Peer academic advising
In college, I served as a peer academic advisor, helping other students understand their options and find their way through decisions that could otherwise feel overwhelming.
A note from the founder
A little guidance can change everything.
Vostego grew from a belief I have carried throughout my life: capable people often need only a little timely guidance to find their next step.
Good career guidance should not depend on knowing the right person.
The idea that started it
When I was young, I sometimes tagged along with my father at his job helping veterans find work.
The people he met had experience, ability, and plenty to contribute. But many were trying to navigate an unfamiliar system without the introductions, language, or guidance that other people take for granted.
Again and again, I saw how much difference a relatively small amount of help could make: someone explaining how to present an experience, where to look, whom to contact, or simply what to do next. I also saw how few people had reliable access to that kind of help.
That lesson has stayed with me. The difference is rarely ambition. It is access.
A pattern in the work
Guidance has always been part of the work.
Long before Vostego, I kept finding myself in roles where the most important thing was helping someone see a way forward.
Different settings. The same work: helping someone recognize what they have to offer, understand the system in front of them, and take a more confident next step.
Making the classroom more accessible
I helped the special education department as one of its first digital notetakers in a class, helping make classroom material more accessible to students who needed it.
Advising the next generation
After graduating, I returned to advise my college newspaper. At UC Berkeley, I interviewed prospective students and helped them build the portfolios that would represent their work.
Building a path into journalism
At CNET, I helped build an internship program designed to give emerging journalists meaningful experience, feedback, and a genuine path into the profession.
Seeing people move forward
Graduates of that program have gone on to important work at publications like ProPublica, in communications at some of the world’s largest technology and space companies, and in many other fields.
The problem we are trying to solve
Opportunity should not depend on knowing the right person.
Some people grow up surrounded by professionals who can explain how hiring works, review a résumé, make an introduction, prepare them for an interview, or help them understand why their experience matters.
Others are expected to figure everything out alone. The difference is rarely motivation. It is access to context, feedback, and momentum at the moment they are needed.
A person may need only a thoughtful second opinion, a clearer description of their strengths, or a better way to find relevant opportunities.
Building guidance for more people
Vostego is an effort to make useful guidance more available.
It brings together job discovery, résumé and application feedback, career research, and practical guidance in one place.
See your experience clearly
Turn the work you have already done into a clearer picture of your strengths, story, and options.
Find a useful next step
Discover opportunities and research paths with more context than a generic list of open roles can provide.
Build momentum
Get practical feedback, language, and structure for the decisions and conversations that move a career forward.
The perspective behind it
Ian SherrFounder, Vostego
I have spent more than 15 years as a journalist, editor, executive, and technology analyst.
I have reported for The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, led major editorial operations at CNET, appeared as a technology and policy analyst for national news organizations, and served as President and Editor-in-Chief of Compliance Week.
Throughout that career, I have hired people, reviewed portfolios and résumés, developed interns and early-career professionals, managed teams, advised colleagues, and helped people explain complicated work to demanding audiences.
I have also experienced career uncertainty myself: changing roles, navigating industries in transition, building new businesses, and trying to understand where a broad and sometimes unconventional collection of skills belongs.
Vostego draws from both perspectives — the person evaluating candidates and the person trying to be seen clearly.
The Wall Street Journal Reuters CNET Compliance Week
Everyone deserves a useful next step.
No platform can make the hardest career decisions for you. Better information, clearer feedback, and thoughtful guidance can make the path less opaque.