Matteo

Client: Matteo was senior director of worldwide supply chain for a leading designer and producer of luxury accessories.

Industry: Luxury Goods, Fashion

Function: Supply Chain, Operations, Transformation

Challenge: Matteo wanted to evolve from a supply chain specialist to a broader transformation leader.

Process: TCD helped Matteo reframe his supply chain expertise as transformation capability and identify companies seeking this combination.

Landing: Matteo was senior director of worldwide supply chain for a leading designer and producer of luxury accessories in Europe.

Soon after starting a new job, Matteo’s new company turned out not to be a good cultural fit, but his efforts to find another job weren’t yielding the results he wanted.

“I used LinkedIn more heavily over time, but by late fall I had exhausted my network. I didn’t know where else to go to get referrals.”

“I spent a week researching The Career Doctor (TCD) and decided to give it a try. I realized I needed very structured help and I found it with them,” said Matteo.

Matteo began Career Plan step in December and was surprised by how much he learned about himself in just four sessions.

“My coach, Beata Piskorz, was very nice, very professional, and always available. Beata really challenged me to brainstorm different things about myself. She particularly homed in on character traits that emerged from my psych test that seemed a bit unusual,” said Matteo.

After the Career Plan, Matteo transitioned to working with his career consultant, Isabelita Castilho.

“Isabelita was a force of nature!” said Matteo. “I cannot say enough good things about her. She was also great about availability – and I was terrible about bombarding her with meeting requests. She is the kind of coach that is tough but in a fair way.”

„I cannot say enough good things about her. She was also great about availability – and I was terrible about bombarding her with meeting requests. She is the kind of coach that is tough but in a fair way.”

For Matteo, the most valuable aspect of his TCD experience, however, was learning how to optimize his social capital.

“Learning about the concept of paying it forward from Isabelita was a lightbulb moment for me. I had a decent network and had always kept good relationships, but I realized from her that I wasn’t maximizing them,” said Matteo. “When I started to nurture my network using pro bono consulting in the way Isabelita suggested, that is when my job search really started to take off.”

Matteo came to fully appreciate the power of paying it forward from his experience with two or three particular people in his network.

“One of my contacts knows a lot of people and had provided me with some names a few months back, but nothing came of those contacts,” said Matteo.

After I hired TCD, I called him again and offered to put him in touch with a former boss of mine, who would be a great professional contact for this guy. During that conversation, he was surprised to learn that I was still looking for a job.

“That individual was responsible for two of the job offers I got,” said Matteo.

In the end, Matteo accepted a position as executive VP of operations and transformation for a luxury fashion company in New York City, where he got a great feeling about everyone he met.

“This pay it forward thing is so easy, yet it’s such a powerful tool,” said Matteo. “Once you see the potential it can unleash, it’s fantastic! It’s one of the best things about the TCD program!”

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