E: You say that you're teaching the talent you work with to realize that the cards are in their hands and that you're trying to bring out the best in them. Do you mainly do that through resume building or mock interviews or is it a holistic toolkit? 

Yes exactly! I focus on building them a strong “toolbox” of skills that they can take with them for the rest of their life in the workplace.  I'll rewrite their resume but then I'll also teach them what I did and why I did it so that they gain the skill set to go out and do it themselves. Next I take them through navigating sites like LinkedIn. I also go through cover letters with them and teach them how to present themselves online, how to scout for jobs, how to get recruiters to come see them, who to network with, what to say, what not to say, and then interview preparation. That prep involves us doing mock interviews with real-time feedback and then of course negotiation...basically every single step of the interview process you're learning, iterating, in real-time. I try to structure it so clients have support from me but also have the confidence to do it on their own. 

E: I know the word ‘negotiation’ holds a lot of power and can be very daunting to people—especially in a time when people are grateful to just be employed in general.  Do you feel certain demographics feel more comfortable than others to negotiate their salaries than others? 

Absolutely. People get these offers and then feel one of two ways—either shameful because they aren’t making enough or shameful because they are making more than their peers. Money can be such a dirty word and one thing I really want to stress is providing transparency and making clients realize there is no need to feel any sort of guilt surrounding their pay. I see this shame coming especially from my female clients. My client base is pretty 50/50 men and women, but what I have seen is that with the men, I have to reel them back in because they are demanding a higher pay than they can back up whereas the women are sort of the opposite. My female clients are very timid but they actually have the communication skills to back up their skills. I work on building both male and females just in different ways.I also teach them that negotiation is not what we've seen in movies, like where it's two white men on either end of a table working on Wall Street or something.  Typically it is done over email which is okay. But negotiating is power; you do it once and you will do it again. There are crazy statistics I have seen saying that in a lifetime, if someone always negotiates, it could affect your earnings from $500,000 to $1 million. That is wild. That is retirement. 

E: For young professionals, such as our members at The Board, what would you say is the one piece of advice you have for them? Or is there one main mistake you see on a recurring basis from your clients? 

So I have two main pieces of advice, the first one being to network. Network all the time. Don't just network when you need a job and make those relationships last. A helpful tool I tell my clients to do is create a personal CRM (client relationship manager) and to go put any and all contacts into the CRM to ensure that you are sustaining those relationships. I think what happens in the job market and in job searches is people feel very scattered and that they have 0 control. When applying on LinkedIn, many people feel unsure of what to say to recruiters, have a fear of being ghosted, or don’t know how to follow up...so it's like these people are sort of stuck on this treadmill and to get yourself off, you need to advocate for yourself. Part of that comes from networking and the other part is diversifying your job search. Being extremely deliberate in your job search and being proactive vs. waiting for a job to be posted on LinkedIn. Don’t be afraid to pitch yourself—especially in major cities, these companies like start-ups and smaller companies the value’s there--but you as the candidate have to advocate for yourself. If you take the back seat, you will always be in the backseat. Once you’re in the job, don’t be afraid to leave. Don't be afraid to job hop; this isn't the time of our parents, unfortunately, where they could find a job and then be settled for life. You have to jump around a little bit, and that’s okay. 

E: Moving into some more general career questions, you’ve worked on building Ambition Mate for over a year now, where do you see yourself in five years? Do you hope to turn Ambition Mate into an empire or do you want to shift your focus elsewhere?

I would love an empire for sure, but my goal is to keep my team small and tight but mighty. So growing our team from me plus two other great women to maybe a maximum of four or five people. I really want to get a cadence on the programs that work and that I know drive results and continue to provide that [to clients].  In 2022, I'm actually going to be launching a scholarship program so that high school and college year students can get access to this career literacy that they otherwise wouldn't be able to afford. Looking in the immediate, that's a really exciting moment and I am so excited to be able to provide that. You know, five years gosh, who knows? Hopefully all good things. 

E: What do you think from growing your own company has been either the biggest challenge or failure that you have seen, and what did you learn from it?

So I mean I have seen many failures, failures everyday which I think is hard. You wake up and it's like “sh**, I  messed that up” or “I left a word out of a contract” or you know whatever it is, but I think what is great is all of your success is yours and all of your failures are yours as well. Looking into 2022 and the end of 2021 I have much more control over my business and I think that was probably the hardest part— feeling not in control, not sure what people needed exactly. I knew what they needed but needed to figure out how to describe it to them where it made sense.  Now I have that control and I have two people working on my team that are really epic, they're amazing, and there's more of a flow and predictability with my business (well as much as you can have).   

E: Is there an achievement you feel most proud of since launching Ambition Mate? 

I would say it is the amount of people that I've helped find roles and the amount of money that they have made in total. I probably have to check my spreadsheet but the last time I looked, it was 3.2 million dollars in salaries including bonuses--but that’s a lot of money.  Those are people who otherwise were struggling too; because typically people don't come to me preemptively, they come when they feel stuck.  So being able to get them unstuck and get them the money that they deserve is huge...during the pandemic, huge. 

E: Bouncing off of that, I am sure you have seen a huge shift in the job market and job search process since the start of the pandemic. Can you talk about how you have had to adjust your curriculum and training based on these major changes? 

 My training is predominantly virtual and what I'm noticing is that people don't want to go back into work. I've been following the Great Resignation and I don't know if you've heard it but once you hear it, you're going to see it all over the place. Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, and  New York Times have all published articles about people saying “no, I am not coming back to work.”  People believe work from home has given them the freedom they deserve while still  feeling  just as productive. This is a massive movement happening right now and I think of both helping clients who are saying I want to quit and I want to find something else and then there's also clients who are saying “oh okay I want to fill in and take their job.” This has been a very interesting, powerful and significant movement. 

E: Is there anything else you want to say before we wrap this up? 

I hope the takeaway people get from this interview is that these skills —whether they gain them from me, or Google, or YouTube—will last for you for life. Giving yourself that education will not only change your career, but your quality of life. This is not a phenomenon, this is not a nice-to-have, it is necessary. 

Interested in Samantha’s services? You’re in luck! She is hosting a FREE master class on the Great Resignation from October 4-7. You can find more information on ambitionmate.com.

Written by Edyn Jensen