Hidden Gems: Meet Amy Feind Reeves of JobCoachAmy

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Feind Reeves.

Hi Amy, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I have been obsessed with helping new grads and people in transition find careers that make them happy for a long time. I graduated from a really good college late last century with a very respectable GPA and thought I had done everything I was supposed to do. My fellow classmates were flocking to Wall Street training programs so that was where I figured I should go too. “How hard could it be?” I thought. But a few months after graduation, I watched my friends take their empty briefcases off to their first days of work while I remained jobless. I was crushed. I had worked hard and done everything I had been told to do in my job search. And I had great suits! I had no idea where to turn, nor did my family or friends who wanted to help but didn’t know how.

By the following spring, I had landed one of those jobs and found that not only did I enjoy it, but I was good at it. How was it possible that I couldn’t even land an interview the year before? I had spent the year working a far less glamorous job, but during the time had taught myself how to job search and how to interview. It’s a process like any other, with skills you can learn. But no one ever lays it out, beginning to end, in common sense terms. As a hiring manager for the next few decades, my heart broke for the people I interviewed who continued to come unprepared with what we needed.

So ten years ago, when my husband asked me what I really wanted to do if I could do anything, I did not have to think about it. I put together what I thought was the simplest and most common-sense methodology I could and started JobCoachAmy. I’ve been using it successfully ever since to help people in transition at all levels, including C-suite.

I’m proud to have recently published my first book, College to Career, Explained: Tools, Skills & Confidence for Your Job Search. I have more products in the works, including some online courses in development so that I can broaden the scope of what I have to share.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My own career was not a smooth one. What I did not realize at the time, and what I like to tell clients now, is that every experience I had became incredibly useful to me in my role as JobCoachAmy. So, you never know when an experience is happening, what it may lead to in the future. I can relate to the difficult experiences my clients share because I have gone through my own. I also fully understand the gratification that comes from doing something very well and becoming a recognized leader as a result. Having been a senior manager, I can usually tell a client how a particular situation is being viewed and what a good way to address it proactively may be. In hindsight, I am grateful for every bump and turn in the road as it makes me a more valuable resource for my clients now.

In founding this company, my second entrepreneurial experience but my first solo operation, I struggled with a market that had not yet been well-defined. Hiring a coach to help high school grads get into a great college is a mature service while hiring a coach to help a college grad find a job is a newer idea. I have had to pivot in identifying my market (not just new grads and not just their parents), and how to reach them (word of mouth is really the best way for me to grow, so investing my time in a free consultation rather than investing in marketing has the best pay off). That takes time, trial and error, and patience. But it is necessary to find your groove.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about JobCoachAmy?
Here’s what sets my services apart: Imagine if someone asked you how to travel by air because they had never done it before. How would you start to explain it to them? By explaining how to get the best price on tickets? That’s not an easy answer. How would you tackle when they should arrive at the airport? What about describing TSA? It’s a difficult thing to ask of someone and a difficult thing to answer.

First-time job seekers and people facing complex job transitions are in the same boat. There is no single resource that lays out what to do from beginning to end. I know that first-hand because I searched high and low for a resource during the two specific times in my life when I needed one. First, when I graduated from college. And later, when I suddenly became a single mother and could no longer keep a consultant’s travel schedule but needed a consulting-level salary more than ever. When my second husband gave me the chance to use the experience I had gained during almost three decades as a banker, global management consultant, entrepreneur, corporate executive and non-profit executive to become that resource- I took it. For the last ten years, I’ve been enjoying working with professionals at all levels to find and keep jobs they love.

What also sets me apart is that I can approach this process with a unique perspective- as a hiring manager. I’ve been the person on the other side of the table who is the decision maker. Not the Human Resource Business Partner or the Recruiter who is the screener, but the manager who is going to put you on their budget and who fought for the line item that is your salary. I know what makes a candidate stand out because I’ve made hiring decisions with teams and as the head of teams.

I have worked closely with management and executive teams across a wide variety of industries as a consultant on how to create, structure, staff, manage and measure the performance of organizational teams. From this perspective, I have interviewed hundreds more hiring managers about what it takes to be successful in key roles across multiple functions including marketing, sales, operations, logistics, product development, finance, customer success, inventory management, design and more. Because I have an in-depth understanding of what is required of these roles and how they interact within their overall organizations, I can provide an edge to my clients transitioning into something that is new for them.

My product offerings are specifically designed for four groups: new grads, mid-career professionals seeking a transition, C-Suite Executives seeking a change, and organizations looking to short-cut the big consulting project and find fast, high-impact ways to improve the way they manage Gen Z and Gen Y employees that can to increase retention of those employees and in turn, lower overall costs.

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
As JobCoachAmy, being able to make a difference in someone’s life is why I do this and when I count myself successful. Every client who I have been able to help with a transition to a place where they are happier has been meaningful to me. I do hope that with the publication of my recent book, I will be able to get my services in the hands of a wider audience.