Roughly five years after I graduated from business school, I was becoming depressed about my lack of upward mobility. Certainly my MBA had given me a considerable head start on climbing the corporate ladder, but despite the fact that I had applied for several Vice President roles that I was more than qualified for, I seemed to be stuck at the level of Director. When my firm downsized, the division I headed up was eliminated and I found myself unemployed. Some people would have taken this as the ultimate kick in the pants, but I decided to turn misfortune into a prime opportunity to revitalize my career. I took a week off to decompress, did some research on few career management firms and then contacted a company that specializes in executive career management.
It was an interesting experience. I underwent a series of assessments that were designed to determine my key skill sets and worked with an extremely professional woman named Jill who was assigned to be my private “career change consultant.” Together we mapped out my career goals and developed a plan with defined objectives that outlined my path to achieving the position I was aiming for. At that point, the value of Jill and her colleagues became even more apparent. Using their vast network of alumni and contacts, they began to arrange introductions to people who were extremely connected within the business world. When I landed a meeting with a software company in California that was searching for a key new executive position, Jill helped fine tune my CV and spent hours preparing me for the upcoming interviews. And when it looked like I was one of the final candidates, the career management firm also contacted my previous employer to ensure that they honored my termination agreement, complete with the agreed upon recommendation.
I landed the position as Executive Vice President and while I was hired based on my own merits, it was largely because of the efforts of Jill and her career development team that I was able to make the positive impression I did with the interview team. Now I encourage my own staff to have clearly defined career plans in place so they avoid the frustration I felt for those first five years in the work force.
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