It is only a mild overstatement to say that my career has taken me to the stars and back. 

After  high school I headed off to college certain I was going to become a  “systems analyst,” and a lot less certain about what a systems analyst  actually did all day.  I assumed it had something to do with writing  computer code, so I became a computer science major.  And quickly  discovered that, for me, writing code was an unrewarding grind.  On the  other hand, my physics class was interesting, so I changed my major to  physics.

I  devoted the next dozen years to earning my Ph.D. in astrophysics and  starting my research career as a postdoctoral researcher in Illinois and  Paris.  And how does a budding theoretical astrophysicist spend their  time?  Writing code.  Aargh! 

Fate  intervened (for the first time) in the form of a good friend who had  recently left a career as a business journalist to start science  writing.  Wait...people will pay you to write about science even if you  aren’t writing the code used to do the science?  Sign me up.  

I  spent the next several years as a freelance science writer for  publications including Science Magazine, Discover, Astronomy, and Sky  & Telescope.  And then the internet disrupted journalism.  Most of  my writing gigs vanished almost overnight.  

My  journalism career may have been going down in flames, but at least the  move to web-based journalism gave me my first taste of career coaching.   I wrote articles and advice columns for Science’s Next Wave, a website  devoted to the career development of young scientists.  Looking around, I  noticed that many of my journalism colleagues had gone to work for law  firms doing patent law.  A few were even headed back to school to get  law degrees.  

Some  diligent networking around Houston (where I was now living) revealed  that patent law firms were desperate for technically literate people who  could write, no legal degree necessary.  One attorney mentioned that  they had a stack of patent applications that needed to be written and  suggested I try it for a few months to see if I liked it.  

And  I did.  I loved learning from the inventors,  working with them to expand their ideas into a patent application, and  then advocating on their behalf before patent offices around the world.   I even enjoyed working with the lawyers in my firm and in-house counsel  at our client companies. 

Shortly before the pandemic began, my wife and I relocated from Honolulu to my new home in Seattle  (did I mention that I telecommuted from Hawaii for a decade?), started a sabbatical from my law firm, and went back to school to learn about coaching. 

In  my free time, I study improvisational comedy at Unexpected Productions  in Seattle and take voice lessons with a private instructor.