Today we’d like to introduce you to Pamela Owens.
Hi Pamela, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was working as a career coach informally long before it became a real job for me. In college, my friends used to always have me edit their resumes and term papers, and they’d often come to me for advice before internship and graduate school interviews. Fast forward 5 years, and I’d graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Florida and gone on to earn my master’s in Modern Literature abroad in the United Kingdom.
My first job out of graduate school was in an entry level HR Generalist role and we did a lot of hiring. What this really meant, was that I ended up leading a LOT of interviews. I always tell people who are interested in career coaching that HR and Recruiting are great fields to work in if you want to gain some really strong foundational career coaching skills. You have to see a lot of bad interviews and a lot of great interviews in order to really start to notice what works well and why. There is a lot of psychology and skill behind interview coaching.
After I’d been working as an HR generalist for about 3 years, I calculated that I’d led about 1,500 interviews. Around that time, my former boss decided to start her own Consulting business and invited me and one other person at the company to join her. It was a risk, but I believed in the vision of what she wanted to create and I left the HR Generalist job and joined her. We launched the HR Consulting business (Peoplr) that she was going to run, and the Career Coaching business (ePropelr) that I was going to run in June 2014.
When I first started working formally as a Career Coach in 2014, my clients were primarily students and recent graduates who were struggling to get jobs and launch careers coming off of the The Great Recession of 2008-2010. Being of similar age to many of these clients, this resonated with me and being able to relate to them made me a more effective Career Coach. Having strong writing skills and a lot of experience navigating the job market both on the HR and employer side, as well as on the individual side was a powerful combination! I also continued to support one major account on the HR Consulting side of our business where the work was primarily interviewing applicants for open roles. I’m convinced that staying involved in HR from an interview perspective is what really helped me continue to hone and refine my interview coaching skills. I’m also a Myers-Briggs INFG and a personable straight shooter with a personality that’s well suited for giving professional advice in a way that’s straightforward, intuitive, easy to digest, practical, and compassionate.
Fast forward to 2025, and I’ve been running ePropelr for 11 years helping students, career professionals, and executives change jobs, land their first job, bounce back from a layoff, or re-enter the workforce after time spent as a stay-at-home parent or early retiree. I’ve worked with everyone from a physicist and elementary school teacher to a web developer, countless CEOs, and C-Suite professionals, along with many leaders at Fortune 500 companies. The best part of my job is when someone calls or emails me and says “Great news: I got the job.”
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Some bumps in the road included building up the confidence to coach executives who were often a lot older than I was when I started. I struggled with feeling like I looked too young to be taken seriously. I really tried to overcompensate for my youth by dressing a bit more maturely. I wish I could go back in time and talk to that younger version of myself and tell her to “relax” and worry about something else. I had to learn the hard way that my skills and experience would speak for themselves and the number of times someone ever mentioned my age was effectively zero. But the number of times someone would say at the end of a coaching session, “Wow, I’m so glad I did that” was in the hundreds.
Another obstacle was figuring out how to market ePropelr in the early days when no one had heard of us, we did not have a strong digital footprint, and I did not have much of a professional network to use for referrals. I really had to step outside of my comfort zone in those early days and I was a regular at university career fairs, networking meetings, and local events. My first in-person resume workshop was at a local university in Jacksonville at one of their career fairs and I still remember the first conversation I had with a student at that event.
We’ve been impressed with ePropelr, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
ePropelr takes the stress out of your job search. As the job market continues to evolve, the importance of evolving along with it can’t be understated. With most employers directing you to job boards and virtual interviewing platforms—we’re bringing the human element back to your job search. We offer resume writing services, help with creating or updating LinkedIn profiles, cover letters, and live interview coaching sessions via Zoom or Microsoft Teams where you can get your questions answered and general job search or interview advice that’s customized to meet your needs.
Pricing:
- Affordable Resumes starting at $279
- Live Interview Coaching Sessions starting at $209
Contact Info:
- Website: https://epropelr.com/
