Leland+ for Career Coaching

Managing Up: A Field Guide

Managing up isn’t about flattering your boss — it’s about owning the relationship with the person who has the most influence over your career. This guide covers how to diagnose your manager’s style, what to ask them early in any new relationship, the most common managing up mistakes and how to fix them, and how to navigate specific situations when the relationship is strained.

The Internal Pivot Playbook

How to move into a new role, function, or business unit without leaving your company: the full arc most professionals navigate alone and without a roadmap. This guide covers how to diagnose whether an internal pivot is the right move, how to position yourself before anyone knows you’re interested, how to have the conversation with your manager, how to navigate the three most common responses, what to negotiate (and how), and how to land well in the new role without the overconfidence trap.

Early Career Resume Template | Landed F500 Intern/Full-Time Roles

My go-to 1-page resume template for early-career professionals, including students and recent graduates. Includes a polished PDF example of a strong resume plus an editable Word version with detailed comments explaining structure, formatting, and content decisions.

Cover Letter Template | Landed me a Role at Google

This is the exact cover letter template I’ve used for both my own applications and with clients. Includes a polished PDF example of a strong cover letter plus an editable Word version with detailed comments explaining structure, formatting, and content decisions.

Build Your Professional Portfolio Site with Claude + Lovable: Live Demo [4/28/2026] (Recording)

Most professionals have no digital home base — just a LinkedIn profile they update when they're desperate. In this demo, we're building a real, published professional portfolio site using Claude to craft your content and Lovable to build the site. No code or design skills needed, just your story and 60 minutes. Outcome for attendees: A live, published portfolio site with a professional bio and narrative built during the session and yours to keep, customize, and grow. Session pre-requisites: Claude account & Lovable account — free is fine 🙂 You might also want to read https://www.businessinsider.com/hiring-managers-arent-reading-resumes-slop-2026-3! on why skills are more important than a resume now!

Building a Global Career: Ask Me Anything

Are you an early to mid-career professional looking to build a global career? Join me, Matthew, for an ask-me-anything session on crafting a career that transcends borders. With an MBA from Oxford and a diverse career spanning 9 countries and multiple industries, including strategy consulting at BCG and Dalberg Advisors, finance, entrepreneurship, and international development, I bring a wealth of experience to help you navigate your career journey. In this event, we'll explore essential topics like career planning, professional networking, personal branding, and job search strategies. Whether you're considering full-time, freelancing or seeking to enhance your networking strategy, this session is designed to equip you with the tools and concepts to help you succeed on a global stage. RSVP now to secure your spot and take the next step in your global career development!

Best Questions to Ask in a Job Interview

A practical guide to asking smart, strategic questions that impress interviewers and showcase your fit in investment banking interviews.

Executive Resume Template | Landed Exec Roles at F500 Companies

My most sought out for 2-page resume template for executives, from senior director, VPs, and C-Suite professionals. Includes a polished PDF example of a strong resume plus an editable Word version with detailed comments explaining structure, formatting, and content decisions. Used by leaders at Google, Amazon, Netflix, GitLab, Deloitte, and more.

How and When to Start a Company

Mapping out my founder journey--this is a guide to how I approached starting my own company!

Interview Best Practices (Without the Script)

Most interview advice works on paper and falls apart under pressure. You know your experience, but turning it into clear, grounded answers in real time is a different skill. This session focuses on interview best practices that actually hold up in the room—how to prepare without memorizing scripts, how to structure answers so they make sense to interviewers, and how to navigate both behavioral and case-style questions without rambling or freezing. This is for candidates who are qualified, capable, and tired of leaving interviews feeling like they didn’t fully show it.

How to Give Feedback That Actually Changes Behavior

Most managers give feedback. Few give feedback that sticks. This guide breaks down the four reasons feedback fails, then gives you a repeatable four-part framework — Situation, Behavior, Impact, Next Step — with side-by-side examples showing ineffective vs. effective delivery. Includes a section on handling the most common reactions: defensiveness, denial, and empty agreement.

Promotion Readiness Scorecard

Score yourself across the five dimensions that actually drive promotion decisions -- Performance, Visibility, Leadership Presence, Sponsorship, and Business Impact. Identify your biggest gap and walk away with a prioritized 90-day action plan.

How To Have the Promotion Conversation

Most promotion conversations fail not because the person wasn't ready -- but because they handled it wrong. This guide covers when to have the conversation, what to say, how to handle pushback, and what to do after. Includes sample language and a follow up email template.

New People Manager: First 90-Day Checklist

A phase-by-phase checklist for your first 90 days as a people manager: diagnose before you prescribe, provide clarity on direction, then raise the bar on performance, Includes the five most common new manager traps and a clear definition of what good looks like at 90 days.

The Year-End Review Playbook

Most professionals approach the year-end review passively and leave the outcome to chance. This guide covers the full process high performers use: building a documented case throughout the year, writing a self-assessment for the calibration room (not just your manager’s inbox), preparing your manager to advocate for you in the room you’re not in, and using the review conversation to set the terms for next year. Includes before/after self-assessment examples and exact language for the conversations most people avoid.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

GenAI Career Applications to Boost Your Trajectory

"The AI live demos were mind-blowing!" AI is changing how we work, but knowing how to use it to accelerate your career is a skill in itself. In my most popular 45-minute workshop, I share practical, real-world strategies for leveraging AI to boost productivity, strengthen your professional brand, and navigate career growth with intention. Drawing from my experience at Google and work with 1,300+ professionals, I break down applied AI use cases focusing on tools you can implement immediately. This session is built for professionals who want to work smarter, communicate with clarity, and bridge the gap between where they are today and the next level of their careers. It’s become my most in-demand and popular workshop across organizations and universities such as Georgia Tech, Northwestern, and the University of Washington. As you read above, attendees frequently describe the live AI demos as “mind-blowing,” with the majority saying that they'd try them out that same day.

The Sleep Playbook

Learn practical ways to improve your sleep and reclaim your calm, energy and peak performance ----------------------- I'm a French-American mom of three boys, product leader, and someone who learned the hard way that taking care of yourself is not optional. The truth is, sleep is the foundation of everything else. This playbook shares what I have learned - from my own experience, and from some of the world's leading sleep scientists. It is practical, grounded, and built for real life.

Home for Ambition #6 — Weekly Live Show [4/22/2026] (Recording)

Home for Ambition is a weekly live show, by Leland, for people trying to stay ahead as work, learning, and opportunity keep changing. Each episode tackles a handful of timely, high-signal topics across AI, careers, education, and the future of work. We expect thoughtful debate, unique perspectives, and practical takeaways you can actually use. It is not a typical interview show or a generic news recap. It is a live roundtable built to help ambitious people make sense of what is changing, understand what matters, and leave with a sharper point of view on how to navigate what comes next.

3 AI Skills to Land your Job in ... the Biotech Industry

Some people assume biotech is purely science: pipettes, gene sequences, clinical trials. In practice, the industry runs on physical infrastructure as demanding as any in manufacturing. A diagnostic device that detects a cancer marker with enough reliability to inform a treatment decision. A surgical instrument precise enough to operate where a millimeter is the margin between success and failure. A monitoring system that tracks a patient's vital signs continuously, without interruption, for weeks. These are tangible products in the most consequential sense: the stakes attached to their performance are measured in human outcomes. I spent more than 10 years working with the biotech industry as a supplier, managing it as a strategic key account across multiple market segments. I understand what biotech and medtech companies require from their partners and their people; I also know which skills are shifting fast right now because of AI. This Tuesday session covers the biotech industry: one of the most regulated, most innovation-driven, and most purposeful sectors in the global economy. We will discuss three specific AI skills that are changing what hiring managers expect, and how you can demonstrate them before you walk into an interview. If you want a career where the tangible product you help bring to market can directly improve someone's life, this session is for you.

Hidden Workload Audit & Reflection

This exercise will help you identify everything you're doing that is not on your “to-do” list, so you can see where your time is actually going and what’s pulling your attention away from meaningful work. Designed for anyone who feels busy but not making the progress they expect.