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My Résumé
The "Official" Story (more or less)
Assistant Buyer & Department Manager, Intimate Apparel
Goldwaters – Phoenix, Arizona
I went into the manager–buyer trainee program, and was part of the youngest buying team in the chai. Though it had its fun parts like making decisions on which items to buy and getting free lingerie, I was not confident in numbers at that time, and not ready to manage others. I loved fashion and retail can be a good career, but I wanted to see what else was out there. When a friend asked if I wanted to move to California I jumped at the chance.
Import/Export Manager
Petoseed – Ventura, California
I started out as an Import Manager & was quickly promoted to run the department. It was fun working in this global company and in such a position of responsibility. I even started to like paperwork! I began to learn how to manage others, but was offered another job there that appealed to me.
PR & Advertising Manager
Petoseed – Ventura, California
The company liked me and wanted to keep me so they offered to train me into this job. I said YES immediately, and was mentored by the retiring manager. I worked at this job for eighteen months and got offered a job at a small PR & Advertising agency in the next town over.
Account Executive – PR & Advertising
Barre Advertising – Santa Barbara, California
I did a variety of things at the agency, but the area that appealed to me most, and where I was the most effective, was in the client interaction, in sales. Foreshadowing of my future career, I produced radio spots, bought media, and wrote copy. I wished I'd studied public relations and advertising in college because I think it would have made a difference in my satisfaction. It's always better to know what you are doing! I had a lot to learn about sales but it felt like a natural direction for me! I worked at Barre for about eighteen months. Hoping to make more money and increasingly interested in sales, I got ahold of the Sunday Los Angeles Times classifieds, lined up some interviews for job openings and took a week off to interview for sales jobs in "high tech" in Los Angeles.
Account Executive – Word Processing Systems
Dictaphone Corporation – Los Angeles, California
Once I'd decided upon Sales I took a Dale Carnegie class on sales techniques in Santa Barbara. That I had taken the time to do this impressed my future employer, Dictaphone. When I interviewed for the job the hiring sales manager asked me, "You've had quite a variety of jobs, Miss Sanborne. Why should I hire you? Aren't you a risk?" (Darned good question, if you ask me.) My spin? I was "well–rounded", I'd be able to converse about a wide variety of subjects with my customers, and I KNEW I wanted to be in sales for Dictaphone and planned to stay there forever. He "bit", I got the job, worked my tail off and he was never sorry he gave me the chance. This was the beginning of my career in High Tech.
I got in on the very tail end of the expensive standalone word processing system technology, just before PCs came out with shared resources and software. It was fun and I made some good friends. It was my first official salary plus commission job, in high tech and I was ecstatic . . . and good! The best thing about it for me was that large companies in the office equipment industry, like Dictaphone, have great in–house sales training, and I learned a lot. I was there about eighteen months until they closed the word processing division to focus on their core dictation equipment business and I wasn't interested in that area. But I had a standing job offer from:
Account Executive – Facsimile (FAX) Machines
Panafax Corporation – Los Angeles
Panafax: sold facsimile systems and hardware to Major Accounts. I sold FAX equipment for about a year and a half. Here I learned a lot more about how important it is to build relationships with customers, but I wasn't challenged by the technology. Faxes were a commodity, I didn't have enough confidence in my relationship building skills, and it was hard for me to differentiate our brand. The secret is that people buy from people they like and trust, and that's how you differentiate yourself and stand above the competition.
Once again I got into a technology that changed literally overnight as industry standards were created so that all fax machines and brands would be able to send to each other and prices dropped overnight from $30,000 per machine to $1200. I put my resume out.
Sales Executive – Buying, Selling, Leasing Computers
(10 months) – Los Angeles I wasn't very good at this job and after 11 months the owner and I mutually agreed that I had talents better invested elsewhere . . . but it was INVALUABLE to my near future! I needed computer experience, and I got it. I learned all about IBM, HP and some other computers: their software and interfaces. I could "talk" computer. It got me my next job which turned into a fantastic CAREER.
National Account Manager – Wide Area Networking
Telenet & Sprint (7 years), and Cable & Wireless (3) – Los Angeles
The cover of Fortune magazine was emblazoned with something like: "Wide Area Networking is the New, Hot Technology!". This was my big break. High Technology had arrived and I was there – hallelujiah and finally! It was new and nobody knew much about it, customers wanted it, and companies in this industry needed to hire and train people, fast. So I applied, and I got the job because I knew about computers, understood the needs of data center managers and could talk to them in a language they understood. I had knowledge this new market needed, rarified knowledge: I knew how to easily and inexpensively hook together a company's globally dispersed computers. It was an exciting time and several times I sold pioneering new technologies for Telenet. I also made very good money.
I sold global wide area data networking solutions to medium and large companies. We started with X.25 packet switching, then added frame relay, EDI, switched 56, ISDN and clear channel. The highlight for me was selling a very large international data network solution between the financial centers of US, Europe and Asia–Pacific to a leading financial services company in a highly competitive and complex RFP bid; Telenet used that infrastructure and experience to build their international network backbone. Sprint bought Telenet. Sprint didn't really have vision for data communications services at that time and wanted us to sell voice services. I just didn't enjoy selling voice, though many do. So I was hired at Cable & Wireless to sell just data services. I was headhunted by BI Performance Services, my next employer and timing was good. The frontier hey day of data communications was over, the competition stiff, my customers became more knowledgeable about data communications because they were engineers and, after ten years in this fantastic career I was ready for a new challenge.
Account Executive – Performance Improvement Services
BI Performance – Los Angeles
People. Helping people improve and be happier appealed to me greatly. BI had a great ongoing training program and a whole new world opened up to me. This was the job where understanding your client and their business needs was crucial and it was very exciting. I could make a big difference and I learned how to lead teams, small and large. What a great job! I worked there for four exciting years, and helped companies create solutions by changing the behavior of large groups of people. The desire to have my own business was growing and MyCoolCareer.com was starting to form in my head. While it was forming, I decided to fulfill a longtime dream to study art.
Personal Sabbatical to Mexico
I sold my home, quit my job and lived in San Miguel de Allende in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, September 2000 to May 2001, to study art (a life–long dream) and improve my Spanish – both things I love. There I had time to dream about and make plans for MyCoolCareer. I moved back to Los Angeles to start MyCoolCareer and figure out what I needed to do to make the transition and it happen.
Associate Producer – Public Radio Station
KPCC, 89.3 FM Southern California Public Radio
Parallel to starting MyCoolCareer.com I started volunteering once a week to help screen calls for an afternoon talk show. Public Radio is an addiction for me. After a few months I asked to do more and came in for a full day helping produce the show and learning all about how public radio works and the lingo. I let them know that if they had any jobs I'd be interested. I got a paid internship for 15 hours a week for the Spring 2002 semester at Pasadena City College. There was NEVER a dull moment in this job, and I enjoyed the intellectual nature of the people, work, and service. I created talk segment themes, did research, and located and pre–interviewed show guests. The producing and hosting that I do on MyCoolCareer is far superior for my work and relationships there.
Entrepreneur – Web Radio Show Producer & Host
www.MyCoolCareer.com
In June 2001 I started MyCoolCareer.com. I'd sold my home and used its profits to invest in the creation and development of the MyCoolCareer.com website and web radio show. I trained at American Radio Network in Hollywood on how to host a web radio show, FCC rules & regs, strategies and techniques. I produced & hosted 135 weekly 30–minute web radio shows, and created a cool website, for teens and young adults. I have also spoken professionally to teen and parent audiences.
LANGUAGES
English – native, Spanish and French competency
EDUCATION
When I graduated from high school I hadn't the foggiest what I wanted to be. The challenge was two–fold: I didn't know what career directions might be a good fit for me and I didn't really know much about what kinds of careers there were out there except for, you know, the usual suspects: Teacher, Nurse, Engineer. The truth be told, I didn't know much about what these careers were all about either!
• Camelback High School, Phoenix, Arizona
• University of San Diego/California – freshman year on academic scholarship.
• Bachelor of Science, Textiles/Specialty: Design of Clothing & Interiors for the Disabled – University of Arizona/Tucson, Arizona
• Classes in College Counseling, UCLA
• Marketing Classes at UCLA Extension: E-Marketing, Consumer Behavior, Marketing Principles and Marketing Promotion
ONGOING CLASSES
(at UCLA Extension)
• Lots of art and French classes throughout my life.
class.
PERSONAL INTERESTS
More than anything I like to be outdoors, so I love to play tennis and golf, and hike and camp in the mountains (like in Heidi ). I love dinner parties and hanging out with friends. I'm a voracious reader, completely addicted to public radio, and enjoy going out to see art and foreign films. Making art is a refueling hobby for me and I have an active spiritual life. And if you had my fivenephews, you'd be smitten with them, too.
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