Magdalena specifically coached me in my approach, presentation style and delivery for a Career Development Fellowship from the UK Government Department of Health, guiding me on visual, eye-catching, memorable content. Her strategy for me was to use tactics akin to a ‘Dragons Den’ ‘Apprentice’ approach to captivate, enthuse and entrance the Panel [while] simultaneously highlight the critical need of my research. We spent 3 hours developing my presentation, honing down to the key essentials that would relay the critical research messages. She encouraged me to embrace new practices and grasp terminology, akin to that in the business and corporate sector, and feel comfortable with its use in the medical arena. At the end of this rather exhaustive session, I felt energised, invigorated and on a ‘high’, not only to have received such targeted input, but also the realisation that I could be successful. I felt I had a definite edge over other candidates. I was successful.