Career Path Seminar

When you look at your Career leader results note these area specifically:

“My Interests” make sure what you want hits the highest ranking categories

“My Mo vators” this is what gets you out of bed to do work each day—make sure

the job career you follow hits the highest ranking mo vators

“Career Match” you will want to focus your career search in the top racking areas

on this list. If what you thought you wanted to do is not on this list– use the Career

Center to help you understand the results of this assessment more fully.

“My Culture Match” most people leave due to bad bosses which can create a

culture misfit. Be sure to read carefully where you have a “High” fit level.

Elements of Occupa onal Research:

Values (loca on, family, travel, etc)

Salary/Budget

Company Culture ***

Personal and Professional Goals

Company Culture:

Watch this video: h ps://www.candidcareer.com/video‐company+culture,b81329326dbb11caff44,CSUSanMarcos

Company culture refers to the personality of a company. It defines the environment in which employees work.

Company culture includes a variety of elements, including work environment, company mission, value, ethics, expecta‐

ons, and goals. Some companies have a team‐based culture with employee par cipa on on all levels, while some

businesses have a more tradi onal and formal management style. Other companies have a casual workplace without

many rules and regula ons.

If you work for a company where you don’t fit in with the company culture, you are likely to take far less pleasure out

of your work. For example, if you prefer to work independently, but work for a company that emphasizes teamwork (or

has shared office spaces), you are likely to be less happy and less efficient.

When you work at a company with a tradi onal management style, your job responsibili es will be clearly defined, and

there may not be opportuni es to advance without going through a formal promo on or transfer process.

At a more casual workplace, employees o en have the opportunity to take on new projects, and addi onal roles, as me permits. If you're looking for a company that's fun to work for, the company culture will be a big component of

your decision making when evalua ng prospec ve employers. Company culture is important to employers too because workers who fit in with the company culture are likely to not only be happier, but more produc ve. When an employee fits in with the culture, they are also likely to want to work for that company for longer. This saves the company money and makes them money at the same me. Career Center Contact Informa on: Craven Hall 1400 Phone: 760‐750‐4900 Email: careers@csusm.edu

Peter Ronche , now re red—was President/General Manager of Legoland

(2008—Jan 2020) (Career Leader results in black box)

Entertainment Parks

Distribu on

Restaurants

Susan DeMelo, now re red—was VP of Sales for ADP Payroll, with ADP from 1988

— 2018 (Career Leader results in black box)

Top 5 from Career Leader Assessment

Training and Organiza onal Development

Human Resources Management

Management Consul ng

Business Development and Sales

Sales Management

Started school to become a lawyer and then did an informa onal

interview with just 1 person and decided against it.

Then switched to be a Psychology Major and volunteered at County

Mental Health an decided against that too. Then her dad passed away as she graduated college—she

lived in Mexico for 6 months before she could come back to go on to her next stage of life.

Decided she wanted to make money and realized being in sales would make that happen and seriously

looked at ADP and Pharmaceu cal sales. Did a ride along with reps from each place and decided ADP

was be er.

She had done an internship at Disney while in school and LOVED it and they came back to her with a job

a er she started at ADP, and she was just star ng to date her husband—so she stayed at ADP.

Started in sales, enjoyed the corporate structure and the extensive training and stayed for 30 years.

Climbing the management ladder because she really enjoyed the Human Resources, Training and Sales

mentoring. She always liked the idea of being a teacher but wanted to get paid more—this job allowed

her to do just that.

She got married and had a child. Her husband’s career took a back seat so she could do the VP of Sales

job. His job required them to move a lot and they did not want to do that because of their daughter so

he maintained lower level jobs. He passed away a few years ago and she re red early and is able to

pursue her interests 100% of the me.

Takeaways: 

1.  Do many informa onal interviews, and internships—you need to really see the real side of what you think you want to do 

2.  Meet as many people as you can and keep that network going as it will help you get what you want 

3.  Document the items you do that set you apart so that when it comes  me to talk about it you are prepared. 

Carleen Kreider, now re red—was President Global Market Development for

Aptar, was with Aptar from 1977 — 2018 (Career Leader results in black box)

Early jobs were dog walker, florist shop assistant and

server.

Wanted to be a doctor and got a degree in Biology

then failed organic chemistry and pivoted to being a

researcher. She then had an internship between Jr

and Sr year in Pharmaceu cal Research ‐‐ she thought

that is what she wanted to do with her bio degree ‐‐

hated everything about it! Went back as Senior and did marke ng and business!

Got a job through a headhunter as a line supervising 25 people at Johnson and

Johnson and disliked the en re process — specifically the culture was poor for her personality. It was like

drinking from a fire hose.

Same headhunter called her a year later to see if she would be interested in going to a packaging

company—she started and loved the culture and proceeded to stay there for 40 years.At Seaquist she

was super successful in the customer service lab ‐‐ happy as a clam and the VP sales asked if she would

join his team ‐‐ she was very reluctant and risk averse ‐‐ her boss encouraged her to go into sales and

voila, learning about their customers unlocked the key to the VP, EVP and president roles that followed.

She was able to change her posi ons based on what was needed within the company and what her

interests were. She started as a lab supervisor then promoted to lab manager. She decided she liked

marke ng and got her MBA in Marke ng. She then worked as a Sales Manager for 6 years,

VP of Research and Development for 10 years, VP of innova on for 6 years and Execu ve VP and general

Manager for 2 years before the company transi oned and then she became President of Global Market

Development for 8 years un l she re red. All in all, there were 12 different jobs over those 40 years. She

managed a $600 Million dollar budget at the end.

Takeaways: 

1.  Grow and learn in the posi on you are in. 

2.  Add to your knowledge without outside training 

3.  If you like the culture of the company– stay—if you don’t like it, then leave and find a place where 

you can thrive 

Carolyn France, Business owner ‐ Trusted Resource Services 2014 — present

Began working at 15 1/2 by addressing envelopes for customer Mailing’s for a friend’s dad’s company that sold electrical switches. Did a variety of admin tasks for them un l age 18. Started community college and got some of general educa on done before dropping out of school. Obtained a clerical posi on with Los Angeles County Superior Court in the Pomona courthouse. Got that job from a job lis ng at the community college. Did a variety of tasks, filing, docket entry, calendar prep for the criminal departments. Worked there for about two years. Le the courthouse posi on because she wanted to work for a law firm and become legal secretary at Jacoby & Myers. Got training at O’Melveny & Myers in how to be legal secretary and worked there for about a year. Used a employment agency to get a job as an execu ve secretary for a small bank. Worked for officers of the bank and also took minutes at board of directors mee ngs. Worked there for about a year and a half. Then through another employment agency, got a job working in downtown LA at a major law firm as legal secre‐tary. Worked there for about a year. Then moved to Paul Has ngs law firm for more money as legal secretary. Got that job through friend who worked at prior firm who had since moved to Paul Has ngs. Immediately assigned to work for a partner. Worked for him for five years. Then transferred to the Orange County office. While at Paul Has‐

ngs’ Orange County office, she was a legal secretary who was not assigned to any specific desk for five years and that was good because it kept the job interes ng. She got married at this me. Around this me period, got a cer ficate in event planning from CSULB extension in order to start a wedding plan‐ning business which operated for five years. At its busiest, there were 20 weddings in one year. Shut business a er 5 years so could have weekends back. She was divorced around this me. She returned to school and finished community college and got a cer ficate in Human Resources. Then transferred to CSUF for a Bachelors in commu‐nica ons, emphasis in PR. Maintained her posi on at Paul Has ngs through it all. A er 15 years at Paul Has ngs the partner she worked for and three other partners decided to leave and set up their own firm. Went with them, eventually to become office administrator. Firm grew to 18+ A orneys and a to‐tal of 30+ employees and moved office several mes. Managed mul ple hires/termina ons/lots of interviews (both staff and a orney), mul ple build‐outs, IT upgrades, benefits roll‐outs, event planning. She was married again in 2009. Le that firm a er 11 years because she wanted to explore other office management areas and the stress of the job was too much. Culture had changed considerably. Also, she had stable income from her husband to rely upon to start a new career opportunity. Started Trusted Resource Services in 2014 and has mul ple clients that she provide administra ve management service for ‐ move management, hiring, termina ons, bookkeeping, benefits management, event planning and general administra ve tasks.. Serves over 35 clients with independent administra ve work for a hedge fund com‐pany, an author, law firms and other small businesses. Is making more money than she did working for a company and it is more interes ng because she gets to choose what she works on. Takeaway: If you are offered an opportunity to try something—Do it—you may really like it!

Mike Budd, Es mator ‐ Erickson Hall 2014 — present

Took mul ple ap tude assessments in junior high and high school and all came back that he was good with numbers and manual dexterity and the sugges on was for him to go into construc on/ general contrac ng. Had spent many years building things with his father and enjoyed figuring out how things worked. A ended 3 semesters of college and decided instead to go directly into construc on and started working as an Es mator (review the job, iden fy the company costs, add in profit and provide the informa on to the sales person or client) for Penhall Company in 1984 in San Diego County. Eventually moved up into management and changed to the Orange County office (while living in Temecula and being newly married) and became a troubleshooter and managed the evalua on of the businesses Penhall was looking to acquire. His wife holds a Bachelor sin Business Administra on from SDSU and she they moved to Temecula she had a professional job at Abbo . They had their first baby (of two) and was a stay at home mom for 18 years and never went back to a career job. He specialized in opera ons and the company requested that he go to Bakersfield in the mid 90’s to review a company they wanted to purchase. He and his wife rented out their Temecula home during that me and took their 1 year old son and moved to Bakersfield. A er two years, he moved back to the Orange County office and back into their Temecula home. His posi on evolved according to the company’s needs and managed the IT department for 8 years. The posi on presented itself because he asked for a specific career track from the management and that is what they provided him with and he enjoyed it. As the company grew they would send Mike to the newly acquired companies to onboard the employees to the Penhall way of managing their opera on processes and align their IT to the corporate office. One job built upon the next in his career. Le in 2003 because he was red of driving from Temecula to Anaheim daily. Went to work for 3 other local construc on companies successively (3 years each) because he wanted to stay local and be near his growing family. A er the last company, took a year to reflect on what he enjoyed most in his career and that was being an Es mator. One thing he clearly learned in that year without a job was that he can’t stand not working….so re re‐ment for his future will look much different than he thought it would because he had was able to see what that would be like in advance. Started working at Erickson Hall in 2014 as an Es mator (back to what he truly loves—numbers) and is responsible for extremely large projects because he has the experience to do that from his 19 years at Penhall and 9 years at other firms and in mately knows the process of the business. His Takeaway: As soon as you find what you enjoy expand upon it.  Don’t think that something else will be be er—s ck with the thing that you like.  If you decide to try something new—be sure you have other areas of your life stable so you can try it with less risk.  We all make bad choices—but if you minimize the nega ve then you learn the lesson without a large “price.” 

Karen Gunther, Business Owner Stay Visible Marke ng 2012 – present (Career Leader results in black box)

Top 5 from Career Leader Assessment

Business Development and Sales

Sales Management

Marke ng and Marke ng Management

Management Consul ng

Produc on and Opera ons Management

First Job was at Supercuts as a recep onist then the Container Store in customer service, then managed a small university bookshop where understanding the customers needs and the bookstore sales were very important to the monthly flow of business.

Did not have an internship, but did speak to different professionals, yet did not understand what their jobs really were. Always wanted to be a corporate sales rep—it looked interes ng and exci ng.

Graduated from CSUSM COBA 1993 with a Business Management degree with a focus on marke ng. First job was found through a professor of CSUSM and became a sales rep for ADVO, a Direct Mail Marke ng company. Stayed there for 2 years and realized that there was more to sales than originally thought and she didn’t know how to succeed. Also—it was a very large company and the culture was not a good match once new managers came in.

Became an administra ve assistant for sales people at other companies and learned what they did by watching them, and then she excelled in customer service and client follow up and consistent communica on.

Ended up at a family run furniture rental company and went from being customer service to Vice President of Sales within 10 years. Moved from San Diego to Orange County during this me for a change of scenery and as a result of promo on and a pay raise because she received an offer from anoth‐er company and the furniture company wanted to keep her. Stayed at furniture rental place from 1997‐2007. Management changed and it was uncomfortable to stay there as the culture had changed.

In 2007 went to work for Kimball Office (Office Furniture Manufacturer) to get back into a large corporate en ty and had a hard me with the structure and le a er 5 years (was let go by a manager that she didn’t get along with, again a management change and culture change).

Realized that she does her best when working directly with the clients, solving their problems, managing her own workflow and being challenged by technology and started her own marke ng company and works with over 50 clients across the United States. Never once did Karen think she would be an entre‐preneur, she always thought she was a company person (she is NOT).

The first jobs of managing the bookstore (workflow and clients), the direct mail job (client sign off of proofs and doing her own collec ons), the furniture rental job (learning all facets of how a company works) were great experience for her current company that she now owns.

Take Away: A lesson is found in each job— no ma er how small, it will help you in the future. 

First Sales

Commission $5

18 years old

Holly Rau, Managing Director, PeopleSpace July 2019 – present

From an early age she was an ice skater, and then went professional as a figure skater from 1991‐1993. A very challenging and compe ve sport. Once that requires not only skill but presenta on and grace under pres‐sure– all excellent for a high profile sales career.

Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology with a Minor in German in CSU Sacra‐mento with Ethnographic Anthropologic Field Work at UC Davis Medical School 1995‐97. Interviewed and transcripted home remedy prac ces and belief system of (post Soviet) Ukrainian American refugees in Sacra‐mento. Published paper "Voices that Heal".

She never lost her love for wri ng. She is currently working on 2 white papers for indus‐try ...One is called "The Last 5%" . Its about how the last 5% of anything in the contract office furniture dealership services determines the overall customer experience. The other one is (no

tle yet) is how the consumer products industry is re‐shaping contract furniture. Think Amazon. Needless to say, she applies her Anthropologic approach in her role and industry every day throughout her en re career.

While in school worked at Chevy’s Mexican Restaurants and started as a server and over me became a corporate trainer Opened 6 volume‐based restaurants in the California region. Responsibili es included hiring, training, and crea ng a team environment in a high churn restaurant. Crossed trained in areas such as food service, bar tending, expedi ng, and floor management

She started in the office furniture world by working for Cort Furniture, a rental furniture company. (She can Karen

would both be bidding on the same jobs from different companies!) She was a sales execu ve focused on develop‐

ing and building business within vital customer rela onships with business segments that included contract deal‐

ers, entertainment industry, law firms, government, execu ve suites, A&D Community, e‐commerce, tech,

healthcare, financial, and start‐up companies. Managed 4 na onal accounts with entertainment studios that made

up of more than 15% of overall sales in Southern California.

Then in 2001 (age 28) she started an 18 year career at Kimball Office, started as a Business Development Manager for 7 years and was responsible for finding, developing, and closing new end‐user business. Partnered closely with Kimball Select dealers in marketplace and networked to build broader brand awareness. Exceeded sales quota for five consecu ve years. In 2008 she transi oned to a Market Sales Manager role for 6 years and was responsible for finding, developing, and closing new business opportuni es with end‐users and fostering growth within dealer network. Manufacturing liaison to A&D community. She was an account manager to 6 na onal accounts. Devel‐oped market specific dealer on‐boarding training. Par cipated and led Kimball Field Sales Advisory Council. Achieved and maintained “Top Seller” standing in the West. In her last 5 years she was an Area Sales Manager where she personally recruited and lead 6 sales professionals and support staff in SoCal, achieving 100% growth in 5 years. Management liaison to influencers and dealer market partners. Played instrumental role in growing 2008 start‐up dealer partner to the 5th largest volume Kimball dealer na onwide. Manage and responsible for Kimball Downtown Los Angeles state‐of‐the‐art showroom and its assets. Le Kimball due to the culture.

While at Kimball she had 2 children and this lead her to make some very different decisions about her career. She was offered the opportunity to work in a Higher level strategic selling role but had to turn it down due to the trav‐el requirements and her young children.

Take Away: Con nue to do your passion—she  con nues to skate as a way to balance her personal and work life and take  me for herself. 

(Holly is the reason Karen started her marke ng company! Karen and Holly worked together for 5 years and remain close friends))