Nail that Interview - Career Coach | Interview Specialist | I help junior professionals stop coming second in interviews — and start choosing between offers | FREE DIAGNOSIS CALL | Georgetown Universi

Find out more about Marilena

• 1. When did you start your personal development? What motivated this choice?

  My personal development began in earnest when I found myself in a job search that felt completely at odds with everything I had built professionally. I had a strong CV, years of international experience, and genuine expertise, which in 2023 led me all the way to The White House, and I was still not getting through. The rejection was not just professional. It was deeply personal, and I think pretending otherwise would have been dishonest.
  What motivated me was the realisation that the problem was not my qualifications. It was something nobody had ever taught me. It was about communicating my value under pressure in a high-stakes room. Once I understood that, everything changed. That experience is now the foundation of everything I do with my clients. I know exactly what it feels like to be the most qualified person in the room and still not get the offer. That is where my work begins.

• 2. Describe your own understanding of "personal development" and what can it bring in the short and long-term?

  For me, personal development is not about becoming a different person. It is about removing the gap between who you are and how the world sees you, so that the two finally match. In the short term, that means very practical things: understanding what a panel is actually measuring, knowing which part of your interview is costing you, and being able to articulate your value with precision and without apology. In the long term, the shift is deeper. My clients do not just get the job offer. They start aiming higher. They negotiate from strength. They stop accepting the first offer out of relief and start choosing between options. The confidence that comes from that is not manufactured. It is earned, and it lasts.

• 3. What are some practical tips to help improve self-confidence?

  The most important thing I have learned is that confidence is an output, not an input. You cannot manufacture it by telling yourself you are enough. It emerges when you know what you are doing and why. So practically: prepare the right things, not more things. Most people over-prepare the wrong material and walk into a room feeling anxious because they sense something is still missing. When you know exactly what the panel is measuring and have prepared specifically for that, the anxiety reduces because you are no longer guessing.
  
  The second thing is to stop rehearsing and start structuring. Scripts create rigidity, and rigidity reads as anxiety. Structure gives you an anchor to return to when the conversation takes an unexpected turn. That anchor is what composure is built from.
  
  The third is to allow the emotion. Professionals who keep coming second often carry rejection residue, which shows up a quieter version of themselves during interview. Acknowledging that and working through it is the most practical thing you can do.

• 4. Do you think a teacher can learn from his students? Is there a lesson where you have experienced this?

  Absolutely. Every session teaches me something I did not know I needed to know.
  The most significant lesson came from a client who had applied to over 200 jobs in a single month, with almost no responses. My initial assumption was that this was a targeting problem. When I dug deeper, I discovered it was something else entirely. I asked her directly whether she found it hard to keep her commitments. She said yes, immediately. She was not avoiding the job search. She was avoiding the feeling of trying properly, and it still wasn't working. The coaching she needed was not about her CV or her strategy. It was about building a structure she could show up for every day.
  
  That conversation changed how I open sessions. I now pay as much attention to how someone describes their situation as I do to what they say. The gap between the two is usually where the real work is.

• 5. What personalities do you admire; who represents personal and professional success in your opinion?

  I admire people who built something real from a place of genuine conviction rather than strategy. The individuals I return to most are those who were willing to say the uncomfortable true thing in public and who did so without performing it. Professionally, I am drawn to founders and coaches who lead with substance rather than visibility. The ones who have clients whose lives genuinely changed, who do not need to shout about it, and who keep showing up to the work long after the initial excitement has passed.
  
  Personally, I admire the people in my own life who held me accountable to the version of myself I already knew I was capable of being BEFORE I had the confidence to hold myself there. That is what I try to do for my clients. And I think it is the most meaningful kind of support one person can offer another.

• 6. What are your hobbies and what benefits do they have on your motivation?

  Food and the ritual around it is genuinely important to me — not just eating well, but understanding where things come from, cooking at home, being connected to the slower rhythms that the rest of life tends to ignore. It grounds me in a way that nothing else quite does, and I think it makes me a better coach, because it reminds me that the best things take time and cannot be rushed. I am also someone who reads widely — across fields, history, novels, narrative non-fiction. The most useful insights I bring to sessions often come from unexpected places, and I think that is because I have not limited my curiosity to my own professional category. Both of these things feed the same quality in my work: patience. The willingness to sit with complexity rather than rush to a solution.

• 7. Who are your classes for, specifically? Is this domain open to all?

  My work is for professionals who are already performing well — people who are getting interviews, demonstrating genuine expertise, and still not converting at final round. They are typically mid-career, formally qualified, and have started to wonder whether something is fundamentally wrong with them.
  
  It is not. But the problem they have is specific to the final stage of the process, and it requires a specific solution and not generic interview coaching, which is built for people who are just starting out. That said, I also work with professionals earlier in their careers who are navigating competitive processes for the first time and want to avoid building bad habits. The fundamentals of how final-round panels make decisions apply regardless of seniority. Only the stakes change. The one thing my work requires is that the person is serious about getting the next role right, not just the next application. I work with commitment, not convenience.

• 8. Being a Superprof requires some adaptability. Tell us about your methods in adapting to different individuals.

  I start every first session by listening to how someone describes their situation — not just what they say but how they say it, what they emphasise, what they gloss over, where their energy drops. Within a few minutes, I usually have a clearer picture of what they need than what they came in asking for. Some clients need structure and precision. They want to know exactly what to say and exactly when to say it. Others need permission more than they need technique. They already know what to do. What they need is someone to hold them to the version of themselves they are not quite confident enough to inhabit yet.
  
  The framework I use is consistent across all clients because the mechanics of final-round panels are consistent. But how I deliver it, how direct I am, how much space I create for the emotional work alongside the practical work, how fast we move, that’s entirely shaped by the person in front of me.
  What I never adapt is the standard. Every client deserves the clearest possible picture of what is happening and what to do about it. That does not change.