Story of Sarah (Senior Executive)
Sarah had a colourful and spectacular 23 years with one of the largest grocery chain in Canada. She had work her way up as a junior analyst in the Forecast, Planning and Analyst group to Vice President, Finance of an operating division. She had earned her CMA (now Chartered Professional Accountant) designation during her career as well as obtained an executive MBA along her career path. Things were looking very promising for Sarah however, due to major restructuring changes within the organization, Sarah was let go.
Sarah initially welcome the time off, given the fact that she had been working crazy hours for most of her career. After a few months of vacationing and spending quality time with her family, she wanted to get back to where she left off. However, finding an appropriate position seems to be harder than she first thought.
There weren't that many job offerings presented to Sarah. Even if there were, they all seem a level or two below where Sarah was at previously. As time passes, Sarah began to worry and decided to seek the advice of a professional career consultant.
It was revealed that Sarah had not sufficiently highlighted her career accomplishment well enough in her resume/CV. Sarah had worked in the same company after graduating from university for over 22 years. She never had to update her resume nor prepare for any interviews. Although her presentation skills are excellent, the required interviewing cues to do well for a job interview simply wasn't there. Somehow, she projected herself in a way which seems very arrogant despite the fact that wasn't her intention at all. During mock interview practice with her Career Coach, it was revealed that she projected an almost confrontational behaviour when asked for certain types of interviewing questions. That was not her intention at all. For her, she thought she was just being confident on her view point.
It was explained to Sarah that job candidate with her level of experience do take a bit of time to find the right role. An alternative for her is to seek Contract Positions as an interim. A contract position has the benefit of getting back to the job market quicker. Furthermore, it provides easier opportunities to explore other industry sectors which could potentially open more doors for senior position in other areas. However, in order to get into contracting roles, one need to show a willingness to roll up her sleeves and do the work. Being in senior positions sometime gives a negative perception to others that they may not be able to execute a task oriented role which most of these contract position demands. Therefore, during the interview stage, a senior level professional who wished to engage in Contract Position must be able to project herself in an interview appropriately to gain the confidence of the hiring manager that she can do the work.
Sarah obtained a contract position with a company in the mining sector which led to a series of extensions and ultimately offered a permanent senior level position within the same company after just a little over a year doing contract work.
