John H. – 90-Days In Search – 25 Years At Former Company – Small Town USA – Was Change Possible?

Only three months in search and I’m happy to announce that John has accepted a VP Operations position with XXXX.  John came to us as a referral from another client, after having been re-organized out of his position with his former company.  He was seeking a leadership position, and was interested in exploring new industries besides automotive, was even considering moving out of manufacturing.

His challenge was how to deal with interview questions around his departure from his previous company, which he had been with for 25 years, and also how to respond to questions of whether he’d be able to adapt to a new company culture, especially one that wasn’t large. He also hadn’t really interviewed for a position as an unknown candidate, since his entire previous career moves were within his company.

We worked on defining his transferable skills, achievements, and successes, and preparing him to interview in today’s job market, including how to use his success stories to answer Behavioral Interview Questions.  As it turned out, most of the interviews questions thrown at him during his interviews were behavioral competency based.  We also worked on closing the interview, and negotiation tactics.  John began actively interviewing with two companies and received an offer from one but waited to commit until he had final interviews with the other.

Ultimately, he decided the second company wasn’t as good a fit and that it had limited growth potential, so he accepted the offer from the first company.  He has been tracked for growth into two higher levels within the next 3-4 years.  When asked to what he most attributes his success in this process, he said, “ The work you guys did to help me present my strengths and successes is what gave me the confidence and comfort to explore non-traditional opportunities, outside of both the automotive and manufacturing industries.  It also gave me a heightened awareness” of what to expect in my interviews so I had absolutely no surprises.  Believe me, I was well prepared.”  

Thank you to Michael Davis and Leslie Noyes for their always fabulous work on packaging, and to Shanti Brown for her professionalism and persistence in John’s calling campaign.