Terry JonesExecutive Coach & Career Advisor
New York City. CMCS, CACC. More than 20 years in corporate America, from operations to Human Resources to Vice President of Learning & Development. This is the story of how I got here, and why I do this work.
I sat on the other side of the table.Where careers get decided.
I came up through operations, moved into Human Resources, and spent years leading Learning & Development inside New York organizations. I learned how organizations work, how leaders make decisions, how people develop, and how politics and perception shape careers.
I had to learn some of those lessons myself. Early on, I believed what I now hear from clients: do excellent work, be dependable, take on more, and advancement will follow. What finally changed wasn't how hard I worked. It was how I worked.
I stopped thinking only about execution and started thinking about impact: what the organization cared about, how leadership experienced me, where I needed visibility, and whether I was showing the judgment of the level I wanted next. In about 14 months, I went from National Training Manager to Director to Vice President.
- VP of Learning & Development CompassRock
- Head of Learning & Development Fairstead
- Director of Learning & Development Rose Associates
- Independent consultant and coach Since 2016
New York City
You can be excellent at your joband still be completely misunderstood.
There wasn't one dramatic moment. It was a pattern I watched for years: talented, hardworking people assuming that if they performed well enough, someone would eventually notice. Sometimes that happened. A lot of times it didn't.
Careers aren't decided by performance alone. They're shaped by:
And by whether the people making decisions actually understand the value you bring. I wanted to give people what I didn't always have: someone to help them see what's really happening around them, see themselves more clearly, and navigate their career with strategy instead of hoping hard work takes care of the rest.
Some of the most common career adviceis quietly holding people back.
It builds credibility. But being exceptionally dependable can make an organization very comfortable keeping you exactly where you are.
Work has to be interpreted. Someone has to understand what changed because you were there, and what your experience now qualifies you to do.
Neither is LinkedIn. They're expressions of a strategy. Making the resume prettier won't fix an unclear story underneath it.
Too many accomplished people fixate on the two requirements they lack and overlook 15 or 20 years of evidence. That's not a qualification gap. It's an interpretation gap.
I don't tell people to "be more confident." When you can see what your experience means and why you belong in the room, the confidence shows up on its own.
Sometimes my job is to help you pursue an opportunity. Sometimes it's to help you see you're pursuing the wrong one.
Attentive. Direct.Never cookie-cutter.
You may think you're telling me about one problem. I'm listening for the pattern underneath it: what you emphasize, what you minimize, where your language gets uncertain, and where your view of yourself no longer matches the evidence.
I use diagnostics, assessments, research, pre-work and structured frameworks. The framework gives us structure. You determine where we go. And much of the work happens between sessions, as I study your materials, find the patterns and build the strategy.
I'm encouraging, but I'm not interested in encouragement that leaves you where I found you. If your strategy is wrong, or you're underselling yourself, I'll tell you.
Executive Coach & Career AdvisorWho have you become professionally,and does the way you present yourself actually reflect that person?
See how we'd work togetherThe goal isn't a script that works once.It's value you can communicate again and again.
He had the experience, but his interview stories were underselling him. The impact wasn't clear, the results weren't quantified, and he was carrying self-doubt into the process.
We rebuilt his examples, the language he used for his contribution, and how he showed business impact. We practiced hard enough that he said our questions were tougher than the real interview.
He walked in composed, not nervous, and landed a Technical Program Manager role at Amazon. He didn't memorize better answers. He understood his own evidence differently.
His style and exceptional listening proved me wrong from our first conversation. Be prepared to think differently, have honest conversations with yourself, and trust his process. I walked away changed professionally and equipped to repeat it successfully on my own.
Certified Master of Career Services, awarded by the NCDA Credentialing Commission.
Certified Accredited Career Coach, earned through an ICF-accredited coach training program.
Consulting work with
A community of professionals
I work with senior managers, directors, VPs, and executives through the C-suite. You leave with better judgment, stronger language, and tools you can use long after our work together ends.
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New York is home.People are the point.
New York is a city of ambition, reinvention, competition and people trying to build something. It shaped how I see careers. I'm drawn to why people make the choices they make, and why someone enormously capable can stop seeing that capability in themselves.
Service matters deeply to me. For all the strategy, resumes and promotions, what still means the most is watching someone's relationship with themselves change.
The first shift is hearing someone who arrived describing themselves through frustration begin describing themselves through evidence. I never get tired of that.
Let's see what your experienceactually adds up to.
Start with a 15-minute consultation. We'll talk about where you are, where you want to go, and whether working together is the right fit.
Questions first? Email admin@trainerterry.com