Your first move matters Make it the right one

I've spent 20+ years mentoring students through volunteer programs at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). I organized multiple student site visits at Amazon HQ2 in Virginia, and have done numerous one-on-one coaching sessions with students and members of my professional teams. Today I work full-time as a career advisor at Johns Hopkins University Life Design Lab, and also am part of the Computer Science department's working group evaluating options to add AI into the curriculum.

Before that: 30 years in tech, including six years building and leading teams at AWS, four years as a startup cofounder, and time at consulting firms and Fortune 100 companies. I've conducted over 1,000 interviews as a hiring manager, so I know what companies screen for and where candidates lose ground.

I'm not a hands-on coder anymore, and I don't pretend to be. What I bring is judgment: on positioning, networking, interviewing, and how hiring decisions actually get made. I track AI-assisted development closely because that's reshaping what companies expect from early-career software engineering hires right now. The same goes for using AI in most jobs, including building and managing AI coworkers. Candidates need to show AI experience on resumes and be able to explain the pros and cons during interviews.

My goal is straightforward: understand what's driving you, then give you a plan that gets you the internship, job, or promotion. You put in the work; I make sure it's the right work.