JOB SEARCH
Operations Jobs Pick Up Steam
Operations take a big hit in recessions; but those skilled in teaching other operations manag-
ers how to work more efficiently will find big opportunities.
By Kevin Fogarty
Editor’s note: This article was originally available to attendees of TheLadders’ operations-industry career event in
summer 2009. For information on future career events from TheLadders, contact careerevents@theladders.com.
I N MOST PROFESSIONS, when people realize the light at
the end of the tunnel is a train, the normal response is, “Uh-
oh.”
In operations management, it’s more like, “The shipment’s
here so we can finally get to work.”
The tunnel’s not getting lighter yet, but some in the opera-
tions market are starting to feel rumbling on the tracks.
“We’re starting to see signs of a turnaround,” said Jeff
Chaponick, president of MAC Executive Recruiters Inc., a
Texas executive-search company with a focus on efficiency ex-
perts in supply-chain, logistics and distribution functions. “The
business-development folks in my organization spend all day
on the phone with potential clients and, for a long time, the
answer was usually, ‘We don’t have any jobs to fill’ or, ‘Call back
in six months.’ Now we’re either getting the work or they’re
saying, ‘Call back in two weeks.’ ”
That’s not an indication that the economy as a whole is re-
covering, Chaponick said — or even the overall market for op-
erations specialists. MAC’s specialty is placing operations man-
agers certified in Six Sigma — a complex discipline whose
goal is to identify errors in production that lead to defects in
a product or an inefficient process that wastes time and re-
sources.
Lean Production (or Lean Six Sigma) can be applied to
any business process, not just manufacturing or distribution,
IN THIS PACKAGE:
• Resume Guide for an Operations Manager Page 2
• Hired! Procurement Jobs for Financers Page 3
• Interview Prep: Operations Page 5
© Copyright 2009, TheLadders. All rights reserved.
said Tim Noble, managing principal of The Avery Point
Group Inc., a search firm in Alpharetta, Ga., that also special-
izes in efficiency expertise. Applied correctly, working lean can
improve efficiency and reduce costs so dramatically that the
processes themselves become even more attractive to compa-
nies that understand how to benefit from them, he said.
In a lean economy, lean production becomes a necessity, and
the expertise remains highly prized. Lean-Production and Six-
Sigma jobs have proven more immune to layoffs and declines
in hiring than operations jobs outside the specialty, Noble said.
“That said, we still see a lot of companies that aren’t fully
committed to Lean or Six Sigma laying off their continuous-
improvement staffs,” Noble said. “And there are obviously a
lot of losses among operations staffs in general. But for people
with Lean and Six-Sigma skills, things are a lot healthier than
in the broader job market. What these folks are about is taking
out costs, improving businesses, improving services — all the
things a company should be doing during tough times.”
Bright spots in ops
In general, operations employment has suffered. The indus-
tries most reliant on operations professionals are shedding
jobs faster than the national average. Between March 2008 and
March 2009, manufacturing jobs declined 9.2 percent, durable-
goods jobs dropped 11.29 percent, and automotive-parts and
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Page 1
assembly jobs fell 24 percent, according to the Department of their roster. The result is a lot of “C” players looking for the
Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. same jobs as “A” and “B” players, he said.
“There has been a pretty heavy hit in supply chain, manufac- That makes getting hired a tougher prospect for anyone
turing, engineering — either in layoffs or pay cuts — whatever who’s out of a job, Noble said. Recruiters are having to spend
it takes to cut their direct labor costs,” Noble said. “Especially a lot of time figuring out if candidates are “A” listers out on
in places like automotive, where Chrysler, Ford and GM sit; the street through no fault of their own, or “C” listers who
their volume is down 30 or 40 percent. That cascades right might be competent enough, but don’t have the chops to make
through the supply chain, and there’s it in a market where employers have such
nothing you can do. There are a lot of a wide selection of candidates.
‘A’ players out there who are out of
The hiring
cycle is The hiring cycle is much longer now,
a job.”
Chaponick said: A hiring decision that
But other operations sectors have much longer now, might have been made in seven days a
fared better in the recession — primar- Chaponick said. A year ago is taking three and sometimes
ily those involved with moving things hiring decision that four weeks now.
from one place to another. Transporta-
tion and warehousing jobs actually rose might have been In operations, job descriptions and lists
of requirements have not gotten longer
8.9 percent while employment in the made in seven days or more onerous, Noble said. By con-
trade, transportation and utilities sector a year ago is taking trast, in sales, marketing, IT and other
is down 3.14 percent, and wholesale
three and sometimes functional areas, recruiters complain that
trade is down 3.9 percent in the same
employers use long lists of skills to filter
period, according to BLS data. four weeks. the mass of candidates down to a few
“C” players that match specific requirements.
The decline in available positions re- In operations, hiring managers seem
sulted in a backlog of candidates for to be enforcing much more consistently
recruiters and hiring managers to sort through, something the requirements they already had and pressuring recruiters to
Noble and Chaponick referred to as the “C” players problem. vet a candidate’s qualifications more thoroughly before they’ll
schedule an interview, according to Noble, who said he hasn’t
“Employers are definitely leveraging the economy to save
seen any clear signs of an economic turnaround.
on their payrolls,” Chaponick said. They’ve taken advantage
of cost cutting to drop second- or third-tier performers from 4 See OPS Page 5

Resume Guide for an Operations Manager

To sell yourself in ops, your resume can’t just say what you did; it needs to say how you did it.

By Kevin Fogarty they’re talking about past jobs,” Jaco- the managing principal for The Av-

D
ON’T IGNORE the process,
said Kristen Jacoway, a certi-
fied professional resume writer who
works with TheLadders.
A successful resume for an opera-
tions executive can’t simply say what
you accomplished; it must explain
how you did it — what was the pro-
cess, she said.
“Most resumes I see are missing
either the action or the result when
way said. “Some people will say they
saved the company $100,000. That’s
great, but how did you get there?
What was the project, and what did
you do to create that savings?”
Demonstrate value
Demonstrating your competence
— and even your level of excellence
— is absolutely the right thing to
do, but it might not be enough in an
economy like this, said Tim Noble,
ery Point Group, Inc, a search firm in
Alpharetta, Ga., that also specializes
in efficiency expertise.
In an employers’ market, compa-
nies get selective about hiring. They
know they can be choosey, Noble
said, and they have to be more careful
committing to the expense of filling
an empty job slot.
Demonstrating you’re good at your
job — an ‘A’ player who got laid off,

Page 2 Operations Jobs Pick Up Steam

 HIRED!

Procurement Jobs for Financers

When Christin Burek had to leave her job in Phoenix as director of IT procurement with a Fortune 500 company,
she didn’t anticipate landing a challenging position with a global law firm in Chicago.
By Karl Rozemeyer

T O SWITCH FROM WORKING

in technology and manufactur-
ing to legal services takes courage
and imagination, qualities Christin
Burek has in spades.
Burek, who had worked for both
IBM and Honeywell in Phoenix,
began searching for a new position
when her spouse took a job in Illi-
nois and the couple decided to relo-
cate to Chicago. While location was
key, Burek was open-minded about where she could apply her
experience in global procurement and supply-chain manage-
ment.
She did not actively start exploring her job options on
TheLadders until the decision to relocate was definite. That
was in July 2008. “The search was fast, and it was effective,”
she recalled. “In fact, I had two offers to consider in October,
which was surprising in this environment. And the other one
also came off TheLadders.”
The offer that intrigued Burek the most came from Mayer
Brown, an international law firm operating in most major cit-
ies worldwide. Mayer Brown had just created the position of
director of global procurement, and the company was willing
to fill it in London, New York — or Chicago.
New twists on procurement
For Burek — whose background is strictly procurement
supply chain, not law — the role presented a couple of
enticing challenges.
Mayer Brown had shifted its focus, Burek said, from operat-
ing as a law partnership within a small structure to running the
firm like a fully fledged business operation. “That presented
a significant amount of challenge,” she said. “Something that
from a career standpoint I had not yet had the opportunity to
do. It was almost a green field because procurement wasn’t
necessarily a formal function within Mayer Brown prior to
my arrival.”
4 See BUREK Page 4

not a ‘C’ player someone got rid of
— is only half the battle. You have to
be able to show on your resume and
in your interview where you acted cre-
atively to save money or time, solved
a problem, or showed the persistence
to continue improving a process even
after having seen some results.
Speak the right language
Operations executives are typically
faithful to one process or discipline
(like Six Sigma or Information Tech-
nology Infrastructure Library), and
they speak that one language, Jacoway
said. The HR managers and recruiters
who write the job postings probably
describe it the same way. Unless your
resume follows the same discipline
and employs the same terms and lan-
guage, the recruiters and Applicant
Tracking System (ATS) software that
sorts resumes will probably remove
your resume from consideration.
“When you read the job postings,
you have to look at the keywords that
the company is using, then go back
and customize that resume with those
keywords,” she said. “Apply them to
your experience, put them in your key-
words section, and weave them into
the text of the resume. You have to
be sure the description is accurate, but
which words you use make a big dif-
ference.”
Summarize your
core competencies
Jacoway usually leaves the first sec-
tion of the resume — a list of the can-
didate’s core competencies — for last.
“It helps me get to know the person
a little better, but you also have to be
sure there is evidence in the statement
describing the job duties that sup-
ports that core competency. You don’t
just put it up there because someone
is looking for it. They’ll read farther
down and you have to show why it’s a
real competency.”

Operations Jobs Pick Up Steam Page 3

4BUREK

As director of global procurement, Burek is responsible for The positive in that sector is that there is still a need for legal
organizing and implementing contracting and procurement support in some of those areas.”
strategies and increasing international operational efficiency
Another challenge for Burek was adapting to a significantly
and profitability. This includes all business categories from
different corporate culture. Mayer Brown is a 127-year-old
services to travel, offices to facilities, real estate to IT. And
law firm that Burek said has “an outstanding reputation” with
within the overall operational plan, the focus of the role is
both its clients and the legal community. Burek was also at-
to create a strategic policy of process for each category. For
tracted to Mayer Brown’s commitment to pro bono law, repre-
Burek, the primary challenge was adapting her approach from
senting disadvantaged clients and often unpopular causes. “It
her previous operational experiences at IBM and Honeywell.
is absolutely engrained. And a significant amount of hours are
From head of procurement for a technology operation to a
expected of each attorney.” She also noted that there are addi-
legal firm was a huge change-up in terms of scale and size of
tional opportunities for staff to become involved. “In Chicago,
the company. “Whereas at Honeywell, I managed over a billion
for instance, we have the Stockton School Reading Program,
dollars of funds, here I manage maybe a quarter of that. But
and any Mayer Brown associate, lawyer or staff [is encouraged
in terms of the overall scope and challenge, it is significant.”
to] help with the third-grade reading at Stockton. So there is a
So while some analytics Burek has been great commitment across the community as
used to working with are either “different well as true bono work.”
or not there at all,” she said she believes
that, taking the current economic envi-
ronment, the different conditions in the
market place and the size of the firm into
“ The managing
partners and plan-
ning committee
Another factor Burek cited in her decision:
The firm is a strong proponent of women
in the workplace, she said, and is both very
really supported the family- and women-friendly. Burek said she
consideration, factors line up well for new
appreciates that it is often more challenging
procurement strategies and processes to concept of bringing for women to make it to the top of large
be implemented in 2009 at Mayer Brown. procurement in and law firms. “From my own experience as a
In November 2008, shortly after Burek formalizing it so woman coming through the ranks of cor-
joined Mayer Brown, the firm laid off 33 that it could make a porate culture, I think you can see women
people from its U.S. offices, citing the eco- making the conscious choice to stay home at
nomic slowdown. The jobs cut included
contribution to the a certain point and take a pause in their ca-
lawyers as well as support personnel. “The firm in the difficult reer, and that definitely has an impact when
managing partners and planning commit- economic times that you transfer that into the legal environment.
tee really supported the concept of bring-
ing procurement in and formalizing it so
that it could make a contribution to the
firm in the difficult economic times that
we are in.
—Christin Burek” Some of those years that you may choose to
focus on other things are critical to the part-
ner path.” The fact that one of the partners
who interviewed Burek for her new position
we are in,” Burek said. “Whether there are new positions being was a woman was crucial. “That really made a difference for
added or otherwise, we still have a focus on strategic hiring, me,” Burek said.
even though we had to take the action [to downsize].”
Burek stressed the importance of procurement for Mayer
A diversified portfolio provides job security Brown as a global function. In her previous role at Honeywell,
Burek had completed significant work with its international
Mayer Brown serves many of the world’s largest companies
team in rolling out procurement with a global strategy, par-
and financial-services organizations, including a large propor-
ticularly in Europe. “I think that was one of the decision fac-
tion of the Fortune 100, FTSE 100, DAX and Hang Seng
tors as to why Mayer Brown picked me,” said Burek, who has
Index companies and most of the major investment banks.
two undergraduate degrees. One is in business from Michigan
Despite turmoil in the sector, Burek said, the firm is well po-
State, a top four supply-chain procurement school in the U.S.
sitioned to weather the economic recession because it has di-
The other is in Spanish. “Spanish is definitely a huge asset. The
versified its practices; as some of the sectors decrease, others
first company that I worked for was a French company, so I
should improve. “Obviously,” she said, “there are challenges
also speak some conversational French.” Burek decided early
in that nobody is seeing a significant upswing right now. But
on that she wanted to leverage her language skills and work
areas like litigation will go up as financial indicators go down.
4 See BUREK Page 6

Page 4 Operations Jobs Pick Up Steam

4OPS Interview Prep: Operations
“A lot of companies are in wait-and-see mode, and they’re By Deb Perelman

O
all being much more selective because there’s the perception
PERATIONS PROFESSIONALS need to be able to
that they can be,” Noble said. “They want to make sure that if
show their value in an interview. This is the one tip
they bring a person on board, it’s someone who can contribute
recruiters who specialize in placing operations professionals
right away and is accretive, additive to their situation.”
keep coming back to. “For anyone on the operations side of
That abundant supply has also driven down salaries about 10 things, in today’s market especially, you have to show the val-
percent, even for those with Six Sigma and other special skill ue. You have to show that your
sets, Chaponick said. And it has reduced or eliminated benefits role has impacted the business
like relocation expenses and help selling a house. in a broader scope. The most
successful candidates under-
“Two years ago, companies might have a program to help
stand the full scheme of things;
a good candidate sell their house, and if they didn’t, to buy it
your ability to communicate this
from them as part of a relocation package,” Chaponick said.
is critical,” said Ronald Parks,
“That’s completely gone; no one’s doing it. We deal in a higher
managing director at eConsult
salary range, so our clients generally keep their houses and rent
America in Minneapolis.
them out until the economy turns around, but they’re not get-
ting much help from employers.” Furthermore, few interviewers
are going to let you off with gen-
But there are signs of overall recovery for operations manag-
eral responses.
ers, Chaponick said. His business remains below what it was
a year ago, and he doesn’t see a dramatic turnaround, but his Laux “I want to know if they’re
clients are calling, he said. They’re booking his company to vet qualified,” said Frank Laux, president of Strategic Search
operations specialists for a host of new positions. Partners in Keller, Texas, “and I am going to ask them
specifics, like what kind of cost-reduction work they have
“Our revenue for April will probably be about the same as
done, their spend-level responsibility, and how they achieved
for last month, which is somewhere between 10 percent and
these results.” A job candidate, especially a more established
15 percent down from last year,” he said. “But we’re definitely
one, should expect to be asked what commodities they’re
seeing an uptick in response and things are starting to move a
in charge of now and how big their spend responsibility is,
little faster. If (job openings) we’re tracking come down from
and they should be able to give examples of how they have
90 days to 75 days (to hire a candidate and finish the contract)
reduced costs and improved productivity — be specific and
that will be a really big deal.”
list examples.

Operations Jobs Pick Up Steam Page 5

4BUREK

in the field of procurement so she chose to refine her educa-
tion by also graduating with a supply-chain management MBA
from Arizona State University.
Opportunities for finance professionals in procurement
Burek said she believes finance professionals with the right
combination of skills and education have an excellent op-
portunity to move to procurement. She had been involved
in recruiting MBA graduates from Arizona State into IBM’s
Supply-Chain Leadership Program and pointed out that the
recruiting team often gave preference to students with finan-
cial backgrounds because of their strong analytical skills and
understanding of P&L and how to manage the budgeting.
As the economy slows, firms are going to be looking for
ways to avoid waste, to consolidate manpower, and to track
and analyze global spending effectively though supply-chain
management. Burek noted that most of the procurement job
opportunities that she considered in her search were new posi-
tions in their organizations. “I think you are starting to see the
mid-level privately held firms looking at procurement because
they either have managed it without much discipline to it, or
they are starting to recognize that they need to focus on it, as it
really can contribute to the bottom line.”

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Page 6 Operations Jobs Pick Up Steam