Get the Job You Love… Maybe the Job of Your Dreams
Zaffar Akbar
Zaffar Akbar knows the right résumécan lead to the right job. Zaffar shares, “I immigrated to the USA in 1994 with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, Pakistan. Growing up, I loved reading car magazines like any boy did. It then became my childhood dream of working in Detroit, the car capital of the world.”
“As newlyweds, my first job was with a used car dealership in Alabama. But I kept looking and found a job with a company in Detroit that designed, constructed and installed paint shops, as we call them in the car industry. It was my dream job. I had to oversee the construction and launch of them in many car plants all over the U.S. It was a learning curve for me for eight years. But unfortunately, they fell on tough times.”
“So I moved to Georgia to a company that built and manufactured external trims for the car industry. It was a great job but I wanted to be challenged; that’s when an opening turned up with a company in Newnan. They manufactured motor-sports vehicles. But in late 2013, I left with my severance pay.”
“I was worried with my wife and kids to support. But thankfully, the company hired O’Farrell Career Management to help me in my next job search. Dave O’Farrell, founder and career coach, updated my résumé and summarized my core competencies, which was construction and installation of paint shops for the car industry. Then he posted me onto LinkedIn. Not a lot of people have that kind of expertise.”
“Dave O’Farrell and Stephannie O’Donnell helped me with mock interviews. I never knew getting one’s résumé right could be so beneficial to getting the right job. When my résumé was posted on LinkedIn, I got a lot of calls and within three weeks, I had my first offer.”
“I moved to South Carolina to a multi-billion dollar company that manufactures automotive external trims for a major luxury car manufacturer. As their Production and Paint Manager, I’m in charge of the complete production of their paint shop.”
“It’s what I love, cars!”