career coach hints and tips

In the latest episode of Lexicon, the podcast by Interesting Engineering (IE), we sit down with Jeff Perry. Jeff is the founder and owner of Jeff Perry, an engineering recruitment advice company and mentor. He is also the talent behind IE’s highly popular Engineering Newsletter Engineering Pros. 

Jeff’s professional coaching has helped transform thousands of clients’ lives and career prospects throughout the year. Skimming through some of the testimonials on his webpage will give you some insight into how effective changing your outlook on life for the better is.

As the adage goes, Jeff likes to remind people that “you should work to live, not live to work.” A more accurate statement has never been made, especially in today’s work climate.

Who is Jeff Perry?

Jeff graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering and later completed an MBA  at the University of Washington. Jeff has gained experience in software, mechanical, manufacturing, and civil engineering throughout his professional life.  

But in recent years, he has decided to pivot from designing and building products to, as he puts it, “building people.” He has also found the time to pen his latest book, “The Intentional Engineer,” available in Amazon’s print, ebook, and audiobook formats. For those who get the book, a free digital companion workbook is available at

Jeff is available as a speaker, trainer, and coach for individuals and organizations. You can learn more at jeff-perry.com, or follow Jeff on LinkedIn.

The first step is changing your mindset

Jeff loves helping “build people,” as he puts it. Unlike many other career coaches, Jeff provides an engineering overview of the process, which is handy if you want to land a new job, switch career paths, or go it alone.

“It’s just a pleasure to have that front-row seat to seeing people change, develop, grow, unlock their potential, and reach some of their biggest goals,” Jeff explained to IE.

However, most people require a complete mental makeover before beginning the career hunt. This is where professionals like Jeff are an excellent guide and mentors to your brain.

Career change and the power of journals

To this end, Jeff strongly advocates journaling. Putting your thoughts down on paper is like a secret power you never knew you had.

“[When journalling, it is amazing how] the ideas flowed as I wrote and journaled about this. We took that as a sign like, Hey, there’s some energy around this. I’m going to go with this,” Jeff explained when he started the career coaching path.

However, the process can seem a little daunting for some, especially those who have never journaled. Silly even.

“Some people like freestyle writing just like, hey, what’s on my mind right now? I’m just going to write it and get it out. For some people, a structured approach is helpful. Like hey, here’s just the questions that I’m going to answer today and whatnot,” Jeff explained.

“Both [styles] are useful and, in some cases, different contexts. I do a bit of both in my practice. Sometimes we put too much into like, ‘Hey, this is going to be this, this big thing,’ but it needs to look a certain way, and it doesn’t,” Jeff said.

“So don’t get scared by the blank page,” he added. Just get started. No one has to see what is in your journal, and your first few attempts will likely be a little slapdash until you develop a system that works for you.

The idea is to get your brain working and thinking about a particular problem. Think of it like downloading your mind onto paper. You’ll be amazed at what can pop out.

“We think a lot faster than we write. So, it slows our mind down and helps us focus on something specific instead of our minds jumping from thing to thing to thing to thing. And it slows our mind down and allows us to process things more concretely and get it out of us,” Jeff explains.

Feel the fear and do it anyway

When considering a career change, one of your mind’s main barriers to getting over is the fear of the unknown or rejection. Jeff loves a particular quote from the psychologist Virginia Satir. She says, to paraphrase, “People prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty.”

Please read that again to make sure it sinks in.

That kind of thinking can get you in trouble. It is easier not to change anything; stay where you are comfortable.

Ultimately, that will cost you your happiness, potentially your sanity, and amazing opportunities you never knew existed. So, to borrow another quote, “Feel the fear and do it anyway.”

“So we are more familiar and comfortable with what we know, even if we know it’s miserable and uncomfortable and don’t like it. But dealing with the uncertainty and not knowing what’s on the other side and that lack of control that sometimes we want to have on the other side can lead us to stay where we’re at instead of taking action,” Jeff explained to IE.

Things will happen for you once you have gathered the courage to change your life to suit you rather than cruise for a comfy paycheck. It won’t be easy and will likely be filled with wrong turns, dead ends, and rejection, but isn’t it better to know your actual value?

“If something doesn’t work out, it’s not a failure. You didn’t necessarily do anything wrong, but it’s a learning experience and reframing that whole process; this is how we learn. Just like if you’re engineering something, we try things out,” Jeff explains.

Build the career you deserve

“We [engineers] make prototypes. We run experiments,” he said, so think of the actions of career or job changes similarly.

“When we make decisions in our lives and careers, we try things out. We’re collecting data. We’re creating career prototypes. We’re just trying out running experiments,” Jeff explained.

It can make the whole daunting experience less complicated or seemingly chaotic when you think of it like this. Experiment, test the waters, get feedback, and then analyze, improve, and try again.

If you like, iterate your job/career “product” as you go. But remember, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” You will need to be patient, and rather than try to speed run to the end (which will likely fail), iterate each step to get there.

Perhaps you need to develop new skills? Maybe you should take a course in marketing? Or product design? Perhaps you need to learn a new coding language? These are like building blocks for your perfect work life, so plan accordingly and acquire them piecemeal in your spare time.

Jeff explained to IE that you can even “try before you buy” certain careers you may have dreamed about when thoroughly fed up with your day job. Test them out in your spare time.

Try before you buy (a new career)

You can try freelancing them, for example. Or, volunteer to see how it fits.

Run little experiments and see if you like it. If not, scrap it and try something else. At least you won’t have regrets later if it doesn’t work out.

You may also meet someone or gain experience in something you love and never thought about. You don’t know what you don’t know, after all.

“So you get exposure to see these kinds of experiments like, you know, again. You get exposure to collect data and understand more about yourself and what you’re enjoying or not enjoying,” Jeff explained.

You may also find your “secret talents” by running these little “sidequest” jobs if you don’t already know. You may find, entirely out of the blue, that you have an innate talent for art. Or public speaking? Or, like Jeff himself, helping guide people to where they truly should be in life.

Get into the “Genius Zone”

You’ll know these things when Jeff says, “You find your flow.” This is a state of mind where you lose all concept of time and are engrossed in a task. You’ll probably know this feeling from your hobbies or interests.

Perhaps you like to paint miniature airplanes or models. Before you know it, you’ve been sloshing paint around for hours, now early in the morning. That is you in your flow or, as Jeff calls it, your “Genius Zone.”

If you can find something like that for which someone else is willing to give you money, then you’ve indeed won the game of work. But be mindful to keep some of that for yourself, and be wary not to attempt to monetize a hobby you love unnecessarily.

Money can, and usually will, wreck the joy you get from it. But it might not. Just be mindful of that.

If you’d like to know more, check out the podcast in full. If you need some help, contact Jeff Perry to take advantage of his excellent “people-building” process.