What a Relief!

“Tell me about your clients… What motivates them?”  a curious CEO asked me the other day. While all Barrett Group clients are unique their circumstances may not be.  Here’s what prospects tell us about their motivation… Some are motivated by fear of becoming unemployed, of reaching an income ceiling. Also of their working conditions changing, or of being bullied at work. Others are driven by ambition… for example, “decreasing likelihood of promotions,” “my future earnings are limited,” or “I do the work but lack the title.”

Still others recognize a mismatch between their ideal position and their current circumstances, e.g., “personal needs in relation to employer.” Or “an abundance of stress on the job,” “antagonistic/unprofessional environment,” or “the pressure of office politics.”

And others are simply bored or in any case feel the need to make a change, saying they are “comfortable but want a change,” “at my age a career change is necessary,” “job lacks challenge,” or “I must get into a new industry.”

One common feature though is that our clients experience a sense of relief when they find the Barrett Group. Someone who will finally understand their unique background and aspirations. And someone who is both caring and qualified to help. Someone who can help them translate their experience into an effective career strategy.  Many have spent months battering their heads against an indifferent job market, often because they are approaching only the published market or the recruiter market—like an iceberg—the 25% of the market that is publicly visible.  As one successful Barrett Group client opined…

“What you don’t do often, you don’t do well. For me, that was job seeking,” said Chris. “I’d made only three or four career changes in entire life, but The Barrett Group does this for a living. They know all the tricks in the book.” 

“The Barrett Group’s process is very complete. They began by assessing my personality, my communication style, and my goals. Then they tailored their process to my needs,” said Chris. [Chris Burger, Head of Revenue Technology and Operations] 

We also help our clients understand and penetrate the vibrant and enormous unpublished market where fully 75% of our clients land.  [Read More: Why are you peering through a keyhole at the executive job market?]

Beyond our caring and supportive attitude, another reason clients experience relief when they  sign on entails our tried and true process that leads clients through five major steps, demonstrating a very high success rate for those who follow the process. [Read More: Hundreds of Happy Executives.]  The process begins with the Targeting Step (our Clarity Program©). 

“I really like the Clarity Program© and my Clarity coach, Scott Brown. He is very good at what he does,” said Derek. “He got me to look internally. He got me to consider the social and financial parts of my life, my goals past and present, and where I see myself in the future. He made me think more than I’ve ever done in other similar courses. To be honest, it’s probably one of the most valuable things I’ve done in a long, long time.” [Read More: Derek Maxwell, Senior Manager of Engineering and Supply Chain.]

Quite often it is a relief to clients to see that they have other options. 

Our process helps clients reorient their careers to faster growing, more promising, or more enjoyable industries.  Think of us as “masters of reinvention,” because that is what we help our clients achieve.  [Read More Do You Have Tremendous Transferability?]

Oh, and one more source of relief: our system simply works.  After the Clarity Program© successful clients also work their ways through the personal branding, market access, preparation, and on-boarding steps in the program to reach unprecedented results:

So far this year

• 81% of our landed clients earn more than $150,000*
• 51% earn $200,000 or more*
• 31% earn $250,000 or more*
• 47% have a VP, SVP, EVP, or C-level title.

*refers to base compensation only, excluding bonus and perks.

We can also typically add $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 or more in bonus, benefits, perks, and sometimes even equity participation as a part of the offer negotiation process. [Compensation: Read More.]

What about you?  If you have been seeking but not finding that ideal executive position, perhaps you could do with a little relief, too.  What are you waiting for?  Give us a call.

Peter Irish, CEO
The Barrett Group

Editor’s Note:

In this particular blog post “executives” will generally refer to the Vice President, Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Information Officer, Managing Partner, General Counsel, Head, and President titles. Unless otherwise noted, the data in this Update will largely come from LinkedIn and represents a snapshot of the market as it was at the time of the research.

Is LinkedIn truly representative? Here’s a little data: LinkedIn has more than 800 million users. (See source) It is by far the largest and most robust business database in the world, now in its 19th year. LinkedIn defines the year over year change (YOY Change) as the change in the number of professionals divided by the count as of last year and “attrition” as the departures in the last 12 months divided by the average headcount over the last year.