Pathfinders got its start when I woke up one morning and realized that my career as a telecommunications engineer was terribly unfulfilling. Although I was making good living, I was extremely bored and disenchanted, with little desire to grow in the electrical engineering profession. I realized I was on the wrong career path and wondered how the heck I got there.

Trying to solve this problem, I grew intrigued by the widespread status quo pretension of career happiness in the workplace—I was not the only one who was comfortably miserable. This led me to focus on the psychology of organizational behavior. Finding the organization development field exciting, I began consulting for companies who were committed to creating a healthy, trust-based culture to work in.

While coaching organizations and executives, I found that people were more than just unhappy in their work. They wanted a lot more out of life, but were missing the know-how to make well-informed choices. Many said they had never chosen their career, but had haphazardly fallen into it. Having a well-suited career seemed like an unattainable fantasy to most of my colleauges; they weren't even looking for something better. With this wake-up call, corporate culture change efforts suddenly seemed like a misdirected adventure. Why is this so?

When people are mismatched with their work, they are like a cat stuck up a tree. Although the cat can hang on, it'll never thrive as well as the naturally talented tree acrobat, the squirrel. Today's workplaces are full of cats with advanced degrees in tree climbing, pretending to be squirrels. This unnamed "career mismatch" problem inspired me, it became a life's work to tackle it. For over 20 years, I've been researching human behavior, evolutionary psychology, sociobiology, neuroscience, neuroeconomics, behavioral genetics, and the social sciences for ways to effectively help people understand what they are—by nature— and how to make better long-term career and life choices.

My objective of fostering people's untapped potential was completely realized with the wisdom, mentorship and encouragement of my good friend Nicholas Lore, best selling author and founder of the internationally recognized Rockport Institute. Other really cool mentors and teachers who have influenced my life include Rob Creekmore, organizational psychology guru at Mitre; Tara Brach, psychologist and author of Radical Acceptance; Jerry Harvey, professor of organizational behavior and development and author of The Abilene Paradox; and Rosie, Chesapeake Bay Retriever, master swimmer and zen dog.

Today, Alexandria, VA-based Pathfinders is among the most innovative career coaching firms in the Washington, DC area, where I coach clients from all over the world to design and choose a career they'll excel in. I conduct research, consult and write for my career blog, The Careerologist, and I am the coauthor of Now What?, a young person's career choice guide.

Cheers, Anthony A. Spadafore

Pathfinders is an established independent associate of Rockport Institute, a small team of pioneers committed to developing world-class career choice technology.