How a Product Manager Landed a Job at Nike Without Fashion Experience - Standout Job Search Review

Clara, welcome to Upgrade Your Career.

Thanks, Madeline. It's great being here.

Yes, yes. And we, we were chatting before this. We do realize that maybe for some of y'all, Clara might be a little bit blurry, but her audio is pristine. So we're making it work. Okay, Clara, bring us back. What's your story? Where were you in your job search before you got coaching?

I was coming from not a great environment. It was a pretty toxic culture at my old role, and that was one of the reasons I was looking to leave and get a new role. And my confidence had really plummeted based off my old management and leadership where they just didn't believe in me and I didn't see myself giving an impact anymore. So I think that's also why I needed the help and outside community support, because my own confidence was definitely lacking. Before joining Standout Job Search, I was really going after my— the number of applications I was sending out. I was honing in on certain companies, but I was still kind of spraying my applications around and not putting too much thought into it. And I was still still tailoring my resume, but probably not as good as I could have been without coaching support. So I was really looking at my application count to determine my success in my job search. And after joining Standout Job Search, I totally flipped my mindset and perspective, and I started thinking about my job search in interactions and relationships instead of applications, which led me to really build relationships with people, grow my network, really learn where I wanted to go, and really hone in on a select few companies, which really helped me tailor to those companies and end up getting one of my dream companies and roles.

You focused essentially on one company while in the program. Tell us which company was that and what about being in the program made you so confident to put your eggs in that basket?

So the company is Nike. And after really building relationships and meeting, I think I had met over 30 people at Nike before I joined the organization. I was really confident that I could hone my last 5, 10% of my interview skills, my resume, to get the offer that I was looking for.

Coming back from when they say no, and then we're like, okay, no, Clara, like, you're going to get the yes, you're going to get the yes. And so what was it like to have that confidence that, okay, even though they said no once, that you were still going to land the job?

It was definitely tough. I remember I got the rejection while I was on vacation in Mexico as well. So that was like the cherry on top. But it was really nice that Nike, the recruiter I was working with, actually gave me feedback on they think I'm a good culture fit. They were just looking for somebody with industry experience. So I honed in on what I did and tried to redo some of my answers and stories by spinning my experience to better fit footwear for my next, um, interview process.

Just so people understand the level of persuasion you were able to do to show that you could do fashion.

Yeah, so before I was working on Ninja kitchen appliances, so total 180 to footwear. What would you say to people who are struggling emotionally to come to terms with the investment, especially if they're going through a time where they're like, "I don't know if I can invest that money." It was the start of my perspective and mind shift switch where I was thinking about this isn't just an investment for now, for my job search now, but a long-term investment in my skill sets and job searching abilities, my confidence level, being able to get to where I want to go and dream big and chase after what I want. It's that long-term investment that's going to help me in so many years to come instead of just now. So thinking about it in that way and really truly investing in myself and what I wanted.