Client: Amee Ellsworth was VP of Operations for a small organization of health clinics in the Midwest.
Industry: Healthcare
Function: Operations, Administration
Challenge: When her employer changed her fully remote job to an in-person position, requiring a move to another state, Amee resigned. She then struggled to find another role.
Process: Amee reflected on the enormous value she offered employers, overhauled her resume and LinkedIn profile to ensure her brand and achievements were clear to recruiters, and learned how to advocate for herself.
Landing: Within about four months, Amee landed as administrator for a brand-new clinic in her home state with an appealing mission and the potential to take her talents to a higher level quickly.
Study: As vice president of operations for a small, Midwestern organization of health clinics, Amee Ellsworth oversaw the operations of four clinics and anticipated the opening of several more. She enjoyed her job and was a specialist at it, having been regional executive manager for another similar organization less than a year earlier at which she opened and oversaw clinics in four states. Amee’s previous job ended suddenly and dramatically in a series of layoffs when the company’s finances hit the rocks. Amee was lucky to find her new position through a colleague quite quickly. Not only was it a good fit professionally, but she could also work fully remotely.
Six months into her new role, however, Amee’s boss introduced an in-person mandate requiring Amee to move to Minnesota to keep her job. For Amee, that was a deal-breaker. She lived in Montana near family and wasn’t in a position to move.
Amee parted ways with the company, but she was devastated to be out of work for a second time within one year. She’d never experienced such professional setbacks before and wanted to make sure that her next role would be more stable. She began applying for jobs but got little traction. The interviews she did manage to line up were poor fits. After four or five months of job seeking on her own, Amee decided to get professional help.
Amee engaged The Barrett Group and found it to be a kind of professional development that she had never experienced before.
“The first big thing I did was to write down what I wanted my future to look like. I had never done that before,” said Amee. “I have always worked hard and have been successful, but I did it by making the best of opportunities in the moment. Sure, I had ideas in my head, but I never thought proactively about the goals I have and how to achieve them. Putting it all down on paper made it more real. That was a really important exercise for me.”
Amee very much appreciated how her Clarity Program coach, Justin Helman, helped her structure her thinking about career change.
“It was a fantastic experience working with Justin. He insisted that I would have more success if I were more focused in my job search. That was hard because my skills in operations carry over to any industry, and I didn’t want to limit my options. I am very flexible – perhaps too flexible. For me, the most important thing is the ability to work from home. But Justin was great at reining me in and getting me to reflect on what I want.”
When Amee began working with Julie Mathern, her career consultant, she sharpened her focus even more. She found it easier to narrow her search by eliminating industries where she knew she did not want to work. And she began branding herself as an expert in streamlining processes and fixing problems. With the help of TBG’s writing team, they overhauled Amee’s resume, which rejuvenated her job search.
“My original resume was a series of regurgitated job descriptions. In the new one we created power statements and quantified my prior accomplishments so that someone can understand what I am capable of before they even meet me. It was a really good experience, and I learned a ton. It made a big difference! I started getting really good job search results – searches with meat that really interested me. That was a big and wonderful change!”
Amee was also very pleased with the changes she and the team made to her LinkedIn profile.
“What I loved most was the re-write of my “About” section. Before it was just a career summary. Now it presents me in a way that highlights my skills, abilities, and career interests. It captures me in a much better way and demonstrates to people with whom I might want to network the topics I want to discuss. That was very helpful!”
Amee enjoyed working with Julie and did her best to complete all the elements of TBG’s program. It wasn’t always easy. To her frustration, she had little success in leveraging her network to move the needle on her job search. Despite repeated efforts to reach out to former colleagues, her conversations went nowhere. But she did find enormous value from the coaching sessions in another unexpected way.
“I have some major achievements in my career, but I never thought about the value of those achievements to an employer until I joined The Barrett Group – I just felt like I was doing my job. Now I realize how amazing those accomplishments are and I’ve learned how to articulate them in an interview. I learned to look at myself like an employer would in assessing me for a job.”
When Amee heard from a recruiter for a position as a clinical administrator in Montana two and a half months into the TBG Program, she was well prepared. At first, Amee was conflicted about the opportunity because it wasn’t a remote role. But Julie counseled her to keep an open mind. Indeed, the more Amee learned about the opportunity, the more excited she got. Using a unique business model, the organization promised a much-improved method of health care for the local population, which Amee enthusiastically supports.
Within a week and a half, Amee had a job offer in hand, which she accepted. And, with the help of one of TBG’s compensation negotiation specialists, she succeeded in sweetening the terms.
“Normally, I would have accepted whatever was offered me. But Paula Nordhoff coached me to always approach salary negotiations with market research in order to make a case for higher compensation. The Barrett Group provided me with that market research, and I was able to get a significant increase. That was very valuable!”
Since beginning her new job, Amee has been working with a TBG onboarding specialist to strategize how to align herself for growth within the organization.
“I’ve always been an advocate for others, but never myself. Vivek Agarwal has been teaching me how to do that. He has been an amazing resource and it’s been very successful. I’ve done a ton of legwork to hire good people for our new clinic. Within six months, a new VP role will open and I’m hoping to get it. And, after that, if we can successfully expand the organization, I hope to eventually oversee the entire region.”
Amee is very happy with where she landed and feels well situated for the next chapter of her career.
“I came into this job with a lot more confidence. I knew before that I changed lives – thousands of lives, but I didn’t know how to articulate that to employers. The greatest value I’ve gotten from this experience is realizing the value I bring to the table and how to advocate for myself. Learning how to do that from The Barrett Group was a great benefit to me.”
