Founder of Career Locksmith
Meet Terry Larkin
An educator, training leader, and career strategist who has spent more than 25 years learning what helps candidates—and hiring managers—make better decisions.
Career Locksmith is built around a simple belief: people deserve to understand why a career strategy works, not merely receive a document and hope for the best.
The person behind the business
A career built through education, advancement, and relationships
Terry is originally from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, but has spent the vast majority of his life in Texas. He graduated from Plano East Senior High School in the top 10% of his class before earning a Bachelor of Science in Education from Baylor University in 2001.
His professional path has included banking leadership, education, sales and operational training, instructional design, and organizational learning. Across several roles, he was trusted with expanded responsibilities and advancement—experience that taught him how performance, communication, and opportunity connect inside real organizations.
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Roots
Ottawa to Texas
A Canadian beginning and a Texas life shaped by adaptability, hard work, and a respect for different perspectives.
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Education
Baylor University
A Bachelor of Science in Education established the teaching foundation that still guides how Terry explains complex career decisions.
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Professional growth
Leadership through learning
Progression across customer-facing leadership, education, training, and talent-development work created a practical view of how people are selected and developed.
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Today
Career Locksmith
That experience now supports professionals who want clearer positioning, stronger preparation, and honest guidance about the opportunities they pursue.
Both sides of the hiring table
More than asking interview questions
Throughout his career, Terry has not only interviewed candidates and reviewed their résumés. He has also sat in interviews to observe the process and coach hiring managers on what to notice: meaningful green flags, potential red flags, verifiable evidence, and genuine role fit.
That perspective shapes Career Locksmith’s work today. Interview preparation is built around the actual role, the employer, the candidate’s real experience, and the decisions likely to matter—not a generic list of canned questions and polished-sounding answers.
The goal is not to memorize the perfect answer. It is to understand your evidence well enough to give a credible answer that belongs to you.
Career Locksmith preparation principleThe personal side
Responsibility is personal, too
For the past nine years, Terry has been a single father with sole custody of his daughter. Now 20, she is attending college and preparing to enter the Human Resources profession.
That experience has reinforced the qualities Career Locksmith is designed to bring to every client relationship: patience, direct communication, accountability, and respect for the fact that career decisions affect more than a résumé.
Industry Expert Network
Terry does not know everything—and that is part of the strength of the model
Over a career spanning more than 25 years, Terry has built lasting professional and personal relationships with people who know their fields deeply. When a high-stakes interview requires insight beyond a standard preparation guide, Career Locksmith can draw on trusted specialists who understand the function, industry, or decision environment firsthand.
Think of it as bringing in the right specialist when the details matter most. Terry remains the client’s single point of contact and translates that deeper perspective into focused, usable interview preparation.
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Identify the real interview stakes
Terry reviews the role, employer, interview stage, decision-makers, and the candidate’s strongest and weakest evidence.
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Engage specialist perspective when it adds value
A trusted expert may help sharpen role-specific questions, evaluation criteria, terminology, risks, or expectations that generic research would miss.
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Turn insight into preparation
Career Locksmith converts the research into clear talking points, likely questions, evidence to prepare, and thoughtful questions the candidate can ask.
Meet the specialists
Expert profiles
Each profile will identify the expert’s actual area of experience, relationship to Terry, and approved LinkedIn page.
The named expert cards will be added after their approved headshots, current titles, specialties, short biographies, and LinkedIn links are supplied.
Start with what is true today
Let’s understand your current story—and where it can take you
Your initial résumé evaluation is free. You will receive an honest starting point before deciding whether paid support is right for you.