Andreas Katsaris is a co-founder and partner with Arisant, a Denver based company founded in 2006 by Oracle professionals who have a passion for designing, building and supporting Oracle infrastructure environments. Andreas has been instrumental in growing Arisant’s business and revenue by 40% per year for the last five years.
Here’s Andreas Katsaris’s True Calling™ Success Story:
I’m a hands-on, technical kind of person, so when I first worked with Nathan Teegarden after being laid off from a job, I felt suspicious of any type of career counseling or career coaching. My former employer paid for me to attend a presentation Nathan did with a group of people, so I went, and after that started meeting with him on a one-on-one basis.
I wanted Nathan to give me a list of contacts or some phone numbers to call—something concrete immediately, but he kept asking me these abstract and theoretical questions about my career plan and long-term objectives. I just wanted a job. I was stubborn, but Nathan’s approach turned me on to a different way of going about my job search.
Instead of thinking about sending out 100 resumes a day, I started seeing the value in sending out three or five customized resumes and then following up to make a personal connection with potential employers. Nathan even coached me and then challenged me to walk personally into one of the offices where I had applied, introduce myself and get face time with the hiring manager —and I did. After that incident, I felt like no rejection could stop me from going after the type of work I wanted.
Through the process of searching for a job, I learned many skills that are essential to my current work as a business owner of a company of 30 people with clients all over the country. Instead of selling my experience or myself to an employer, I am selling a product or a service to a customer, but the approach I learned from Nathan still applies. The things I learned about presentation and perception are transferable skills, and I use them all the time even though it has been years since I worked directly with Nathan.
What I found unique about Nathan’s approach is his balance between the nuts-and-bolts of a career search and the high-level picture he presents. His motivation and encouragement has been long lasting. I needed to roll up my sleeves and get to work on my resume and find a job, but I also needed to learn how to make connections with other people, present myself and look for a real career-my true calling. Nathan offered a mix of these things that really worked for me.
Adjusting my style, approach, and language for each customer is something I do on a daily basis—and this all has its beginnings in the work I did with Nathan. I wouldn’t have thought it when I first met him as I sat there reluctantly listening to his group presentation, but the individual attention he gave to my career is what I now offer my customers—and with great success.
