About Us
I am Urvina Shah, mother of 3 (one with special needs), a wife, a carer for my elderly father and now a proud career coach. I had a wonderful career in the NHS as a therapeutic radiographer (Oncology) for 27 years and a clinical learning facilitator for 15 of those years where I worked with staff and students on their career development and growth.
I always thought I would retire doing this role because I loved what I did. You see, that was all I thought I knew and I was so comfortable working in an environment that involved people and helping others and I had security. Then, in 2016 my mother died of cancer, menopause was causing havoc and my role at work was no longer fulfilling me. Everything seemed to have changed…I was feeling tired, undervalued, bored, and had no prospects of career progression. My time was being spent without purpose. The icing on the cake was when I did not get a role that was promised to me. I was devastated. I questioned my skills and abilities and wondered what the hell I would do next.
I was looking for a way out, and in my heart, I knew I had to and wanted to leave. It so happened that my role was changed and was going to be demoted. I was conflicted on what to do as the new role was not something I wanted to do but there was nothing else on offer. At that time, a work colleague reminded me the impact I had had on her when she was in a similar situation in her career. I had my light-bulb moment then.
I believed very strongly that I was put here to help people. And through my life, especially being a mum to a child of special needs, and my coaching experience, I knew that I had all the resources within me to do something with that and so I decided to take action. I chose courage over comfort and I can tell you, it was not without fear. I left the NHS and became co-founder of UKAN Coaching with a mission to align women to careers they want.
And I am Anjali Gudhka. I have been a Finance professional in the corporate sector for 18 years leading and developing teams within my division, with a passion to play and coach badminton and now also a career coach. In my corporate roles, I was always the dependable and reliable one to meet deadlines and deliver on projects. Initially I could not say no to any requests to help others and my responsibilities kept increasing over time, but there was no sign of a promotion. 7 years passed in this way and I was growing bitter and miserable at work. I know you are wondering why I put up with that. The honest truth is, I couldn’t bear the thought of creating my cv, looking for jobs, going through interviews and then re-establishing myself in a new place of work. I was too comfortable, lacked the confidence and was not inclined to do anything about my misery.
At the same time, my peers were moving up in their respective roles and they all seemed to have a clear direction of what they wanted and how to get it. And I began to feel left behind. I was becoming a shell of myself and my life outside work was starting to be impacted as well. At that point Urvina, helped me get a clear picture of my situation through some tough questioning and it re-ignited my passion and drive to pursue what I wanted. Simply by changing how I looked at things, something happened to my universe.
I got a new manager who saw my potential and mentored me to a promotion within a year, my self-confidence was boosted, and there was a different energy around me that changed my work environment too. I had also found a purpose to help those in similar situations to me to break out of their comfort zone. I went on to become certified in Executive coaching and co-founded UKAN Coaching.
At the same time, my peers were moving up in their respective roles and they all seemed to have a clear direction of what they wanted and how to get it. And I began to feel left behind. I was becoming a shell of myself and my life outside work was starting to be impacted as well. At that point Urvina, helped me get a clear picture of my situation through some tough questioning and it re-ignited my passion and drive to pursue what I wanted. Simply by changing how I looked at things, something happened to my universe.
I got a new manager who saw my potential and mentored me to a promotion within a year, my self-confidence was boosted, and there was a different energy around me that changed my work environment too. I had also found a purpose to help those in similar situations to me to break out of their comfort zone. I went on to become certified in Executive coaching and co-founded UKAN Coaching.