Operations Manager Landed a $30K+ Raise in the WORST Job Market - Standout Job Search Review

Victoria, welcome.

Hello. Hi, everyone. Hey, Madeline.

Bring us back to before you joined the coaching program, before this all began. What was your job search looking like?

It was really not targeted. I was really just mass applying to whatever jobs were coming through on LinkedIn and even those I was feeling a little unsure about. So I was getting really frustrated because I felt that I could do the jobs. I was like, I know that I'm qualified. I know that I'm capable of adding value and bringing value to this organization. So what's like, what am I missing? What piece of the puzzle am I not getting right in order to get the results that I wanted? So I knew I needed to be more deliberate in my approach.

So why would someone like you say, okay, I'm going to get job search coaching? Like, what was that? What was that moment that triggered you to say, I'm going to dive in and do this?

I just thought about all the times that I really wanted to get good at something. I was like, someone else had to teach me. I didn't just know how. Like, you didn't wake up just knowing how to be really good at a sport. You don't wake up just understanding how to do certain things. I was like, why would job searching or this process be any different? Let me seek out a coach. Let me seek out someone who can give me that extra experience and really help guide me through that process.

Tell me about some of the breakthroughs.

You had in the program. One of the things that I really appreciated about the program was the structure. I think I really needed something or someone, you know, you, the coaches, to really help me take a step back and really understand what I was doing. So I really was really deliberate about following the process, like at every step to not just understand, like, okay, like, let me land my next role, but how does this fit into more of like my long term career and what do I need to do in order to ultimately reach that vision? Right, because we all want a job. But if I'm going to invest the time, money, energy, resources into this program, let me make sure it's a job that's going to help me land a job that's going to ultimately really put me on a good path for the rest of my career. So I really followed all the templates, the modules, and another really core aspect that I hadn't thought about before, but this program really helped me do is really revamping my LinkedIn profile. And that ended up being one of the major sources where I got like half of my opportunity. So lucky for Me, half of my opportunities were inbound and I didn't even have to apply to them. It was just recruiters reaching out to me after I'd revamped my LinkedIn profile. And they were like, you look more than capable. You look like a rock star. We want to hire you. Or this hiring manager wants to talk to you about this opportunity. The last thing that really helped me or that really you and the coaches helped to contextualize for me was the decreasing your risk to employers and really helping to make their job easier. Because recruiters and hiring managers, they're making a really big investment when they hire you, right? Like they're paying you a salary, they're giving you benefits, they want to make sure that they hire the right person who is going to do the job well. So throughout the process, just using the show don't tells and different strategies that the coaches laid out for me, I think it really helped employers see, I think especially in this job market, not only that I was showing up and willing to do the work, but that I was willing to go the extra mile before. Before day one, before day one on the job, I was willing to put forward a product to illustrate to them, like, hey, I know you're talking to other people who are just as capable as me, but I'm willing to do this and show you how I'm going to do this job before I even show up on day one.

But really what matters in the end, right, Victoria, is the results. So what were your results?

I'm wrapping up my first week at my new role and I was able to get the exact role that I wanted. So exactly what I wrote out in my one page career vision in terms of the title that I was looking for, the type of company that I wanted to land, that I was able to check every box and I was able to increase my salary way more than I was making before and even, I think, higher than the range that I'd listed in my initial one one page career vision, which is awesome. And with the help of the coaches, I was able to negotiate an even higher salary. I done all that work in, in the beginning that they were more than confident in the choice that they were making in hiring me.

There are people here who are considering getting coaching. What would you say to someone who's on the fence?

The return on investment has been more than what I have anticipated. Like, the increase that I got is going to just set me up financially to do things that I've wanted to do for a long time. And I don't think I would have been able to do that without first investing in myself and really being in this program. Just from a more career and professional development perspective, I think that this kind of forced me to do work a little bit earlier that I probably would have had to do later in my career. I really had to be reflective of, like, what I was doing, how I wanted to move strategically. And I think that, you know, you can do that, work independently. I. We're all highly capable people, but I think there's something to say about being in a community where everyone is doing that and everyone is seeking to do better, and we all can lean on each other and support one another with the support of coaches who have a plethora of experience and have seen every scenario. It can really help to shepherd you across that process. I think I just felt more confident in myself because I had this program and the coaching. And now I know that if I decide I want to go into the tech realm tomorrow or in the next couple of years, I have the strategies kind of in the back of my head, like, okay, like, this is how I need to change my LinkedIn profile. This is who I need to start networking with. This is how I need to change my resume. So they're really skills that will stick with you forever and help you navigate the job process forever. So don't think about as, like, my next job, but think about it more as an investment, like long term and really building that foundation forward. That's what I would say to somebody.