I Landed an MBA Level Role and I Live Happily Ever After

Written by Amy VanderVoort

Hollywood always supplies a happy ending and I am glad to supply my readership the same! Amy Vander Voort, MBA has landed. I start my new job in medical sales on October 26, 2009.

For those of you who are keeping track, it’s been 11 months total. Some people will be shocked by the length of my search, others will not. It’s all relative, right? I’m glad it’s less than a year, though. I wasn’t looking forward to facing another holiday season without work and I was worried that things would slow considerably in November and December, leaving my best chances at employment until 2010. It was my time!

When I received the offer, I temporarily went into shock! I had so many things brewing, was in multiple candidate pools and I definitely felt an offer coming. It was anyone’s guess as to which company it would be! I prayed for a position where I could be successful, for myself and my new employer. I also prayed for an environment where I can grow and be nurtured—something that has been missing lately in my career.

Medical sales is an area that has interested me for a long time. I like that all is based on performance. I like being out and meeting new people. Mostly, there are exponentially more jobs in healthcare sales than in hospital administration, in any geographic market or during any economy. I feel this is a great career move, a chance to learn new skills and a way to successfully earn a living for the remainder of my career. Bring it on!

My search has been an amazing journey and a real period of personal growth for me. I have met so many wonderful people who have dispensed advice, encouragement and career ideas and I am so thankful to all of them.

The IAMBA blog has been a particular blessing and boost to my search. I have really enjoyed connecting with everyone online and sharing experiences. The blog also helped me stay in better touch with my contacts which ultimately led to my employment.

On a larger scale, it gave us a voice: the professional, educated job seekers who are having a collective experience and facing the same challenges across the U.S. and the globe. Thank you to everyone who wrote to me on LinkedIn, posted to the IAMBA site and made this into something that was greater than myself. You gave me a gift that I will always treasure.

For those of you who are still in the trenches—hang in there! I did it, and so can you. I was facing the same bad economy, an industry gripped by fear (healthcare) and an unusual resume that confused my interviewers many times! There were days I felt the odds were stacked against me. Have faith in yourself and know that you have value. Stay determined and things will come together for you!

Wishing you all every success!

-Amy

Getting The Pink Slip

Written by Amy Vander Voort
I could feel it coming. I was working for a state entity in a federally-funded program. It looked so stable and I felt lucky to find it in early 2008 with a recession already in play.

Our grant could not cover our expenses. I was working on a number of new programs but they needed the revenue yesterday. I talked to my boss who assured me any lay-off would not include me. He said he wanted to keep people like me who understood business development, co-marketing and the wisdom of strategic partnerships.

I went ahead and bought my dream home. Next came the telltale “department meeting” on all our calendars. Instinctively, I knew what it meant. I hoped our jobs would last until January 2009, giving me a buffer period to start a new job search. No such luck! I was laid off in November 2008, after just seven months in my position.

I walked out to my car, feeling relieved. If the job is going to conclude, at least it is over and I don’t have to worry about impending lay-offs or unreachable revenue goals anymore. This is a new opportunity for me.

I called my folks, who luckily live in my neighborhood in Houston. They said to come over for a glass of wine. I called back and said, “Make it a vodka tonic, please”. My Dad makes the world’s best vodka tonic. After two of those, I felt a little better. It’s time to regroup and see what the next chapter holds.

Amy

Your New MBA Blogger – Amy Vander Voort

Hello Fellow MBA’s!

This is just a quick note to say “Hi!” and introduce myself! I’m a member of the association and your new blogger. I received my MBA from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas in 2003. I’m currently living in Houston and have spent the majority of my career in the healthcare industry. It’s been an interesting ride, especially post-MBA, and I’m looking forward to telling you all about it!

There is more to come so stay tuned!

Amy Vander Voort

The Debate Over Whether to Earn an MBA or a JD

If you have debated about which degree would serve you better, you might be in luck.  There are several universities offering a joint MBA/JD degree.  Ann Levine, the Law School Expert, interviewed me on this topic last week.

Read her article here to get in-depth on the debate.  For some, it might feel like punishment to go through law school and business school at the same time.  For others, it’s just another set of books.

The beautiful thing is that it is no longer an either-or decision.  Now you can have both.

Do Work Life Balance Programs Really Work?

This interview is written by MBAs for MBAs. This week, I interviewed Lisa Sansom. She’s an MBA, a leadership coach, and an expert speaker. She even facilitates the team building process for new MBA cohorts at the Queens School of Business. As a fellow student of organizational behavior, I couldn’t wait to get started.

LISA C: You’re an MBA in Organizational Behavior and an expert on interpersonal communications. Give us a tip or two for increasing our self-awareness at work.

LISA S: When you encounter a frustrating situation or conversation, the first thing to do is take a disempassioned deep breath and ask yourself “How am I contributing, intentionally or unintentionally, to this situation?” Take a minute, ponder, and then the next thing that comes out of your mouth should be a question that will honestly help you to understand the other person’s point of view – a meaningful and open inquiry. Spend some time, as Stephen Covey says, seeking first to understand the other person. Set your own ego and opinions aside – just for a moment. you don’t have to relinquish them entirely, but ask a few questions to turn on your own light bulb first.

LISA C: You’ve facilitated 360 reviews. What can be gained from participating in a 360 process?

LISA S: 360 reviews provide two very interesting opportunities – one is for you to receive feedback from other sources in an honest fashion, and the second is for you to compare your own perceptions with those around you. It is important in 360s to remember that this is all about perceptions. Often, the 360 recipient, when seeing the results, focuses on the negatives and says “What can I do differently?” I would suggest that there are two alternative questions that would enrich the 360 experience: 1. “Where are my strengths that I can leverage?” and 2. “What are the perceptions that I can change?” The second question is subtly different in that it focuses your attention on the perceptions of the other person, rather than your own actions. It may be that your actions are fine, but you are not managing the relationship well enough that the other person is clear on your actions and intentions.

LISA C: As a writer for Your Workplace magazine, you’ve touched a lot on change management and work-life balance issues. What’s your take on work-life balance? Can it be done? If so, what does success look like?

LISA S: Work-life balance is highly individual and the challenge comes when an organization decides to make this a corporate value or to impose work-life balance requirements across the board. For some, working 35 hours per week is work-life balance, preferring more “life”. For others, believe it or not, 70-80 hours per week is work-life balance, preferring to shift the emphasis to “work”. Neither of these are wrong, and it is difficult, if not impossible, for a corporate strategy to accommodate and support both. The best way to tackle work-life balance, I believe, is through individual attention. It is incumbent upon the management and leadership of a company to somehow craft a method through which managers are empowered to enable work-life balance for each individual team member. This is often not done because of the perception of unfairness – that someone who is working 35 hours is “getting off easy” compared to the person who is working 70, but if the work is getting done to high standards, and communication is clear across the team that there is organizationally-approved individual choice at play, then the discomfort with the apparent “unfairness” should be minimal.

LISA C: When a new, ‘big thing’ gets implemented in the workplace, how can we use early adopters to support change management success?

LISA S: Turn your early adopters into Change Champions. And cultivate early adopters who are the informal leaders in the organization – the people who work next to your potential change recipients, the people who are respected and recognized, the people who are good communicators and represent the organization professionally. Give those Champions training on how to be Change Champions – teach them about the project, seek their input and feedback, help them craft messages to send to the larger population.

LISA C: At the Queen’s School of Business, you facilitate the process of new MBA students becoming a team. When these teams are ‘norming’, what’s the most interesting dynamic you see?

LISA S: At the QSB, we have teams actually create norms documents – what are the guidelines or rules by which they will operate as a team in the MBA program. So, when teams are writing their norms in the MBA programs, there tends to be a great deal of harmony and alignment – most students come into the program as professionals with a certain work ethic, and so the norms creation process tends to be smooth, if a little wordy. However, what truly distinguishes the “high performing teams” from those that are just average is how the teams make use of their norms. The higher performing teams not only live their norms, but they openly and intentionally discuss the norms. They create times to actively review the norms documents that they created, and the team members intentionally refer to the team norms during debriefing sessions, working meetings and individual conversations with other team members. For these strong teams, the norms are meaningful and incorporated into the team’s DNA. For less effective teams, the norms are, at best, words on a page and, at worst, ignored entirely after their creation.

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Thank you Lisa for participating in our interview series.

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