Executive Career Coaching
Make your next career move without losing what you’ve already built.
Career Polish helps Directors, VPs, executives and senior professionals clarify what comes next, position the value they have already earned and build a deliberate strategy for moving forward.
Established
Founded in 2009
Experience
2,000+ professionals served
Recognition
Featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Fast Company & TIME
Author
I Just Lost My Job — Now What?
Why standard career advice stops working
Your career has become more complex. The advice has not.
Keep doing good work. Stay in your lane. Wait to be noticed.
Update the resume. Network more. Apply online. Be patient.
That advice may have worked earlier in your career. It is not enough when you have ten, fifteen or twenty-plus years of experience, competing priorities, a reputation to protect and a next move that carries real consequences.
We help you get clear on the move, position your value for the opportunities you want and communicate it to the people shaping what comes next — without walking away from the career capital you spent years building.
At this level, the challenge is rarely a lack of experience, it's about:
Clarity.
Visibility.
Language.
How we help
Start with where you are now.
You do not need to know which service you need. You only need to recognize the situation you are trying to change.
Career Clarity
When you know something needs to change, but you cannot yet see the right move.
A new resume won't answer that question. This gets you clarity on what you actually want, the real options in front of you, and a decision you can stand behind.
"Hiring Lisa as a coach unlocked my confidence, helped me create a plan and allowed me to get an outside perspective on what I was trying to do."
— Mike B., Technology Executive
Career Transition
When you're ready to move, but the resume, the title, or the story you're telling isn't landing the way your experience deserves.
We define the target, rebuild the story of your value, and build a strategy that creates traction — fast.
"I was advertising the company, not advertising me. Lisa helped me stand out from my competition, and I landed the offers I was after."
— Tiffany L., Marketing Executive
Executive Presence
When your work is strong, but the people shaping your future aren't seeing the full weight of it.
This was never something anyone taught you — it's something you build. Strengthen how you communicate, influence and advocate for your work in the rooms that matter.
"She taught me to see my value, tell my story, and helped me gain the confidence, skills and mindset to pursue the right opportunity."
— Evan S., Chief Information Officer
The Intensive
When one immediate decision, opportunity or conversation cannot wait.
Get focused strategy, candid feedback and a plan you can use now.
"Within a week of working with Lisa, five of five submissions I made resulted in an interview."
— Josh B., Consultant and Trainer
Client results
The work is personal. The results are practical.
Clients come to Career Polish feeling blocked, uncertain, overlooked or unable to explain what makes them different.
They leave with more than stronger career materials. They leave knowing what they want, how to communicate their value and what they are going to do next.
Clarified what needed to change and moved into a role aligned with her professional and personal priorities within months.
“She helped me redefine my general unhappiness to actionable goals. Within a few months I had a new job that met all of those goals”
Pam O.
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT EXPERT
From struggling to explain his value to owning his story
“I was more confident than ever, and my story was far more natural to tell. It's hard to speak about yourself — Lisa coached me through that process.”
Nick C.
Operations Leader
Rebuilt a 25-year-old resume into a brand that immediately opened conversations with recruiters and hiring managers.
“As soon as I started using the new format, I immediately began getting inquiries from recruiters and responses from hiring managers.”
Scott K.
Vice President
About the founder
The experience behind Career Polish
Career Polish was founded in 2009 by Lisa K. McDonald, an executive career coach, author, former corporate leader and recruiter, and award-winning resume writer.
She is known for finding the value clients have normalized, translating it into language decision-makers understand and helping clients communicate it with confidence — without sounding inflated, rehearsed or unlike themselves.
That ability to see what capable people have stopped seeing in themselves is the foundation of Career Polish.
The book
The thinking behind Career Polish, in a practical guide
After helping more than 2,000 professionals navigate career disruption and consequential career decisions, Lisa K. McDonald developed RESET: a practical framework for understanding where you are, deciding what comes next and moving forward with intention. That framework became I Just Lost My Job — Now What? and its companion workbook.
Explore the Book and Workbook→You do not need to have the entire next move figured out.
We'll spend thirty minutes on what's actually in your way. You'll leave that call knowing something you didn't know before, whether or not we work together.
Schedule Your Consultation