by O'Farrell | Apr 15, 2014 | Featured, I Got a Job!
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!”
by O'Farrell | Apr 8, 2014 | Featured, O'Farrell's Blog
Do Companies Hold Jobs for the Right Candidate?
Dan Hix, 59, with 18 years’ medical device sales experience, had been out of work for a year, from 2013 to 2014. He plowed on coping financially and emotionally, until, he met Dave O’Farrell, a career coach and founder of O’Farrell Career Management.
Dave and his marketing director, Stephannie O’Donnell, helped Dan to restructure his resume and highlighted his major accomplishments. They leveraged LinkedIn with the aim to attract any potential employers to his profile.
Dan provided the names of 15 medical companies that he would love to work with. Dave and Stephannie reached out via LinkedIn to these companies. With this new resume, his connections jumped from 250 to 500+. Dave and Stephannie conducted mock interviews and role play to get Dan ready for the interviews.
In mid-Oct 2013, he had two job offers. But a sudden heart-attack took him to the hospital and during his recuperation; he called the two companies to explain the situation. One company had to restructure, so the opening was closed but the other company, his current employer, offered him the job in January 2014.
By Umah Papachan Hewitt — Guest Blogger
by O'Farrell | Mar 25, 2014 | Featured, O'Farrell's Blog
Join us at JobSeekers of PTC this week for “HR Panel Shares Tips for Acing Job Interview: What hiring managers really think and what they want to know about you.”
We will have a special panel discussion and Q&A with HR managers from Coveris Packaging, CNN/TBS, Orange Business Services, and Panasonic Automotive. These experts each have 15+ years’ experience in human resources including recruiting, interviewing, hiring, on-boarding, learning and development, succession planning, and all other aspects of the employment life cycle.
Get interview tips from these experts scheduled to appear:
Fred Fratto » Chief HR Officer and Chief Culture Officer » Coveris
Coveris has 9,000 employees and 65 production facilities in 21 countries. Fred’s primary focus includes developing human capital solutions, providing company-wide HR governance, improving employee engagement, energizing the culture and enabling growth. Prior to Coveris, Fred was SVP-HR at Beazer Homes as the company experienced over 250% growth. Prior to that, Fred was at Gulfsteam Aerospace, Newell Rubbermaid, and Westinghouse. He has 20+ years of HR and management experience.
Sara Clarke » HR Consultant, SPHR » Orange Business Services
Orange is a $60B multinational telecommunications company serving 221 countries with 180K employees worldwide. Sara has 15+ years’ experience as an Human Resources generalist, consultant, and business partner. She has been in the international environment for the last 11 years, focused on organizational change, restructuring, recruitment and staffing, career development, learning and development and management training.
Tanya Turner » Human Resources Generalist, PHR » CNN / TBS
Tanya provides HR business support to the Global Technology and Operations (GTO) organization comprised of CNN BEST, truTV, and Business Excellence client groups. Tanya has 15+ years’ experience in Human Resources. She has diverse experience in staffing, retention, career development, employee relations, coaching, and “employee advocacy.” Prior to joining CNN/TBS, Tanya was a recruitment specialist for PeopleSoft.
Stephen Childs » Director Global HR » Panasonic Automotive Systems
Stephen began his career at Panasonic in talent acquisition and has held several management positions during his 15 years with the company. Prior to joining Panasonic, Stephen worked in technical recruiting specializing in automotive electronics, and prior to that, he owned and operated a contingent labor staffing company. He has 20+ years of talent acquisition, human resources and management experience. Stephen recently won the 2013 Society for Human Resources Management Atlanta Pegasus Award for excellence in human resources.
– – – – –
Have you checked out these companies? Do you know if they are hiring? What questions do you have about the talent acquisition process? What happens after you leave the interview room? Come ready to learn, engage, and leave with added information and motivation for your job search.
Submit your question in advance in the “Career Branding Job Networking” group on LinkedIn. Not a member? Join today and submit a question. We will choose from the posted questions and address them to the panel. If your question isn’t chosen you may have an opportunity to ask it in person. Arrive early, bring a friend, you don’t want to miss it.
Meeting details:
Friday 4 April 2014
7:30 – 10:00a
First Baptist Church of PTC
208 Willowbend Road
Peachtree City, Georgia 30269
# # #
by admin | Mar 17, 2014 | Featured, O'Farrell's Blog
O’Farrell Career Management is on Pinterest
Most of us know that LinkedIn with it’s 250 million+ users is undeniably the most important social media platform for business. But have you ever considered Pinterest as a job search tool?
Pinterest has a huge following, nearly 50 million users, according to a recent Forbes article by Nancy Collamer. Long known as a great place for women to find inspiration for their next social gathering; from the recipes to the decor, or an on-line resource to catalog everything from wardrobe ideas to home decorating, Pinterest is also becoming a great place for especially those in creative fields to visually showcase their work.
So what is pinning?
The definition straight from Pinterest …”Pins are like handsome little bookmarks. Whenever you find something on the web that you want to keep, add it to Pinterest. Your newly minted Pin will be here whenever you need it, and will always link back to the site it came from.”
According to a study by Piquora, a Pinterest pin can last thousands of times longer than a Facebook post. Why not leverage the staying power of Pinterest to enhance your personal branding and show your stuff.
Try…
Visual resumes, design portfolios, art work, or other visual mediums if you are a graphic artist, designer, interior designer, or artist.
Pinning photographs of projects at varying phases from inception to completion if you are an engineer or manufacturing expert who designs automation systems or assembly lines.
Showcasing any tangible product.
Researching potential hiring companies — many have pinboards
Happy pinning and re-pinning. Share your pins with us and re-pin our boards on career planning, job search, social media, and more.
Do you have other ideas on how to use Pinterest for your job search? We would love to hear your comments.
A picture paints a thousand words…paint your picture of success one pin at a time on your way to your future job.
by O'Farrell | Dec 3, 2013 | Featured
Tommy Webb
I had the pleasure of working with Tommy Webb two years ago. We helped him get back into an industry he’d been out of for 15 years. Cool! Now he’s a new job found him.
I’m reminded of Proverbs 22:1, which says, “A good name is better than great riches. To be esteemed is better than silver or gold.” Tommy has a good name, and he is highly esteemed by those who know him. I was telling some clients today about how Tommy and I and one other gentleman delivered Christmas presents to a mother and her three young children about 23 years ago. They lived in a housing project near the Atlanta Federal Prison.
In the past 13 years or so, Tommy has been paying it forward by serving at Fayetteville First United Methodist Church and Square Foot Ministry. All of this great service speaks of his character and heart. He’s a good man.
Tommy, I am very proud of you and glad to call you my friend.
– Dave O’Farrell
– – – – –
Hello Dave,
I just wanted you to know that I found another job, or I should say it found me.
Long story short, an old supplier of mine from my last job called and wanted me to run their Atlanta branch. I will start training on the 16th. My last day at my current job will be on the 11th. I hope to drop my JobSeekers on Friday.
I will send you an email later with the HR contact info. They might hire a supervisor or two after the first of the year.
Sincerely,
– Tommy Webb
by O'Farrell | Jul 24, 2013 | Featured
Jamie Boulet
Super story of how to negotiate a job offer. Had the privilege of helping Jamie write his résumé, ace the interview, and negotiate a job offer for a win-win scenario.When the prospective boss received an email that Jamie and I crafted, he wrote, “Let me talk to Jim and my boss, the CFO, about reconsidering the salary offer. I appreciate the way you approached the topic. It shows great diplomatic abilities which a Manager of Business Development needs.”
Both parties were delighted with the outcome.
Jamie, I’m so-o-o-o-o proud of you!
– Dave O’Farrell
– – – – –
Dave,
Just wanted you to know that I accepted the offer from APC today. Yeah!
I could not have done this as easily without your teaching, mentoring and guidance. It was so very worth the time and cost to receive your instruction at O’Farrell Career Management.
I’m also appreciative of the JobSeekers’ ministry that you and the Crew lead. It has and will continue to have a profound impact on many people (and their families) in the community.
See you soon.
Best,
– Jamie Boulet
