NextStep Careers was founded by Emily Taylor, who has spent her career coaching clients and students to achieve their goals. Emily brings first-hand experience of the hiring process from the employer’s side and the selection process from a business school career center and admissions perspective. This means she can tell you with certainty what it takes to shine. Over the past 15 years, Emily has used her insider knowledge to help thousands career seekers take their next step.
Emily graduated from Stanford University with a BA and Masters degree, and began her career as a college counselor, where she had a 100% placement rate. And they didn’t just get in anywhere: Emily placed over 500 students at top schools in America, including Harvard, Stanford, and Yale.
Next step was an MBA at UCLA Anderson. From there, she went to Revolution Prep, the nation’s largest classroom-based SAT prep provider, where she earned rave reviews using her training expertise to create engaging learning experiences for over 30,000 students. She went on to manage all recruiting, hiring and human resources as the VP of Talent.
Emily returned to UCLA Anderson to redesign their career education program. She coached over 2,000 students in career management and transformed UCLA’s Career Services Center into the #1 career services program in the top 20 business schools. While she was proud of this achievement, Emily was frustrated that so many others were not receiving this critical career counseling. This inspired her to found NextStep Careers. The NextStep team is proud to have successfully coached clients in 30 cities in 6 different countries and are now coaching the friends, coworkers, classmates, siblings, and significant others who keep getting referred.
“Working with Emily gave me the confidence and tools I needed to successfully negotiate my salary and overall compensation. I was able to increase my compensation package by over 10% from the initial offer and get the compensation that I deserved.”
Jacqueline Delgado | AT&T Lead Product Marketing Manager | UCLA Anderson MBA
“Before working with Emily, I would freeze up in interviews. Despite having decent work experience, I lacked the knowledge and confidence for how to convey it. Since working with Emily, I have learned to present my best self to interviewers, receiving offers from four different companies.”
Betsey Blakeley | Mattel Marketing Manager, Global Brands | UCLA Anderson MBA
“My graduate career advisor at Cal Poly said that my resume was amazing, but I wasn’t getting any interviews. Then I worked with Emily, and she transformed my resume to best capture my accomplishments. I immediately started getting interviews.”
Tiffani Tonso | Analyst Energy Efficiency at ADM Associates | Cal Poly MS
“After I didn’t get into my Round 1 schools, I partnered with Emily for Round 2. She helped revamp my applications and prepared me for my interviews. The result – I ultimately got into all 3 top programs I applied to in Round 2, along with a significant scholarship.”
“Emily helps you to turn your strengths and interests into an action plan for your career. She helps you select your best stories and coaches you on how to share them for maximum impact. She is an amazing mentor and we’ve shared a lot of laughs together!”
Madeline (Vuong) Jones | Consultant at Boston Consulting Group | Chicago Booth MBA
“Emily helped me to craft a compelling story for each school and made me feel confident in myself throughout the business school application process. Not only did Emily keep me sane, but I don’t know if I would have made it into Kellogg without her!”
Danielle (Culin) McKennan | Revenue Operations at Workday | Northwestern Kellogg MBA
“I wanted to pivot from old tech companies to the gaming industry, but was not having success on my own. After working with Emily, I was able to land a great role at PlayStation. This was a dream come true, and I am so thankful for her help. From building resumes and cover letters to helping me with my interviews and networking, I could not have done this without her.”
“Emily helped me find the right career path, craft my resume to resonate with recruiters, write killer cover letters, and refine my interview answers to impress hiring managers. I couldn’t be happier with my first full-time job!”
John Colarusso | Senior Associate at Charlie Health | Former Bain Consultant
“Emily was fundamental in helping me land a successful business school internship and full-time job after. Her MBA course helped me polish my resume and learn how to network, recruit, and interview effectively – resulting in multiple job offers.”
Natalie Chladek | Product Manager at Harvard Business School Online | UCLA Anderson MBA
“Despite having spent hours on my resume with my college’s career center, I ended up reworking my entire resume following Emily’s resume workshop. You might think that you have a cutting-edge resume—I certainly thought I did—but you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you learn tips and tricks that can take your resume to the next level.”
William Huang | Strategy & Consultant | Tuck MBA 2022
“Even if you don’t come from a business background, Emily can help you get into business school. She turned my non-business engineering background into an asset that appealed to the admissions committees.”
Christopher Culin | Associate at Oliver Wyman | Northwestern Kellogg MBA + MS Design Innovation
“Two people received a shoutout at my wedding: the obstetrician who delivered me…and Emily. It was because of Emily that I got into my dream college, Berkeley. When I was ready to take the next step and get my MBA, she was the first person I called.”
Phil McKennan | Head of Technology Partnerships at Qualtrics | Duke Fuqua MBA