Career Guides.

How to Change Career When You Don’t Know What Comes Next

Define what your next move must provide, test assumptions about pay and entry routes, evidence transferable skills, and trial a direction before committing to it.

• Career change
• Career direction

Career Coach for Mid-Career Change: A Structured Approach

Transferable skills, positioning, career narrative, job-search strategy, interview preparation and negotiation — sequenced, with an honest account of when structured support helps.

• Mid-career
• Career change

How to Change Careers After Automotive Redundancy

Losing an automotive role is not starting again. Translate career capital, test adjacent sectors and rebuild confidence through small, evidence-led moves.

• Redundancy
• Automotive
• Sector change

Academic to Industry Transition: A Career Guide for STEM Professionals

Translating research, funding, supervision and teaching evidence into industry roles — adjacent role mapping, CV and LinkedIn, search, interviews and salary.

• Academia
• STEM
• Career change

Staff Engineer vs Engineering Manager

Choosing between the senior individual-contributor track and people management — leverage, evidence, reward and the reversibility of each decision.

• Engineering
• Career decision

When to Quit — 12 Indicators That It May Be Time to Leave

Twelve signals that separate a difficult period from a role you have genuinely outgrown, and what to test before you resign.

• Stay or go

Automotive Redundancy: Your Career Capital Is Bigger Than Your Sector

Why changing sector is not starting again — how engineers translate experience, test new markets and create a credible next move.

• Redundancy
• Automotive

UK Engineering Jobs 2026–2028: Clean Energy, Defence and AI

Where government spending, major programmes and workforce shortages are creating opportunity for experienced engineers and senior STEM professionals.

• Market intelligence
• Sector demand

Career OS™ MOVE Stage 1 — Career Diagnosis

The diagnostic stage: what the next move must provide, what you will not repeat, and the evidence needed before choosing a direction.

From Automotive Risk to Nuclear Opportunity

A senior automotive commercial leader repositioned for small modular reactors: one application, two interviews and an offer at the top of the band from 512 applicants.

• Sector change

From Redundancy to Wind-Energy CTO

A former automotive Chief Engineer moved from a reduced-earnings interim role to Chief Technology Officer after a network introduction and three interview stages.

• Redundancy
• Executive

Career OS™ — the Operating System for Senior Careers

A walk-through of the six stages — Career Diagnosis, Positioning, Evidence, Search, Interviewing and Offer — and why each one compounds into the next for experienced operators.

• Career OS™
• Methodology

Germany’s Automotive Reset

How EV transition, China exposure, workforce restructuring and government intervention are reshaping German automotive — and what it means for engineering careers.

• Market intelligence
• Germany
• Automotive
• EV

German Industrial Transformation & STEM Labor Outlook (2027–2030)

How public investment, inward FDI, industrial realignment and upskilling are reshaping Germany’s five high-growth STEM domains through 2030.

• Market intelligence
• Germany
• STEM
• Industrial transformation

CV Writing for Engineers: Technical Impact, Scope and Value

Engineering decisions, programme scale, complexity, risk, quality, cost and delivery — plus ATS guidance and when to switch to a leadership CV instead.

• CV
• Engineering

Career Impact Metrics and the XYZ Formula

Two free Career OS™ downloads: the 50-metric Impact Metric Dictionary and the XYZ Formula walkthrough for stronger CV, resume and LinkedIn achievement statements.

• Evidence
• Metrics
• XYZ Formula
• Free downloads

Engineering Manager CV & Resume Guide

Repositioning a technical CV around leadership evidence — team outcomes, delivery governance, hiring, cost and stakeholder scope.

• CV
• Engineering management

Career OS™ MOVE Stage 2 — Positioning Strategy

Choosing the market you compete in, and the positioning statement everything else is then built to support.

Career OS™ MOVE Stage 3 — Evidence & Profile

CV, LinkedIn profile and career narrative treated as one evidence system rather than three separate documents.

How to Find a Job in the UK: Stop Applying More

Why volume applications fail experienced professionals, and how to build access through target employers, referrals and informed conversations instead.

• Job search
• UK market

Networking Skills: The Career Superpower You Can’t Ignore

Practical networking for senior professionals — reciprocity, warm routes into target employers, and a rhythm you can sustain while working full time.

• Networking

UK, Germany and US Job Market 2026

August 2026 employment market update: what current UK, German and US data says about skills demand, candidate competition and how to compete for the right roles.

• Market intelligence
• International

Network to Opportunity

Build professional relevance, run the 3:1 Give-to-Get discipline and turn career conversations into warm introductions, referrals and opportunities.

• Networking
• Referrals
• Job search strategy

Career OS™ MOVE Stage 4 — Search & Networking

Target lists, warm routes, recruiter handling and a weekly outreach pipeline that produces conversations rather than applications.

Engineering Leadership at Scale: Technical Director Interviews

Answering Technical Director interview questions on scaling engineering organisations — the Star Model, team topology, decision rights, span of control and the SCALE framework.

• Executive interviews
• Technical Director

Engineering Manager Interview Questions

The questions engineering management panels actually ask, what each one is testing, and how to structure evidence-led answers.

• Interviews
• Engineering management

Director of Engineering Interview Questions

Executive-level interview preparation across scaling, strategy, commercial judgement and stakeholder management.

• Executive interviews

Did You Negotiate Your Salary Offer? Most People Don’t

An evidence-based walkthrough for evaluating, preparing and negotiating an offer without damaging the relationship, with acknowledgement to the Harvard Program on Negotiation.

• Negotiation

Salary Negotiation 2026: 11 Methods from Career OS™

Eleven negotiation methods for base, bonus, equity, scope and title — with the preparation each one depends on.

• Negotiation
• Salary

Salary Negotiation Isn’t a Conversation — It’s a Setup

Why the outcome of a negotiation is largely decided by the positioning and evidence built long before the offer call.

• Negotiation

Interview Prep for Engineering Managers — What Actually Works

A preparation method for leadership interviews: evidence bank, decision stories, delivery metrics and the questions you ask back.

• Interviews
• Engineering management

Career OS™ MOVE Stage 5 — Interview Mastery

Structured evidence, panel dynamics, senior-level judgement questions and rehearsal that improves performance rather than memory.

Career OS™ MOVE Stage 6 — Offer Negotiation

Evaluating the whole package, establishing leverage, and negotiating terms while protecting the working relationship.

Negotiation Strategies

The Career OS™ negotiation reference: anchoring, concession discipline, alternatives, and negotiating scope and title as well as money.

Who Do You Really Need in Your Corner? Mentor vs Sponsor vs Coach vs Manager

When to use a manager, mentor, sponsor, network, leader, coach or consultant — and how to build a career support system rather than a dependency.

• Mentoring
• Sponsorship
• Career coaching
• Networking

How to Say No to Your Boss Without Damaging Your Career

Fifteen professional ways to challenge priorities, protect delivery and stay credible when you cannot take on more.

• Managing up
• Workload
• Prioritisation

Engineering Management: The Full Guide

Roles, responsibilities, skills and career options across engineering management, from first-line leadership to director and VP.

• Engineering management

The Art of Listening at Work: 9 Types of Listening

Nine distinct modes of listening — from pretend and selective through to empathic and reflective — and how senior leaders use them to question better and decide well.

• Leadership
• Communication

How to Become an Engineering Manager

Preparing for a first engineering management role — readiness signals, evidence gaps and the conversations that create the opportunity.

• Engineering management
• Promotion

Engineering Manager Career Path

Progression from engineer through manager, senior manager and director to VP — scope, evidence and reward at each level.

• Career path

Software Engineer to Engineering Manager

Making the individual-contributor to leadership transition: readiness signals, evidence gaps and the steps that make the move credible.

• Engineering management

Tech Lead to Engineering Manager

Moving from technical leadership into formal people management — authority, accountability and the parts of the craft you must now delegate.

• Engineering management

First-Time Engineering Manager Guide

Leading your first engineering team: the operating-model shift, delegation, one-to-ones, former peers and delivery under new accountability.

• Leadership
• First 90 days

Engineering Manager 30-60-90 Day Plan

A credible first ninety days: diagnose, establish an operating rhythm, then demonstrate leadership impact that others can verify.

• First 90 days

From Burnout to Breakthrough (Career Bites™)

Sustainable high performance, professional boundaries and learning when to say No — what engineering leadership teaches about capacity as responsibility grows.

• Leadership
• Boundaries

Why Senior Engineers Stall at the Manager Threshold

The evidence gap that stops strong engineers being seen as leadership candidates, and how to close it before the next promotion round.

• Promotion

Engineering Management Career Paths: Senior Engineer to CTO

How technical careers ladder into executive leadership, and the scope and evidence expected at each transition.

• Career path

Career OS™ PROPEL — The Six Stages

Purpose and direction, role positioning, outcomes and evidence, presence and influence, execution, then leverage and progression.

Career OS™ PROPEL Stage 4 — Presence & Influence

Visibility with decision-makers, influence without authority, managing up and being credited for the work you already do.

Working in the UK & Ireland: International Professionals

The principal professional work routes for the UK and Republic of Ireland, employer sponsorship considerations, and what each means for job-search strategy.

• Right to work
• UK
• Ireland

Seven Months Remaining: An Engineer’s Internal Progression Strategy

A manufacturing engineer secured an internal move against a seven-month visa deadline, including a failed first interview, feedback-led second attempt and employer-supported visa.

• Skilled Worker visa
• Internal progression