Bill was a great coach and mentor helping me focus on prioritizing my career aspirations, developing an attack plan and providing me honest and direct feedback. Bill held me accountable to build a plan and work my plan. Once I accomplished my objective, Bill was my biggest cheerleader. He was the perfect coach in a tough time in my career and helped me come out on top! I have recommended Bill to peers and believe he truly makes a difference.
Bob Many, VP Enterprise Sales
Bill is like a ‘career doctor’.
He asks great questions, pokes, probes, and steers with practical insight.
Bill is an encourager.
Whether I was prepping or debriefing a meeting, Bill found a way to help me process in a healthy way.
Bill saw a path before I did.
Now, I’ve launched a busy consulting practice, thanks to Bill.
Mark P. Fisher, CEO, Inspiring Growth
Bill has been a terrific partner, initially in helping me decide exactly what I wanted to do next and then guiding me through the process of networking, interviewing, and negotiating employment terms. Landed a great job. Bill also helped me develop an on boarding plan which made my start much smoother.
COO, Publishing
Bill Belknap is a negotiation guru. He provided sage advice on how, on one hand, to show appreciation for a job offer and and on the other hand how to conduct salary negotiations to get what you deserve. The end result of Bill’s coaching netted me a better title, sign on bonus and an improved annual bonus percentage. Thank you, Bill!!
Beth Silver, SVP, Human Resources
Bill cuts to the chase and gives you advice for a life time. As I told you privately, outside of my wife’s wedding ring, this is the best money I have ever spent.
CTO Client
Bill, what I like about your approach which distinguishes you from others….is how powerful and impactful, yet simple!!!
A Sr. Quality Executive
Bill has an easy going approach and a sense of humor that helps ease you through the painful process of examining your background, writing a resume, and focusing your search. Perhaps even more importantly, he is committed to ‘customer service.’ Even after the formal part of our process was finished, I still found him incredibly responsive to phone calls and e-mails as my job search progressed. I know he’s always in my corner.
Jill Campbell, Marketing
I got more value in two hours than weeks at a major outplacement firm.
Joe Vetrano, CIO
Bill does a fantastic job facilitating the Five O’Clock Club’s Insider Sessions, a weekly group conference call for job seekers. These sessions were instrumental in helping me stay focused on my search and manage the details of the job search process.
David Goldberg, Business Development Manager
I’ve worked with Bill over the past four years. During this time, Bill: (1) helped me refine job search strategies, (2) assisted me in developing targeted resumes, (3) helped me craft compelling cover letters, (4) gave me ideas to better negotiate terms on employment contracts, and (5) served as an effective sounding board for difficult job related business situations.
Through Bill’s counsel, I efficiently landed several interviews with targeted companies (in some cases I received over 10 interviews in a week) and was able to revitalize a previously unproductive job search. From my estimates, my job search productivity is about five to ten times greater than my peers who do not use a career coach. Based on my success, I recommend Bill quite frequently to my network.
On the job, Bill’s career advice with corporate political issues and interpersonal dynamics is spot on. I’ve been able to manage difficult relationships, avoid unnecessary conflict, and advance my career.
A key question in working with any career coach is the cost. From my own perspective, the cost of extended unemployment, stagnant career growth, and working at below market wages is far greater than enlisting Bill’s services. A second issue is the quality of advice offered. I’ve never been misled or been given a sugar-coated evaluations of my problem. Bill is blunt, to the point, and challenging. When I’ve tried to avoid or skirt around difficult issues, Bill keeps me focused and helps me devise strategies to either solve the issue or mitigate potential problems.
Kenneth C. Anthony, Chief Financial Officer
Bill was invaluable in coaching me on how the effective use of a job search “Marketing Plan” can dramatically expand the number of contacts you can get out of every networking meeting.
Peter Kaye, Chief Marketing Officer
Thank you coach! You are the best.
Russ Ackerman, Director of Marketing
I am indebted to Bill and the 5 O’Clock Club for their commitment and support over the past 2 years. Bill’s insight, creativity, and strategic positioning yielded an incredible resume that produced positive results, a “one minute pitch” that was unparalleled, and a format I use literally every day, and a focused, yet flexible, approach in repositioning me, an architect, during these difficult economic times.
His belief in all of us who participated, his encouragement, and his consistent and constant input, resulted in my finding my current position as a Principal in a long standing architectural practice.
Equally important has been my personal success in consulting communities on re-zoning petitions and serving as an expert witness on significant cases ranging from $2 to $48M, an area Bill felt I should pursue, thus tapping into my strengths and experience.
Most important to my success, is how he fosters one to believe in oneself after the harsh reality of being rejected by those we placed our futures with. He helps you establish realistic and attainable goals, and constituently went straight to the heart of an issue. He challenges one’s rationale, and moves you to the next level.
He positioned me to succeed and I did.
Douglas C. Burns, AIA NCARB
Working with Bill, my resume became clearer, more articulate and in four weeks, landed the executive position that I was seeking.
Bob Schwartz, Director of Global Marketing
You have the capacity to help people think clearly and focus on effective strategies and your upbeat attitude was invaluable.
Jim Baldino, VP Sales
Bill is honest, kind, straightforward, has a great sense of humor, and he knows his business.
Beth Fitz Gibbon, VP Sales and Marketing
Every executive needs someone like Bill, a trusted advisor who can help navigate the challenges of finding a new position. His experience in every part of the process; building an excellent resume, using your network to find the right position, turning interviews into job offers, and salary negotiation will help shorten your search and get results much faster than if you work alone.
Bill was highly recommended to me when I started my search process, described as someone who has seen it all. He worked with me on every part of the process and provided me with an edge that my competition didn’t have; his experience from helping hundreds of people with this process.
Changing jobs is a process you should never do alone. Help yourself and your career by enlisting someone like Bill who does this for a living and understands this process from start to finish.
Bill helps you get results because he understands the best methods for finding a new job. He can help you stand out among the crowd and land on the “short list” of candidates for the job, and guide you through the interview process.
Jonathan Burns, Vice President, Business Development
Successfully managing my career search in today’s difficult market was a daunting experience. I found working with Bill to be a rewarding experience. He is focused, very accessible and responsive to your individual needs.
Sven Saller, VP Sales
You should consider raising your rates because I feel I got a terrific amount of value for the money.
Randy Cox, VP Operations
Bill was invaluable during my severance negotiations. He was able to give me practical tips throughout the process that enabled me to significantly improve the original package.
Sales and Marketing Executive
Through Bill’s efforts I was able to successfully negotiate a pro-rated bonus, which had never been done before at this company. Needless to say this added significantly to my severance package.
Sr. Customer Service Manager Client
Bill has a very strategic approach with the salary negotiation process. He was able to assess the big picture and validate my final offer, which I found very reassuring.
CFO Client