Joke Tacoma

Education
Drs. in Chemistry (Physical Chemistry) and Drs. in Psychology (Health Psychology) 

Work experience 
After my time at Philips, I spent nine years working as an auditor at Lloyd's Register. That experience taught me about the wide variety of roles that exist and what they entail. This serves me well in my work as a career and leadership coach. I can also easily understand how people can end up with burnout, given the heavy demands organizations sometimes place on them. 

I knew I wanted to become a career coach in the long run, so I started studying psychology in the evenings. In 2002, I resigned from Lloyd's Register and founded Tacoma Coaching. I started out as a career coach, and when I graduated as a psychologist in 2007, I also became a personal coach.

Missing academic study, I embarked on doctoral research into leadership and vulnerability at Erasmus University Rotterdam. My experience as an auditor is an asset in this regard, and I have already interviewed twelve CEOs, thereby laying the foundation for academic articles.

• 1985-1993: Chemist at Philips in Eindhoven, R&D in resistors and integrated circuits
• 1993-2002: Quality (ISO 9001) and safety (VCA) auditor at Lloyd's Register in Rotterdam; audited over 300 organizations.
• Since 2002: coach at Tacoma Coaching - leadership coaching, personal coaching, career coaching, and guidance for burnout and outplacement.
• From 2014: PhD research on leadership and vulnerability at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Specialty

• people with a background in technical fields or the hard sciences (since I’m a chemist, I speak your language)
• burnout (due to the combination of psychologist and career coach)
• career-related questions (as I have been a career coach and Noloc-certified career professional since 2002)
• leadership coaching (backed by doctoral research into leadership and the assessment of over 300 organizations)

Motto
If you really want to help someone, you don't give them a fish, but teach them how to catch fish. 

Coach passport: