Meet Kathleen Driscoll, a Florida Gator who’s worked in the startup community, with corporate alliances, and even the Walt Disney Company. We scooped her up at BlueWave and now she’s our business development representative. Kathleen says working in business development was meant to be from the start.
“My mom is a recruiter and my dad does tech sales, so BlueWave is literally that.” Kathleen said. “When I was searching for jobs, I knew I wanted to work in business development, bringing my marketing strengths and what I know about business development to a new role to help out a company that I believe helps people and does some really cool things and works with really cool companies.”
Adopting company messaging
Kathleen works with companies and candidates to understand what they need and how she can help. She also looks at the big picture of who she works with, learning to adopt company messaging to better serve clients.
“It’s a learning curve of trying to grasp all the clients we work with since they all have such different and unique stories,” she said. “It’s easy to say we work with tech companies. But every company has such a unique product offering, so we’re learning their stories and learning how to sell that company’s mission to a potential candidate.”
Ever-changing employment rates
Working as a Business Development Representative involves staying updated on industry trends, along with the human aspect of the hiring process.
Since the pandemic, we’ve seen fluctuations in employment rates. However, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released some good news last week.
- The number of job openings increased in the South region on the last business day of May
- Total non-farm payroll employment increased by 4.8 million in June
- The unemployment rate declined to 11.1%
Staying positive and continuing knowledge as a Business Development Representative
For candidates looking for work, Kathleen recommends persevering and building experience.
“Don’t give up and keep trying. It’s weird and everyone’s in a similar position, so that’s challenging in itself,” she said. “Just working on constantly sharpening up your skills and taking advantage of all the cool opportunities that lots of organizations are providing right now. So many different schools are offering free certification courses, so you can just work on sharpening up your skills while you’re still hitting the ground running.”
Speaking of free certification courses, Kathleen recently earned a Certificate in Hospitality & Tourism Management from Florida Atlantic University!
After learning about the course on LinkedIn, she applied and was admitted into a cohort. 4 weeks and 5 modules later, she earned her certificate. Job seekers can keep an eye out for online certifications to beef up their resume, add to their skill set, and enhance their work experience.
Finding a company with a positive environment
Another important factor for candidates looking for work can be the company culture. Where we work, our team, and our communication styles can play a big part in the longevity of our career with a company. Kathleen said one of the main reasons she chose to work for BlueWave was because of the team atmosphere.
“Everyone’s super nice and willing to help you and help me learn as someone who’s new to the team,” she said. “Everyone’s so friendly all the time and asking if I need help and never shies away from giving me help on anything.
Questions for Kathleen?
Looking to hire for your team? Need insight on the current job market? Connect with Kathleen on LinkedIn or contact her here!
