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The FA Experience: Fernando’s Big Promotion

Fernando came to me as a physician in the pharmaceutical industry looking for help getting a major internal promotion that would be his biggest career advancement since coming to Canada a few years ago. We navigated the politics and the four interviews Fernando went through. There were some ups and downs and it finally came through! Here’s Fernando’s story using Focused Ambition in his own words.

How did you find Focused Ambition?

Through a Google search. I found two options that seemed to offer the same service so I decided to try both. I followed the instructions provided on both websites and the result could not have been more apart. The other one resulted in an automatic calendar invite for 4 or 5 business days after the day I was doing the Google search. With Focused Ambition though, I received an email from Anna within 5 minutes, offering to have a call right away to see how FA could help me. We had the call and I was convinced that was exactly what I needed. Needless to say I went ahead and canceled the other appointment.

What was the process like?

Smooth. As a “new Canadian” ready to apply for a different job for the first time in this country I didn’t know what to expect or how to approach it; is it the same than in my home country? are there any considerations to be taken that I am not aware of? will the language barrier play a key role? and if so how to be prepared? etc.

Anna started by asking multiple questions and ensuring she was getting the proper information in order to come with a plan on how to prepare for the interviews and any surrounding interactions I might have with hiring managers.

Probably one of the things I liked the most is the thoroughness of the process. I had to do a lot of work on the background that eventually resulted in me having solid examples of my experience and my success stories throughout my career. This work made possible to come up with solid examples right on the spot, at the time of the interview, as opposed to providing the typical answers over and over. This system works nicely in behavioral-type interviews, but FA does not only prepare you for that, you also get a thorough prep for the typical questions and examples every interviewer asks.

Another great thing I loved about this experience was the opportunity of doing “mock interviews”. One thing is preparing for an interview and the other is to actually “live” it, experience the normal flow of an interview, practicing how to be able to recover for not very strong answers you provided or just the time put into selling your experience the best possible way.

Last but not least, the level of support for resume writing was superb. With multiple “fine adjustments” my CV suddenly had more power and was able to tell the story much more eloquently.

How could others benefit from FA help?

Anna really focuses on your experience and the position you are applying for. There are so many articles or information you can search for when you are interviewing or looking for a job, but the difference with FA is that you get “trained” to perform well in the interview, not just a bunch of information thrown at you.

What were you most surprised about working with FA?

Nothing really. Ever since the first interaction I had with Anna, it was clear she is experienced and has a lot to offer to any applicant. Perhaps I set high expectations on FA, which were truly met, that is why I don’t think I was surprised about anything. I got the level of support I was looking for, which was consolidated in me getting the position I was applying for.

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