Client: Derrick Stewart was senior technology implementation professional/senior product owner for a major U.S. health insurance provider.
Industry: Healthcare, Insurance, Financial Services
Function: IT, Technology & Automation, Product Development, Product Leader, Agile, Process Optimization
Challenge: After nearly 20 years with his company, Derrick was laid off and needed help navigating the current job market.
Process: Derrick saw immediate benefits from rebranding himself, which included overhauling his resume and fleshing out his LinkedIn profile.
Landing: Within one month, Derrick landed as technical business analyst with a major U.S. life insurance company, a role that offers him new challenges in the financial side of the insurance world.
Study: Derrick Stewart spent nearly 20 years working at one of the largest health insurance companies in the U.S. During that time, he developed expertise in delivering innovative IT solutions in an Agile environment. His tenure there culminated in his overseeing the test data management teams in the data protection engineering side of the business. Derrick was senior technology professional and senior product owner, and his responsibilities included strategic optimization implementation and streamlining processes.
Derrick liked his job, his managers, the people, and the culture, and he expected to stay with the company until he retired. Unfortunately, however, business conditions forced the company to initiate layoffs, and Derrick’s role was among those eliminated. He was invited to apply for other jobs internally, but he faced stiff competition as many other employees had also been laid off. Three months later, Derrick accepted a severance package and began an external job search.
To start, Derrick took advantage of the services of a third-party offboarding organization provided by his company. He worked with their career coaches to update his resume, took some classes, and watched a few of their online tutorials on job searching. He also put the word out on LinkedIn that he was “open to work.” Derrick’s efforts generated some recruiter attention, which led to some interviews, but none went anywhere. He found the market to be oversaturated and ultra-competitive. Over the next few weeks his frustration grew.
At some point, Derrick came across The Barrett Group (TBG) and decided he could use help to stand out from the crowd. He started the program by meeting with Clarity coach, Natalie Bybee, finding the sessions surprisingly refreshing.
“Clarity was a great experience. At first, I was asking myself, “Why am I doing this?” I had done personality assessments before. But there is a lot of thought in those exercises. They show a lot about your behavioral characteristics, your strengths, your weaknesses. They paint a picture of how you work and how to adjust to working with others who work differently,” said Derrick. “Natalie and I also discussed personal goals. She helped me set goals and understand how to stay accountable to them.”
Derrick’s work in Clarity made him think hard about what would make him happy in the long-term. But it also confirmed for him that his most important short-term goal was finding a job.
When Derrick transitioned to the next step in the program, he developed a fast bond with his career consultant, Larry DiBoni.
“Larry was great! He was very positive and made me feel confident that things would work out. Every time I met with him he boosted my confidence and made me feel that he had my back.”
One of the first assignments Larry gave Derrick was to update his resume – again. It turned out to be a useful task.
“I learned from TBG all these little things that might prompt AI to kick your resume out of the application process. The third-party offboarding organization I worked with didn’t cover that,” said Derrick. “They also gave me conflicting advice, like having me add a lot of things to my resume they said were crucial, but then insisting I shorten it. The TBG resume process, by comparison, was much easier. It made more sense to me. And if I had questions, I got responses very quickly. I love my final resume. It’s very polished and I’m proud of it.”
Derrick learned a lot about LinkedIn, too.
“When I was let go, my LinkedIn profile was laughable. I had a shell of a profile. I didn’t see the point of it,” said Derrick. “But after working with Larry, I realized what a helpful tool it is. I now know what to include on a profile to get noticed and what not to include because it makes me look desperate. Looking desperate can work against you during offer negotiations.”
Larry also encouraged Derrick to build up his social capital by reaching out to people and offering his skills.
“I made a lot of connections. I adopted the “pay-it-forward” attitude because you don’t know where it will lead. Maybe in two years I’ll be looking for another opportunity and one of those connections will be the key to it.”
In fact, there was little time for Derrick’s social capital building efforts to take root because, soon after revamping his LinkedIn profile, Derrick noticed increased recruiter attention – and one recruiter had a winning opportunity.
“A recruiter for a large life insurance company found me on LinkedIn. They wanted someone with a background in IT and experience in data protection. Thanks to TBG’s help with my profile, I had all my skills out there in a very easy to read format. Since working with The Barrett Group, I’ve added more content to my profile, including a summary of highlighted skills. That is vital when people are searching for a candidate.”
Derrick found Larry very helpful in preparing for interviews. He was especially grateful that Larry made himself available on short notice.
“The interview came too quickly for me to organize a mock interview session with a TBG specialist, but Larry stepped up in the clutch. He walked me through common interview questions and explained what is and isn’t a strong answer. It was a short timeframe to prepare, but he did a lot in that time. It was extremely helpful!”
Derrick was a perfect fit for the role in every way except one: he had no experience in Jira, the project management tool the company uses. Leaving nothing to chance, Derrick told the hiring manager during the interview process that he was confident he could learn Jira and would take an online course prior to starting the job.
Within one month of beginning his career consulting program, Derrick was hired. His new title is technical business analyst. It’s comparable to his former role except that he’s working in the financial services side of the insurance industry. It is an 18-month contract-to-hire position, so it might not be permanent. Nevertheless, Derrick is elated to be working again and appreciates all that he learned from The Barrett Group.
“At first, I questioned the process, but now I understand it and I don’t think it should be done any differently. It’s very effective. You can’t just dive into applying for a job. You have to understand what you are doing, why you are doing what you’re doing, and what you should be doing. Then you go through the exercises to make your efforts the most effective they can be.”
Derrick loves the job, the people, and the challenge. And he feels confident that, if the need arises, he now knows how to conduct a great job search. But, for him, learning how to navigate the job market was not actually the most valuable aspect of the TBG Program. It was the emotional support he received.
“There is a lot that TBG does to prepare you and set yourself apart from other candidates. Everything, from interviewing, networking, branding, to focusing on goals was all great. I felt like it was information refined through years of experience. I gained perspective that I’d never had before. But the psychological and motivational part was the most valuable aspect to me,” said Derrick. “It’s easy to get frustrated in the career search process and almost want to give up. And knowing I had a team of people in my corner put me at ease. My previous career coaches didn’t come close to giving me that level of support, even though I spent more time with them. I felt like a number with them. With TBG, I felt I had a team of people who were honestly trying to help me in every aspect of my career search."
