Building the Bridge I Wish I Had

I graduated during the 2008 global financial crisis.

Like many young graduates, I believed that if I worked hard, continued learning and applied to enough opportunities, someone would eventually give me a chance. Instead, I spent nearly a year sending applications into silence.

What began as a job-search problem slowly became something more personal. I started questioning the value of my education, my abilities and the direction of my life.

I was not unwilling to work. I was not incapable. I simply did not understand how to navigate a labor market that had changed almost overnight.

In January 2009, I finally found my first opportunity in international sales. Over the next four years, I became one of the company's top performers and later built and led a new business unit. That experience taught me how to create value, earn trust and build something from the ground up.

But I was still searching for work that felt aligned with who I was.

Eventually, I entered executive search, almost by accident. For the first time, my strengths, values and professional opportunities came together.

Headhunting allowed me to help companies find people they could not reach on their own. It also allowed me to help professionals recognize their strengths, access better opportunities and make decisions that could change the direction of their lives.

What began as an experiment became a career of more than 10 years. I grew from a consultant into an assistant partner and eventually became a Top 10 Partner at ManpowerGroup Greater China.

During that time, I advised companies, coached candidates, negotiated offers and observed thousands of career decisions up close.

I also began to see a deeper problem.

Most people were not simply searching for jobs. They were trying to understand themselves.

They had experience but struggled to explain its value. They had ambition but lacked a realistic roadmap. They were expected to make life-changing career decisions using generic advice, fragmented information and very little personal support.

Traditional recruiting could not fully solve this problem. Recruiters are normally paid by employers, which means the people who need the most guidance are often the least likely to receive it. High-quality career advice also requires significant time, judgment and human attention, making it difficult to provide at scale.

In 2022, I came to the United States and joined the Berkeley Haas Executive MBA program. There, I met accomplished professionals facing many of the same questions I had encountered throughout my recruiting career:

These questions became increasingly urgent as AI began reshaping industries, roles and traditional career paths.

That was the beginning of PivotBridge.

PivotBridge combines AI technology with the judgment developed through more than a decade of executive search. We help people understand their strengths, evaluate career risks, identify skill gaps, explore realistic paths and create actionable plans for what to do next.

Our goal is not simply to help someone find another job.

It is to help people understand where they can create value, how they can adapt and how they can move forward with clarity rather than fear.

I founded PivotBridge because I remember what it felt like to be left alone in a broken job market.

Today, millions of graduates, immigrants, mid-career professionals and displaced workers are facing a new period of uncertainty. The cause may be different, but the feeling is familiar.

The labor market is changing faster than traditional career systems can respond. People need more than job listings, resume templates or generic encouragement. They need a system that helps them understand themselves and make informed decisions.

PivotBridge is the bridge I wish I had when I began my own career.

Now we are building it for everyone facing what comes next.