Jeff Kruzich

I became part of the great American Layoff trend in September of 2009. Having been in sales for over 20 years, I was confident I would be able to find another Sales Manager job. 5 years earlier I had been laid off and had another position within 3 months so I wasn’t worried.

I had interviews with 3 companies within the first 2 months and made it to the final two for two of those companies. One, the job got put on indefinite hold, the other they hired someone who had industry experience. Now it was December 2009 and everything came to a screeching halt. There were no new postings on the internet and every lead I had vaporized.

As the New Year dawned, I started combing through my Linkedin contacts to see what I could uncover. I came across the VP of Sales’ name of a very large industrial distributor based in the Chicago area that was a 3^rd connection. Excellent, I had a name! I called and left a message (okay, a few messages). No response. I sent an introduction letter with a resume. No response. I saw a new posting for a sales manager position for the company. Ha! They have an opening! The HR manager I worked with at my previous employer now worked at this company in HR. I applied on-line and sent her my resume to get my name in the pile so I could get an interview. No response. The job has been filled. Now it’s June and I’ve been following other leads, networking, interviewing, but this is the company I want to work for and I don’t like to lose.

READ JEFF’S STORY HERE