Founder of PivotBridge

I graduated during the 2008 global financial crisis. Like many young graduates, I believed that if I worked hard, continued learning and applied to enough opportunities, someone would eventually give me a chance. Instead, I spent nearly a year sending applications into silence. What began as a job-search problem gradually became something deeper. I started questioning the value of my education, my abilities and the direction of my life. I was willing to work. I was capable of creating value. But I did not know how to navigate a labor market that had changed almost overnight—or how to determine which career direction was actually right for me. In January 2009, I found my first opportunity in international sales. Over the next four years, I became one of the company’s top performers and later built and led a new business unit. That experience taught me how to create value, earn trust and build something from the ground up. But professional success did not automatically create personal alignment. I was still trying to understand where my strengths, interests and long-term potential truly belonged. Eventually, almost by accident, I entered executive search. For the first time, my abilities, values and work came together. Over the next decade, I grew from a consultant into a partner and became a Top 10 Partner within ManpowerGroup’s executive search business in Greater China. More importantly, I had the opportunity to observe thousands of career decisions across industries, functions and stages of professional life. I advised companies, coached candidates, negotiated offers and helped professionals evaluate opportunities that could change the direction of their careers. Some decisions accelerated a person’s growth. Others cost them years. The deeper I went into the industry, the more clearly I saw the underlying problem: Most people were not simply struggling to find jobs. They were struggling to make the right career decisions. They had experience but could not clearly explain its market value. They had ambition but lacked a realistic path. They were making high-stakes choices based on job titles, fragmented information, generic advice or incomplete assumptions about themselves. Many did not know which of their skills were transferable. They did not know how changes in technology or industry would affect their future. Sometimes, they did not know what they did not know. Traditional recruiting could not fully solve this problem. Recruiters are generally paid by employers. Job boards begin after someone has already selected a direction. Resume tools improve how a candidate presents a decision that may already be wrong. Human coaching can be valuable, but it is expensive, inconsistent and difficult to provide at scale. The most important part of the career journey remained largely unsupported: How do people determine the right next move before investing months—or years—pursuing it? In 2022, I came to the United States and later joined the Berkeley Haas Executive MBA program. There, I met accomplished professionals from different industries who were asking many of the same questions I had encountered throughout my career: How do I transition into a new industry? Which parts of my experience remain valuable? What skills should I develop next? Is my current career resilient? How will AI change the value of what I do? These were not simply job-search questions. They were decision questions. As AI began reshaping industries, roles and skill requirements, those decisions became more frequent, more complex and more consequential. Careers were no longer linear. A degree, job title or established profession could no longer guarantee long-term security. People were increasingly expected to reskill, reposition and make career transitions—often without the intelligence or infrastructure needed to make those choices confidently. That realization became PivotBridge. PivotBridge is an AI-powered Career Decision Intelligence platform designed to help people make better career decisions in a rapidly changing labor market. It brings together a person’s experience, strengths, interests, values, goals and practical constraints with changing market conditions. The platform helps users: - Understand their professional identity and differentiated value - Diagnose career risks and potential AI exposure - Identify transferable strengths and skill gaps - Evaluate realistic career paths - Compare possible next moves - Build an actionable, personalized Career Roadmap - Continue adapting with support from an AI Career Agent Our goal is not simply to help someone find another job. It is to help people answer a more fundamental question: What is the right next move for me—and what evidence supports that decision? I founded PivotBridge because I remember what it felt like to enter a disrupted labor market without clarity, guidance or a reliable framework for making decisions. Today, graduates, immigrants, early-career professionals, experienced leaders and displaced workers are confronting a new period of uncertainty. The cause may be different. The feeling is familiar. People are being asked to make life-changing decisions while technology and labor markets evolve faster than traditional career systems can respond. They need more than job listings, resume templates or generic encouragement. They need a system that can help them understand themselves, interpret the market and decide what to do next. PivotBridge is the Career Decision Engine I wish I had when I began my own career. Now we are building it for everyone navigating what comes next.