The Girl Who Couldn’t Keep a Secret: From Federal Job Loss to a Six-Figure Offer Career Makeover

Hey Bee Hey, It's Momma Bee here bringing you another I got the Job success story. There are over 100,000 members in our hive. Here in the hive we live for the “I got the job “ post.  In each one of these posts there are not one, but several Bee’s in the hive that have dropped some honey either on the resume or through one of several different services. We work as a team in the hive for the team. Because Success should never be a secret!

Charmaine’s story

Charmaine’s alarm didn’t need to go off when it did. She was already awake. Today marked the 15th year she had been waking up at 6AM to go to a job she absolutely loved. Charmaine worked in the Federal Government. She worked in the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. She loved that she was able to help low-income families survive during the cold winter months in Wisconsin by providing programs that helped pay that bill. She  knew her coworkers had what they thought was a surprise party. But, Reia could never keep a secret. She had told Charmaine two weeks ago that the team was planning a big party. Charmaine looked at her cute yet demure outfit that she had purchased just for today. It was a nice pencil skirt with a spring blouse. She didn’t want to look too obvious. She actually got a little emotional as she locked the door to her new home. Charmaine had purchased the home four years ago with money she earned from the job she loved. As a child, she dreamed of getting married and having a house with a picket fence. But she really loved the open yard to her home and she was actually pretty happy single. Once a year, she and her single friend-group did an international trip.  Charmaine started her car and looked in the mirror, and said Good Job Charmaine and started her journey to the building.

In Charmaine's words, I arrived at the building and took the elevator to the 9th floor. As I walked into the office, there were balloons and streamers. I even saw the cake sitting in the middle on a rollout table we used for office lunches and parties.

What I didn't see was smiles. Instead, there was thick air. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Reia had tears rolling down her face. Just as I was trying to put it together in my head I saw the head honcho coming out on the floor. Directly behind him was an employee with a pulley filled with empty boxes. In less than five minutes, my fifteen-year career ended and within ten minutes, I boxed up all my funny toys, pictures from trips, sticky notes from the past 15 years!

I think we were all so shocked we couldn’t even talk to each other. They had deleted all of our emails and access. We were standing in the hallway waiting for elevator when one employee said dammitt, let's at least get a drink. At 10AM I found myself in a bar drinking with my soon to be X-co-workers. That's when I heard about Black On the Job. Reia said, “Black On The Job fixed up my resume and prepared me for the interview I did that landed this job so I am just going to reach out to them and book career services and do it again.” Reia invited me to the group. That night while scrolling on my phone,  at home in the house I no longer knew how I was going to pay for I got the alert that I had been approved to join the group Black on The Job. I found myself laughing at the funny but true post. Then I realized why it was called Black on the Job. Because only us, would understand the true nature of the laughs in here. 

It was close to Juneteenth so, I purchased the Career Makeover Package. The measly coins the Federal department gave us I knew wouldn’t last long so I decided to invest immediately in myself. I hadn’t looked for a job in 15 YEARS!!! After getting my resume redone and having a LinkedIn created I booked an interview prep.

In the last week of August, I accepted a six-figure offer from a large corporation. I start the first week of October. I wanted to share my story with the federal bees in particular. So many of us were just let go with no warning. We packed up years of working for the Federal government and had literally minutes to box up our career. The offer I accepted is over $30,000 more than I was making. All I can say is, thank God Reia could never keep a secret!