PROOF is an occasional series that celebrates people who employed new job search strategies and landed an amazing new job or promotion — or shifted into an entirely new career.

Stephanie Derham was more than 20 years into her dream career with Nike when the proverbial shoe dropped. As part of a massive reorganization, she was laid off – an event, Stephanie admits, hit hard.

“No matter how much you prepare yourself for the possibility, it still stings,” she said. “So I took a few months off to decompress with my family before jumping into the job search.”

Stephanie had some clear ideas about the kind of work she wanted to do next: continue to build emotional connections between a brand and customers through powerful creative activations, for starters. She also wanted to land a role within a company whose mission and values aligned with her own.

However, she wasn’t as clear on how to revamp her resume. In fact, she’d last touched it in 2006.

Faced with the “overwhelming” task of condensing 24 years – and at least 11 different roles – into a compelling and concise document, Stephanie sought help.

“I decided to work with a certified expert to create a resume and LinkedIn profile that best captured my professional journey, and where I wanted to take it,” says Stephanie. “All research and trusted advice pointed to the same recommendation: JobJenny.com.”

So she purchased the Resume + LinkedIn Makeover package.

Through Stephanie’s one-on-one resume and LinkedIn consultations with Jenny – and in the weeks that followed – she learned about how applicant tracking systems (ATS) work, gained vital LinkedIn tips and cover letter best practices, and was able to clarify her core brand message.

She also discovered Jenny’s various career-related videos and articles on LinkedIn Learning, which she found quite helpful.

Once all of her marketing materials were pulled together, Stephanie’s job search was on. The new resume and LinkedIn profile directly impacted her success, she said, especially from a confidence standpoint. She felt properly prepared.

Even so, her previous job was “quite niche,” Stephanie explained, “so it wasn’t as easy as turning on job alerts across job posting sites. I continued to stay in touch with Jenny throughout the process – to chat about networking, outreach approach and get discoverability tips (for LinkedIn).”

As a LinkedIn Premium member, Stephanie took advantage of tools that allowed her to make assumptions about how successful her resume was from an ATS standpoint, or gauge a potential hiring company’s interest in her by connecting profile views with application response.

She eventually hit the jackpot.

In January 2022, Stephanie joined Slumberkins as Head of Creative, a children’s educational brand whose mission is to help caregivers raise caring, confident and resilient children through affirmations, stories and creature characters rooted in social-emotional learning (SEL).

Stephanie says she will have the opportunity to “reimagine how the brand is expressed, and how we authentically engage with our audience, through powerful creative ideas.”

She couldn’t be more excited. “I can’t wait to dream big and bring ‘what if’ possibilities to life through the power of early emotional learning.”

Stephanie says she learned a thing or two throughout her resume creation and job search process.

Number one?

“Invest in yourself. Whether that means taking an emotional time out, reassessing your passions and where you want to take them, attending career development sessions, tapping into your trusted network, or hiring a resume expert, now is the time to invest in yourself. Especially in this moment of time, when so many of us are reevaluating what brings us long-term, holistic fulfillment.”

On the practical side, she also recommends maintaining a live document of projects and performance. She had to do “quite a bit of digging” before getting started with the resume and LinkedIn development experience.

Stephanie is a big proponent of the JobJenny.com approach.

“The team really gets in there to understand who you are, what you’re proud of, and what others would say about you in order to capture your brand in the most compelling way,” she said.

“I can’t recommend JobJenny.com enough,” she added. “There’s an amazing team of humans behind the service. I’ll steal a quote from their website, because it was a deciding factor for me: ‘You’ll walk away with marketing materials you feel proud to show off, strategic tools and ideas you need, and the glow that comes only from dealing with people that not only know what they’re doing but will hold your hand and cheerlead for you every step of the way.’”

Stephanie is proof that, even after losing a dream job, there’s an incredible, dream job chapter 2 that awaits.

Congratulations, Stephanie!