Nethra Samarawickrema

About Nethra Samarawickrema

Nethra Samarawickrema is a consultant and a coach. She supports clients with career coaching and relationship coaching and works with companies in listening for needs using Nonviolent Communication, Design Thinking, and Ethnography. She has a PhD in Anthropology from Stanford University and trains UX teams on the Emergent Research Process, a method of ethnographic research that facilitates discovery through empathy. She has a passion for teaching teams of researchers, designers, and engineers listening skills so that they can build in a way that is attuned to the needs of those they design for. She lives in Sausalito, California. You can follow Nethra on Linked In, hear her podcasts, and attend her weekly workshops.

How do you find your way to work you truly love? (Part 2)

A Process If you are looking to shift your career trajectory, I want to offer you a process I use in coaching. Many people begin transitioning by asking: “What else is out there for me to fit into?” This can spawn self-doubt and overwhelm. My process begins with a different question: ‘What is within me that I want to center in my working life?’ When I ask my clients this, some find it hard to articulate. If you feel stuck, begin with what holds you back: What is alienating and exhausting at work? Things that deplete you provide valuable clues. [...]

How do you find your way to work you truly love? (Part 1)

Transitioning out of a career you worked hard to build can be unmooring and heartbreaking. It leaves you feeling lost about how to proceed. Yet, uncertainty can be a doorway to possibility. If you create an internal compass to navigate the change, you could reorient your life towards a future you craft. For anthropologists changing careers, I share my story and a process for finding your way. A Story For me, the clarity came after an interview for a postdoc at Harvard. It crystallized on a winter night, as I walked onto a snowy quad with an unmistakable sense that [...]