be able to get there.

“It sounds like it’s such a giant thing, but the process Curt has developed makes it achievable in a way that would be really hard to do by yourself. It gives you a realistic timeline, and more than anything, the tools to work through that and get to the place where you are thriving.

Working with Curt

Looking back, two major benefits of working with Curt stand out in Jeremy’s mind. The first is his facilitation of exploration and insights. “The clarifying questions Curt asks. He helped me continually dig deeper into things, to get at those spots that are in there, but they’re just not that easy to get to.”

The second was Curt’s facilitation of forward progress. “He came up with endless little steps to be able to move through the process and keep on making progress. Being a nudging, gentle guide all the way through to the point where I’m hiking off on my own eventually.”