About

Nice to Meet You!

Welcome to Career Contessa, a trusted career resource that helps working women be more fulfilled, healthy, and successful at work.

Identify + reach your goals faster with helpful, actionable career tips, advice, and answers— without confusing jargon, false promises, fluff, or guilt trips.

When you’re ready to put that advice into action, you can apply for jobs, learn new skills, or even work 1:1 with your own career coach. We’ve created resources that evolve with every stage of your career.

Join our newsletter for your first dose of career advice.

Our Story

With women making up more than half of today’s workforce, the increased speed of workplace changes, and the fact that everyone’s career is unique to them, it seemed unreal (and outdated) to us that a career resource built to include women didn’t exist.

So, we created it.

Since 2013, our mission has been to help women build successful and fulfilling careers on their terms.

We do this by removing traditional barriers to career development and offering resources for every career stage and every learning style. Whether you’re job searching, negotiating your salary, advancing in your role, or navigating other career development topics, we have you covered.

At Career Contessa, you can expect actionable advice, quick tips, workshops, online learning courses, and guides—all designed to help you learn at your own pace.

Created by our team of experts and career coaches, every resource we offer comes without that hustle-culture guilt trip designed to make you question your ambition and worth.

Founded by a recruiter and someone who had to navigate her own tough career transition, Lauren McGoodwin launched Career Contessa out of her master’s thesis project on millennial women and career resources. Today, with a talented team, Career Contessa continues to build new ways to support women’s career development.

Join us. We’re just getting started.

Why Women*

Because we noticed the average career site doesn’t take into account the fact that women are more likely to experience a wage gap, take a career break, or find themselves the minority in the boardroom. We keep women front and center, however, all are welcome at Career Contessa. We believe that women’s progress will be a team effort with our allies.

*Career Contessa supports all genders and non-binary individuals.

Our Beliefs

First, we believe in the power of all women.
We believe in building a company that is inclusive, diverse, and fosters belonging among our readers, students, contributors, team, and community.
We believe that successful and fulfilling careers are built on progress, vulnerability, and curiosity— not perfection.
We believe that job searches, career growth, and professional discovery are deeply personal, but that every woman, no matter the stage of her career, benefits from a supportive community.
We believe that self-care includes physical, mental, and emotional wellness and that prioritizing your wellness is essential to any career moves you make.
We believe in the power of lifelong learning and creating tools that place you in the driver's seat of your own career.
We believe in real-talk advice and straightforward guidance. Fluff and business jargon have no place here.
We believe in building actionable tools and resources. Simple yet effective. No one has time for “quick fixes” or things that “kinda” work.
We believe that true fulfillment comes from real connection to others, not in an endless aspiration for more accomplishments.
We believe that closing the leadership, wage, and gender gaps (to name a few) in the workplace will benefit everyone.
We believe in women making Power Moves.

What We Offer

Online Career Courses: On-demand courses you can take anytime and anywhere. Our unique Career Contessa learning experience is applied to each course creating an engaging, interactive experience. We don’t believe in roping you into a monthly subscription. Buy it, own it (and your career development) for life.
Career Coaching: Online career coaching from trusted, pre-vetted experts from every background. Personalized coaching via video or phone at affordable prices with no long-term commitments.
Jobs: Curated jobs board with new listings daily at female-forward companies. All free, all for you.
One-Stop Career Resource HQ: Articles, a podcast, the Power Moves book, videos, downloads, webinars, and a weekly newsletter deliver real-talk, quality advice every single time.
The Salary Project™: The only anonymous salary database that gives you full access to browse thousands of real salaries from humans around the world. Use it to make sure you’re paid your value, learn about new career opportunities, or just to snoop. We’re cool with that.
Community. Support. Advocacy.: Most of all, we’re here to support and inspire action in you for making Power Moves and building a career on your terms. We’re part cheerleader part coach part BFF and we like it that way. We’ll never apologize for believing in you and your career goals.