Client: Jocelyn Hirschfeld was senior director of sales and business development at a mid-size provider of medical supplies, services, and support.
Industry: Healthcare, Hospitals, Medical Devices
Function: Sales, Business Development
Challenge: After 16 years with the same company where she played multiple roles, Jocelyn thought it was time for a change, but she wanted help thinking through her next move and how to make it.
Process: Reconnecting with people in her network revealed numerous, exciting career pathways for Jocelyn, and overhauling her LinkedIn profile drove recruiter attention her way.
Landing: Jocelyn landed a job with a medical device startup that values the experience she brings and offers ample opportunities to keep her challenged.
Study: Jocelyn Hirschfeld played many roles during the 16 years she worked for a private provider of medical supplies, services, and support. Starting with the company back when it was struggling, Jocelyn worked her way up from account manager to regional manager, then to VP of sales, and finally to senior director of sales and business development. She took pride in the role she played in turning the organization into the billion-dollar company it became.
During her tenure, Jocelyn saw the company make acquisitions and, ultimately, get acquired. It was that final acquisition that triggered Jocelyn to sit back and think about her career and consider whether it was time for a change.
“I had zero anticipation of being at my company as long as I had been. I wasn’t unhappy in my job, but I like to be challenged. I had taken it upon myself to understand every single department in the organization over the years and then…I hit the ceiling,” said Jocelyn. “I didn’t see myself continuing on as I was for another 15 years until retirement.”
The decision to change careers did not come lightly to Jocelyn, though. She did her job well, she was well paid to do it, and she questioned the sense of rocking the boat.
“It’s hard to get serious about changing jobs when you’re in a very lucrative position that you’re comfortable with. I did a lot of second-guessing. Do I really want to do this or is this a mid-life crisis?” said Jocelyn.
Jocelyn also felt naïve about how to approach a job change after so long with the same company. She knew she would need help. She did some research and pulled the trigger when she came across The Barrett Group (TBG). TBG, she felt, offered the range of services she needed to make the necessary mental shift and prepare for a major career transition.
“Working with David Black, my Clarity coach, was good because he set up our calls and kept me on task. That was important because I was still thinking, ‘I can’t believe I’m actually doing this!’ I would have dragged my feet as much as I could have,” said Jocelyn.
Although she didn’t think she needed to bother with them initially, Jocelyn found the personality profile tests that she took during the Clarity Program to be great.
“I hadn’t had one of those tests done on me in a while and the results were enlightening,” said Jocelyn. “I realized that things that used to be important to me are less important to me now, like titles.”
In the next stage of the TBG Program, Jocelyn began meeting with executive career consultant, Paula Nordhoff. Paula assigned Jocelyn various tasks to do. Jocelyn didn’t always find the tasks easy to do, but the process was an awakening. That is when she began to get excited about changing jobs.
“Paula told me to reach out to anyone and everyone – by phone only. I kept thinking, ‘What’s the point?’ At first, I considered it just more work when I was already working so many hours as it was. I secretly wanted to outsource it to someone else but, of course, that wouldn’t have made any sense. So, I started to do it,” said Jocelyn.
“Reaching out to my network turned out to be extremely useful and a lot of fun. People were shocked that I would consider leaving my company, but they were happy to connect me with other people that they thought I should speak to. I soon realized that the grass was greener on the other side – and that I could do this! Building social capital ended up being extremely instrumental to the entire process of my job search.”
Jocelyn couldn’t believe that she’d allowed life to get so busy that she had lost contact with people to whom she had once been so close. She really enjoyed it and, the more she talked to people, the more excited she got about her career prospects. It became very clear to her that she was doing the right thing. She realized that she no longer had to limit herself to a highly corporate environment. She was drawn now to the high-risk, high-reward challenges of the startup world.
Several promising job opportunities resulted from Jocelyn’s efforts to build social capital, but her company’s stringent two-year noncompete agreement was a deal breaker in many cases. Jocelyn was unvexed. She was in no rush and, anyway, the intense interest she got from some hiring managers to bring her on board was invigorating. When she did successfully land, she gave credit to the work she and the TGB team did to re-brand her.
“I had my resume updated, which was very well received,” said Jocelyn. “And we did a lot of revisions on my LinkedIn profile. That was very helpful. My profile before was poorly done, but now it’s great. There are so many different components of LinkedIn that can capture the attention of people, and I had none of it activated. Reverse engineering was also important. I actually landed through a recruiter, and I think that he found me thanks to all the work we did on LinkedIn.”
The company was a brand-new, medical device startup with an exciting new product to launch. When they met Jocelyn, they knew she was the right person to bring it to market. The interview process spanned nearly six months, but the slow timing gelled perfectly with Jocelyn’s own timing. She relished the challenge of doing something totally different. She also thought the CEO would be a great leader and mentor for her.
“As I reflected on the opportunity, I became increasingly interested. I feel that it could be the greatest success I will ever have. Plus, I wouldn’t have to worry about my noncompete,” said Jocelyn. “When they finally asked me to give a presentation on how I would launch the product into market, I was excited by the prospect because the new role would incorporate all my previous expertise in leading teams, developing marketing strategies, maintaining manufacturing relationship, and many other of my talents.”
Soon after, Jocelyn found herself in negotiations for a VP of market access position. She is thrilled about her new career and appreciates the help Paula gave her during the job search process.
“Paula was always very helpful. It’s extremely hard to work and job search. It’s two full-time jobs! But Paula is very task oriented. I really valued the work we did on social networking and LinkedIn, as well as Paula’s ability and patience to keep me on track!”
