Next-Level Role Program (Core version)

You've built a substantial career. You have experience, accomplishments and a lot to offer. But when it comes to making your next move, can you clearly explain what you bring, where it fits, and why someone should choose you?

That's where many capable professionals struggle. You've spent years delivering for your employer, and your own career has received whatever time and energy were left over. Then something changes. A restructure. A new boss. A recruiter's call. Or the growing realisation that you want more from your work.

So you update your résumé and start looking. The problem is that a résumé can't answer questions you haven't worked through yet. What do you want next? What is your professional value beyond your current title? Which organisations need what you offer? And how will you get their attention?

Being good at your work and being effective at managing your career are different skills. The Next-Level Role Program helps you build the second set, drawing on the experience and value you've already earned.

What we're working toward

Over twelve weeks, we help you get clear on your professional value, build the materials and strategy for your next move, and put an active search or career change campaign into motion.

By the end, you'll have a clear professional story, a résumé and LinkedIn profile that support it, a focused approach to the market, and preparation for the conversations and interviews ahead. The goal is a move you'd choose again: pursuing and evaluating your next role deliberately, rather than reacting to whatever comes along.

Where is your career getting stuck?

When a move isn't progressing, it's tempting to blame the résumé, your age or the market. Sometimes the market is difficult. But that doesn't tell us what to work on. We look at five areas:

• Direction: Are you clear on the move you want to make and what would make it worthwhile? Is the target achievable?
• Performance: Does your track record show the capabilities and impact required at the level you're pursuing?
• Positioning: Can you explain your professional value in a way that makes sense to the people you want to reach?
• Marketing: Are the right people aware of you? Do you have a practical way to create opportunities?
• Selling: Can you make your case in networking conversations, interviews and the discussions that lead to an offer?

These areas are connected. If your positioning is unclear, networking gets harder. If your direction is vague, you can spend months pursuing roles that don't fit. If you can't explain your impact, a well-written résumé only takes you so far. We identify what needs attention and work through it in the right order.

The Career Go-To-Market System

You have a professional offering. There are organisations that need it. Your job is to understand that offering, identify where it fits, communicate it clearly, and create the relationships and conversations that lead to opportunities.

Most people were never taught how to do this. They were taught to work hard, build experience and apply for jobs when they need one. That leaves a great deal to chance, particularly at senior levels. We give you a structured process, experienced guidance and practical help with the work itself.

We won't promise you a job offer. We don't control hiring decisions, employer timelines or market conditions. What we can do is help you pursue your move with stronger positioning, better preparation and a far more deliberate approach.

How we begin

Before your first session, you complete onboarding and intake, with short videos that reframe how you see yourself in the market and prepare you for the first phase. Then we start with one question:

Twelve months from now, what would need to be true for you to say this was worth it?

Your answer gives us something more useful than "I need a new job." It tells us what this move needs to achieve for your career and your life.

The twelve weeks

Weeks 1 to 4: Clarify your value and direction This is the foundation. We look at your career to date, the results you've created, your strengths and how you work, and identify your Success Formula: the recurring way you solve problems and create value. We also work through your direction. What are you aiming for? Which options make sense? What do you want more of, and what are you ready to leave behind?

The outcome is your Bold Career Brief: your professional value, positioning, direction and the evidence behind your story, completed with you by week four. It becomes the foundation for your résumé, LinkedIn profile, outreach, interview preparation and the criteria you use to evaluate opportunities. You'll also get quick advice on LinkedIn improvements to support your networking.

Weeks 5 and 6: Get ready for the market With the Brief in place, we write or improve your résumé and LinkedIn profile for you. We help you build your target list and your go-to-market plan: the channels you'll use, the people you need to reach, your activity targets, and how you'll organise and track your search. By week six, your first planned outreach is underway.

Weeks 7 to 12: Run your campaign and prepare for opportunities Now we help you put the plan to work: networking, recruiter conversations, relevant applications and consistent follow-up. We help you focus your effort rather than spend your week reacting to job postings. At the same time, we prepare you for interviews before you have one booked: your story bank, your examples matched to what your target employers need, and practice in communicating your experience and impact. If a live opportunity develops, we support you with strategy, preparation and the offer discussion.

By week twelve, you have an active campaign and a process you can keep using for future moves.

What's included

You'll have a dedicated Bold Career advisor, with individual support and access to the wider program.

• Eight structured one-to-one sessions, sequenced around the work and your situation
• Three flex sessions, used where you need them most
• Workshops and group coaching sessions. Sessions are recorded. The group is closed, and participants use first names only
• Your résumé and LinkedIn profile drafts, written for you. You review and edit, and we give you the feedback to finalise them
• Direct messaging with your advisor on weekdays, with a reply within one business day
• A customised Interview Prep Plan and one full application review
• Access to the Bold Career platform, including the videos, workbooks and playbooks for each stage
• One year of CoCareer, an AI-enabled tool to organise and track your search and networking
• A private discussion board, to ask questions and learn from others making their own moves

Plan on two to five hours a week for your part of the work. The early weeks need the most thinking and reflection. We handle the writing of your résumé and LinkedIn profile.

Our Market-Ready Guarantee

By week six, we commit to delivering:

• Your Bold Career Brief
• Your résumé
• Your LinkedIn profile
• Support for your target list
• Your go-to-market plan, with our feedback
• Your application review
• Your Interview Prep Plan

If we haven't delivered these, we keep working at no additional cost until we have. Timing depends on completed sessions and receiving your inputs. If a session moves or inputs are delayed, the dates move accordingly.

Why work with us

The Bold Career Project was founded to close the gap between how good senior professionals are and how good their careers look.

Ian Christie, our founder, saw that gap clearly from the other side of the table. At Caldwell Partners he conducted more than 200 searches at C-suite, VP and director level, including thousands of conversations with candidates about their experience, ambitions and fit.

One search stayed with him. In 1995 he was working on a CFO search for a large Canadian mining company. There was an excellent candidate at a competitor: long tenure, strong progression, substantial experience. And he was effectively invisible outside his organisation. Being good at his work hadn't made him visible in the market.

Ian went on to found an executive talent marketplace acquired by Monster, lead product management there, and spend six years running graduate career programs at UBC Sauder. That combination shapes how we work: an understanding of hiring decisions, of business, and of the practical challenges of making a career move. Our coaching team brings executive search experience and organisational psychology training. Over 24 years, Bold Career has worked with around 2,000 clients across a wide range of industries.

What this work has helped clients achieve

• Advance | Mario, VP IT to SVP Delivery, Big Four consulting. He needed to communicate his value in an unstructured interview process. We helped him prepare for and navigate seven rounds. He described the outcome as "the best role of my career."
• Advance | Arif, Director to VP Manufacturing, automotive. The work focused on making his impact visible and preparing for the informal executive conversations that influence promotion decisions. He advanced without leaving his organisation.
• Advance | Lisa, department head to CEO of a national industry association. "Having the Bold Career team in your corner is as essential as a world-class coach is to an elite athlete."
• Align | Nicole T, senior communications leader. She came to us after an experience that had undermined her confidence, and moved into a senior role in an organisation that valued her contribution. "I went from a place of uncertainty to interviewing confidently."
• Pivot | Matt J, Senior Project Manager. After fifteen years in one industry, he needed help seeing and communicating how his experience could transfer. He moved into a director role on a new path.
• Land | I.A, Director of Finance. After a layoff, a role that didn't work out and a long search, we helped rebuild the foundations of his candidacy. He landed the director-level finance role he was pursuing.

Investment

Pay in full: $4,800 CAD, a saving of $600. Payment plan: $5,400 CAD in three payments: $1,300 to start, then two payments of $2,050 at 30 and 60 days. Canadian clients pay GST/HST at their province's rate. Clients outside Canada are invoiced in US dollars with no Canadian sales tax.

On the payment plan, start with month one, then decide. By week four you'll have your Bold Career Brief and know how we work. We schedule a conversation to decide together whether to continue. If either of us feels it isn't the right fit, we stop. You owe nothing further, and you keep the work we've completed, including your Brief. Fees paid in full are committed to the full program.

Already worked with us? A Session counts in full toward the program within 14 days. Half the fee of a Roadmap or Sprint counts toward it within 30 days.

After the twelve weeks

The strategy work has an end date. The support doesn't have to. Most senior searches don't finish in twelve weeks, and we won't pretend otherwise. If your search is still underway, In Your Corner continues at $500 CAD a month: interview preparation, opportunity navigation, gut-checks and accountability, with people who already know your story. It's month to month, and you stop when you're ready.

Landed early? First, we celebrate. Then we use the remaining time on the offer, the negotiation and your first ninety days.

Need to pause? You can pause once, for up to six weeks, for personal circumstances. Let us know in writing, and your dates move with you.

Is this the right program for you?

It's designed for experienced professionals with a career move to make: senior individual contributors, managers, directors, VPs and executives, typically with ten or more years of experience and a track record to build on. You may need to move now, or you may be preparing for a move over the next four to twelve months. You might be pursuing a more senior role, changing organisations, or choosing between two or three credible directions.

You don't need a perfect history. A role that didn't work out, a career break, or a move between countries doesn't erase what you've built. You do need to be willing to work on your value, positioning, relationships and approach to the market. And the outcome needs to matter to you beyond the job title.

When we'd recommend a different approach

We'll tell you if this isn't the right fit, including when:

• You need immediate income. This isn't a solution to a three-week financial deadline.
• Your direction is still wide open. We may recommend a Career Clarity Roadmap or Sprint first.
• You're early in your career. The process is built on an existing body of experience.
• You want a guaranteed job, promotion or pay rise. We can support the work. We can't honestly promise an employer's decision.
• You want someone else to make the decisions and do everything. We give substantial help, but your participation matters.
• Compensation is your only consideration. We'll also ask whether the role and environment fit the life you want.

Practical questions

I'm still employed. Is this confidential? Yes. Your one-to-one work is confidential. The group is closed, participants use first names only, and your participation isn't made public or shared with your employer.

Who will be my advisor? We assign your lead advisor before you start, and you'll speak with them before you decide. We work as a team, so where it helps you may also hear from Gabi, our Customer Success Manager, Remy, Career Coach and Consultant, or Ian.

How much time should I allow? Two to five hours a week, especially in the first three to four weeks. After that, it depends partly on the urgency of your move.

What if I fall behind? Let your advisor know. We'll help you focus on what needs to happen next, and we review progress at weeks four and eight.

What if I have an interview early in the program? If we agree it makes sense, we redirect sessions and timing to focus on interview strategy and preparation.

Can my employer pay? Sometimes. Professional development budgets may cover this work, particularly if you're developing toward a new role in your organisation, and we can provide documentation for your finance team. If you've been given notice, your employer may offer outplacement support, and many past clients have asked to choose us instead of the provider offered.

Do you connect me with recruiters? Not in a formal way. If we know someone in our network where an introduction would be a win for both sides, we'll make it.

Are you experts in my industry? In most cases, industry expertise isn't what you need. The strategies are foundational and apply across sectors. There are a few closed markets we don't serve, such as federal government and Wall Street or Bay Street. Clients have interviewed and landed at the large technology companies, but we aren't experts in their individual hiring processes.