Job Searching in the “New Normal”

You lost your job due to the pandemic? – How cliché!  Cliché or not, it’s the position I find myself in today.  

As I was updating my resume and preparing for what I’m expecting to be an extended job search due to conditions caused by the pandemic, I looked up from my computer to take a moment and reflect on my career highlights & accomplishments. The scene before me, shared in the picture above, is my personal version of the “New Normal.”   However, all is well… I know I have much for which to be thankful!

Mental note to self: Be sure to include on my resume my most recent experience as middle & elementary school teacher, School principal, IT department head, cafeteria worker, janitor, PE teacher, and school psychologist (for myself and for the beautiful woman who helps me run this “virtual” school).

Throughout my career I’ve worked as both an individual contributor and as a manager. I've been successful in Product Marketing, Sales, and Sales Management for Software, Ad-Tech/Mar-tech, and SaaS/DaaS sectors. I’ve worked at small start-ups with only 15 employees, and at large international corporations with more than 100k employees. I enjoy the benefits and challenges found in both small and large companies but tend to favor small to medium sized companies. I am looking for a new opportunity in Sales, Sales Management, Sales Operations, Customer Development, or Account Management.

Career Highlights:

 Sales/Business Development:

• As an individual contributor in sales I’ve achieved top sales recognition at multiple companies for both quarterly (up to $3M) and annual (up to $8M) personal sales achievement.  
• I’ve sold a $3.5M custom branded experience on Xbox to a major wireless/telecom company. The first of its kind sold to a major telecom company on Xbox.
• I’ve negotiated Multimillion-dollar annual channel product partnerships with major companies.

Life Lesson: Hard work always pays. 

Sales Manager:

• I’ve helped establish remote sales offices (four in the U.S. and one in the UK) first building a customer base in the region and then hiring and managing the sellers for each office.
• I established a remote sales office in Atlanta starting as an individual seller working from home to managing team of 8 people achieving more than $14M in annual sales.

Life Lesson: Good managers lead. Great managers serve.

Early Career:

• My first job out of college was as a staffing consultant for the Industrial Robotics industry.  At 22 years old I had the good fortune of convincing the editor of Robotics World magazine to publish an article I had written about the supply & demand gap for Engineering talent in the automated/robotics manufacturing industry.  

Life Lesson: Sometimes you just need to ask

Product Manager & Product Marketer:

• Remember Office 2010? I was at the launch party in Redmond, WA! I worked on a small team with the responsibility for the ad monetization strategy and execution for the office.com website.  At the time it had the largest reach for small business decision makers in the world.

Life Lesson: Advertising isn’t Microsoft’s thing

As I look at this picture of my wife and 7 kids (2 adopted) at our kitchen table, I’m reminded of when we purchased the table my wife and I committed to adopting three more kids so we could fill every seat.

If I’m going to fill those last three seats at our table, I’ll need to get to work again soon! Who’s hiring? I’m ready!

 Life Lesson: Love your neighbor.

Please help me spread the word by liking, sharing, or commenting. Thanks in advance!

Sincerely, Burke