Our Blog

BY Joel Junker

January 2012 Career Conference Results

We just completed the January 2012 Career Conference this week.  40 candidates and 14 spouses and support team members attended the conference, and all candidates have multiple companies pursuing them into the follow-up process.  The candidates interviewed with an average of 12.5 companies and averaged 8.4 companies pursuing them for a 67% pursuit rate, which is very consistent with our November 2011 Career Conference.  The ratio of opportunities to candidates at this conference was  approximately 2:1.  The entire Cameron-Brooks team congratulates the January Conference candidates on their first step in their transition to the business world.

In my blog post prior to the conference, I discussed the importance of attitude in interviewing.  The group of candidates that attended the January Career Conference were a testament to this.  During the entire conference, they demonstrated a terrific attitude in how they prepared, studied, helped one another, etc., and that attitude carried over into the interviews.  The companies recognized it and the results of the January Career Conference are a testament to just how important having the right attitude is.

The size of the companies attending our January Career Conference varied from several companies with 275+ employees to companies with over 90,000 employees.  There were privately held companies represented as well as some of the largest companies on the FORTUNE 500 list.  Of the companies that attended the conference, ~25% were new companies brought to Cameron-Brooks by way of our alumni or by reputation.  Industries included biopharmaceutical manufacturing, building materials, procurement, logistics, consumer products, high-tech manufacturing, consulting/risk assurance, oil and gas exploration and production, engineered industrial products, and medical device.

Our client companies brought a wide variety of position titles to the Conference, including District Manager, Regional Manager, Field Clinical Specialist, Manufacturing Supervisor, Manufacturing Engineer, Applications Engineering, Marketing Manager, Clinical Account Specialist, Territory Manager, Engineering Team Leader, Project Engineer, Senior Consultant, Manager of Business Development, Planner/Buyer, Supply Area Manager, Financial Analyst, Contracting and Procurement, Operations Line Manager, and Manager of Special Projects.

The list of client companies at the January Conference included the following:

• Founded in 1876 by a pharmaceutical chemist, this company has established itself as a global, research-based pharmaceutical company for the past 132 years. Their products are marketed in 125 countries.  Among other specialties, this company was the first company to mass-produce penicillin, as well as one of the first pharmaceutical companies to produce human insulin using recombinant DNA. Today the company is the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of psychiatric medications used in a broad range of psychiatric and mental health-related conditions, including clinical depression, anxiety disorders, narcotic addiction, insomnia, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and others.  This was their first conference with Cameron-Brooks and they attended looking for engineering leadership positions.
• With offices in over 30 countries and over 40% of their total staff based outside of the Americas, this company is a leading global investment banking, securities, and investment management firm that provides a wide range of financial services to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments, and high net-worth individuals.  They run their firm in four business segments:  Investment Banking, Institutional Client Services, Investing and Lending, and Investment Management.  This client company attended the conference to find top leadership talent for their organization.
• The largest producer of industrial and specialty gases in the world with revenues over $15 billion.  In North America, this company manufactures and markets over 20,000 different types of gas products for applications in a large and diverse number of industries to include automotive, agriculture, chemicals, electronics, energy, glass, healthcare, pharmaceutical, steel, food, packaging, semiconductor, water treatment, and more.  Their products help customers increase productivity, improve product capability, meet quality standards, reduce operating costs, etc.  From the water and food we consume to the automobiles we drive, we utilize products every day that this company helped manufacture or process.  They are a    long-standing client of Cameron-Brooks since the 1970s, and regularly recruit for top leadership talent.
• This company is the world’s most comprehensive manufacturer of health care products with the mission to improve the quality of life for people around the world.  The company provides products and related services to 3 major segments of the health care industry:  Pharmaceuticals, Medical Device & Diagnostics, and Consumer.  The company has more than 250 operating companies selling products in virtually all countries in the world.  Their products range from baby care, first aid and hospital products to prescription pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, surgical products, and products relating to family planning, dermatology and feminine hygiene.  FORTUNE Magazine also consistently ranks them as one of America’s Most Admired Companies and Best Places to Work.  They are a long-standing client of Cameron-Brooks and routinely attend conferences in search of top leadership talent for manufacturing, engineering, business analysis, and sales positions.
• This company is one of the world’s premier petroleum and petrochemical companies, ranked #1 in the U.S. and globally.  They are the industry leader in each of their core businesses with an unmatched portfolio of proprietary technologies aimed at world-class scale and efficiency.  The company conducts business in almost 200 countries and territories around the globe and has proven reserves of 21 billion barrels of oil.  The company’s 2011 revenues were over $354 billion with profit of over $30 billion, ranking them the most profitable company in the U.S., and they are #2 on the 2011 FORTUNE 500.

To learn more about the Cameron-Brooks Career Conference experience, I’ve posted several videos from candidates who attended the January Conference on our Facebook.

Rob Davis