Kelly J. – $200,000 Base + 40% Bonus + $43,000 LT Comp. + House Purchase

Barbara Limmer, Kelly’s SC&C Campaign Director is pleased to announce that Kelly has accepted the position of Director of Operational Excellence for XXXX. Kelly was brought to SC&C by Art Lane as an outplacement client, having been laid off from her company, YYYY.

She is an expert in Continuous Improvement, Lean Six Sigma and Operational Excellence. She has all of the impressive credentials one would need in her line of work (B.S. in Industrial Engineering, MBA, Certified Master Black Belt, and came up through GE’s Manufacturing Leadership program, but one potential obstacle for her was that she had not previously managed her own business unit. Also, even though her family was up for moving, she wanted to stay in the Chicago area.

Throughout the time we worked together, she was interviewing with a variety of companies, including some name brand employers. We simultaneously worked on her interview skills and her campaign worksheets, which allowed her to really think through her “product definition,” including her strengths, skills and interests. She learned the new way to approach a job search, including using social media tools, and how to stay organized and structured. She said that she…“treated looking for a job like it was a job.” We worked on her ability to sell herself in interviews, overcome any potential objections, while still allowing her engaging personality to shine.

She had found the XXXX position from a job posting, applied, and a month later was called for interviews. The posting said candidates could be from anywhere so she didn’t realize the job was in NJ (if she had she may not have applied). They called her for a phone interview, then flew her out for on-site interviews, then flew her out again for more interviews and to view the local area. By this time, her family was hoping she got the job, as they all wanted to move, and she became willing to move as well, because this job was so perfect for her.

This position is for a much larger company and a broader role than she had previously, and it allows her to build an operational excellence program from the ground up. She had learned that they had received 450 resumes for the job, narrowed it down to 50 applicants to have phone interviews. Only flew finalists were brought in to interview at corporate headquarters. During her on-site interviews, she was told that, “they had “studied” her SC&C WebFolio^©, and she later learned that, “nobody wanted her to leave the interview process.”

During the week that she was waiting to hear from XXXX, she received two other job offers but XXXX was her first choice, so we discussed ways to “buy time” in order to see if the XXXX offer would come through. It did at the end of that week. She was so thrilled that the offer came in higher than she expected that she accepted on the spot.

When Kelly was asked what aspects of Stewart, Cooper & Coon’s executive search program most helped her land this job, she mentioned numerous things:

SC&C Campaign Worksheet Process – forcing her to really think thru her achievements, wants, desires…

Docs and SC&C WebFolio^©—high marks to our writers, as she knows that her WebFolio^© was a clear differentiator for her among her competition…

Social Media –LinkedIn Webinars… learned this tool from our Social Media experts and created an effective profile, which she had never done previously…

Interview Training– did not think she had done well in her interviews prior to joining SC&C…work we did together helped her sell her stories… feel more comfortable in interviews

Weekly Support– … being laid off she felt alone… having a Campaign Director for ongoing support was a huge plus… she thinks,…”that SC&C is “the best kept secret for job search assistance in America”

Our structured process – …helped her to structure her time… focus…so that she could land such a high level job in only two months…

She has also told her company that SC&C Outplacement services is, hands down, far more valuable than the other outplacement company they were using, and she has told several ex-colleagues about us. To close this story, I’d like to share a quote from an email she sent me:

“Thank you for going through this with me. When you are let go from a company it seems like many people you know are inside that company and they treat you like you have a disease. You feel ostracized from society. You gave me hope and a purpose that helped me through this process. I could not have done this without you and I have learned so much from you. Thank you, Kelly”

I send out a huge “Thank you!” to Art Lane for bringing Kelly in as a client, and to Mike Fox and Leslie Noyes for your outstanding work on her documents. I know you all join me in congratulating Kelly and wishing her all the best in this new chapter of her career.