Client: Michael was vice president of the public sector for an IT consulting company.
Industry: Management Consulting, Technology Services Consulting, Information Solutions, Government
Function: Business Development, IT Systems Consulting, Operations, Program Management
Challenge: Michael’s work responsibilities morphed over time into a role he had little passion for, and he wanted help thinking through a career change and how to achieve it.
Process: Michael first reassessed what he wants in a job and the kinds of roles that would best suit him, then he learned how to leverage his social capital more effectively to uncover new opportunities.
Landing: Michael ended up with three job offers, from which he accepted a role as senior director for a global consulting and technology services provider that he’s thrilled with and where he now earns 20% more than before.
Study: Michael was vice president of the public sector for an IT consulting company. He’d spent his entire career working at management consulting firms and focusing on the federal government. He joined the company four years earlier to lead its federal practice and had expected diverse responsibilities, including service delivery, operations, staff development, business development, etc. However, the role quickly evolved into being singularly focused on sales.
“I was mostly writing proposals, identifying opportunities, making cold calls, and trying to win new business. In consulting, everyone has to do some level of sales, but I did not expect – or want – it to become the bulk of my job,” said Michael.
Michael decided to make a change, but he found that most of the available roles at his level were in business development or sales – precisely what he was already doing. As he didn’t feel any urgency to find a new job quickly, he decided to engage professional help to do it right. He wanted to take time to think through what to do next and figure out how to pursue that goal. After researching the options, he hired The Barrett Group.
Michael spent the first few weeks reevaluating his goals in the Clarity Program. The various assessments and the discussions he had with his coach, John Kelly, helped him organize his thoughts and consider possibly assuming roles outside of government or even consulting.
“I liked working with John. He helped me focus. I had some broad things in mind when I came into the program, but he had me write down my goals and really picture the job I wanted. I have a lot of consulting experience, and I wanted to leverage that in a new way or possibly try for a chief of operations kind of role. Clarity helped me identify the things I like to do most, like add value to an organization, solve problems, drive change, and mentor staff. I didn’t have the opportunity to do those things as much as I would have liked in my prior position.”
Michael saw even more value in the next phase of the program where he developed a great working relationship with his career consultant, Larry DiBoni.
“I loved working with Larry. He was awesome! We have a similar background, and he really got me.”
One of the first tasks they tackled was revising Michael’s resume and LinkedIn profile.
“The resume I worked on with Larry was an improvement. It was more succinct and impactful, and he and the writing team forced me to add KPIs, which is something I hadn’t done before.”
The work they did on his resume also informed how they developed Michael’s LinkedIn profile.
“I had a LinkedIn profile before I started the TBG Program, but it looked like my government resume. It didn’t stand out and I didn’t have any strong keywords. Quite frankly, I don’t do social media much and coming to understand how to present myself on LinkedIn was fantastic – and that happened thanks to Larry. It was extremely helpful.”
With Larry’s coaching, Michael also learned how to leverage LinkedIn to focus his job search and filter for opportunities that would not land him back in a sales role. His efforts produced some impressive results, but not without some setbacks. One job in which Michael was particularly interested, a chief of staff-type role for a department within a state government, fell through. Still, it proved to Michael that he was getting better at uncovering promising opportunities, and it exposed an area on which he could improve.
“I didn’t interview well for the state government job. I’ve had a lot of interview experience from the hiring manager side of things, but less so as a job seeker. In this case, it was more challenging because I was applying for something different from what I’ve been doing my entire career, and I wasn’t able to clearly articulate how my consulting experience tied to the requirements of the job.”
Michael had a post-interview conversation with Larry to discuss the interview questions he’d been asked.
“It really helped to talk with Larry. He was able to tell me very quickly, “Well, you’ve done it this way, this way, and this way!” He understood my work experience and explained how I could demonstrate the relevance of it in future interviews. He helped me refine my answers, focus on emphasizing the value that I provide to an employer, and make those important connections. The interview coaching with Larry was extremely valuable.”
Michael continued his search, taking his time to find the right job for him. Along the way, he relied a lot on The Barrett Group’s research team to provide information about organizations that he was targeting. But the greatest value Michael derived from his TBG experience was learning how to leverage his social network more effectively.
“Larry opened my eyes. When I went through my LinkedIn contacts, I screened out a lot of people. Larry had me reaching out to people I would not have contacted. He made me realize that it doesn’t hurt to talk to any of them. And it was great! I connected with a lot of people, and I had a lot of discussions. People were reaching back out to me to say, “Hey, you didn’t say you were looking for a job, but would you be interested in this opportunity?” It opened a lot of doors!"
That, Michael insists, is how he landed his job.
“Four years ago when I was job hunting, I wouldn’t talk to anyone I hadn’t already been in touch with during the previous five years. This time, however, Larry had me talking to people that I hadn’t spoken to for nearly 10 years! I had never leveraged my network to the depth I did with The Barrett Group. I got more and more interviews and great ideas from my contacts about what to do career-wise.”
In the end, Michael was rewarded with three job offers – all at the same time and all facilitated by his network.
The first opportunity was a small consulting firm looking for someone to run the business. A friend of Michael’s recommended him for the role. A current colleague referred Michael for the second opportunity. And for the third opportunity, the job he accepted, Michael credits the help of a former co-worker with whom he hadn’t spoken in years.
“It turns out my friend was also looking for a job – so we were helping each other. She landed a job at a large, global consulting and technology services provider. Soon after, I spotted an ad on LinkedIn for a role at the same company that I thought would be perfect for me. It was still management consulting, but it wasn’t completely sales-related. I told her about it, and she referred me to the executive recruiter.”
Before long, Michael had an interview with the hiring manager. The hiring process proceeded well, but slowly at first. Then, when Michael informed them that he had two other offers and needed to make a decision, the company fast tracked the remaining interviews and made him an offer within days for the role of senior director.
Michael is thrilled with his new opportunity for many reasons. For starters, the work is more focused on delivery of services, which Michael loves. Also, he’ll be working in a different market with entirely new people, and he relishes the new challenge. Finally, the compensation is 20% higher than his previous compensation with much better benefits.
“I started already and it’s great! The compensation is fantastic. Everything is better! It was the change I was looking for.”
Photo: 123rf.com
