Beth Grossman is a director of the Banking & Financial Services at Angott Search Group. Beth has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. She has held leadership roles with financial institutions as well as national, regional, and community banks. Beth possesses an exceptionally strong background in the mortgage field. As a regional vice president with Countrywide Home Loans, Beth formed twenty-three branches in the Midwest and led them to an annual production of $1 billion. She was responsible for sales and operations, recruiting, branch expansion, product and program growth, underwriting, and business development. After her success at Countrywide, Beth worked as an area sales manager with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage where she received top divisional awards for her business development, compliance, and recruiting achievements. Beth’s expertise in this field was also instrumental in increasing production by 200% for Guaranteed Rate while regional sales manager. Beth has also been a national underwriting manager; processing, closing and shipping department manager; and a top-producing originator. Beth earned her MBA from San Diego State University, where her areas of concentration were finance and real estate. Her undergraduate degree was in education and she enjoys working with teams to help them learn and grow. She currently serves on the board of directors of Lighthouse Community Development, a local charitable organization that works to revitalize neighborhoods in need. Beth is also active in the local cultural community and other non-profit organizations. |
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"What Are You About and Networking": From WJBK Fox 2 Detroit's Job Shop, news with Murray Feldman. |
Networking Tips
Best Practices
Simplest Advice is: No one has ever made contacts by doing nothing! Start now and make a commitment for at least 1 hour a day. Increase the time and activities as your confidence grows.
Start with your immediate centers of influence: people you know well and who would be willing to provide you advice, assistance, referrals, etc.
Friends, family, co-workers, bosses, former co-workers, etc.
Brainstorm contacts-potential contacts, people with whom you did business, former clients, alumni.
Overcome call reluctance-it’s real and very common and there are specific techniques to overcome it.
Go to the library and the bookstore and online. READ and talk to people and evaluate your career path and what you really want to do.
Learn how to use Google to search for information online.
Do you need to reinvent yourself? If so, take some profile tests or see a career coach and discover what you want to do next. Don’t just leap into another job if you weren’t happy in the last one or if your career path is at a dead end.
Use networking sites, but don’t expect them to yield results just by being online. Use them as one tool in your toolbox. Spend time online but not all your time online.
Plan to get to an event (interview, lunch meeting, networking event-job, association meeting, interview, etc- at least 2 times a week minimum). Take a class, join a networking group, go to events you read about-go where you have likelihood of interacting with people.
Ask for contacts. Don’t assume people know what you do or that you are seeking a new job. People LOVE to give advice and talk about their own lives. Ask them about themselves.
You don’t need to actually ask for a job-look to make connections and ask questions.
Hearing “no” means you are getting closer to yes. Overcome that sinking feeling you get when you hear “no.”
Enlist someone else as your spokesperson, someone who can brag about you so you won’t have to.
Even if you are uncomfortable, do it!
You don’t need to be a computer whiz to network-start with LinkedIn.com—it’s very easy to navigate.
Twitter can be used to “follow” people in industries or at companies where you’d like to work or in which you’re interested. Remember that you are business networking. There is a difference between social and business networking-remember it always.
Think about what you can offer others also:your contacts, your insight and knowledge.
Always be very polite and professional-your facebook profile will be reviewed by your business contacts so don’t get “too comfortable.”
Set realistic expectations.
Set small goals that are attainable.
Consider using a journal to track progress to goals.