Discovering What You're Meant to Do: Jennie's Story

While writing for the Wall Street Journal, I had the opportunity to meet Jennie Mustafa-Julock, my fellow compatriot in Gen X crime.  Jennie is inspiring because she escaped a consulting career that wasn’t right for her, and found her dream job as a life coach.  I thought you’d be interested in what Jennie had to say about her journey:

Jennie, why was your dream to be an organizational consultant?  How long did you nurture this dream, and what steps did you take to achieve it?

As the daughter of a proud Vietnam Veteran, I was raised to be passionate about public service. Right out of college, I moved to Washington, DC to pursue a career in the federal government. I went to work at the US Department of Labor in training and development and fell in love with the field of organizational development. I simultaneously worked through my Master of Public Administration program at American University with a specialization in Organizational Development (OD). I decided to pursue a dream as a sought after OD consultant for government agencies, specifically for human resources departments.

To nurture that dream, I applied and participated in the prestigious Presidential Management Fellowship program. While I knew I didn’t want to work for the government forever, I knew the PMF program would give me the higher level exposure I needed to establish myself as an expert in government-related OD and leadership development. I worked at the National Institutes of Health during my two-year fellowship. 

Just shy of completing the PMF program, I got my break into consulting at Oxley Enterprises, Inc., a now defunct boutique management consulting firm with contracts at the Pentagon. I was hired as a Senior Management Consultant and dove in with all I had. However, in just five months, I decided to leave Oxley. I was absolutely miserable! In hindsight, I was miserable because I hated consulting, though at the time, I was sure it was the people and the Pentagon projects that I despised. I was unwilling to admit to myself that I sucked as a consultant.

I quickly rebounded and went to work at a larger firm, Touchstone Consulting Group. Here I was doing much more interesting work and made it six whole months with a smile on my face. But as time pressed on, I started realizing this was not for me.

Describe the incident that led you think you'd failed in the career.  What was that realization like? 

I hated the culture of government consulting. I resented that my worth was measured by the number of “billable hours” I could accrue. Here we were, a bunch of grossly overpaid, know-it-all 20-somethings who were sucking out every dime we could out of the federal agencies we worked with.  As someone who was deeply passionate about the value of public service, I felt like a leech instead of a public servant.  Even though I was miserable, I worked very hard at trying to make it work for me.

Upon completing a big, boring, laborious consulting engagement, a very wise (and brutally candid) supervisor called me out. Though I tried to hide it, my misery was palpable. She felt it, my co-workers felt it, and to her chagrin, my clients felt it. She asked me if I really wanted to be a consultant. And even though I knew it meant my job, I had to be honest with her (and myself) and say, "no."

What made you decide to become a life coach? 

I spent the remainder of 2006 unemployed, broke, and completely freaked out. I had just turned 30, despised my chosen career, and had no idea what I really wanted to do. I reached out to my friends, classmates, PMF colleagues, and others who were all turning 30 that year, too. We had followed all the rules, done the college thing, perhaps the grad school thing, went above and beyond with fellowships and internships, all in pursuit of some fabulous career. But 9 out of 10 of my peeps were absolutely miserable! I began to search for the connection. Why were all these highly competent, super driven people so frustrated? What was it we were feeling? 

The conclusion: we were all STUCK! 

Once I had this mini-epiphany, I went to work looking for solutions. I reached back to the coaching community that I had dipped my toe into years before. There were tons of life coaches who worked with people to get them unstuck, but I struggled to find one that “got me” because they were all my parents’ age. There was a huge void of coaches for my age group - people who felt stuck because of what they had chosen in college and completely clueless as to what they really wanted - people who didn’t want to wait until retirement to start answering these major life questions. That fall, I launched Live Audaciously, a life coaching practice designed with my age group in mind. Nearly four years into my business, I’m also a motivational speaker delivering workshops and keynotes to high schools, colleges, associations, and other organizations on Audacity - the most important quality of fabulously successful people in today’s world.

Feel free to learn more about Jennie’s life and coaching practice at www.coachjennie.com.

Comments

[Mireya Herrera]

I really loved working with Jennie. Her methods are very no-nonsense and she quickly helps you dust off the cobwebs and clutter that get in the way to getting to YOUR dream job or other audacious dreams you've kept hidden away. She has obviously been where her clients stand which I think adds to the wisdom, energy and focus she provides.

[DC Jobs]

Jennie, thanks for sharing your story. Something that strikes me from your story is that you seem to constantly be willing to try new things until you "get it right" or until it "feels right".

I'm going to try to apply that in my own life, thanks for the inspiration.

[Alexandra Levit]

@DC: I agree. Jennie inspired me in that way as well!

@Mireya: Thank you! I'm sure other readers who are considering a coach appreciate the personal recommendation.