Representative Outplacement Testimonials
“I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with Sheryl Odentz. She is just fantastic. The contact and the job actually came through her! She really went above and beyond my expectations. She was very responsive to my needs and was always available for my many questions. She motivated me to go on when I would have just given up. She is a great coach. She was there for each and every phase of the job hunting process and made me feel confident about the things that I had to do. But even more than helping me find a job is that she taught me how to network. It is a skill that is both essential and hard to learn without the right teacher. She taught me how to fish. This was definitely the silver lining.”
– Written by an attorney from a law firm ranked within The American Lawyer 200 who was in career transition with Progress in Work. This testimonial was written to the law firm.
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with Sheryl Odentz of Progress in Work during my search for a new position. During these past few months, Sheryl and I have developed a strong bond and understanding due to the fact that we worked so closely. Sheryl not only helped me as a professional, she really cared for me as an individual. We would spend countless hours talking about my personal well-being as well as the personal situation that I was confronting during my job search. She really gets to know the individual in order to know the best course of action and follow through with specific action steps to focus on targeting and landing a position that will be just right for the individual. In addition, Sheryl is very well connected in the legal recruiting industry. Not only does she have direct contact with various firms’ legal recruiting departments, she has a pool of legal recruiters which she keeps constant contact with in order to be abreast of the hottest areas of law at any particular time. Her network of legal recruiters is constantly growing. Sheryl’s people skills, her direct and indirect contacts as well as her genuine interest in the well-being of her clients makes her an excellent career coach. I wish her and Progress in Work much success and hope that others have the opportunity to work with her in order to experience what I’ve experienced in the short time that I have worked with and known her. She is a hardworker who is dedicated to helping her clients reach new heights in their new ventures. I would strongly recommend her to other attorneys looking to make a similar transition.”
– Written by an attorney from a law firm ranked within The American Lawyer 50 who was in career transition with Progress in Work. This testimonial was written to the law firm.
“I want to put into writing how much I appreciate working with Sheryl Odentz. Thanks so much for recommending that I call her and making it possible. I am thrilled about my new position as and I can’t stress enough how helpful Sheryl has been from the moment I spoke to her until now. She has worked tirelessly to understand my professional and personal history, identify my strengths and weaknesses, thoroughly brainstorm about goals, opportunities, paths and dreams, and put it all together to pinpoint the position that capitalizes on my strengths and fulfills my needs. She has also provided friendship and support. It is incredibly valuable during this time to have had an ally with her depth and knowledge about life as a lawyer, the legal field, the financial world, the opportunities available to lawyers in and out of the law as well as outstanding counseling skills. It seems so obvious now that this is the perfect position for me, so it might appear that there was very little work that went into getting to this point. Quite the opposite! I have not been an easy client for Sheryl – I subjected her to constant questions, emails, and phone calls, requests for advice and affirmation, not to mention constant mind-changing and swervy feelings about every aspect of this difficult process. Or perhaps I should say Sheryl has not been an easy counselor for me – she subjected me to honest and rigorous analysis, held me to being truthful with myself and doing the hard work required to identify what it is that I want and need. Thank you for making that connection for me. I am enormously indebted.”
– Written by an attorney from a law firm ranked within The American Lawyer 50 who was in career transition with Progress in Work. This testimonial was written to the law firm.
“I’d also like to say that I’ve had a wonderful experience with Sheryl Odentz of Progress in Work. Thank you very much for providing her services to me. Throughout our periodic meetings, and through these skills and work style/personality assessment tools she uses, I’ve been able to pinpoint my best skills and weaknesses; assess what I need in a job and work environment; and determine how to focus my career objectives in the immediate and distant future. I am a believer in career coaches and think everyone should have one at some point in their lives. I can’t say enough wonderful things about this service. And Sheryl has a particularly pleasant personality and tailors her assistance to the needs of each client. No cookie cutter at all and she does no corner cutting.”
– Written by an attorney from a law firm ranked within The American Lawyer 100 who was in career transition with Progress in Work. This testimonial was written to the law firm.
“I want to let you know how fantastic it was working with Sheryl Odentz. She was professional, available, had a great plan of attack for me, and was a real champion for my cause through the past three months. I highly recommend the firm continue to use her services for other ‘transition’ attorneys.”
– Written by an attorney from a law firm ranked within The American Lawyer 100 who was in career transition with Progress in Work. This testimonial was written to the law firm.
“Although it has been awhile since we worked together after my dismissal from [prior law firm], I remain grateful for the support you gave me during that trying time. You helped me identify my thoughts and feelings about pursuing a career in the law and guided me through the networking process that led to my current position at [new law firm]. In addition, to helping me get the right job, you have kindly made yourself available to me more recently to discuss some of the issues that have come up in my now not-so-new job and in the months and years to come. Your knowledge of the world of work combined with your exceptional listening skills and insightfulness are indeed invaluable resources of which I am fortunate to have been able to avail myself. I have no doubt that yours are gifts that could benefit a wide range of clients.”
– Written by an attorney from a law firm ranked within The American Lawyer 50 who was in career transition with Progress in Work.
“I wanted to thank you for all your help in December, especially providing the opportunity to work with Sheryl Odentz, founder of Progress in Work, as a career counselor. She was a wonderful help. She was responsive to my needs, making herself available even after hours, and providing practical, savvy advice. Her folder on the whole outplacement process was an enormous aid – it provided just enough information so that it wasn’t overwhelming, but had enough depth and breadth to be very helpful. I’m grateful to her for helping me get through a difficult time in my life with grace and perspective and for helping me to develop my skills in communication and networking, which I know will be used throughout my career. I strongly recommend her services to other attorneys.”
– Written by an attorney from a law firm ranked within The American Lawyer 100 who was in career transition with Progress in Work. This testimonial was written to the law firm.
“I wanted to give you some written feedback (in addition to what I said to both you and [the name of human resource professional] before leaving) regarding the outplacement services and Sheryl’s work in particular. Sheryl far exceeded my expectations. I guess what impressed me the most was that she did not just go through a standard routine but made great efforts to add value to my distinct set of circumstances and my particular job search. Although she spent a significant amount of time with me, she also worked on my job search when I was not around including getting in touch with her own contacts and even making a number of “cold calls” to see who was hiring. I had a very positive experience with Sheryl (Progress in Work) and recommend that, should the need arise, you continue to utilize her services.”
– Written by an attorney from a law firm ranked within The American Lawyer 100 who was in career transition with Progress in Work. This testimonial was written to the law firm.
“Recently, I had the pleasure of working with the founder of Progress in Work, Sheryl Odentz, who provided me with the best service I have ever received in my life! Although attorneys from big law firms in New York City have to be amongst the most difficult people to impress, I think anyone seeking outplacement, executive/professional coaching and career management services will be highly impressed by the prompt, professional and individualized attention that he/she receives from Ms. Odentz and Progress in Work. In addition to providing stellar service, Ms. Odentz was extremely savvy when it came to the legal market, allowing her to work with attorneys at different points in their career. Most significantly, Ms. Odentz taught me to focus my job search by taking into consideration my professional and personal preferences, desires, and goals in a manner that enabled me to control the job search process rather than letting it control me.”
– Written by an attorney from a law firm ranked within The American Lawyer 50 who was in career transition with Progress in Work.
“I had such an incredible experience with Sheryl Odentz from Progress in Work. We spent a significant amount of time revising my resume, reviewing employment wants and needs and preparing for interviews, etc. Sheryl really knows a lot about the legal industry and was an incredible resource for information on different firms and the key people in those firms as well as alternative career options for an attorney. After the initial assessment, which included a personality test and general career counseling, I met with Sheryl weekly. During our weekly meetings, Sheryl would go over the action steps that we came up with at our previous meeting and then help me to prepare new action steps geared toward finding the right job for me. Her counseling and experiences were invaluable to my job-hunting process. In addition to helping me with the nuts and bolts of finding a new position, Sheryl would assist me in addressing any concerns or anxieties I had about looking for work. I learned so much from Sheryl and was extremely pleased with all of her efforts.”
– Written by an attorney from a law firm ranked within The American Lawyer 50 who was in career transition with Progress in Work. This testimonial was written to the law firm.
Representative Business Development Testimonials
“Mastering the ‘art of rainmaking’ is not easy. While Sheryl promises no magic bullet in this regard, her materials and presentation aim to break down this difficult process to its essential elements, forcing participants to analyze their individual strengths and weaknesses, business prospects and personal relationships. Implementing Sheryl’s methodology promises a more focused, deliberate and hopefully successful marketing strategy than an uneven, haphazard approach to business generation to which the typical partner defaults.”
– Written by a Junior Partner from a law firm ranked within The American Lawyer 50.
“Thank you for teaching your sales course again this year at our Tax SELECT program. Year after year, the participants continue to give both your company and the class extremely high marks. We believe your class greatly benefits our participants and the program overall. We always enjoy working with you and look forward to working with you again in the future.”
– Written by an executive in the Tax and Legal Services department from one of the world’s largest auditing firms.
“Only five months into our work with your company, our business reflected impressive growth as follows: Increased average sales by 5X, Improved client retention by 35%, Doubled-consultant billing rates and increased billable hours for consultants by 22%. Our unique business issues were addressed with a customized, total, creative solution. Your company’s new business development approach and one-on-one coaching was fast-paced, efficient, and effective for our busy professionals. Your team made the impossible, possible!”
– Written by a Corporate Executive Vice President from a technology solutions company.
Representative Career Counseling Testimonials
“The journey from miserable lawyer to happy non-practicing lawyer can be quite daunting (often seeming impossible). Sheryl Odentz gave me the tools, resources, and confidence to actually make it happen. I met her as a solo practitioner knowing only that I no longer wanted to practice law, but lacking the direction to determine what my next career step would be. Sheryl helped me to develop a resume that communicated to potential employers that my skills as a lawyer were transferable to another field; she helped me to utilize my circle of friends, family, and contacts as a network of career possibilities; and she helped me to narrow in on a field in which I could be both successful and happy. She introduced me to my new employer! Sheryl helped me to find contentment as a retired litigator/legal recruiter. For that, I owe her many thanks.”
– Written by Steven B. Bitterman from the legal recruiting firm of Corrao, Miller, & Wiesenthal.