Let's get to know one another better...

NICE TO MEET YOU

I'm Tory Wobber

As a career and leadership coach, I've spent more than 1500 hours in 1:1 coaching and have helped more than 100 PhDs find jobs outside of academia.

I'm formally trained as a social scientist, with a PhD from Harvard, and worked in the Tech industry at (what was then) Facebook and Google before starting my own business. 

My Story

I haven't always wanted to run my own business as a career coach; but as someone who is now on her 3rd career, I'm accustomed to making big career pivots.

I started off my career as an academic, studying chimpanzees and bonobos in order to learn from the "make love, not war" ape. I'm one of the folks lucky enough to have enjoyed my time as a PhD student.

But that "honeymoon period" with academia ended when I had to get a job. After 2 seasons on the faculty job market, 6 onsite interviews and 0 offers, I decided it was time for me to exit academia.

Within 3 months of giving myself permission to move on, I'd found a job as a data scientist at what was then Facebook.

I spent 7 years working in a number of roles across Facebook and Google, without finding one that was a strong fit for me. These organizations are prestigious employers, and I felt I "should" enjoy working there. But I never did. 

After taking a leave of absence from overwhelming levels of stress, I realized what I enjoyed most: coaching PhDs and giving them a sense of possibility for the world outside of academia. With that realization in hand, I took a coaching training program while still at Google and decided to make the leap to start my own business…in February 2020.

Was it stupid to leave a stable job right at the start of COVID? Probably. Was I staying true to myself and my goals in doing so? Absolutely.

I left Tech in 2020 and, like my decision to leave academia, have no regrets.

I now get to spend more time doing work I care about. I get more flexibility to enjoy time outside of work with my senior dog Pinch. And I get to enjoy the spontaneity that is living in Mexico, where I moved in 2020 (without speaking Spanish, mind you…but that's a story for another day!)

I personally experienced major career change, multiple times. I have also now helped more than 100 PhDs exit academia, alongside coaching Tech through their career pivots.

I love the impact that I get to make in my business: getting folks a bit closer to career fulfillment via having the courage to make authentic choices, define an authentic vision, and put it into practice. I'm living proof that that approach is possible. And as a coach, I hope to inspire a sense of possibility for you to architect your own career vision, even if it's put into practice one small experimental step at time.

If you're a PhD ready to define your audacious vision and finally exit academia, sign up for my newsletter below so you can get the details about upcoming events I'm hosting for PhD job-seekers like you.