This review is for my experience working with Mara Rose as a life/career coach. We have worked together since around June 2020. For most of this time we met bi-weekly, but for the last few months I have only booked a few interspersed sessions as needed to get guidance on important decisions. I have not been incentivized in any way to write this review.
Ignite was recommended to me by a friend who worked with them during a professional career pivot. She had great things to say about them. During the height of the pandemic, they offered free 30-minute sessions to anyone on their mailing list, and I took advantage of that. I got set up with Mara Rose, and while I perhaps could have asked to meet the other coaches, I felt very at-ease and comfortable with her from the get-go. That initial impression proved true, as Mara is a warm, empathetic, curious, and insightful person. My favorite aspect of our coaching is the way she can really listen, and draw out questions and impressions that clarify what I had been trying to express, or add useful dimensions to my trains of thought.
To be honest, I went into this expecting to pay someone to help me jump start a career search and keep me accountable on job applications and the like, and I thought that was all I wanted. However, the process Mara implemented yielded much more that, and I'm glad it did. Mara employs a very client-lead, collaborative approach; one that let me explore myself and identify paths forward. The first few sessions involved a series of personality tests, strength/weakness finders, etc that helped me identify not just my professional experience but how my inherent personality traits and values could be assets in a job search. We then did some brainstorming and value-ranking to help clarify what types of jobs were ideal or unacceptable to me. From there I began searching for jobs with not only a clear sense of what I wanted, but also with a much broader scope of possibilities than I had been considering.
It's important to note my personal experienced here. In addition to the pandemic, the period that we worked together involved some incredibly significant and life-changing events that for a long time took precedence over my job search. So while on paper I would have expected to have come further along in terms of actually landing interviews and fielding job offers by now, our coaching work took a very personal detour (at my request). That said, Mara was really flexible when my life was turned upside down, and she really went above and beyond to offer support during this time. I had friends to lean on, but honestly I don't know how I would have got through that time without the support, guidance, and insights that came from our sessions during that time.
That aside, I would say that if you're willing to do some self-examination and can commit a few hours a week to doing the "homework," you should expect some pretty great results in a reasonable amount of time.
I would still be meeting regularly with her if my life circumstances allowed it.
If you are thinking of working with Mara, I'm happy to answer any questions about my experience by DM here on Yelp. read more