Client Case Study
Santiago Vivas-Gonzalez
Product Manager, AI & ML Platforms at Capital One
Before & After
Santiago was anxious and mentally unprepared after an unexpected layoff, aware that unresolved internal struggles were already surfacing negatively during interviews. He recognized he had 'work to do inside his head' but hadn't yet addressed it.
Through the clarity/fire-starter session and active daydreaming exercises, Santiago gained a grounded sense of direction and confidence, visualizing himself on the other side of the search and showing up at his best for high-stakes interviews like Capital One's power day.
Santiago's resume and self-presentation were framed around his previous job, making them sound compelling only for the role he had left rather than the next opportunity he was targeting.
He learned to reframe his experience to appeal to prospective employers and the roles he was pursuing, effectively repositioning his narrative to make himself an attractive candidate for his next move.
Santiago reached out to his closest contacts at interesting companies but only one or two referrals materialized, and his overall outreach was not producing meaningful traction early on.
He leveraged a key referral from his brother at Capital One, which got him into what became his winning process, and he also cited joining a lifelong professional network through the program as a long-term asset for future searches.
Santiago had experienced internal anxieties surfacing during interviews in the past and lacked a structured way to tell his career story in a compelling, role-relevant way for high-stakes interview formats like Capital One's power day.
By deeply working through the TMA and story exercises, he was able to deliver a polished, well-positioned narrative in the Capital One power day interview that set a strong tone for the entire day and contributed to his offer.
Santiago was spending 14–15 hours a day mass-applying to any role on his screen in a frantic, shotgun-style approach with almost no results — anxious, unfocused, and without a clear target.
He shifted to an intentional, focused strategy — selecting a specific company profile, role, level, and industry — which allowed him to concentrate his preparation on high-priority opportunities like Capital One rather than spinning his wheels across hundreds of applications.
“Program helps you find opportunity best for you, not just next role”
— Santiago Vivas-Gonzalez, Product Manager, AI & ML Platforms at Capital One
Santiago Vivas-Gonzalez's Story
In the beginning especially, it was very frantic, very anxious. I would almost be at the computer 14-15 hours a day, just applying to any role that came across my screen. I reached out to the people closest to me at the companies that were interesting to me. At that point, maybe one or two referrals came through, but ultimately I was just going out there into the wild and just mass applying, shotgun-style and hoping for the best.
I went into this and I signed up because I knew that there was some work to do inside my head, and that if I didn't do that, it would impact me and come out during interviews. I really leaned into all of the story exercises and the TMAY exercises because I wanted to be at the top of my game for the big Power Day interview.
I think the name itself is expertly chosen. I think this program is really for somebody who is ready to really focus on finding the opportunity that is best for them, for what they want. Not this next role, but 2 roles down, 3 roles down, and really find that direction. You must choose a company profile. You must choose a role, a level, industry. Otherwise, you're gonna be spinning your rims, and you're gonna be wasting a lot of time.
If Santiago's story sounds familiar…
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