#TBCResults: From stay-at-home-mom to working fully remote as HR in just 57 days
#TBCResults - 047 - Gwy: From stay-at-home-mom to working fully remote as HR in just 57 days
Gwy’s Problem:
“I'm a first time mom and my goal is to regain my confidence in presenting myself, and to land a job that has a hybrid work setup and can offer a pay that's higher than my previous base pay (25, 000.00).”
“[I’m looking for work as] either a learning and development specialist or a paralegal.”
Gwy started our call by sharing 3 facts about herself.
Her baby was turning 1.
She tried to be a VA and found out she didn't really like it.
Her work experience before having her baby was internships and a 6-month project-based role all in recruiting.
She wanted to go into corporate but her main problem was she didn't know what to do first.
Add to that that her confidence wasn't at its best because she felt left behind compared to her batchmates, who had been working for more than a year at this point.
So that's why we were in the call.
Gwy wanted to work with me to figure it all out from what kind of job she can take considering her ideal wishes and past experience to figuring out how she'd communicate everything in interviews.
To her, this sounded like an impossible problem to solve.
To me, I knew we could solve it in < 90 days as long as she did exactly what I recommended.
“The problem was that Gwy needed to communicate how much value she brings if her negotiation points (being fully remote) were accepted right away.
So what we needed to do was talk about this in the interview process as a non-negotiable if they wanted to secure her talent. ”
My opinion only, but in today's day and age, if you have a baby, you should be able to get a fully remote role for the first few years and ~maybe~ transition back to office once they are in school. A kid only grows up once.
But I don't make the job offer rules, I just help people figure out a way around them. I just know I would have liked the option of my mom being home a bit more as I was growing up.
Most of Gwy's experience came from recruiting internships and contract project work before having the baby. This would be her first full time job as well.
So where did we start?
With something I call 'landscape scoping', meaning you need to check what's around you first to see if it's even likely to happen. A lot of people come in with insane expectations of their next job offer simply because they've never bothered to check if it's likely before expecting it for themselves.
We checked first:
Are there a lot of recruiter roles that were still fully remote?
What were her other options if ever there weren’t?
Did she want to do an in-office recruiter role or was she open to switching to a different part of HR that was fully remote?
Once we answered all that, we ran through TBC’s method and landed her ideal job in just 58 days.
The Bumpy Career’s Proposed Solution:
Gwy's situation sounds complicated at first, but in reality it’s simple to solve when using my standard framework.
The core question is “How do you land a job that hits your ideal checklist and in the shortest amount of time?”
And I call my answer, The Bumpy Career’s Navigator System which comprises of 4 steps.
1️⃣ Audit & Align (Set Your Coordinates)
You tell me what you want to do. No matter how vague or lofty or dreamy the goal is. And I’ll tell you if that’s feasible given everything I’ll ask about you in our scoping call.
You pull together your "career map", where you present to me your:
Masterfile resume (which lists everything you've done)
Ideal job list (divided into Dream Companies, Great Companies, and Safety Nets)
Ideal offer checklist (divided into Must-Haves, Nice-to-Haves, and Red Flags)
I’ll identify career gaps and misalignments between your current experience and target roles.
2️⃣ Optimize & Strategize (Plan Your Route)
Sketch out a better “career map”: We’ll build your targeted resume, optimized LinkedIn, and a precise job hunting strategy broken down into week-by-week tasks.
Fill the gaps: Address skill deficiencies, portfolio needs, and positioning.
3️⃣ Sharpen & Showcase (Fuel Up & Build Momentum)
Draw out the “career map” for visibility:
Do we need to pull together a LinkedIn networking plan? Who can you talk to and what are you going to ask them?
What should go into your portfolio? Can we build a case study? How are you going to show it to prospective hiring managers?
Interview preparation especially how you ended up here and why you’re looking to get into this next role
Fine-tune your elevator pitch so you're positioned as the perfect fit for your target roles. We get one chance to make you look like the perfect candidate. You bet we’re not going to waste it.
4️⃣ Execute & Secure (Drive to Your Destination)
Apply strategically, focusing on high-impact applications that we know build up your confidence.
Ace interviews, salary negotiate, and secure a role that aligns with the objective we aligned on at the start of working together.
Course-correct as needed — we will set up catch-up calls to adjust the strategy based on the market’s responses to you.
And we’ll do this in < 4 hours of calls.
Why The Bumpy Career’s Navigator Method Works
✅ You get clear on the right job. No more random applications and praying for the best.
✅ You stay strategic, not reactive. Every move is intentional and you’re not letting random events or comments decide your next career move for you.
✅ You move fast and efficiently. No more wasting time on overthinking.
✅ You land offers with confidence. Because you know you’re presenting the sharpest version of yourself.
Back to Gwy.
To me, it was very straightforward. First, I wanted Gwy to open up her options for what her next job would be. We couldn’t get attached to the idea of being a recruiter. Instead we needed to think of what roles would give her the best flexibility for the lifestyle she wanted.
My recommendation: HRIS roles. These roles would leverage her past experiences in HR, provide the flexibility she needed, and can easily transform into an in-demand job whenever she decides to lock in for her career.
Second, she had to focus her energies on the right aspects of her job hunt.
Specifically in documenting all her skills and experiences, so we knew what would be transferrable. Then we could train for interviews to figure out what the work environment and support would be like.
Third, she had to get clear on her career story, especially in how she’d talk about her situation.
Timeline and Deliverables:
Across 20 days, we had 2 1-hour calls where we:
✅ Built a strong general resume, highlighting her transferrable skills so she could apply to a wide variety of roles with just 1 resume. I didn’t want her to waste time customizing it for every type of position.
✅ Built out her ideal offer checklist, where we made it clear how her next workplace had to support her
✅ Built out her job hunting tracker to make it clear what roles she was aiming for and subsequently what her career story would be when speaking with them
✅ Built up her LinkedIn
✅ Interview practiced, especially on asking about the new workplace's current setup
✅ Salary negotiation practice especially if she would receive a low salary given her situation
✅ !! Most important !! Worked on reminding Gwy that she could learn and do any type of work as long as it hit what we identified as what she enjoyed doing. She shouldn’t get too attached to the idea of 1 specific job as it would be just a starting point for her today.
Outcome:
Gwy came out of our calls with a strong resume and interview skill set. She was ready to negotiate on her salary and more importantly, her work environment needs.
The real issue was, would she have time to go through all the job openings and send in her applications?
That, I couldn’t help as much with.
She needed to find that time herself and I reminded her that the work would always be there but these job openings wouldn’t. I could only hope that she’d prioritize accordingly.
Thankfully, she did!
57 days after signing on to work together, Gwy signed a job offer bringing her back into HR in a fully remote role that also hit her ideal starting salary.
Even better, she negotiated that she’d only have 1 office day a month and that it’d be set in advance so she can arrange childcare for then. [And in even better news, I was right in recommending her to move into HRIS. My eye for spotting a good fit remains sharp as ever.]
Some words from Gwy herself:
I knew that Gwy would land a job quickly once we got the foundations right. Once she understood the framework, I could see her put it into practice immediately, leading to her success in hitting the goals we aligned on when we started working together.
My greatest wish is that her new company treats her right because if not, she’s more than capable of walking away for a higher price anytime now~
***
The Bumpy Career is the career coach for the confused high achiever.
Meaning you're the type of person that if you know where to go and what you had to do, you'd be number 1 in an instant. But you're a bit confused today on exactly that: where to go and what to do.
That's where I come in.
We'll work together to give you a actionable roadmap to make your career live up to your expectations. If that sounds great to you, then book a call here and let's talk soon~