Turning A Tough Career Transition into A Passion for Helping Others with Amy Feind Reeves
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When Amy Feind Reeves graduated from a good college with a good GPA, she failed miserably trying to get a job in a bank training program. So, she worked as an Administrative Assistant for a year and learned everything she could from her friends who did get those jobs. The next spring, she got the first position where she interviewed. It turned out that she liked it and was good at it. So why had she failed so miserably initially? There was just a lot she didn’t know, and that no one had ever thought to tell her. Realizing that good information is still scarce for new and recent graduates, she’s built a business being the resource she wishes she had back then.
Can you tell our readers about your background?
I spent over 20 years in a variety of different positions and industries, usually brought into a new role by a former boss or client. I love a steep learning curve so it was always fun. I’ve helped steel companies redesign their finishing processes, cellular phone companies improve their customer profitability, managed scientists doing Phase I and IIA pharmaceutical research, helped expand low-income housing funding, and reduced textbook sales and production cycle lengths to name a few projects. Learning analytical thinking at Wellesley College as an undergrad, and general business skills while at The Tuck School at Dartmouth for my MBA gave me a great basis to tackle a lot of things.
What inspired you to start your business?
It was two things really. First was the miserable time getting a job out of college. So, whenever someone came into the office groaning that their neighbor’s kid or their nephew was graduating from college and wanted to talk to someone, I would happily volunteer. And they were all way more clueless than even I remembered being.
Second, I needed to make a couple of major career switches over the course of 20 years. The first was to leave consulting and get a corporate role so that I could be home more often for my new baby. The second was when I became a single mother and needed a management role with very limited travel. Those processes were not easy and, like with my transition from college, there were not a lot of good practice resources. I saw market opportunities as well as the chance to fulfill a passion when I founded JobCoachAmy.
Where is your business based?
My office is in my home in downtown Boston, Massachusetts. With the prevalence of Zoom, I can work with clients anywhere and have a large client base in California and the midwest. I have even worked with a few clients in Europe.
How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?
The first thing I did was to put my methodology into (I was a consultant for a long time, so what else?) PowerPoint so people knew what they were buying. Then I built my website with my credentials, background, and the results I had gotten to date for (at that point, non-paying) clients. Then I did some market research to see what my competition was and how I could differentiate myself. I also assessed their marketing to make a plan for my own. I got a few inquiries from my own network and was off to the races.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?
Word of mouth and good results are the best tools I have. I offer a free session to all potential clients where it is a working session and not a sales pitch. I love talking to people and hearing their stories, and even if it doesn’t result in a paying client, it has been a great marketing tool. The person always comes away feeling I’ve given them something useful and I ask them to tell their friends.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
Finding the right tone for my brand was not straightforward. I needed to appeal to 20 somethings, yet make sure that I retained my credibility with their parents. In the end, I started to write, develop materials, and speak the way I would in any professional setting. I like telling my clients that I treat them the way they should expect to be treated, and the expectations I have of them while we are working together is where they should initially set the bar for future colleagues and managers.
Another issue I faced, as I think almost all founders and entrepreneurs do at some point, was the need to pivot from my original premise. I thought my market would be college seniors and very recent graduates, but a lot of the prospects in that segment coming to me through referral seemed to want to strike out on their own without help. The largest number of my early clients were young professionals two to three years out of college, stuck in a job they did not like, and unsure how to identify and land a job that they would like. As my reputation grew, my client base expanded in both directions: I was suddenly seeing both college sophomores and C-Suite executives. Although my first love is helping clients through the transition out of college, I do a lot of my work now with people transitioning in their careers to different industries or changing careers to change their lifestyles.
How do you stay focused?
That is truly difficult with a home office. Once I start working, it is difficult to stop. Getting started is the hard part when the refrigerator may be calling to be cleaned out or laundry screaming to be done. I go through phases where I’ll only want to work at the kitchen table with my laptop, or only at my desktop in my office. Mixing it up in different locations helps get me to sit down and get started.
How do you differentiate your business from the competition?
That is easy- I offer the perspective of a hiring manager. Most professionals in my space were human resource professionals, college advisors, or received certifications in resume writing because they have a knack for it. I can speak to exactly what the decision-maker is looking for in a candidate and what the decision process is like. I’ve also done organizational development, strategy, and process work in a wide variety of industries so I know how to analyze job descriptions and markets to develop effective interview strategies. It has proven to make a difference for my clients.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
The career space is very crowded and there is a lot of free advice available, much of it worth the price. Paid content marketing has not worked for me, and my placed content has not gotten much traction on social media channels or blogs. What has helped expand my client base is earned content. Responding to reporter queries and interview requests on all types of career-related topics has helped drive traffic to my site and new clients to my door. Not everything I write gets picked up and published, but it never gets wasted – I can always use it in a blog or save it for a future piece.
What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
1. Make sure you love what you are doing because you are going to be doing it A LOT.
2. Don’t skip the foundational research required for a new venture. You really need to understand your market, competition, and how you will differentiate your offering. It is going to come up more than you think and you will need to speak fluently about it.
3. Build flexibility into your cost structure, revenue requirements, and strategy so you can pivot easily.
What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?
I play the New York Times Spelling Bee every dam day- I’m hooked! It’s completely absorbing so it’s a good stress reliever. Seth Godin’s blog daily is my favorite: it’s almost always short, powerful, and generally applicable to both my personal and professional lives. A great daily reminder that good writing can be both brief and have a great impact. An absolute favorite book? Way too hard! Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” is the book I recommend to every client because even though it was written more than 50 years ago it is a solid analysis of why being interest-ED makes interest-ING. From interviews to cocktail parties, this advice is as relevant today as it was when originally written.
What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?
The internet keeps giving me the gift of sites that can support my clients. For example, there are new tools to identify email conventions at a particular company when a client doesn’t know how to reach that friend of a friend for networking. Sites like Owler will tell you what a company does and who their competition is which is key to helping clients prepare for interviews. Every new city and industry association tends to have its own free job board that can be found with minimal sleuthing to learn about more specialized roles. Helping clients realize how accessible their network can be and how much is available to them is one of my favorite parts of what I do, and it feels like I’m finding new tools and ideas all the time.
Who is your business role model? Why?
My husband – works in high-poverty school districts around the country and is very effective in improving (reducing) failure rates. He works very hard and does truly excellent work that improves a lot of lives. It is very rewarding to have an impact on my clients’ lives by supporting their careers, but I do not have the reach and impact on society my husband does.
How do you balance work and life?
I have a teenage daughter and a dog who does not let me work too long without taking a break! I also try to limit the number of clients I’ll take at any one time. That way during the weeks when my personal life or my IP development schedule needs to take more time than usual, none of my clients suffer. And vice versa. That said, it is always a delicate balance growing and operating a business at the same time. There is never one easy answer.
What’s your favorite way to decompress?
Doing anything outside, or with my family. Books, dogs, and exercise are the big three for me.
What do you have planned for the next six months?
My first book will be out in about six months! It will allow me to reach a wider audience with my methodology and hopefully expand my practice to a wider audience. Using examples and case studies, it will provide step-by-step tactics and strategies for conducting a successful job search. I’m very proud of it and hopeful that it will become the resource for many that I wish I had back in the day.
How can our readers connect with you?
Readers can find me at www.jobcoachamy.com, or email me directly at amy@jobcoachamy. I’m also on Twitter, Youtube, and Linkedin.