Project Engineer

West
US Navy, O-3

I attended the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in 1998. I also attended Florida State University and earned my MBA in 2006. I was a Lieutenant in the Navy and an MH-53E Helicopter Pilot and began terminal leave on July 28, 2006, but I am still officially in the Navy until October 1, 2006. I began my transition preparation in late 2004 and attended a career conference with another recruiter in June 2006. I opened my options to other military recruiters in June as well and began working with Orion International.

I found out about Orion through a direct mailing about two years ago. I also conducted research via the Internet on several military recruiters. Before contacting Orion, I went to a hiring conference with another recruiter and was not impressed by the locations of the positions offered or the starting salaries. I had very specific needs, as I insisted on only interviewing for opportunities in Northern California, because my wife had already started a career in the area.

After receiving my resume, Dave Bakkeby immediately found me an interview with LAM Research. In the coming days, I was contacted by several Orion recruiters with similar opportunities in the Northern California region. I interacted with several members of the Orion team including Dave and Brian Henry, and I had several interviews arranged by other Orion Account Executives, such as Gino Marchetti. Orion was great at arranging me four interviews in a one week time period on very short notice, all in the N. California Area. Add to the fact that there was very short notice about my trip to California and it was over the long 4th of July weekend, I was extremely impressed by Orion's ability to set up interviews for me.

I am now currently a Senior Project Manager with LAM Research, which builds wafer fabrication equipment for the semi-conductor industry. The high tech and fast paced aspect of the position and industry is exactly the type of position I was looking for. Overall, I am very satisfied with the position I accepted.

Orion was, without a doubt, able to adapt to my very specific requirements with little problem. Of the two other recruiters I worked with, one could not deal with my specific location preference and the other could not adapt to my short time line for finding a new career.

From working with three recruiting companies to facilitate my transition, I came to one clear conclusion. Two recruiters talked a big game and touted their superior programs, clients, and capabilities but in the end could not deliver what they so proudly stated. Orion's representatives, on the other hand did not spend too much time talking about how great they were, but focused on delivering results. In the end, Orion was the only company that met every single need that I stated.