Neil McCarthy recently completed a successful transition into a new role in a new industry.  It was a remarkable challenge for him, as it was the first time in over 25 years that he found himself in a career transition.  We spoke with him in his third week on the job as the new Senior IT Director at Endo Pharmaceuticals.

KA:  You were the Vice President & Chief Information Officer at Wawa, Inc. for eight years, and were at Wawa in a number of roles since 1982.  Why did you come to Kelleher Associates at this point in your career?

NM:  I had talked to people who worked with Mitch Wienick and Kelleher Associates in the past, and I really wanted to work with Mitch based on the recommendations of my colleagues.  It was the first time in almost 27 years that I had to go through this process, I didn’t have a current resume and I hadn’t been on an interview in years.

KA:  How did you, as a senior executive, work with Kelleher Associates?

NM:  Mitch took me through several different exercises in the first few weeks, such as determining my strengths and weaknesses, preferences, and what I felt were my major accomplishments and the value of them to the organization. I really had to think about that, and review the last several years to find key, significant accomplishments.  It was a new experience for me, as my career at Wawa spanned so much time.  Once we determined what the most significant accomplishments were, we then worked on the value proposition for each one and worked them into a resume.  Once we got the resume where we wanted it to be, we started to send it out to recruiters and other senior executives, as well as began the networking process.

KA:  Tell us about your new experiences in networking.  Was it a revelation to you, the importance and impact of networking?

NM:  Mitch worked hard to connect me with new people, and really emphasized the need for me to meet new people and gave me suggestions for how to do that.  He told me not to count on job postings or internet searches, but to get to know major recruiters or get three new introductions from each person I networked with.  Once I developed a career profile, and a new resume, I started to get out and meet people.  I used LinkedIn a lot – it’s an awesome way to connect, and I was able to connect with many Chief Information Officers (CIOs) that I had never met before.  They were able to point out other people who they thought I should talk to.  Surprising to me, that’s how I ended up getting this job, hearing about it from another CIO. ;

KA:  Please tell us a little more about your new role, and your new company.

NM:  It wasn’t that difficult for Mitch and the folks at Kelleher to help me decide to switch industries.  I knew I would probably have to do something different than being a Retail CIO because there are only so many major retailers based in the Philadelphia region.  I knew the other local retail CIOs, and there wasn’t a lot of opportunity for growth there.  I needed to move outside retail if I wanted to stay in the Philadelphia area, which was my preference. I also didn’t want to be pigeonholed into Retail.  Mitch helped me through that, and showed me what would be similar roles in other industries that might work for me.  Endo Pharmaceuticals (and the pharmaceutical industry overall) offers so many opportunities for growth.

In my new role, I’m a Senior Director, reporting to the CIO.  I’m in Information Management, responsible for one of main divisions of the company.  It’s almost a divisional CIO role, in that I’m responsible for all technology in this division.  The opportunity is tremendous and I’m very happy to have landed there.  My new job is smaller in scope than my position at Wawa, but at the same time I’m responsible for technology for the whole generic division, supply chain, labs, and research facilities.  Underneath me is our tech center, with our web portals, intranets, web sites.  Endo is growing quickly.  There is plenty for me to do and I am learning a lot.  I didn’t really target Pharmaceuticals because I had heard they were very inbred.  I really didn’t think Endo would want to talk to me when I heard of the opening there.  They told me they didn’t care about my lack of pharmaceutical industry experience because they knew that at Wawa, I understood the customer, which is more important to them than me knowing how the drugs are made.

KA:  You truly embraced the value of networking during your transition.  Can you tell us more about that experience?

NM:  Mitch and his colleagues have significant contacts and an incredible network.  When I would speak to someone new and learn about a potential opportunity, Mitch and his colleagues also seemed to know someone else at that company, and he would send them a note on my behalf or provide a suggestion for whom to talk with.  Between Ed Kelleher and Mitch and all the folks at Kelleher, they know a lot of people.  There was no one I talked to, or met in this process, that they didn’t know about in some fashion.

One of the other keys for my career transition was ExecuNet networking meetings.  I met a lot of new people there.  In addition, about a year before I left Wawa, I joined the Greater Philadelphia Senior Executive Group (GPSEG) and starting going to round-tables and occasional meetings.

Mitch had suggested I create my own personal Board of Directors, and meet regularly with certain people.  I never had one person decline a request for a meeting, I met with anyone who called me, and anyone who we felt might be beneficial to know.  The week before Thanksgiving, I had 24 meetings with different people.  I was networking like a fiend the whole month of November.  I had meetings for coffee, breakfast, lunch, middle of the afternoon, dinner – it was great.  I went to a meeting the first week of December, there were 45 CIOs in the room and I knew 40 of them.  A year ago, I knew only three.  I put over 15,000 miles on my car from September 2008 through February 2009.  It was a great experience.  Now I check in with my network as often as I can, either in person or through LinkedIn.  The networking was intense, and it’s what led me to my new job.