This is a wonderful story about rebranding.  With this student’s permission, this post contains the email she sent to us: 

In early 2009 I approached one of the career counselors Lisa Cook at the Lansdowne residency. I am a 20+ year veteran of civil service in a city agency and was frustrated by being stuck in a supervisory position for over 13 years. I had sent out over 100 resumes both in and outside of the agency with literally no responses. Ms Cook introduced me to the idea of “rebranding” which I had never thought to apply to myself as a government worker. When I went back to work I began to introduce myself as a resource person to new hires. I would pass on information on free community resources to community based groups and staff in the local office, and central office of my agency. I volunteered to help people solve analytic issues in their areas, which helped me gain the confidence to develop workshop ideas to submit to conference committees outside of my home state. This Spring I started getting responses. I have presented at 3 conferences to date and am scheduled for 2 more this year.  The conference committees have begun to contact me to present! And now as of Monday I begin my new position as office based trainer for a division of over 1400 staff in my city. Yay Walden!

Janice, PhD PPA Candidate

“Janice – thanks for sharing your story with us and best of luck in your new job!”