I’ve had several jobs in my life. In fact, I’ve had several careers! Who knew the young girl working at the Hershey Drug Store soda fountain back in 1972, making hot fudge sundaes with CMW (chocolate, marshmallow and wet walnuts) for the Hershey Factory workers would one day be in the Technology industry? I didn’t even know what a computer WAS in 1972. Even in college computers were reserved in their own building for the Engineering students. If you wanted to use one you had to sign up in advance, which meant the only openings were around midnight, once the Engineers all went to bed. I took a statistics course which required me to waltz through this awful dance with technology and I hated it.
The majority of my background has been in the retail industry. I’ve also been a drug store “Soda Jerk”, sold running shoes at a sporting goods store to elite marathon runners (those who know me are laughing at this), took orders over the phone for a florist over Valentine’s Day, spent 10 years owning a children’s clothing store, sold Real Estate, and ended up as a Technical Recruiter. Are you kidding me?
I try to tell kids graduating from college, or those seeking their foot in the door of their first important job not to think of it as the only job they’ll ever have. Candidates tell me “I want a permanent position”. In fact, there is no such thing in my world. It is the rare individual who remains at his first job through retirement. I’m sure my parents know people who have spent their entire careers in one place, but I don’t.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret. I don’t have a technical bone in my body. I somehow have found myself in the Information Technology industry hiring people for jobs with skills and acronyms that dance in my head at night. And I’m pretty good at it. What I learned early in my career is it’s all about your network and the ability to sell yourself. If I could give the class of 2015 only one piece of advice it would be just that: learn quickly how to sell yourself. The other would be never chew gum during an interview.
I could go on and on about all the do’s and don’ts of interviewing and getting a new job but we now have something we didn’t have back then called the internet where you can find out more than you’ll ever need on this topic.
What I would like this blog’s theme to be is not to let the process of looking for a job – or a career – get the best of you. Permanent jobs can be ripped out from under you the minute a company gets sold. Contract/consulting jobs can be renewed over and over again, sometimes lasting for years. One day you might like to code and the next day you realize you would rather be a Project Manager. When you are part of our network, we help navigate you through this process. It’s fun for us and we make sure it’s a pleasurable experience for you, too.
We may not be able to place you behind the counter of a soda fountain, or even set you up in a store selling running shoes. What we WILL do is sell ourselves to you so you can be assured you are in the best hands when it comes to finding a new job. We’ll teach you how to sell yourself. We’ll tell you how to succeed in the interview process. We’ll even advise you when to NOT accept a new position.
Welcome to our network – we’d love to work with you!
