Career Coaching – Session I

I had my first coaching session this week and I cried.

Alvinnie Kwok is a career and empowerment coach that specializes in working with women of color. She leverages her background in consulting to help her clients discover how they can create impactful work, strengthen their leadership presence, establish work-life balance, and break free from imposter syndrome.

One of my best friends raved about her sessions with Alvinnie, so I was excited to experience the coaching for myself. Little did I expect Alvinnie’s warm demeanor, gentle voice, and spot-on intuition to quickly bring me to tears.

Alvinnie utilizes the Socratic method to ask probing questions that allow her clients to arrive at their own conclusions. Throughout the thirty-minute session, she helped me identify buried passions and completely disrupted my mindset (in the best way!).

All my life, I’ve been a planner. I’m the girl in the friend group that sends Excel itineraries for trips, enjoys creating a five-year outline, and always arrives ten minutes early. As I described my career goals – what I “should” be doing to plan strategically and reach the next milestone, Alvinnie stopped me in my tracks. “All of that aside, what do you want to be doing?”

I started describing my passion for writing, speaking, and helping others identify areas in their lives that they want to change or grow in. Multiple people have recently told me that they couldn’t believe how open they were able to be with me – that I made them feel safe. Engaging in those deep conversations and helping others unpack and process baggage have been some of the most meaningful moments of my life.

Although I started pivoting the conversation back towards what I should be doing career-wise, Alvinnie stopped me again. “Alyssa, I’m sensing that part of you loves spontaneity. For a moment, let’s put aside what you feel like you should be doing – I want to hear more about what makes you come alive.”

A planner that feels trapped by her own routines. Who would have thought? 

As Alvinnie continued to ask probing questions that uncovered the depths of my heart, I started to cry. I recently switched jobs, and I didn’t realize how much pressure I’d been putting on myself to “have it all figured out.” There’s a lot of uncertainty in my new career, and grappling with that anxiety has taken a mental and physical toll.

Alvinnie challenged me to embrace the uncertainty. Rather than modeling my life on a stereotype of success, she helped me realize that while I enjoy being prepared, I also thrive in navigating the unknown. I can adhere to a routine, but I’m thrilled by spontaneity and one of my greatest strengths is my ability to pivot at a moment’s notice.

Our session ended with a final challenge from Alvinnie – what baby steps could I take to spend more time doing what makes me come alive?

I committed to writing one blog post every week…so here’s the first one!

See you next Saturday. 🙂 

– a.j.