Getting handle on contacts

If you're looking for work, you already know that connections count. Having a guide or mentor counts even more, especially when you need solid advice. But how do you find one?
Here's what Vickie Allen did.
Last spring, after 10 years as an accounts representative for major corporations, Allen was growing restless. She wanted to feel that her work mattered. Picking up a side job as an adjunct professor in sales at the College of St. Catherine helped, but it wasn't enough.
"Corporate America was not fulfilling a need for me anymore," she said. "My soul wasn't fed. I wasn't waking up raring to go. I knew at that point that if I didn't change and look at where it is that I truly wanted to be that I wouldn't get the fulfillment that I was looking for in my work."
Setting her sights on the nonprofit world, Allen started her journey by talking with her older brother, Horace Allen, who serves on the board of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities. He told her to talk with that organization's director, Kathleen Pickering. That phone call started a brief but effective mentorship between Allen and Pickering, who met once a month for three months.
Narrowing the field
With Pickering's guidance, Allen narrowed her focus to agencies serving women and children and decided that her skills would transfer best to a fund-raising or membership position. In September, fewer than six months after she began the transition, Allen became membership director of the Girl Scout Council of St. Croix Valley, a job she loves.
Pickering, who often gets calls from people seeking advice, says she doesn't allow very many of them to evolve into meetings or relationships. The difference with Allen, she says, is that she wasn't asking for general career advice or networking. Rather, she had a specific question: How could she make the switch from a for-profit sales career to something in the nonprofit world?
Pickering had a long career with the Girl Scouts before joining Big Brothers, Big Sisters. She provided Allen with contact names and numbers at a handful of organizations in the Twin Cities, including the two Girl Scout offices. Allen followed up by meeting with the contacts and touring facilities.
Dream position
When Allen met Mary Lee Hoffman, director of the Girl Scouts of St. Croix Valley and toured the agency's new facility, she knew that was the place she wanted to be. Not long after, the Girl Scouts called Allen to tell her about a job there.
"I don't know how to explain what happened, but there was something very dynamic that took place, and I knew from that point forward that that's where I wanted to be," she said. "I went back to Kathleen and said, 'I don't know what I have to do, but I gotta get this deal.' "
Pickering called Hoffman, who had worked for her in a different Girl Scouts council.
"Mary Lee always tells me that I was her mentor. She still does that," Pickering says. "So, anyway, Vickie doesn't know this, but we talked about her behind her back. I said to her, 'Mary Lee, she doesn't want to work for me, but she wants to work for you. I think you've got a really good candidate.' She was up for this job, but we also had another idea if that didn't work. Our strategy was to get her in the Girl Scouts system, one way or another."
Listening to this story, Allen laughs. She knows she was given a significant boost, and she's grateful. "I am extremely fortunate, because I'm the product of many hands that have touched my life," she says. "I hope that I have the chance to continue to do that for others."
XAmy Lindgren, the owner of a career-consulting firm in St. Paul, Minn., can be reached at alindgren@pioneerpress.com.