Empowering Your Career Journey To Purposeful Success

"For the past couple of years, I have passively searched for a software career coach. The value of a good coach is a great investment: the value of Exaltitude far outweighs the cost by more than 10x, whether you want to get promoted fast, become a manager or founder, or build a strong network.

I started this program between jobs, and their advice for starting a new job was so much more valuable than what I could've searched for online.The high promotions — senior, staff, manager, executive — are less about coding and more about influence, communication, and impact. Exaltitude opened my perspective and nailed all of those points down in a technical way! You'll learn extremely helpful frameworks, like The Wheel of Career.

In the competitive world of tech, I'm super grateful to have the safe space, the network, and the feedback from Exaltitude."

"It was nice to get feedback and guidance through the program, which was not readily available to me as a boot camp graduate and a career changer. Many of the live session topics aligned with my current career journey, and gave me a space to ask questions and receive insight and support for various professional scenarios.Exaltitude helped me navigate so many avenues of my current career path and empowered me in several spaces to know my worth, take risks, and challenge the status quo. I leveled up my professional communication and negotiation skills, and learned to better advocate for myself in the work environment.

‍With the support and education from the EXA program I was able to land a position that better aligned with my personal and professional career goals.The topics that stood out the most for me were “Understanding my values” and “Self-promotion” because they challenged me the most for self-reflection and evaluation."

"I was a mid-senior developer in the middle of finding a new job when I joined Exaltitude.‍

Through the program, I learned to view experience from the perspective of the companies and hiring managers. I realized I should highlight how my work helped not only my team but also the org. I also learned to back them up with data. I polished my interview answers with the new learnings from the program. To my surprise, I got a very senior-level position in a new company that I will be joining this month!"

"If I approach my engineering career like learning a brand new coding languages, then EXA is the much needed mentorship to help master it. Most of the resources online are like "Hello World" program in the "Getting Started" section of the doc, they focus solely on helping one becoming an engineer, rather than mastering it.‍

EXA is a combination of Stack Overflow (peer to peer answers), Senior Engineer's help (experienced mentorship), well written docs (tangible tools and example to try out) to help us write less bugs in this new language, known as our career."

I recently got promoted to a Senior Software Engineer position, and I joined EXA to grow in more soft-skill areas of being a leader and learning to advocate for myself. I was looking for help understanding the expectations of me as a senior and beyond the outside of the technical skills. The program provided me with the resources I needed to develop both my personal and professional skills, from self-promotion, understanding my values, and learning about the different career routes like Tech Lead Vs. Eng Manager, and much more—I absolutely recommend EXA! The program helped me build confidence in myself to thrive professionally and personally.

"After working in tech for close to a decade, I joined Exaltitude to figure out what I want to achieve next in my career. It’s easy to get distracted with work and other stuff happening in day to day life. The program helped me create space to focus on important questions—what am I looking for, how I’m learning and growing?

Now I think about how I can use the valuable lessons learned from Jean and Soyoung to help junior engineers at work, and it’s helping me grow as a leader."

EXA has helped me in a few meaningful ways.

After making a slight career pivot to full-time software engineering, I realized that my life and career goals needed clarity to plot my career for the next couple years. EXA helped me fulfill it by asking all the right questions and discussing it with others. In terms of career advancement on my current track, I learned from the EXA guidance and discussions on how to effectively showcase my accomplishments, which was key to helping my leaders understand that I was ready for promotion.

Finally, and most importantly, I met a few great people that I continue to keep in touch with and learn from.

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"Three programs from Exaltitude I found most helpful were the introductions to fellows, coaching from Soyoung, and the Live Sessions.

Greetbot introduced me to engineers with experience far vaster than my bootcamp or the one year of tech company experience. Time with Soyoung helped distill my most important tasks and how to stay focused during the workweek. Live Sessions gave me exercises for self awareness as I try to level up. The learning and support from Exaltitude helped me feel more ready to take on new challenges with confidence!"

"The past eight weeks have been transformative for not just my career growth but also in my personal maturity. Before I joined the program, I felt parallelized, not knowing which path to take in my career. I left the program with so much clarity and now I’m happy with my role at Stripe. Self exploration was highlighted on the website, but I didn't realize how powerful these exercises would be. I learned that more senior you get in your career, it is more important understand my strength, weaknesses and values. The lessons I learned through the program isn't something you can learn from reading books, and I’m so grateful for the program."

"For anyone new to tech, new to leadership, or simply looking for ways to level up as a human being, EXA is a godsend. The founders Jean and Soyoung are deeply experienced in their fields; just having access to their sage insight for six weeks is well worth the cost. Think of what it's like to have a thoughtful, articulate, caring senior engineering manager in your corner for the rest of your career. Add in the joy of learning and growing alongside a group of diverse, motivated new friends, and the benefits should be self-evident.‍

I landed an offer from Google shortly after completing EXA, and I couldn't be happier."

"Being a first-time founder is like drinking from a fire hose - you're learning on the fly how to become a better manager, and how to best support everyone around you. EXA equipped me with tools to communicate more effectively, set goals that align with my value, and build a better support network of people around me. It also helped me better understand my values, strength, and weakness. Exaltitude also comes with a good mix of online & offline events that made me feel connected with other EXA fellows. The tools EXA equips you with, and the people you meet through the program will go a very long way!

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If you want to reorient and boost yourself, both in a professional and personal capacity, EXA would be the program for you."

"Exaltitude was an amazing experience for me. The self-exploration exercises, like the vision board and values exercises, combined with weekly goal setting and hearing from other engineers helped me discover what matters most to me for my life and career.

It's really good to meet people in tech that are in a place of abundance rather than scarcity. The Exaltitude fellows are all accomplished engineers invested in growth and learning. This was a huge contrast from other education and job seeking programs I've been apart of where students aren't as sure of their abilities.

As being new to Software Engineering, access to a program like Exaltitude is special. I'm beyond grateful that I joined the program to figure out my goals and meet more people in the program. Prior to joining Exaltitude, I didn't have access to advice for my career because I didn't know many people in tech. I can now always get back to the tools and lessons that have been introduced in the program and talk to the new network for advice. Thank you, Jean and Soyoung!

"I transitioned from a Product Manager role to Software Engineering a few years ago, and I joined EXA with the question, "What should my Software Engineering career look like?" I learned about myself in the process of deep introspections and met a good mix of peers from diverse backgrounds and experience levels (Senior SWEs and people at FAANG and Startups). I learned many tangible skills applicable to work and personal life, like time management and goal-setting. Now I have a clear understanding of where I want to go and how I can get there.

Soon after the program, I got promoted! Thank you Exaltitude!”

"I've been a Software Engineer since 2014, and had recently started a new job as a Senior Software Engineer. During the program, I got valuable insights from Jean and Soyoung as well as other EXA fellows on how to level up in my career, identify my strengths, and promote myself.‍

I realized that my achievements might be empirically valuable, but if I can't demonstrate their value they won't help me move forward. We also got good insight into different communication styles and recommendations for books and resources tailored to help us move our careers in the direction we want to go."

I joined EXA because I wanted to take my career to the next level by making a high-quality impact in the world and gain enough confidence and experience as a Software Engineer and leader to venture out and run my own software company in the future. Through the program, I enjoyed hearing about experiences and opinions outside of my own as it helped me define my beliefs and my career growth. With me being an early-career engineer, it has been quite beneficial to hear from my peers and Jean and Soyoung, and understand their perspectives on the different paths they took and the lessons they learned. Overall, I'm very thankful for this program as it has helped me gain alternative perspectives beyond what's available in my existing network. It has definitely set me up for successful career growth.

You get out of Exalitude what you put in. Anyone can take a couple of quizzes and make vision boards on their own, however connecting with accomplished individuals who readily act as sounding boards and are willing to share their differing perspectives is worth its weight in gold. For me, I wanted to explore coaching related to soft skills -- navigating the workplace, building influence, and meeting people where they're at. Doing this with those who've done it already has been instrumental to my career. Great engineers have more than just sharp technical chops.

Along with Jean and Soyoung, I always had meaningful conversations within my cohort, whether about extracurriculars or objective work goals and ambition. Recently, despite graduating from the program a year ago, I  asked for feedback about having difficult conversations in the workplace. The program is more than a six-week project and I can't stress the importance of EXA's willingness to help shape careers! This positivity only spreads.

"When I joined the program, I was at a career fork, deciding between the technical lead vs. the engineering manager route. The Exaltitude live sessions delivered structure in a large, collaborative group format. They helped me understand the expectations I needed to be successful. I learned the tools needed to help me make better decisions, which are also applicable in a broader sense.

I have shifted my goals towards a holistic future rather than a purely technical mindset. Although I’m still exploring management and IC, I am confident in how to approach this journey and career with the tools I learned from the program."

I went straight from a Software Engineering IC role to being a startup founder to becoming a CTO of a different startup. I didn't walk up the leadership ladder I sort of started there. There's so much to being a good leader and learning how to connect with your team that I had to learn and one of the steps I took towards developing those skills was through Exaltitude. Former FAANG devs/managers run the program and help Software Developers thinking about or starting in leadership, going the next level, or want to explore the prospect, to get started on the right path.

If you're considering whether leadership is in your future or would like some mentorship then check them out.

"The live Leadership Circles were really informative and educational, especially more being relatively new to the tech industry. The "DISC & communication styles" class helped me better understand myself and my coworkers. The breakout room sessions enabled me to meet and connect with different cohort members, and I also enjoyed connecting with new people on 1:1 settings outside of the classes.The weekly check-ins were helpful because I find it so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day. They helped me take a step back every week to ensure I appreciated what I already had and focused on what I could strive for.

All in all, the lessons learned from Exaltitude are valuable toolkits I will reference for a long time in my career."

“Exaltitude has everything to help fellow succeed.

I joined Exaltitude to figure out what my next steps in my career should be. I have been working at a startup for around two years and was trying to figure out what to do next.

Jean and Soyoung’s guidance helped me figure out how I want to spend my time and what next steps I wanted to take. I also got to meet peers asking similar questions, which I really enjoyed.”

"I recently got promoted to an Engineering Manager role, and with the time change, the program has been both beneficial and thought provoking.

I’m grateful to both Jean and Soyoung for the class, the good strategies and mindsets they’ve been sharing with us, and the network of Alumni at Exaltitude. It really is meaningful to have community and something I've been sorely lacking as an engineer, and they have curated some rather exceptional people over at EXA."