Irene Nexica

I’ve worked as a university professor, a nonprofit program administrator, and a recruiter at Facebook , among other roles and interests.

I specialize in Product Design portfolio reviews and presentation preparation, having recruited to Product design roles exclusively as part of my history.

What defines me across all that I’ve done is a fierce passion to help others achieve their goals and thrive, even if their identities don’t generally come with social privilege.

Coaching Features:

• Strength-based approach. We will generally focus together on identifying your intrinsic strengths, especially when challenges arise, and the external supports you have in your community, which can be people or organizations. We will also identify external things that are out of your control that are limiting you and develop strategies to address those from a position of power. I use the strengths approach deliberately because so many people have experience with deficit-based models that focus on what people “lack” based on what’s often a very biased baseline.
• No judgment - I draw from communication techniques including Nonviolent Communication (NVC) to listen with empathy and the goal of understanding where you are without deciding where you “should” be or guiding you towards an outcome. You drive the process: I reflect and clarify what you’re defining. I don’t see my role as one where I tell you what to do or whether what you did in the past was the wrong thing to do.
• Understanding of intersectional identities - I understand that for many of us who are not centered socially or in the workforce (we are sometimes called “diverse candidates,” a term I don’t use), lots of the job search and being at work requires added code switching skills and masking identities. In the US these groups include BIPOC people, disabled people, neurodiverse people, and LGBT+ people, and immigrants. I affirm that the extra burdens are real (i.e.: working twice as hard to get half as far), and will work with that as a given. I also affirm that the ability to navigate so many terrains is an asset!
• Option for detailed career development/exploration plan - As an educator and project manager, I’ve built training projects from the ground up. You have the option of several levels of structure in your long-term coaching plan. We can go anywhere from covering issues in each session individually as issues arise to following a custom-made long-term plan I’ll create based on your goals.