A short YouTube interview (customer testimonial) in which Leslie, a career-changer from education, describes using the Stand Up Job Search program to rework her job-search strategy. After about 12 years in education she felt stalled and anxious; the program taught networking, personal marketing, and industry engagement. Within five months she grew her LinkedIn from ~100 to over 700 authentic contacts and secured a dream job with an increased salary.
Give us the back story, Leslie. So you were a career changer. What were you changing from? How was your job search going?
I had been in the educational field for about 12 years, and honestly, I kind of hit a ceiling. You know, I really didn't have a job search strategy. You know, I was blindly sending out resumes through LinkedIn with no direction. I felt a lot of anxiety and stress because I was not fulfilled in my current role. And, you know, it just was a time where I was just like, how do I transition to. To this new career field, which I had found that I wanted to but didn't have the skills to do.
You joined Stand Up Job Search and Walk me through some of the changes you made to your job search as a result.
The program walked me through, step by step, how to really figure out the value of what I wanted. I gained this newfound confidence, you know, and I learned how to properly network. And within five months, I've grown my LinkedIn from like, a hundred family and friends to over 700 authentic contacts. And these are industry leaders who, when I go in there, I am literally seeing what is trending in my industry. I'm able to comment on thought leaders and, you know, I know, most importantly, how to market myself and stand out in the job market. It also allowed me to secure my dream job that checked all of my boxes, which included an increased salary amount.
You dove into this program headfirst. You completely mastered it. But I know that probably people right now are where you were months ago. What would you say to people who are trying to figure out if this is the right thing for them?
I would say just do it. You know, honestly, just do it. And it's that simple because it changed my life. I have tools and strategies and methodologies through this program that changed the trajectory of my life. Like, I understand now how to fully network, how to position myself, how to comment. When people are in the industry and they're making comments about, you know, different trends and things and how to set myself apart, and that's invaluable. And honestly, the program paid for itself beyond all of the resources that are available. The coaches are there to answer questions and walk you through. Like, when I was doing my interview prep, I was, like, messaging them like, hey, tomorrow's a big day. I know we talked about this in class, but I need additional support on this thing. I mean, literally strategizing back and forth, and they're responding in real time. I didn't have to wait until three, four hours or. I'm sorry, three, four, days, rather later, they were, were giving me the information within less than 24 hours, and we were having a discourse back and forth, and I was getting what I needed. And so for me, it was well worth it because I can, you know, I can transition to any career field that I want to at this point, just based off of the information I've gained in this program. It was one of the best decisions I could have made for my career.
