‘First 5 with Jennifer Koller’ empowers students, graduates and early career employees with the smarts to navigate the foundational years of their career, helping them to set the vision and clarify the direction for their lives, enhance their experience, cultivate crucial skills to last them a lifetime and work on what matters the most for their future.
This question, more than any other, is one that helps professionals define their goals and aspirations. And in the case of new and early career employees, the first five years of one’s career are possibly the most important ones. They are the years that help to define direction and solidify their goals – but only if they’re well managed and steered smartly.
Evidence from neuroscience shows that coaching works to create lasting change. And that young professionals respond the best to coaching over any other types of professional development. This is the motivation behind First 5, a unique early career coaching program that empowers young people to smartly navigate the foundational years of their career.
When you start your first job you are immediately expected to cope with new responsibilities, new expectations and new challenges. First 5 offers coaching and mentoring support through those crucial five years – empowering young professionals to develop key skillsets at this crucial stage of their working life. While helping them define the future they want – enabling them to build a solid foundation for their professional development and sustain momentum over the course of their careers.
‘First 5′ was established by renowned career coach, Jennifer Koller. In 1996, shortly after Daniel Goleman published his groundbreaking book, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Jennifer participated in a symposium in London for parents of gifted children, at which he was the keynote speaker. Inspired by Goleman’s ideas, Jennifer sought ways to develop her own “EQ” and help others develop theirs.
She’s since worked with a generation of young adults for whom the multitude of choices and rapidly changing technological advances seemed to have a stalling effect on their lives. Her love for young people as well as her strong belief in the power of neuroscience and coaching led her to establishing First 5, which also provides EQ and Leadership assessments to help managers better understand and guide early career professionals.
First 5 is the brainchild of Jennifer Koller, an experienced coach with global experience who is also the founder of the Pragmatic Optimism philosophy. She has over twenty years of experience working with young adults. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College in Wellesley, MA and a Master of Science degree from The London School of Economics and Political Science. A U.S. citizen who lived and worked in Europe for 25 years, Jennifer created an educational advisory firm for international students applying to Anglophone universities in the U.S., UK, Europe, and beyond. This gave her a unique lens into the needs, passions and motivations of young people, migrants, expatriates and individuals in transition — tomorrow’s leaders and future change makers. With an innate ability of helping people to bring out the best in themselves, she made the decision to train further in coaching at Rice University in Houston, Texas, where she created her current professional model for coaching.
Jennifer believes all actions matter — big and small matter when it comes to self-leadership and emotional intelligence. She’s a keen champion of integrity and accountability, making them strong tenets of her offering and encouraging it beyond the workplace. Jennifer lives and breathes her mission of being a trusted advisor who brings an open-minded, positive and creative approach to her coaching style. She enjoys working with clients who are fully engaged in the coaching process and are willing to do the work to create change in their personal and professional lives. She takes a strong interest in neuroscience and cognitive psychology as well as in helping her clients establish an executive presence and style.
In her private time, Jennifer is passionate about health and fitness, and has a lifelong love for reading and learning, incorporating the lessons she learns along the way into her pragmatic and optimistic approach to life, career, wellbeing and coaching.
Comprehensive coaching programs focused on developing a skills management plan, keyed to target careers and professional tracks.
We offer key career assessments such as EQ360, etc, based upon the coachee’s unique goals and circumstances.
We integrate the Gallup’s Clifton Strengths Finder to discover your strengths and opportunities in your career and life.
We offer key early-career affinity groups led by Jennifer that encourage open conversation in a supportive environment.
First 5 will help you:
