MEET MAGGIE:  THE ASSOCIATE MARKETING MANAGER WHO LEVERAGED HER TRANSFERRABLE SKILLS TO LAND HER DREAM JOB AS A  SALES TRAINING SPECIALIST

With a background in radio, Maggie was hired on at her current company as a Media Coordinator.  A fast learner, she made her way to Associate Manager within four years.  However, she was told that her lack of agency experience would prevent her from moving ahead any further in her department.  She had no desire to work for an agency.  She felt like she’d “hit a wall” and decided it was time to explore her options outside of marketing.

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS!

Maggie discovered Happen to Your Career via the Overwhelmed Brain podcast and jumped into the free 8-day email course right away.

I loved it because it wasn’t someone telling me what I should be doing with my life. It asked insightful questions that helped me discover it on my own.

Digging deeper into each one of her past (and current) job experiences helped Maggie uncover a love for teaching others.

One of the questions that really stuck out to me was if you had to teach something, what would it be? My answer was anything and everything. Looking back over all of the questions, I saw a pattern. I saw that I wasn’t necessarily interested in the jobs that I have been doing, as much as I was interested in creating the processes that around them, and teaching others how to use them.

Luckily her company culture was one that promoted professional growth and her boss was actually pretty receptive when Maggie mentioned wanting to get into corporate training.  In fact her boss reaffirmed her decision when she told Maggie she’d just had a conversation with the CMO in which she (her boss) told the CMO that Maggie would be excellent in a training role!

NETWORK MAGIC!

After making the decision to pursue work in the learning and development field, Maggie immediately started talking about it to everyone she knew.  Her husband’s best friend’s sister, who worked in learning and development for McDonald’s corporate helped Maggie get her resume dialed in for her new field of choice, highlighting all of her transferrable skills.  She also connected Maggie with some of her colleagues who generously offered their guidance and helped Maggie understand what she’d need to do in order to be a “standout candidate”.

POWER IN POSITIONING

Maggie built a rapport with the hiring manager in the learning and development department at her own company, asking detailed questions around what she might do to make herself a viable candidate for a position in the department.  This manager took Maggie on as a mentee and recommended a professional organization she could join. The organization offered a course that provided an overview of the learning and development profession.

It wasn’t long before a position opened up in the department Maggie was targeting and she jumped!  5 interviews and 14 weeks later, Maggie had a new job!

She was able to shine throughout the whole process because:

• She prepared herself thoroughly, researching the position she was after, then positioning herself as an ideal candidate
• She sought out the guidance of others who already were where she wanted to go
• Her passion for learning and development drove her to seek out the professional development opportunities she needed
• She studied videos and practiced her interviewing skills

NEGOTIATIONS

The fact that Maggie’s move was essentially a lateral one put her in a strange position in the salary negotiation phase.  However, being direct and asking for what she wanted paid off.

When presented with the offer, she asked for some time to consider it and speak with her husband.  At the end of the business day, the HR representative sent Maggie an email and asked her to meet the following morning.  The original offer was 12% over her previous salary.  When all was said and done, Maggie had increased her salary by 20%!

…and, guess what?  She LOVES her new job!

I am incredibly happy in my new position.  I feel like I’m built for it and I believe that is due to the thought the [HTYC One Stop] one stop exercises took me through.  It asked me questions that gave me the structure to build my own future.  I am very appreciative of Scott and HTYC.  I’ve recommended it to everyone.  

MAGGIE’S ADVICE:

• “Take the HTYC FREE 8-day ‘Figure it Out’ email course!  Seriously.”
• Talk to the people around you about what you want!  You never know who has made a similar move and/or who will get behind you 100%!

I discovered a TON of people who advocated for me intenally.  I was really proud of myself and so grateful…but proud of myself, which is rare.  I have that imposter syndrome.  Where I feel like it was given rather than earned, but this helped me get over that.

MAGGIE NEEDED WAS ABLE TO TARGET HER DREAM JOB ONLY AFTER SHE IDENTIFIED WHAT SHE WANTED.