About The Job Whisperer ®

I’m Cathy Martin,  The Job Whisperer ®.

Although my first real job was teaching figure skating, my first adult job was in the employment department of a major department store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (shout out to Jim Downing, who took a chance on me).  I walked in one day looking for a personnel job and they put me to work as a temp calculating pension plan balances.  Finished that, and they moved me over to Employment, where I interviewed walk-in candidates, hundreds of them, day in and day out.  I loved it.  Loved the people, loved the store, loved the coworkers, and was fascinated by the processes of recruitment and selection.

I loved interviewing and learning about what applicants wanted.  I could always see the potential, but couldn’t always help correct the mistakes that would ultimately interfere with someone’s career progress.   I was twenty-one, fairly inexperienced, very curious, and I must have been a challenge to supervise.  Lots of enthusiasm and energy, maybe a bit less skill.  I had work to do on my own career.  I was lucky to be moved around to different areas of Human Resources, learning more about how people and companies serve each other’s interests and passions, how they connect, and how they work together.  For that I thank the many mentors I had who changed the course of my career and helped me find success (shouts out to Dr. Peggy, and Leslie, F.N., and later to Tom, Ray, and Steven.  Each one decoded a critical message for me and held out a hand).

Over the next many years I held management or executive jobs in HR in manufacturing, retailing, distribution, sales, medical device, biotech, and youth services, and consulting industries.  I worked in big companies and small companies, hired and coached (and sometimes fired) presidents, secretaries, salespeople, machine operators, attorneys, scientists, financial wizards, security guards, camp counselors, teachers, social workers, fundraisers, warehouse workers, payroll managers, programmers, business developers, analysts, statisticians, recruiters, veterinarians, marketers, directors of one thing, vp’s of another, you name it.  I’ve developed succession plans and performance plans, negotiated incentive pay, relocated managers all over the world, negotiated labor contracts, downsized, upsized, rightsized, and laid myself off after I locked the doors.  I’ve organized HR professionals and executives around workforce and talent initiatives, served on the inaugural Board of Directors of Workforce Florida, chaired the First Jobs Council, and helped almost all of my friends get a great job, at one time or another.

As the Job Whisperer, I help people launch the career they want or get the job they need, by breaking the process down and making sense of the steps.  I explain things you may not have considered.

Cathy Martin

The Job Whisperer ®

cathy@thejobwhisperer.com