By Martie Thompson
editor@floridanewsline.com
Marilyn Feldstein has always wanted to help people. At first, after graduating from the University of South Florida with a degree in sociology and American studies, she became a social worker. Then, after moving to Pennsylvania so her husband could earn his PhD, she worked in banking to help pay the bills, but still she wanted a career that felt more meaningful to her. Realizing there was no future in this job, she decided to go back to school and earned her master’s degree in public administration from Penn State. “I thought perhaps I’d go into human resources,” she said. “I really needed a career coach, but there wasn’t one.” Ultimately, she landed a job back in Jacksonville (Marilyn was born and raised on Jacksonville’s Westside) with AT&T American Transtech, which had just opened its headquarters in the city. Finally in 2000, she realized what she truly loved was helping people find their strengths and repackage them to find a career they loved. She became what she herself needed years previously: a career coach. Today, she and her husband Charles enjoy living in Mandarin.
Q: How did you meet your husband?
A: I was living in Jacksonville and Charles was teaching at what was Florida Junior College at the time (now Florida State College at Jacksonville). We were basically set up on a blind date by a friend of his who recommended that his sister could date my brother and he could date me. So that’s what happened. We went to a disco in Arlington on a double date. Charles and I just hit it off, but his sister and my brother did not. We dated for 13 months until he accepted a position in North Carolina and we were married before he left so I could accompany him.
Q: How did you end up “back” in Jacksonville?
A: After we lived in North Carolina for a couple years, we moved to Pennsylvania because Charles wanted to get his PhD at Penn State University. We were there for about six years and you know, it gets really cold in Central Pennsylvania — sometimes we had 25 feet of snow and wind chills below zero. I’m a Floridian! We decided to move south, but never in a million years thought we would move back to Jacksonville. While visiting my parents (who still lived here) I did something really smart that I didn’t know was smart at the time. I had reached out to AT&T American Transtech about a job and never heard back from them. So while we were visiting my parents, I called them directly and ended up interviewing with them three of the five days of our visit. They called a few days later and offered me a job and then Charles had the major decision of giving up his current job without another lined up.
Q: What did you learn working at AT&T American Transtech?
A: I worked there for 13 years and had lots of opportunities to learn new skills while I was there. I worked on many different teams and went through four downsizings. For each one, I tried to help my employees prepare for a new job, with my goal being for them to all find jobs before I left — which I did. It was a precursor to what I do today.
Q: What is your specialty?
A: I’m a certified Job and Career Transition Coach. I hear from people all the time, “I know what I don’t like, but I don’t know what I do like.” So my job is to help them find what they really love. I start with career assessment tools and pull information from them about their passions. I help my clients write their resume to reflect this rather than just a historical representation of what they’ve done. I help them to highlight the accomplishments that support their skills and interest going forward and then I help them with networking and interviewing. My goal is for my clients to get the position if they interview — and then I help them negotiate the offer. My reward is when my client gets the job.
Q: What are your hobbies?
A: I love butterflies and hummingbirds and have a big garden for them in my yard. I exercise every day and read to keep my mind sharp. I also love to make up songs, including a fight song for the Jacksonville Jaguars that I made up in 1994!
Photo courtesy Marilyn Feldstein
Marilyn Feldstein
