US Navy

Command Master Chief

The Optimizer Group

CEO of The Optimizer Group. We are a premier boutique focused on optimizing organizational performance. A Veteran own business.

President

Simple philosophy alert!



1. Managers are the most impactful force in modern organizations.
2. Senior leaders who can direct this force lead successful organizations.

I can help create both.

Who is this guy?

For the past 22 years, I've helped build the World's most powerful Navy. I have led impactful teams in contested environments and I'm responsible for producing over 7K leaders. 

I'm on a mission to help 10 million leaders chart a new path forward, optimize their management, and lead the charge for high performance and well-being at work.

Two more things:

1. I post daily about leadership. Share One Pro Tip. You can hit follow, and you'll see my post.

2. I am known as The Management Optimizer because it sounds better than Management Yoda.

I would like to know about you. 👋Feel free to DM me.

Cesar Rojas

Ehsan Ali 🚀

Top-Ranked Australian Career Coach | Helped 100+ Senior IT Pros Land $200K–$400K+ Roles | 2–4 Level Jumps. 30%–120% Raises. | Take the 3-Min Quiz & Uncover Your Hidden Growth Blockers

For Indian-origin professionals like us, 
career was never just a paycheck.

It’s identity.

Study hard.
Get a good job.
Hustle. Climb fast.
Move abroad. Make everyone proud.

I did all that too.

From the outside, it looked sorted.
Good roles. Good money. Comfortable life.

But inside, I felt it.

I was playing safe.
Staying reliable.
Delivering more. 
But not becoming more.

Then life got heavier.

Mortgage. Kids’ school fees. Lifestyle. Ageing parents.

And work got shakier.

Reorgs. Layoffs. Politics.
Big decisions made fast, without warning.

During Covid, I hit a turning point.

I quit.
And then... two years of no income.

That season humbled me.

It forced me to face a truth most senior pros avoid:

Doing good work keeps you employed.
It does not protect your future.

I wasn’t looking for motivation. 
I needed a method.

So I studied what actually drives senior growth:

• How trust is built at the top.
• How leaders make decisions behind closed doors.
• How hiring really works at senior level.
• Why capable people get overlooked.

Then I applied it—to myself.

Even after two years without a job, I started getting invited into $400K+ interviews.
Doors that once felt locked began to open.

Now I had to choose:

Go back quietly, rebuild the title...
or help others rebuild their power.

I chose the second.

Over the last 4+ years, I’ve turned those hard lessons into playbooks and private sessions that help mid-to-senior IT professionals reclaim direction, self-worth, and income.

Recent wins from the community:

🚀 Tim (Senior Director): 18 months without a role to two $300K+ offers in 10 weeks
🚀 Urvish (S/W Engineer): laid off to Principal Engineer in 10 weeks, then Director in 12 months
🚀 Hesham (Principal Engineer): $200K to $650K+ in 3 months
🚀 Maruf (VP, Analytics & AI): Invisible to Global Top 100 within a year

If you’re feeling that mix of frustration, fear, and quiet exhaustion, don’t wait for things to “settle”. 

They won’t.

Start now:

✅ Take the 2-minute Career Diagnostic Quiz (link in Featured)
✅ Or DM ROUNDTABLE for an invite to my Virtual Career Roundtable
Private. Invite-only.

Podcast Host & Producer

Australia's 1st Business & Career podcast featuring inspiring stories of Indian Expats who either successfully transitioned into entrepreneurship or excelled in their careers beyond the perceived limitations and ceiling

Ehsan Ali

Here’s why smart senior IT people get rejected.
Even when they’re the best person.

Because most hiring decisions aren’t deep.

They’re fast.

8 seconds on your LinkedIn.
A quick gut check.
“Do I feel safe betting on them?”

So a rejection isn’t a verdict.
It’s a price tag from someone who doesn’t know your value yet.

And that’s dangerous if you start believing it.

Because at senior level, hiring runs on:

Trust.
Risk.
Familiarity.

If your value isn’t obvious fast…
you get treated like a “maybe”.

And “maybe” turns into:

❌ ghosted after round 1
❌ “we went with someone else”
❌ roles below your capability

So don’t try to convince everyone.

Do this instead:

✅ Make your value obvious in 10 seconds
Lead with outcomes. Wins. Proof. Risk reduced.

✅ Stop listing tasks. Name the impact
Not: “Led cloud migration.”
More like: “Prevented security and cost disasters during migration.”

✅ Build familiarity before the role exists
Because strangers don’t feel safe to hire.

Don’t let someone who doesn’t know your value…
tell you how much you’re worth.

♻️ Repost this for someone taking rejection personally
🔔 Follow Ehsan Ali for $250K–$400K+ Senior IT career playbooks

Career Strategist for Indian-Origin Senior IT Professionals | Advancing into $250K–$400K+ next-level roles by turning their existing experience into an unfair advantage

Senior IT people don’t talk about this fear.
But it’s everywhere.

Layoffs. Reorgs. Redundancies.

Not just in the news.
In your Slack.
In the way budgets suddenly tighten.

And that’s when it gets real.
Because it’s not just your job.

You start doing the math:

Mortgage.
School fees.
Parents who need help.
That family holiday everyone keeps asking about.

That’s why "career insurance" matters.
Not later.
Now.

Here’s what doesn’t protect you:

❌ Working the hardest
❌ Being loyal and hoping it pays off
❌ Fixing everything quietly
❌ Being known only inside one team
❌ More certs when the real issue is “no one knows you”
❌ Waiting for job ads (many senior roles never get posted)
❌ “I’ll deal with it after this project”

That’s not insurance.

That’s being one restructure away from panic.

Because when the org chart changes…
Hard work isn’t what saves you.
Being known does.

Here’s what actually protects you:

✅ Get known outside your team

One skip-level chat a month.
One coffee with a peer in another division.
So your name exists beyond one manager.

✅ Be remembered for one expensive problem

Not “cloud guy.”
More like:
“I prevent cloud migrations turning into security and cost disasters.”

✅ Collect proof that travels

Not tasks. Wins.
Before/after. Numbers. Risk reduced.
So your value is obvious in 10 seconds.

✅ Build 3 door-openers

People who can say:
“Talk to them. They’re solid.”
That’s what creates interviews without applying.

Quick self-check:

If you got a restructure email tomorrow…
Do you have 3 people who could open doors in 7 days?

If not, you’re not broken.
You’re just not insured yet.

♻️ Repost this for the quiet high performer who thinks delivery alone protects them.
🔔 Follow Ehsan Ali for $250K–$400K+ IT Career playbooks.

$200K to $650K Salary jump in 90 days.

This Principal Engineer rewrote his market value.

No extra certifications.
No new skills.
No luck.

He just changed how he was positioned.

Most senior IT professionals think the next level needs:

More experience.
More certs.
More talent.
Better timing.

So they do what feels logical:

Scroll LinkedIn jobs.
Apply randomly.
Study more.
Add another certification.

And it keeps them stuck.

Because the more you apply like everyone else,
the more you get priced like everyone else.

Here’s what he did instead.

He stopped listing skills.
He got brutally clear on 3 things:

1) The problems he solves better than most

Not “I’m strong in cloud / microservices / DevOps.”

Instead: “I reduce outages, speed up releases, and stabilise platforms under pressure.”

2) The business impact he’s already created

Not responsibilities.

Outcomes. Proof. Before and after.

The kind that makes a leader think: “This lowers my risk.”

3) Where that value would be paid for

He picked companies where those problems are expensive.

Where a Principal Engineer isn’t a nice-to-have.
He’s a painkiller for an expensive problem.


Then he moved differently.
He didn’t spray applications.

He targeted.
He reached out with a clear message.
He built relationships before there was a job ad.

Not “Please consider me.”

Instead:
“I noticed X tends to show up at your scale. I’ve fixed this at <competitor>. Happy to share what worked. Worth a quick chat?”

And when the right conversation opened…
he didn’t negotiate like a desperate job seeker.

He negotiated like an asset with proof.
That’s how $200K becomes $650K.

If you’re a mid to senior IT professional, serious about your next-level move, 

I’m running a small private Career Roundtable where I break down this method step-by-step.

DM me ROUNDTABLE.
If seats are still open, I’ll send the details.

♻️ Repost this for someone who’s capable but unseen.
🔔 Follow Ehsan Ali for $250K–$400K+ Senior IT career playbooks.

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The Battle

Cesar Rojas

Ehsan Ali

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The Battle

Cesar Rojas

Ehsan Ali

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Ehsan Ali's LinkedIn Performance

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