Senior IT Solutions Analyst

V.P of Warehousing Operations

Senior Project Manager

Chief Data Scientist

Manager, Lean Systems

Consultant

Financial Professional / Mortgage

Branch Manager

Director of Strategic Sourcing

Supply Chain Management

OmniChannel Marketing

Enterprise Sales Engineer

Facility Management

Vice President of Sales and Sales Excellency

Alumni Communications and Engagement Manager

Digital Marketing

Senior Manager of Partner Marketing

First Vice President & Learning Development Manager

Head of Partner Marketing

Director of Design

Operations Manager

Senior Vice President, Healthcare Management

Global Head, Education & Training

Product Manager

Lending Operations Senior Manager

Director of Social Media –> Landed new job

Senior Manager / Acquisition Marketing

General Manager –> Landed new job with $15k salary increase

Business Analyst

Cybersecurity / Sales Leader – 20+ years –> Landed new job!

Director of IT, 20+ years experience –> Increased his salary $45k with new role.

Senior National Sales Manager, 10+ years experience –> Increased his salary $75k with new leadership role.

Technical Support Manager, 20+ years

Director of Strategy, 20+ years experience

Sales Engineer, 9 years experience –> Landed a new job and increased salary $25k.

SAP Solution Architect, BS Mechanical Engineering (India), 21 years experience

Senior Data Analyst, 9 years

Director of Sales, 12 years International experience

Sales / Business Development Manager, BS Electrical Engineering, 14 years experience

Director of Operations, MS Supply Chain, 18 years experience

Director of Operations, MBA, 20+ years experience

Chief Audit Executive, BS Management Information Systems, 17 years experience

Hospitality Director, 20+ years experience

Senior Data Scientist, PhD, 10+ years experience

Senior VP Digital Solutions, MBA, 12 years experience

International Business Development Manager, 20 years experience

Flagship Store Manager, MBA, 16 years experience

Business Owner / Environmental Director, 18 years experience

Director of Learning & Development, 19 years experience

Financial Analyst, Master’s degree, 7 years experience

Sales Director, 20+ years experience

Director of Nursing, Master’s degree, 20+ years experience

Financial Operations, 10+ years experience

Director of Technology, 20+ years experience

Industrial Management, Master’s degree, 5+ years experience

Director for non profit, USC Master’s degree, 20+ years experience

Manufacturing Quality Engineer, Master’s degree, 6 years experience

Digital Marketing SEO, 4 years experience

Program Manager, 25 years experience

General Manager of e-commerce, 20+ years experience

Manager, Pepperdine Master’s degree, 20 years+ experience

Senior Motion Graphic Designer, Master’s degree, 7 years experience

 

Acquiring my first major corporate job after graduating college at General Motors was quite easy.  1600 candidates to start, 6 weeks of ongoing interviewing and psychological tests to narrow the group down, 3 hours of final interviews in Detroit at GM’s headquarters… and finally made the final cut of 6 hires.  The problem was that I took a job in California but getting paid Midwest wages ($49k starting base salary). Talk about leaving $ on the table… and who knew California was so expensive to live in?

Next, I failed 2 major interviews to get promoted within GM, one of them at my own plant.  Despite having earned an MBA, I thought I was well positioned for those promotions, but I quickly learned that politics plays a major role in corporate America, and frankly I just wasn’t prepared for those interviews.  I didn’t know how to ‘sell’ my value, despite having championed numerous lean projects saving GM $millions and helping to put our plant in the top five of 28 plants in N. America.

After leaving GM, I took a role with Milgard Manufacturing, where I was happy to increase my base salary over what I was making at GM, but I failed to negotiate a significantly higher salary.  I just didn’t know the art of negotiation yet and unfortunately, that mistake cost me around $25k/year of lost income.

It wasn’t until a few years later that I was at a major life’s crossroads. I had exited from a company that I helped build for 6 years.  The challenge was how to sell oneself after having been an entrepreneur to now transitioning back to corporate America.

I bought a 400-page resume book and a 50-page executive resume book and started to pull various pieces from both of them to create my own resume.  It wasn’t but a week later and I sent the resume off to be reviewed only to have them write back and say, “Where’s the WOW factor?”

My ego was shattered, but I quickly pulled it together.  I started my quest to find out who the top resume writers were that helped write some of those resumes in the executive resume book.

I sent emails, made phone calls, etc. with prices ranging from $800-$3200 for them to write a resume and tweak my Linkedin profile.  Even $800 was outrageous to me, but I made the decision that there’s a reason they are experts, so hire them.  Time is money and I was losing more than $800 every few days by not being gainfully employed.

I settled on a guy named Don who was a graduate of Stanford and also had an MBA from Wharton.  He said, “Geoff, I’m half of what these other people are charging but I’m just as good.” I loved his old fashioned value of calling me and asking what my dream job would look like.

We started off with a 5-page questionnaire, which over the next 3 weeks, I turned into 26 pages of notes; dissecting every single thing about my career.  The type of work environments I thrived in.  The type of people I liked to work around.  The type of work I would love to be doing.  How to position what my MBA had done for me.  How to ‘sell’ my value based on my unique career story.  ETC.

It was then that I truly realized the power of knowing who I was, and what I was capable of.  I was super confident.  No more ego!  I had at least 10 companies a day reaching out to me.  It was magical and exactly how the job market should work.

That $800 investment eventually led me to my next role where I increased my salary by >$50k.

It was that foundation that allowed me to continuously raise my income level, perks package, additional vacation time, etc.  Once you know your value and know the formula, it gets much easier to navigate the job market.

And you know what?  That one woman who charged $3200 to write resumes, I ended up hiring to teach me about personal branding.

As I’ve grown in my career, I’ve interviewed over 1000 candidates for various leadership positions, which has gave me a wonderful perspective and great insights that I use to help others today.

Looking back, I only wish I had learned all of this early on in my career.  I easily lost out on what I estimate to be around $500k of lost income due to simply not educating myself.  Rookie mistake, right?

I truly hope you aren’t making a similar mistake by sitting on the fence about hiring a professional resume writer.  It is highly probable that if you are out of a job right now, you are losing minimally $1k/week.  Or, if you have a job but aren’t raising your value with negotiation that you are also losing $500/week.

Know your value.  Increase your value.  Invest in yourself.