Jort van den Berg

Why this persona fits the audience

Runs a 2-person career coaching practice in the Netherlands that prepares resumes and cover letters for clients, manages drafts in shared folders, and compares documents against recruiter feedback and job descriptions.

• Age: 44
• Location: Utrecht, Netherlands
• Occupation: Career coach and co-founder
• Income: €68k from the practice
• Education: MSc in Organizational Psychology
• Company size: 2 employees (himself and one junior assistant)
• Years in role: 6 years as co-founder

“Trust isn't built in the interview room; it's built in the quiet hours of refining the story until it cannot be misunderstood.”

Jort van den Berg stands as a pillar of stability in Utrecht's competitive career coaching landscape. Holding an MSc in Organizational Psychology, he transitioned from corporate HR management six years ago to establish a specialized boutique practice with a partner. His approach is distinctively human-centric, grounded in behavioral science rather than generic templates. Despite operating in a digital-first era, Jort remains tethered to traditional methods, managing client files in shared folders and relying on spreadsheets to track the nuanced interplay between applicant experience and recruiter psychology. This dedication to quality has earned him a reputation for integrity, though it creates a significant bottleneck as his client base grows. His recent decisions reflect a struggle between scalability and personal oversight. Last quarter, he declined a lucrative offer to onboard ten new clients simultaneously because he feared the dilution of his service quality. Instead, he invested in upgrading his office hardware and learning advanced Excel macros to streamline his current manual processes. He is acutely aware of the time-cost of his meticulousness; every hour spent manually cross-referencing keywords is an hour not spent on strategic counseling. Yet, he refuses to automate the core empathy of his work, believing that the 'human touch' is his unique selling proposition. Financially, he is secure but cautious, viewing his income not just as revenue but as a direct reflection of the value he provides to individuals navigating uncertain job markets. His life is a balance of disciplined routine and the constant, low-level hum of optimizing a business that runs on trust and precision.

Background & daily life

A day in their life

Jort wakes at 6:00 AM, cycles to a local roastery for a flat white, and checks his email before heading home to manage morning school drop-offs. By 8:30 AM, he is at his desk, reviewing the overnight batch of client updates. He spends the first three hours deeply focused on rewriting a senior engineer's cover letter, meticulously aligning it with a specific JD from a tech giant. At noon, he meets his assistant via video call to review the weekly progress tracker and delegate formatting tasks. Afternoon sessions are reserved for live coaching calls, where he listens intently to client anxieties and guides their narrative strategy. Between 4:00 PM and 5:30 PM, he handles the tedious task of updating his master database with recruiter feedback scores. He finishes work by 6:00 PM, cycling home for dinner with his family, leaving his laptop closed until the next morning.

Lifestyle

Jort lives in a renovated brick townhouse in the Oudegracht district of Utrecht, sharing the space with his wife, a structural architect, and their two school-aged children. His mornings are anchored by a precise ritual: waking at 6:00 AM, cycling to a local specialty roastery for a double espresso, and then tending to household logistics before work begins. He values physical activity, cycling to clients or commuting across the city twice a week. Financially, he is conservative yet invested; he reinvests a significant portion of profits into better office equipment and software subscriptions while maintaining a robust emergency fund. Socially, he balances family dinners with occasional gatherings of other solo entrepreneurs at a nearby café, preferring deep, substantive conversations over large parties.

Work life

As the lead strategist and primary consultant for his boutique firm, Jort dedicates the majority of his day to high-touch client interactions and document refinement. His workflow is intensely manual: he receives raw CVs from clients, cross-references them with specific job descriptions using a master spreadsheet, and manually edits drafts within a shared Google Drive folder alongside his single junior assistant. The pressure comes from the need for perfection; a single typo can cost a client a dream interview. He spends hours comparing past recruiter feedback logs against new drafts to identify patterns in rejection reasons. While he uses standard office suites, his environment lacks integrated AI automation, forcing him to rely on human intuition and repetitive verification steps that consume valuable billable hours.

Relationships

Jort maintains a tight-knit circle of family and professional peers. His marriage is collaborative, with his wife often providing a sounding board for business stressors. He relies heavily on a network of five other independent coaches in the Benelux region for referrals and occasional peer consultation. His children influence his boundary-setting; he strictly separates work hours from family time to ensure presence at home. Community-wise, he is active in a local Utrecht cycling club, which serves as his primary outlet for decompressing from the mental intensity of his profession.

How they decide

Cautious, research-heavy, and logic-driven. Jort rarely makes impulsive decisions regarding business tools. He prefers to test free trials thoroughly, read technical documentation, and consult peer reviews before committing to a new subscription. He evaluates options based on long-term ROI and compatibility with his existing workflow rather than marketing hype. Once he identifies a solution that reduces friction without compromising data privacy, he becomes a loyal advocate, but the path to that commitment involves extensive due diligence.

How they sound

Jort speaks with a calm, measured cadence typical of the Netherlands, avoiding slang and overly casual language in professional settings. He favors precise terminology over generalizations, often pausing to choose the exact word that conveys nuance. When discussing work, he uses phrases like 'we need to validate this' or 'the data suggests,' reflecting his psychological background. He avoids emotional outbursts or hyperbolic statements, preferring a tone that is supportive yet authoritative. In conversation, he listens more than he speaks, asking clarifying questions to ensure mutual understanding before offering advice.