Career longevity & autonomy: the next 40 years of work.

Olga Lermontova Pavlenko is a career researcher and the founder of Crafted, an evidence-based program for professionals rebuilding a career mid-stream. Across a 20-year career she led businesses at Microsoft, Google and Adobe, then built Careerum: 15,000 clients in 61 countries.

My guest today spent two decades at Microsoft, Google and Adobe, running businesses across 25 markets — then left to answer the question that kept bothering her: why do so many accomplished people get stuck mid-career, and what actually gets them unstuck? Olga Lermontova Pavlenko has since worked with 15,000 people in 61 countries, researches career transitions in psychology at Harvard Extension School, and founded Crafted. Her argument: you cannot think your way into a new career. You have to run experiments.

Olga Lermontova Pavlenko is a career researcher, practitioner and founder. Across a 20-year career she built and led businesses at Microsoft, Adobe, McAfee, Google and Travelport, covering more than 25 markets in Europe and Africa and living in five countries. She holds an MBA from INSEAD and an ICF coaching certification.

In 2018 she left corporate life to build Careerum, a career development platform that has since worked with 15,000 clients across 61 countries. What she found there sent her back to school: she is completing an ALM in psychology at Harvard Extension School, where she researches how people rebuild professional identity in the middle of a career.

That research became Crafted, an eight-week program launching in February 2027 for professionals with ten or more years of experience, built on the finding that identity changes through action rather than reflection. Olga is the author of a best-selling career book and hosts two podcasts of her own, one named Best Branded Podcast of the Year in 2024. She lives in Italy and works in English and Russian.