Career Coaching / Soft Skills
“To take my career to the next level, I was looking for a former female executive with real world C-level experience and coaching knowledge. From my research, I luckily found Jennifer! She is funny, energetic, and wise. She gave me the insights to bravely move forward to find my new home. Her guidance taught me to always operate with integrity and class.” ~Y. Song
“I was very appreciative of Jennifer’s training during my job hunting process. Developing my narrative with her was key to success! I was also able to articulate better my strategy having worked with her.” ~ A. Mueller
“She literally changed his life.” ~ Janet Andrews, CEO, A Career Above / Executive Career Coach
“I anticipated that the program would help me learn little tricks or tips; I did not anticipate that what I learned could be so important and applicable to all aspects of my life.” ~ Natalie Block, MPA/MAIS Candidate
“The ‘aha!’ moments she coached me through were really remarkable. I’m so glad I had and continue to have her in my corner as I grow in my career.” ~ Philana Kiely, Executive Director, MBA Women International
“Jennifer is a wealth of knowledge and I’m thankful for having the opportunity to go through her Exceptional Presence program. It truly helped me become more self aware, confident and to excel in all aspects of my career.” ~ Joella Comstock, Senior Management
Writing Skills
Jennifer Crittenden (a.k.a. The Discreet Guide) is a phenomenal tutor and mentor! After pouring my heart into my graduate personal statement, I found that my heart’s grammar needed polishing. Luckily, I found the Discreet Guide on Craigslist. Jennifer skillfully edited my paper, and she provided expert feedback on shaping the statement narrative. This was not just a one-and-done transaction, but rather, we worked together a few times to ensure the statement was well structured and professional. After the initial collaboration, I realized I could benefit from additional tutoring from Jennifer. I booked ten one-hour sessions. Jennifer’s thorough curriculum covered topics from proper usage of commas to the correct use of parallel construction, which improved my writing tenfold. The best part is that each session was informative and fun! Jennifer’s style is clever and witty. I highly recommend Jennifer to anyone looking to improve their writing. ~Elaine R.
Presentation / Speaking Skills
I am very inexperienced at speaking in front of people and was dreading giving my “father of the bride toast” for my daughter’s wedding. I contacted Jennifer to help me, and she gave me some great advice along with helping fine tune what I was going to say. She gave me many tips on speaking effectively in front of people and gave me valuable feedback while critiquing my practice speeches. I ended up pulling off my toast so well that I had comments from the wedding guests all night long about how much they loved it. Jennifer was a big part of that! ~ Miles L
“I learned so much from her course. Increasing my vocabulary, understanding voice tonality, resonance, and projecting to an audience. This has given me a great starting point to boost my confidence in speaking to other professionals in my industry. I highly recommend her.” ~ J. McCarty
Verbal Skills – English and beyond
“I’ve been taking virtual classes with Jennifer for almost 6 months now and couldn’t be happier! She is patient, engaging and knowledgeable. Jennifer can structure the program depending on what your individual needs are. Whether you need to soften your accent, learn public speaking, work on business English or just take your English skills to the next level,- she can help you with all of that. Our classes include accent reduction and grammar exercises, interesting articles, new vocabulary, different topics for discussion and many more. And, an extra bonus! Jennifer is a career coach and a successful writer too! She can be very helpful for business professionals who aspire to move up their organization, want to learn how to enhance professional presence and learn how to present themselves. She incorporates these elements in our curriculum as well. Jennifer is not only a seasoned teacher and coach with extensive corporate world experience but also a kind, fun and genuine human being. I’m so glad I found her!” ~Elina T.
Her English lessons help me improve my English very much. I am very happy to see her. She is one of the most wonderful teachers I have ever met. I respect her as a professional linguist. I tried various methods before meeting her. Her lessons were the best among them, and she completely changed my English proficiency. I would like to thank her from the bottom of my heart and strongly recommend taking her lessons to improve your English. ~Daisuke K.
“Jennifer is AWESOME! I have been taking my English lessons with her for more than 2 years and she helped me a lot improve my speaking and writing skills. She adapts the lesson to my personal level and interests especially focused on my current job which requires good communication and presentation skills. She is very knowledgeable, engaging and thoughtful in navigating the complex topics and word phrases. She is extremely patient and nice in answering questions with proper details anytime I need. I am looking forward to continuing this journey with Jennifer for many more years. She is kind, considerate, encouraging person and seriously the best! I highly recommend her. ~ Katie C.
“My husband and I both admire Jennifer because she is an excellent teacher. She did a lot for me, and I would like to study more with her in the near future.” ~ Jane Li
“I would highly recommend Jennifer Crittenden. English is my second language, and I have had the pleasure of being her student. Jennifer is a very patient and organized teacher. Her ability to connect with her students and her talent at teaching complicated concepts and sounds in a simple way are truly superior. She always has great initiative and positive attitude. Jennifer’s dedication to teaching makes her an ideal candidate for a teacher.” ~ Marina B.
Your American Voice – accent reduction
Jennifer is a great teacher. It is extremely helpful learning English from her, and her expertise helped my work a lot! She identified where my weak areas were and taught me how to improve my pronunciations and words connections as well as how to become a fluent English speaker. After learning several months from Jennifer, I am more confident than ever to communicate with my peers/workmates worldwide, and the communication efficiency is also greatly improved. – Stanley J
I have been taking multiple lessons every week for a few months now from Jennifer to help me improve my pronunciation of English words, lessen my native Chinese accent whilst improving my English. I’m so happy to meet her and have her help me improve my English skills which will help me improve my life in the USA. Myself, my family and friends have all noticed a far improvement of my English. Jennifer is very patient and teaches in a way that makes it easy to understand and learn. She is also very accommodating with scheduling times for lessons when life events happen. I recommend Jennifer to anyone who wants to improve their English speaking skills. Thank you Jennifer! ~ Qian W.
“My English improved so much because of her. I highly recommend her program if you want to speak proper English and use correct pronunciation for your school or career. Her lessons are fun and helpful.” ~ Risa S.
“My wife found Jennifer online and arranged our first class. I had my doubts about taking the accent reduction classes since I have been working in the USA for many years. But I am from Spain and had noticed people having difficulty understanding me sometimes. By the end of the first session with Jennifer, I had a good feeling so I purchased a package of 10 lessons. She sent me recordings of our sessions which were helpful. By the 10th lesson, I noticed some improvements in my pronunciation and confidence so I continued my classes with Jennifer. She is dedicated, patient, and professional. I definitely recommend her.” ~ Alfredo G.
“Jennifer is a very professional English teacher. She is so friendly, kindly, nice that I am always very glad to have English conversation with her. She cares about not only my language skill, but also my career growth and personal feelings. She is more than a teacher to me. I can’t wait to see her every week. Absolutely recommend!” ~ Katie C.
“I worked with Jennifer for a span of four months in her program Your American Voice. I can attest that I benefited considerably from her coaching, dedication, and encouragement. Jennifer devised a program specifically tailored to my needs, which were to find a way to improve the way I present myself as a financial professional. Through practice and other creative approaches, such as adopting the speaking styles of some well-known individuals, I was able to identify the issues associated with my speech and alleviate them. In our sessions, Jennifer was patient and made me feel comfortable to not be afraid of making mistakes and correcting them. Jennifer was always prepared and open to new ways of helping me with my business speech. I would recommend Jennifer and the American Voice program to anyone who is looking for a way to improve his or her executive presence in business settings, and find a speaking style that would be in line with his or her personality.”
~ The Program’s First Graduate
Behavior Modification / Presence
“Upon entering the Exceptional Presence Program, I was confident, doing well in my current position, and taking on more responsibilities at work. But I was also stressed out, sometimes responding poorly to difficult situations, and not paying attention to things that were out of my immediate focus. After only a few sessions into the program, I could begin to see a change in how I responded to difficult situations and to people in general. I became more aware of my surroundings and really learned to stop and think before reacting. Now that I have completed the program, I can say without doubt that I have made huge improvements to my overall presence that I will keep with me, both in my professional and personal life.” ~ Laura Reshetar, Engineer
I sent one of my clients to Jennifer to help with some speech issues that were impeding his job search and after a few months was frankly blown away by his transformation. He spoke with such confidence, and his articulation and fluency were much improved. I was astounded with the positive change that I observed, and how she literally changed his life.”
~ Janet Andrews, CEO, A Career Above / Executive Career Coach
