The Career Council

A free gift The Career Council, the room of people who actually decide your career

Bring any career decision to a council of the people who actually decide it. A hiring manager, a recruiter, a bar raiser, your past and future selves, and more. They argue it out, and you walk away with a verdict.

I built this from years of work with experienced designers and product people. Today is my son's fourth birthday, so I am giving it to everyone instead of keeping it. Yours to keep, yours to share. Most people run their messiest open decision through it first.

Who sits at the table

Eight voices, and five more when the question calls for them

You ask one person about your career and you get one answer, shaped by one seat at the table. This puts every seat in the room at once, lets them disagree, then hands you a single read. None of it is specific to design or to being senior. These seats sit at every table, in every field, at every stage, so run it whether you are two years in or twenty.

Five more join only when they fit the question: the Machine (the screener before the humans), the Executive Sponsor, the Negotiator, the Steelman, and the Home Front, the people who pay for the move and never sat in the interview.

Two minutes, your choice of tool

Run it in Claude or ChatGPT

Claude

Paste it in and run it

  1. Open a new chat at claude.ai.
  2. Copy the text below, paste it in, then under it write career council this: and the decision you are sitting on. Send.
  3. That runs the whole council right there. No setup, and it works on any plan.
  4. Want it for keeps? Paste the text and say save this as a skill, then click Copy to your skills. After that, just type career council this: in any chat.
career-council skill 

      

    


    

      
ChatGPT

      
Use the one I already built

      
I built and hosted this one for you, so there is nothing to set up. Open it and bring it a decision.

      Open The Career Council GPT
      

        Prefer to build your own or tweak it? Here is the full config.
        
    
          
  1. In ChatGPT, go to Explore GPTs, then Create, then open the Configure tab.
    2. 
          
  2. Copy the text below and drop each field into its matching box: Name, Description, Instructions, Conversation starters.
    3. 
          
  3. Save it, and bring it a real decision.
    4. 
        

        

          

            career-council GPT config
            
          

          

        

      

    

  






  

    
When you want a human in the room

    
Three ways to take it further with me

    
The council is sharp, but it is still a room you run alone. If the verdict lands and you want a second pair of eyes on the real decision, here is where to find me.

    

      

        Start free
        
The Hiring Signal quiz

        
A five-minute read on how visible and hireable you actually look right now, and what is quietly holding the level back.

        Take the quiz
      

      

        Go deeper
        
A career strategy call

        
Bring the decision you keep circling. Ninety minutes, one to one, and you leave knowing what to do.

        Book a call
      

      

        Go all in
        
The Backdoor

        
My six-week one-to-one sprint for experienced designers breaking through a career ceiling. Six seats a cohort.

        See The Backdoor