Stephanie Jones Lands as Consultant to Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products
By Frances Chaves
Stephanie Jones began her new job as Transitional Team Consultant for Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products (J & J) on May 12, 2014. Stephanie had been in transition for 21 months.
Getting on the insider track for this job was a direct result of Stephanie’s work for the Professional Services Group of Central New Jersey (PSGCNJ). Stephanie was observed leading the weekly Friday Marketing & Events Committee meeting by an old business connection. The connection was curious about Stephanie’s current work. “I explained my work at PSGCNJ and then the contact described her own work with J&J’s syndicated data. As I had done the same work for CPG companies, the contact took my card. A few months later, she called to tell me a transitional team was being formed to guide J&J Consumer Products through transferring from one syndicated db provider to another. After submitting my resume, I did a first interview by telephone, followed by two ‘live’ panel interviews and two WebEx panel interviews. Things moved quickly and I received an offer within two weeks,” said Stephanie.
Stephanie’s work experience with PSGCNJ was important to landing the job in other ways as well. “PSGCNJ allowed me to add a current job to my resume. My responsibilities as Chair of the Marketing & Event Committee and Presenter at the weekly General Session meetings demonstrated how I stayed active while in transition. My work as Scorecard Analyst, collaborating with the Membership Committee and utilizing the data they collect, kept my marketing resume relevant as did the social media campaigns I was involved in.”
Stephanie says that PSGCNJ forced her to organize her week by attending the General Session meetings on Monday, Membership Committee meetings on Wednesday, and the Marketing & Event Committee meetings on Friday. She said, “PSGCNJ gave structure to my week and purpose to my efforts by volunteering for such a great organization. What could be better than using your skill set to help people get back into the workforce?”
“PSGCNJ kept my Client Service skills honed. Working with volunteers can be compared to working with clients. You have to inspire cooperation amongst those who do not have to produce anything for you and motivate those to work on projects in which they might not have a vested interest. As volunteers can be challenging, I was able to practice the craft of inspiring those around me to work for a common goal wherein they are dedicating a lot of time on a volunteer basis (not getting compensated for their efforts when they really need to get paid!) just because it is a worthy cause,” said Stephanie.
Stephanie considers the most important lesson she learned in getting hired was being “out and about” in the business world, rubbing shoulders with professionals. “The interesting thing is, that I did not truly realize this is what I was doing. One could say it was synchronicity but then again if I was not as active as I was with PSGCNJ this would not have happened for me. I believe in karma and feel that by working so hard within the PSGCNJ community, it exposed me to the opportunity. Essentially, the informal meeting at Panera Bread was a job interview for me and I was unaware of this at that time,” she said.
Stephanie’s advice for jobseekers: “Always be positive and look at the glass as half full, no matter how bad your day might be going. You never know who you might run into during the course of your day and you always have to make a positive impression. Leverage your PSGCNJ contacts to keep you motivated and inspire those around you to keep up the quest to land. If you listen and follow what PSGCNJ teaches through their community, it will work for you eventually. Just be patient. I know it’s hard, but in the meantime, you can meet some great professionals who enrich your life during this tough time in your life. Only fellow PSGCNJ members ‘get it’!”
Good luck to Stephanie in her new consulting role!