“Two of the goals I had when starting to work with Irina were: becoming a more impactful individual contributor, as well as figuring out whether I wanted to switch to the engineering management path from an individual contributor software engineering role.

Throughout my coaching sessions with Irina, we worked on both of those goals, as well as so much more: from confidence building to leadership skills, overcoming impostor syndrome, as well as effective communication. Her sessions helped me successfully lead a couple of big projects I was having some challenges with while helping me manage the stress of such projects. She also helped me work out my reasons for wanting to become an engineering manager, which I eventually did switch to.

As a fellow woman in Tech, I am always so inspired by Irina, her journey, her experience, and her insights. She has the wonderful ability to help you with just the right example, the right phrase, and the right suggestion. It is not often that you get to feel so in sync with a coach and mentor, but that is exactly how I feel since I started working with Irina. I strongly recommend her coaching practice.”

— Narcisa C., Engineering Manager

“As an Engineering Manager, one of the most difficult aspects of my role is having command of the wide-ranging skills I need in order to be effective for my team and direct reports. In order to achieve this, I not only need to have the technical skills that will help my team deliver value but also a plethora of leadership and soft skills necessary to enable my team to perform their best. In this strongly interdisciplinary role, I find myself continually needing to balance head and heart in order to achieve the best results for my team. Irina has been a massive positive influence in helping me achieve this balance.

For anyone who has come into contact with her, it's immediately apparent that Irina has a deep passion for developing software as a team and helping others achieve growth in their roles. She truly cares about the lives of the people she comes into contact with and it shows in her honesty, authenticity, and accuracy of feedback. She is quick to empathize and follows it up with excellent guidance and provides me with new mental models for decision making, backed up with research. She is an avid learner, continually working to broaden her own leadership and technical knowledge, and shares that knowledge with others.

Her passion, enthusiasm, and realistic approach to building and working with teams create an infectiously productive environment. She's a real star, the sky is the limit with her.”

— Jeff G., Senior Engineering Manager

“I've done dozens of sessions with Irina, and I've learned a lot from her advice about leadership, team management, and software engineering development. She has proved to be a talented tech lead, software engineer as well as a dedicated coach. I have learned from her more than I could ever expect. Her patience with my tricky questions is something I will always value, as well as the terrific insights she shared with me over time. I strongly recommend Irina as a professional that you can learn a lot from, and that will guide you to reach the maximum of your potential.”

— Guillaume F., Tech Lead

“When it comes to a software engineering career, as much as it is about coding, it’s also a lot about people. And the latter part, folks inevitably pick up their soft skills here and there through trial and error. But sometimes, folks can be stuck in an endless loop of trial and error without seeing the bigger picture. Well, that was me and that’s when Irina really helped me out. Whenever I felt stuck in my growth, she suggested countless other ways I could do to lead, collaborate, and excel in my own work.

One particular piece of advice from her I still remember is to choose the stage wisely when pitching ideas. Instead of sharing ideas through Slack and emails, she helped me grep through some meetings so I could try pitching my ideas to the engineering team. And when I did, the impact was night and day!

Because of Irina, I learned the power of good coaching. She’s also a super relatable person that I can imagine most people opening up to her easily. She’d often tell me to “take a lot of selfies” as a reminder for me to reflect and appreciate all the things that happened so far because seeing the bigger picture really helps in sustaining a healthy and enjoyable engineering career.

I’m super grateful to have Irina help me out in my career and I’m sure you will too.”

— Sam L., Senior Software Engineer

“For the past year, Irina has been a great coach to me. We've talked about many different things and she always gave me really helpful guidance. We started with small, easy changes and then started tackling bigger issues. Irina's experience working at some of the top companies in our field is really inspiring! Irina is very understanding and our conversations are always casual and friendly. Looking back, I can see how much I've grown in my job and reached my goals. Her insight really helped speed up this process. In simple words, Irina has been more than a coach to me. She was fully invested in my success and played a key part in helping me move forward in my career. For that, I am truly grateful.”

— Adam B., Staff Software Engineer

“Irina did an absolutely fantastic job at relating her experiences to my goals and challenges, and truly being inspiring while also being very humble about her journey and challenges.

I leave our sessions with some great action points and wisdom that will help me going forward. I can see why Irina is a great engineering leader, as the passion she shows for it is infectious!”

— Ian L., Senior UX Engineer

“ Irina was absolutely great at providing clear, actionable advice to improve cross-functional team collaboration within our org. She was quickly able to help define the problem, evaluate current organizational gaps, and recommend next steps that ultimately helped align key stakeholders and improve our team's processes. “

— Michael M., Senior Data Scientist

“Thank you for your time and for sharing your expertise, Irina! You helped me be more confident in my next steps.”

— Kelsey C., Software Engineer