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Case Study: Stefan changed a job that he wasn't crazy about to a job he likes, without switching jobs
2026-04-23

Stefan* is a physicist. We worked together for 3 months.
*Name and identifying details have been changed with the client's permission.

The Situation
Stefan is the head of R&D at a hard tech start-up. He manages everything from product development and commercialization to daily manufacturing operations.

When he reached out for coaching, he was starting to get restless at his current job:

“I wanted to plan for the future, but I didn't know how. My career up to this point has been largely taking a path of least resistance and getting lucky. I wanted to try and have more intention/agency about the direction of my career.”

Stefan knew he had limited time outside of existing commitments, which added pressure to the whole idea of taking on a big career change.

“I can get analysis-paralysis, or at least intimidated, when a new task seems very large, leading me to overthink and not start things sometimes.”

The Solution: One Intimidating Task -> Many Easy Tasks
Instead of thinking about the career change as a single major task that psyches him out, I challenged Stefan to deliberately keep his actions small.

He thought he needed to spend hours setting up a fancy website in order to publish an essay about a sector he wanted to pivot into. Instead, he put the essay on a google doc and posted it on LinkedIn. He got feedback right away.

He thought networking would be one tedious, unfulfilling fishing expedition. Instead, he remembered that he knew how to send short, low-stress messages to interesting people and set up productive conversations that immediately informed his next step.

“I’m actually pretty good at reaching out to people. I could not have done this 2 years ago!”

He thought he’d have to do a bunch of mind tricks to talk himself into doing work that he didn’t want to do. Instead, he changed a job that he wasn't crazy about to a job he likes, without switching jobs.

“Larissa was really good at helping me connect very specifically how my actions in the present were making my life harder in the future. She helped me identify that I sometimes place myself into a negative feedback loop, and that if I can identify that loop, I'm pretty motivated to address it! As a consequence, I end up happily taking care of tasks I used to avoid.”

Now he’s choosing to stay on at the current job, for now, and on his own terms.

“I deal with uncertainty better than I did before I started working with Larissa. This makes me both more effective at my job, and also more satisfied.”

The Results
Stefan came in expecting to leave with a prescriptive exit strategy. He finished coaching with something more powerful – a framework for executing a career move that he can carry wherever he goes.

“I have a concrete sustainable framework I am using to steward and grow my career in a way that aligns with my values. My ability to affect/shape/guide my own career is much larger compared to before I was working with Larissa.

Stefan's Advice?

“What is the value of 20+ years of a fulfilling career? I'd recommend anyone who has a dream that they want to give a real shot to talk to Larissa!”

If that's you, apply for a free strategy session.