This is a recorded interview with Yonnelly about her experience transitioning from higher education to tech after joining the Standout Job Search coaching program. She describes the program as organized and life-changing, credits it for teaching values/skills alignment, LinkedIn optimization, resume and interview techniques, and networking strategies. As a result she was hired into tech, more than doubled her salary, and received a promotion with a raise within about four months at the new job.
Questions this video answers
She more than doubled her salary.
About four months.
Yanali, welcome. Take us back to before you joined Standout job search. Where were you at in your career?
So I actually was in higher ed. And after being there for two years, I started thinking like, I don't think this is the field for me. Unfortunately, here in the US Educators just do not get paid well for the amount of work that they, that they do. So I started thinking like, okay, I have all these skills, where can I go? I was like, I need to get into tech. Because I mean, tech gets paid way better than education and it's not always about money, but it sure does help here in the US that's where I was at. Just like starting to like, think about the next place that I was going to go. When I was looking at the website and considering whether I was going to join or not and I saw that number, I was like, okay, this is a lot for a person that's coming from education. But the way that I viewed it was more like, this is an investment, investment in my, and I deserve something like this. And not only am I going to learn everything that I need to, to be successful in my job search, but I'm going to come out a better person. And I, and I did. You can't put a number on the value that your coaching provides. Like, it's just, it's literally life changing.
Walk us through some of, like, the key things you learned in the program that made your job search so successful.
First of all, you are so organized in your program. You have methodically thought about, you know, each step that, you know, your, your students, for lack of a better word, have to go through in order to get to the next step. So, you know, the first one where you're telling us to, you know, really dig deep, what are your values, what are your skills like and where are you trying to go? And for that whole process at the beginning, like, really validated that it totally makes sense for me to go from a program manager in higher ed into project management in tech. And it just like, it's just mind blowing when you can see like, okay, I can do this. Another big, like, misconception I feel like in the career world is that you need to, I think you call it spray and pray, where you just like apply to hundreds and hundreds of jobs. I never did that. I never did that. I did what you told, you know, you preached in your program, you know, optimizing your LinkedIn by doing all the things that you tell us. You know, the resume, the interviewing skills, what to say, what not to say, and it's what? Way more deeper than the YouTube videos. So again, you should sign up for her career coaching. I literally went onto LinkedIn and I did all the things you told me to do. And it was an acquaintance of mine that saw my posting and was like, hey, you know, we have this opening at this tech company that I work at. Like, I think you would be a great fit. You know, I got on the phone with the VP and the director of consulting, got an interview, they liked me, they offered me a job, and that's all it took. Like, I was not a person that was applying to hundreds of jobs. I just did not do that. I think another big thing for me was reiterating the importance of networking, like, and building relationships with people that are meaningful. You kind of walk through on how to, you know, like that hook to, you know, message people on LinkedIn and kind of, you know, build that rapport with them with a total stranger, which can be really awkward and scary for some people. I know it was for me, like cold reaching out to people. But it works. It really works.
What were some of your results? Like, what, what was the end result of doing all these things? You know, what was, what was your success story?
I literally more than doubled my salary and that has again, been life changing for me. So those of you that are in education, you know how little, you know, educators get paid and to double my salary. More than double my salary. And I recently just got a promotion and with that raise. Yeah. And it's only been like four months at my new job.
Do you feel like this program had any influence over you being able to get that promotion?
Oh, yeah. So again, like I mentioned, not only the confidence, but you helped me during the negotiation. And in that negotiation, you know, we, me and my employer set up a plan of like, okay, every three months we're going to do a check in a little small performance review. And if I'm doing great and I'm hitting my goals, then that's gonna result in a pay increase and potentially a title increase. And that literally just happened recently. And like, these are things that people don't know without working with a career coach. So, like, again, there's just so many things you get out of the program that you just cannot put a number on. And it's just like I've, I've gotten back like 10x what I put into the program and it's just, again, I think I told you that it's, it's literally invaluable. It's amazing.
