By way of background, CareerLab is a regional career consulting firm with four full-time consultants, and a dozen adjunct consultants and strategic partners.

Since 1978, we've served more than 250 major U.S. corporations, both large and small, in all industries and at all levels—from entry-level to CEO.  Our valued clients include AT&T, Coca Cola, Ernst & Young, COBE Laboratories, HBO & Company, Janus Capital, Kaiser Permanente, KFC, Media One Group, Micron Electronics, PCL Enterprises, Inc., Qwest Communications, Schlumberger, TRW, and Village Inn.

It was a big gain when Rachel joined our firm, and a big loss when she left. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rank her a "12" in every area of employment, without exception.  She has a unique combination of people skills and technical skills that, in my experience as a career consultant, is extremely rare.  Most employees are good at either one or the other—Rachel masters both.

She is one of those rare individuals who contributes 110% every day of the year, day in, day out.  As an example, she drove 30 miles each way to work—even during blizzards in the winter—and still made it into the office by 7:30 a.m., earlier than other employees that lived close by-including me.

Rachel was the quarterback in our office.  Nothing came through the business that did not touch her hands.  She was responsible for all office functions: bookkeeping, billing and collections, facilities, client service, computer automation-plus much more.  When Rachel left CareerLab, the job description ran two pages.  Most applicants would not touch it—it seemed too difficult.  But Rachel handled it easily, by being an excellent manager of her time, energy, and efforts.  And speaking of energy, she had the highest energy of anyone in the office.

Here are a few brief highlights of her strengths

Computers
Rachel learned new software easily. Within a couple short hours she could get a handle on it and be explaining new features to those of us who had already been using the software for months. When creating our Internet web site, I spent 15 minutes explaining HTML and Rachel created new pages and uploaded them onto the server via FTP without any errors. Her ability not to need to ask questions surprised me.  She is a gifted teacher and was very skilled at teaching me, and our clients and customers, to use all of the office equipment, especially computer hardware and software.

Customer Service
Seldom did a week went by without one of our clients, customers, or consultants giving me an unsolicited testimonial for Rachel.  Things like "Rachel is really friendly," "You're lucky to have Rachel working here," and "Rachel makes your company look good," rang through the halls.  No other employee has ever elicited that much praise.

Bookkeeping/Accounting
She is extremely fast and accurate, having the equivalent skills of most CPAs. Rachel could talk to our CPA in his language, and I never had to be involved in unwelcome detail.

Billing and Collections
We have complex billing issues, and the survival of the company depends upon timeliness and accuracy.  To my knowledge, our billing never went out late.  And I don't remember any accuracy issues.  In short, the billing was flawless.  She collected difficult-to-collect accounts, specifically a $20,000 past-due invoice I had completely given up on.

Creativity
Rachel contributed good, useful, practical ideas to every area of our business-even areas she was not directly responsible for.  For example, industry trade shows, sales and marketing events, and legal issues, such as forming an LLC, which she implemented.

To sum up: Rachel was a joy to work with.  It was nice to have her around not only for her skills, which are superb, but also for her useful ideas and upbeat spirit.  If she ever returned to Denver, I would hire her on the spot even if we did not have a specific job open at the moment.  We would create a job to accommodate her.

If you are considering hiring Rachel in your organization, I advise you to offer her the position.  Every single day you'll be surprised and delighted with her performance.

With best wishes,

William S. Frank
PRESIDENT

Please call me at 303-790-0505 or send e-mail to wsfrank@careerlab.com if you want to learn more or talk personally.