Elaina Giolando

Elaina was an NYC consultant before accepting a global sales role that sent her everywhere from Nigeria to Mongolia. She's happily nomadic and writes about career, travel, and living an unconventional life on www.lifebefore30.com.

Why Avoiding Student Loan Debt Was The Best Thing I Ever Did

By Elaina Giolando

Most of us want to do it all: find meaningful work, travel while we're young, say no to the wrong opportunities, say yes to the right ones, experiment with entrepreneurship, save for the future and create a lifestyle that allows us to live life to…

The Perspective Shift You Need To Make If You're Always Feeling Unmotivated

By Elaina Giolando

I've been suffering from a bout of something bloggers and entrepreneurship gurus don't seem to cover very often: feeling deeply, darkly unmotivated. Over the past few weeks, I've been living in one of the hippest and most inspirational cities on the…

8 Ways To Stop Being 'So American' When You Travel Abroad

By Elaina Giolando

The first time I went to Europe, I was visiting a friend who had been studying in the Czech Republic for six months. I'll never forget our epic reunion in a local cafe. In all my excitement, I grabbed her in a huge hug and squealed loudly in…

Here's The One Thing You're Probably Getting Wrong About Networking

By Elaina Giolando

One of the most overused (and least understood) words in the professional development space starts with N. And that word is "networking." If I use it in my articles or when working with clients, everybody's like, “Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm supposed to…

7 Ways To Stop Doubting Your Career Path When No One Supports It

By Elaina Giolando

Last week I took four flights for two days straight to get from the capital of Nepal to my hometown of Buffalo, New York. I packed up the backpack I'd been living out of for eight months, plopped back down into the middle of America and the middle…