Program 01
Clarity Sprint
For people who know something is wrong but cannot yet name it.
$1,150 or 2 payments of $595
Inside the program →Career coaching · Chicago & on video
You’re not starting over.
You’re mid-story — and the next chapter is a decision, not a lottery.
I’m here because I want to…
Then let’s find the direction the evidence supports — through small real-world experiments, not another quiz.
See the Career Change Program Book a free consultation
The studio — 1872 N Halsted St, Lincoln Park. Two armchairs, no lecterns.
- 87%of Job Search Sprint clients accept an offer within 6 months
- $14,600median negotiated increase, 2023-2025 negotiation clients
- 1,400+clients coached since 2016
- 4.9/5across 312 client reviews
Numbers from completed engagements 2022–2025, outcomes as reported by clients. We publish how each stat is counted — ask us anything about them.
Sound familiar?
Check every box that stings a little.
0 boxes checked. You are not broken and you are not ungrateful — you are due a structured look at what is next. That is literally what this studio is for.
Talk it through, freeTwo honest minutes
The Stuck Map
Ten statements, zero to four each. Your answers place you on the clarity–energy grid — and each quadrant has a different way out. No email required; nothing is stored.
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I can describe the work I want next in one sentence.
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I know which of my skills are worth the most outside my current employer.
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If I had a free year, I know what I would spend it building toward.
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I can name what a genuinely better role would change about my week.
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My last big career decision was a choice, not a drift.
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Most mornings I have energy for more than just getting through the day.
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I could run a job search right now without it flattening me.
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Setbacks at work bounce off me within a day or two.
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I have appetite for learning something new this quarter.
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Outside work, I still have fuel for the people and things I care about.
0/10 answered
How we work
Untangle. Explore. Prototype. Land.
No personality quizzes deciding your future. Our method runs on evidence you collect in the real world — cheap experiments before expensive leaps.
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01
Untangle
Separate the job from the season, the complaint from the cause. Two weeks of honest energy data beats two years of Sunday rumination.
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02
Explore
Widen the field before narrowing it. Transferable-skills inventory, real conversations with people doing the work — options built from facts, not fantasy.
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03
Prototype
Test-drive futures for under $200: shadow days, micro-projects, structured conversations. Every direction earns its place with evidence — or gets cut.
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04
Land
The search as a project: materials that get read, warm conversations over portal roulette, interviews rehearsed, and the offer negotiated properly.
Programs & pricing
Four programs. Every price on the page.
Coaching is a consumer purchase and deserves consumer honesty: what it is, how long it takes, what it costs. Payment plans on all programs; every engagement starts with a free consultation.
Program 02
The Career Change Program
For people ready to change direction - carefully, with evidence, and without setting their life on fire.
$2,950 or 4 payments of $760
Inside the program →
Program 03
Job Search Sprint
For people who know what they want and need it to happen faster than "apply and pray".
$2,400 or 3 payments of $820
Inside the program →
Program 04
Step-Up Coaching
For people going for the promotion - or surviving the first months after getting it.
$1,850 or 2 payments of $950
Inside the program →À la carte: Resume & LinkedIn Overhaul $495 · Interview Intensive $375 · Offer & Negotiation $450 · Full pricing →
Shift stories
People who were exactly where you are.
Real engagements of the studio, told with permission and honest numbers — including what the moves cost, not just what they paid.
Marketing ManagerUX Researcher
9 months · Held salary within 4% through the move
“I thought I hated marketing. I hated guessing. The experiments showed me the part of my job I loved was the research nobody gave me time for.”Nadia’s story →
Hospital Operations DirectorNonprofit COO
7 months · Negotiated $19,000 over first offer
“I had been applying like it was 2009 - fifty applications into portals. The Sprint had me have eleven conversations. The job came from conversation eight.”Marcus’s story →
High School TeacherInstructional Designer
11 months · Matched her teaching salary in year one, passed it in year two
“Twenty-two years of teaching and I was sure none of it counted outside a classroom. Turns out the whole job counts. I just had to learn to say it in their language.”Claire’s story →
Senior AccountantData Analyst, FP&A
6 months · $11,500 raise with the internal move
“The plot twist was that I did not have to quit. The Stuck Map put me in "clear but stalled" - I knew what I wanted, I just assumed nobody would let me have it here.”Tom’s story →
Free tool
The Offer Decoder
An offer is not a number; it is a package wearing one. Put your current role and the new offer side by side — base, bonus, equity, 401(k) match, PTO, premiums — and see the true annual value of each, plus where the negotiation headroom is.
Decode an offerThe coaches
Six coaches. All credentialed. All ex–something else.
Every Halsted coach holds an ICF credential — and a previous career on the other side of the table: recruiting, HR, consulting, engineering. We have all made the moves we coach.
Mara Quinlan PCC, CPCC
Career clarity, career change, mid-career reinvention
Devon Marsh ACC, CCSP
Career pivots, mid-life reinvention, engineers & technical professionals
Priya Raghunath PCC, MBA
Offer negotiation, promotions, stepping into leadership
Elena Castillo ACC, CPRW
Resumes, LinkedIn, applications, interview preparation
Jordan Okafor ACC
CliftonStrengths, first-time managers, late-20s to mid-30s pivots
Beth Kowalski PCC, SHRM-SCP
Layoffs, severance decisions, career breaks, returning to work
The practicalities
How sessions actually work
In the studio
Lincoln Park, two blocks from the Armitage Brown Line. Sixty minutes, two armchairs, decent coffee, no whiteboard evangelism.
On video
About 60% of clients meet us on video — from eleven states so far. Same sessions, same homework, your own couch.
Between sessions
The real work happens in your actual life: experiments, conversations, drafts. Your coach stays on email throughout — stuck rarely waits for the next appointment.
In their words
4.9/5 across 312 reviews
★★★★★
“I came in embarrassed to need help and left wondering why I waited two years. Mara asks the question under the question. The Clarity Brief from my sprint is pinned above my desk and I still reread it before big decisions.”
★★★★★
“Rehearsing the counter out loud felt ridiculous right up until the real call, when the number came out of my mouth like it was a fact about the weather. $16k over the first offer. Best $450 I have ever spent.”
★★★★★
“The weekly scoreboard saved me. Applications had me spiraling; counting conversations instead gave me something I could actually control. Offer accepted in week 14, and Beth talked me off two panic-applications I would have regretted.”
★★★★★
“Devon never once told me what to do, which annoyed me for about three sessions until I realized the experiments were answering it for me. The shadow day killed my "dream" field in six hours - and saved me from a two-year mistake. What I actually moved into, I found in experiment four.”
“Nobody moves to Chicago to stay who they were.”
Field Notes
Essays from the practice
June 14, 2026 · 7 min
The Sunday Test: how to read your own dread
Sunday-evening dread is the most commonly reported symptom in this studio - and the most commonly misread. Here is how to tell what yours is actually about.
April 20, 2026
How to negotiate an offer without torching the goodwill
February 9, 2026
What a recruiter actually sees in the first 90 seconds
November 3, 2025
Test-drive a new career for under $200
FAQ
Questions, answered honestly
What does career coaching actually cost at Halsted?
Everything is priced on the site, on purpose. Programs run from $1,150 (Clarity Sprint, 4 sessions) to $2,950 (the full Career Change Program, 10 sessions); a-la-carte services from $375. Payment plans are available on every program, and the first conversation - a 30-minute consultation - is always free.
How is coaching different from therapy?
Therapy treats and heals, looking at where patterns come from; coaching is forward-looking work on decisions and action. We are not therapists and will never pretend to be - if something surfaces in session that belongs with a licensed clinician, we will say so plainly. Many clients run both in parallel, and the combination works well.
Do you guarantee I will land a job or find my answer?
No, and we would keep walking past anyone who does - outcomes depend on markets and on the work you put in between sessions. What we do stand behind: our process, our numbers (87% of Job Search Sprint clients accept an offer within 6 months), and a 14-day money-back guarantee on program purchases - if the first session tells you this is not your tool, say so and we refund in full.
How do I know which coach or program I need?
You do not have to know - that is what the free consultation is for. Thirty minutes, no prep, no obligation: we listen, tell you honestly which program fits (or that coaching is not the right tool yet), and match you to the coach whose specialty is your situation. The Stuck Map on this site is a useful two-minute head start.
What are your coaches' qualifications?
Every coach holds a credential from the International Coaching Federation (ACC or PCC) and works under its Code of Ethics, plus specialty certifications - CPRW for resume work, Gallup CliftonStrengths, SHRM-SCP, CCSP. Just as importantly, every coach has professional history on the other side of the table: recruiting, HR, consulting, engineering. Full backgrounds are on the Coaches page.
Next move
Start with a free conversation.
Thirty minutes, no prep, no obligation. Tell us where you are; we will tell you honestly whether coaching is the right tool - and which coach we would put in your corner.
Free 30 minutes · In the studio or on video · An honest read, either way