Mentors who have changed career direction

Think through a career change with someone who has made one — moving between domains, from services into product, or out of a track that stopped fitting.

Before you book a career change mentor

How do I choose the right career change mentor?

The useful question is rarely "can I switch" but "what does the first year after switching actually cost". Usually it costs level, money, or both, temporarily. Someone who has paid that price can tell you what it was really like, which is the information you need to decide.

What should I bring to a career change mentor session?

Bring the specific move you are considering rather than a general dissatisfaction. "Backend to ML" and "services to product" and "IC to management" are entirely different conversations with different preparation.

Ask what of your current experience transferred and what did not. People consistently overestimate how much starts from zero, and underestimate how much reframing their existing work is worth.

Give the decision a deadline. Career changes stall most often not because the plan was wrong but because "I am still thinking about it" is comfortable and can absorb years. Leave the session with a date by which you will either have started or decided not to.

What people bring to these sessions

  • What a switch actually costs in level and money
  • Which parts of your experience genuinely transfer
  • Moving from services into product engineering
  • Changing domains without starting over
  • Deciding whether the problem is the job or the field

58 mentors

  • Dmytro Kovalenko — Lead/Staff Software Engineer at netflix. Artificial intelligence, Backend, High load systems
  • Zhang Li — Principal PM Manager at microsoft. People Management, Large Language Models (LLM), Product Management
  • Abhinav Chittora — Senior Product Manager at microsoft. Machine Learning Algorithms, Product Roadmap, Product Lifecycle Management
  • Masha Melnikova — Sr Software Engineering Manager at unitedhealth group. Career coaching, Core energy, Life Coaching
  • Sakshi Varshney — Member of Technical Staff at salesforce. Teaching, WordPress, .NET Framework
  • Nidhi Chauhan — Executive Coach • Professional Resume Writer • LinkedIn & Interview Strategist • Outplacement Expert at uplifting you. Resume Writing, Interview Coaching, Career Development Coaching
  • David García — Senior Program Manager at amazon. Project Management, Business Growth Strategies, Business Development
  • Roberta Basili — Ex-Recruiter @Booking.com, Atlassian & TomTom | International Career Coach at roberta basili coaching. International Job Search, Career Transition, Career Coaching
  • Francisco Vasconcellos — Leadership Coach at royal australian navy. Coaching Psychology, Leadership Development, Psychometric Tools
  • Ben Sheppard — Fractional Operator and Start up Coach at inside startups. Career guidance, Career transitions, Switching roles or domains
  • Neal Fultz — Principal Consultant at njnm consulting. Credit Risk Management, Insurance, Data Engineering
  • Richa Gandhi — Senior Engineering Leader at godaddy. C#, Golang, Java
  • Vikas Malhotra — Tech Executive at amazon. Artificial Intelligence, GenAI, Java
  • Dilyana Radulova — Solutions Engineer at microsoft. Technical Demonstrations, Technical Presales, Presales
  • Bita Kazemi — Staff Software Engineer at atlassian. Career guidance, Handling layoffs and job loss, Recovering from career setbacks
  • Esha Srivastava — Sr. Technical Program Manager at ebay. Regulatory Portfolio Management, PMO Operating Model Design, AI-Powered Program Execution
  • Pulkit Sharma — Senior Software Engineer at microsoft. Product Development, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Continuous Integration (CI)
  • Deepak Tiwari — Senior Software Engineer at microsoft. C#, Java, AI
  • Juan Cruz Viotti — Founder | Fractional CTO | O'Reilly author | JSON Schema TSC | Award-winning University of Oxford alumnus at sourcemeta. API Governance, Technical Writing, Engineering Management
  • Arun Kumar Singh — Site Reliability Engineer at google. AI Agents, Stakeholder Management, Site Reliability Engineering
  • Manami Rej — Global Career Coach | Leadership Advisor | Personal Branding Strategist at hellomonday. LinkedIn Coach, LinkedIn Trainer, Career Development Coaching
  • Diana Stoica — Career & Leadership Coach | Strategic HR Partner and at thinking partner. Restructuring, Compensation & Benefits, Performance Management
  • Ilja Rijnen — VP HR APAC & Global Head of Talent Development at gea group. Enterprise People Strategy, APAC HR Leadership, Organization & Operating Models
  • Kahkashan Afrin — AI Product Manager at ceribell │ ai-powered point-of-care eeg. Career guidance, Career transitions, Switching roles or domains
  • Seda Elibol — Career Coach | Product Manager at sedaelibol.com. Product Management, Product Strategy, User Research
  • Yoan Rock — Unreal Gameplay & UI Engineer at freelance. Career guidance, Handling layoffs and job loss, Growing into senior roles
  • Mike Szewczyk — Regional Sales Manager, AI Business Solutions, Europe at microsoft. Planning next career moves, Career guidance, Sales strategy fundamentals
  • Philip Meyers — Founder at reflowai. AI/LLM integration, iOS and Android app store deployment, SaaS architecture
  • Pranay Khatri — Senior Manager, Software Development Engineering at zillow. Building scalable systems, Career guidance, Handling layoffs and job loss
  • Neel Bhatt — Software Engineering Manager at rtl netherlands. Understanding generative AI, .NET, Improving system reliability
  • Mayank Bhasin — Principal Product Manager at microsoft. Ai, Cloud, Product Management
  • Darrin Johnson — Product Management Leader at guidacent, inc.. Career guidance, Handling layoffs and job loss, Moving into leadership roles
  • Pradeep Panigrahi — Principal Software Engineer at microsoft. C#, Microsoft Copilot, Large Language Models (LLM)
  • Rahul Bagai — AI and SaaS expert at assemblyai. Career guidance, Career transitions, Software development guidance
  • Preethi Kavilikatta — Paralegal at talktomentors. other
  • Madhukar Sharma — Staff Engineer, IoT Product Lead at qualcomm. C, C++, Linux Kernel Internals
  • Akanksha Gupta — Engineering Manager at amazon. Career guidance, Engineering beyond software, Career transitions
  • Boris Petkov — Senior Engineering Manager at microsoft. Engineering Management, People Management, Project Management
  • Anshika Bansal — Software Engineer 2 at amazon. Career guidance, Planning next career moves, Growing into senior roles
  • Jymit Khondhu — matillion. Cybersecurity fundamentals, Security engineering, Leadership
  • Alex Velazquez — Software Engineer & Interview Coach at work with alex v. Mentoring, Interview Preparation, Coaching
  • Vik G — Product Lead at atlassian. Career guidance, Career transitions, Switching roles or domains
  • Mudra Senjaliya — Senior Software Engineer at aviv group gmbh. JavaScript, TypeScript, Python
  • Tom Miller — Retired at microsoft. Career guidance, Growing into senior roles, Moving into leadership roles
  • Torsten Miland — Headhunter / Business & Personal Coach / Organisationsudvikler at searchers international. Executive Search, Management Consulting, Executive Coaching
  • Suiyao Chen — Applied Scientist at amazon. Career guidance, Career transitions, Switching roles or domains
  • Paras Shah — Senior Vice President (Tech) at bank of america. Software architecture, Career Coaching, Interviewing
  • Priyanka Gyawali — Chief Technology Officer at upplft. Technical Leadership, Enterprise Architecture, Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Marco Ferra — Career Coach | Consultant | Director | Senior Program Manager | Senior Project Manager at bright consulting. Career guidance, Career transitions, Switching roles or domains
  • Nash Benjamasutin — meta. Understanding generative AI, Career guidance, Career transitions
  • Angie Martin — Business Growth at the growth manager. Business Development, Market Planning, Recovering from career setbacks
  • Pratibha Singh — Career Coach at interview kickstart. Mentoring, Coaching & Mentoring, Screening Resumes
  • Roman Dahl — CEO & Managing Director at aeonda partners. Business operations, Strategic projects, KPI design
  • David Guida — Senior Software Engineer at microsoft. Design patterns, Software architecture, System programming
  • Siddharth Ray — Principal Engineering Manager at microsoft. Distributed systems, System design, Artificial intelligence
  • John Kanagaraj — Sr. Data Architect at ex-paypal,ebay, cisco, shell international. Big data, Database management, Oracle database
  • Fatima Taj — Senior Software Engineer at yelp. Software engineering, Technical interviews, Behavioral interviews
  • Lakshmi Mantena — Data Science Manager at ex-meta. Data science, Experimentation, Causal inference

Related mentorship pages