Monique Montanino - Clicks, Tricks, & Golden Handcuffs: 5-Point Roadmap for Tech Executives to Land Big-Impact Roles

If you are at a crossroads in your technology career and struggle with how to prepare for the next role, you arrived at the right place. Whether you are trapped at a company after a decade of service, passed over for executive positions, or your role is being eliminated, this book provides guidance to navigate forward.

My passion is supporting clients in pursuing their career dreams; it allows me to collaborate with innovative intellectuals who share intriguing stories about accomplishments in technology, team empowerment, and societal impact.

While innovators at business positioning for products and ideas, my clients are challenged with how to do that for themselves. Does that sound like you too?

Clicks, Tricks, & Golden Handcuffs is an anthology of over 80 LinkedIn articles and blogs I wrote for technology executives to aid in their job search strategy. Over the past three years, these writings accrued over 20,000 views and, in part, drew over 200 clients to my consulting practice.

With my office door propped open, you can listen in on the highlight reel from executive conversations with CEOs, General Managers, Vice Presidents, and Directors pursuing opportunities outside of Amazon, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and Seattle startups. You will gain insight on how to become an online click magnet for executive recruiters and the tricks for a successful job search strategy.

After all, are you not interested in securing your pair of golden handcuffs an executive compensation package with equityat a technology company?

If you are a current or aspiring executive seeking to land your role as a technology provocateura big-impact makerat a Fortune 500, multinational company, or startup, this book offers ideas for:

• defining your career vision,
• positioning your brand for career opportunities,
• optimizing your resume and LinkedIn profile,
• honing your interviewing skills, and, most importantly,
• executing your plan for success.

It all started innocently enough. A decade later, at a tech Fortune 500 company, I was ensconced in golden handcuffs. For those of you unfamiliar with the term golden handcuffs, it refers to the financial seduction corporations use to retain their highly compensated employees, so they do not leave for the competition.

I wore my golden handcuffs for 18 years, lured by cash bonuses, stock options, a pension, and the promise of retiree healthcare insurance. It allowed me to retire early and pursue a new avenue as a certified executive career coach three years ago.

My golden handcuffs slipped on when I was offered an executive relocation package from a Fortune 500 company. I moved from Dallas to Kansas City to work at Sprints corporate headquarters with a compensation offer featuring paid expenses to offset a new home purchase and sell my existing one.

Five years with Sprint in the Midwest zipped by before I migrated like a salmon to Seattle. My career peaked in 2016 as a CenturyLink technology sales executive when I landed in the top 3% corporate-wide for annual sales quota attainment. After 18 years in technology, I slipped off my golden handcuffs and retired early at 55 years old.

Now what? Finally, I was going to commence on my top 10 global travel bucket list. In preparation, I took an 8-week in-person Italian language course before living for a month in Palermo, Sicily. It was invigorating, soaking up ancient culture and new experiences before returning to the U.S.

My life back home entailed volunteering as a career advocate in downtown Seattle at Uplift Northwest, a century-old non-profit that started during the Great Depression. For those experiencing homelessness, Uplift Northwest provides clients a temporary staffing agency and a supportive employment program along with hot meals and basic medical care. After moving on to do the same volunteering as a career advocate at non-profit Dress for Success, which supports female economic empowerment, I was restless.

Does it infuriate you when your mother is right? Mine told me I would be bored in retirement, and her proclamation only took a year and a half to be confirmed. Armed with my pro bono career-consulting knowledge, I made a career pivot, becoming a certified career coach for tech executives. Since I am primarily based in Seattle, my clients are the usual suspects employed in the Northwest. Over the past three years, my client base expanded across the U.S. from the West Coast to the East Coast and internationally.

The contents of this book correspond to a 5-point roadmap for obtaining your next tech executive role. You will begin with identifying your career vision and culminate with an implementation plan to execute that vision. It is the same method used in collaborating with my executive clients.

1. Career Path: develop your career vision, confront indecision, evaluate corporate versus startup roles, and consider remote positions
2. C-Suite Advice: think like a CEO, benefit from mentor and coach collaborations, invest in your continuing education, and join boards for networking opportunities and social impact
3. Personal Brand: harness your superpower, identify your top skills, create an elevator pitch, embrace social media, and address diversity and inclusion