Rachel Serwetz: Wake Up to a Job You Love

In this global rat race, not everyone is clear about where their career is headed. Many want to derive a sense of purpose from the work that they do, but less than half succeed in doing it. Research shows that 80 percent of people do not like their jobs in which they spend more than 40 hours per week of their lives. Now that is a significant portion of one’s life to dislike. Whether you are just starting out and unsure of which path to take, trying to find a new passion, or ready to move to the next level in your career, getting another perspective from a professional can be highly beneficial. A career coach can help you remove any confusion, establish realistic goals, provide solutions to challenges, and develop action plans to successfully transition to a role more aligned with your skills and values. CEO and Founder of online career exploration platform WOKEN, Rachel Serwetz, has helped hundreds of professionals embark on a suitable and exciting career path.

Early Life

Rachel holds a Master's in Technology Business Administration from the NYU Stern School of Business. Prior to getting her degree, Rachel worked in Operations at Goldman Sachs and in HR (recruiting and performance management) at Bridgewater Associates. She later trained to become a certified coach from NYU and became certified through the International Coach Federation. Rachel was also an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Binghamton University and has served as a Career Coach through the Flatiron School, WeWork, Columbia University, and Project Activate. Her desire to help people land their ideal job stemmed from the fact that she herself had faced ineffective support in exploring careers and jobs at several points of her professional journey.

Founding of WOKEN

Rachel spent a lifetime watching people work at jobs that were way beneath their true potential. This disturbed her a lot, leading to her finding her true calling – to help others find their best-fit career path through her novel career exploration process. Her brainchild–WOKEN–came into being in 2017, offering a digital, comprehensive workspace to guide professionals through career exploration, personal branding, upskilling decisions, job searching, networking, interviewing, and overall career development. With unique techniques and tools formulated by Rachel, the platform helps professionals to clarify their ideal direction and then seamlessly pursue an efficient, intentional job search to land a role they will thrive in.

Unlike other career exploration services, WOKEN offers a three-part framework that helps to actively reflect on one’s natural affinities and tendencies, what problem areas one finds important and interesting, and in what environment one would thrive. WOKEN’s career assessment is open-ended, reflective, and sparks a difficult-yet-rewarding process of self-reflection. Rachel believes that pursuing a career path that feels innately right to you will ensure that you are productive, creative, innovative, impactful, and responsible in serving the world. For Rachel’s enterprise, success is when a client feels confident and clear of their career direction.

Initial Hiccups  

Rachel’s journey to build her own company was not one without obstacles. First and foremost, she had to muster the courage and confidence to feel comfortable being a business owner. Rachel founded WOKEN 6 months prior to beginning her MBA degree. Her deep-seated drive to help people who were stuck in a rut in their professional lives is what kept her going. The fact that very early on in life, she had realized that small amounts of effort and exploration could have an insanely significant impact on your life’s outcomes gave her the much-needed impetus to sail through the initial hardships associated with starting a new business.

Word of Advice 

Rachel believes that challenges are part and parcel of life and how we manage them tests and builds our resilience. Entrepreneurship, for her, is like a marathon and not a sprint. “If you possess patience, resilience, creativity, and persistence to tackle any issue at hand, it will lead you to find success in your personal and professional life. A successful business is not built overnight and requires undivided attention, effort, and commitment on many levels. It is often unclear what decision to make or how to proceed, but what will push you ahead to develop solid confidence is the belief that you can reach your goal if you are creative and committed enough,” Rachel adds.