Brigette Marty, poses for a portrait in a 1966 Ford Mustang convertible

Career Driven: Brigette Marty is a Dream Job Connector

Friday, October 18, 2024

By Katie Dohman
 

The day Brigette Marty was born, her father bought a Ford Bronco. A sign from the universe: She was born to love cars.


 

Throughout her childhood, she attended car shows, derbies, rallies, and even perused car lots for fun. “Some people like plants,” she explains. “Cars are my jam.” As it turns out, her personal hobby also fuels her professional pursuits: She teaches others how to navigate the hairpin turns and potholes that appear on everyone’s career journey. 

And by all accounts, Brigette Marty operates in overdrive. As the senior associate director and one of seven career coaches in the Carlson Business Career Center (CBCC), she is responsible for coaching for Part-Time MBA (PTMBA), Master of Science in Supply Chain Management, and Carlson Executive MBA students and alums about their present and future career trajectories—from their first day of enrollment to whenever they’re ready to put it in park. By her estimation, she completes somewhere around 1,000 cases a year. Students average about eight visits, and alums around three, although each case is highly dependent on a variety of factors.

The repeat visits aren’t a sign of struggle, but rather thoroughness— and, one suspects, a sign Marty is a legitimately fun hang. She’s charming, vivacious, hilarious, confident, and real. She’s accessible and knowable, but whether by personality or training—probably both, as she holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations and a master’s degree in counseling and student development—she magically turns most topics back to her conversation partner for exploration. That is to say, when someone buckles into her conversational passenger seat, they’re likely to zip from zero to 60 without ever checking the rearview.

On average, she navigates four to six of these coaching appointments daily, all in various career stages. In each, she says she’s “holding space” for people, affirming and normalizing the feelings that come with managing a career: Some are grieving a lost job while others are celebrating landing a new one. Some are refining cover letters and résumés while others are preparing final salary negotiation strategies. “The only place we don’t go is the interview,” she jokes, “but we’re there, too.”

Brigette makes people feel seen, and that is a beautiful gift.

Maggie Tomas
Executive Director, Carlson Business Career Center

Maggie Tomas, CBCC executive director, says even though Marty didn’t have direct job coaching experience when she applied more than seven years ago, her presentation sealed the deal. “It was clear she’d be an amazing fit,” Tomas says, noting Marty operates in a higher gear with her ability to listen, then understand and reframe what students and alumni need. “Brigette makes people feel seen, and that is a beautiful gift.”
 

The right horsepower

Marty is a fan of using lots of analogies to make job hunting survivable. And, she says, that process is a lot like buying a car—researching makes and models, test driving, negotiating accessory packages and purchase prices, tune-ups and resales.

On another level, she uses cars to power her coaching and career. One of the tools in her toolbox is the Clifton Strengthsfinder, a positive psychology tool that measures one’s personality, natural inclinations, and talents. Naming these strengths and exploring them helps people hone, sell, or complement them with other skills— and find jobs that suit them best.

Brigette Marty, left, Senior Associate Director and Career Coach Carlson Business Career Center, works with 2024 Full-Time MBA graduate Casey Reidy, right
Brigette Marty, left, Senior Associate Director and Career Coach Carlson Business Career Center, works with 2024 Full-Time MBA graduate Casey Reidy, right

Marty has, of course, taken the Strengthsfinder test herself—along with training. She coaches her students to make a mnemonic device of their own top five strengths so they can use them easily in interviews and networking conversations. Hers? CAARS. Yes, really. It stands for Communicator (telling stories, articulating ideas), Activator (why do it later when you can do it now?), Adaptability (flexibility and preparing for contingencies), Relator (wanting to know others and be known by others), and Strategic (both in building and implementing strategies).

Marty admits she’s “notorious” for her Activator role. Nicole Centanni, a CBCC alumni career coach who reports to Marty, says it explains why when Marty hears a candidate say something aloud that matches with a specific job or a career pathway, she wastes no time merging the two.

“When it comes to career, I want to help our candidates do the work that makes their heart sing and time fly—and that is the work that is aligned to their strengths,” explains Marty. “Helping candidates gain clarity on their strengths and then identify functions and environments where they can live out those strengths is rewarding.” And, she says, the Activator part of her shows up in coaching by bringing an energy and motivation to ignite action—like shifting out of neutral into first.

Sierra Williamson, ’24 MBA, is one such alum. She connected with Marty at an event early on in her PTMBA journey. “I just knew she would be a great confidante throughout the program,” Williamson says. She already had a job and wasn’t necessarily looking to leave, but during many exploratory conversations with Marty, she broadened her perspective. “She really empowered me to go after something big, to the finish line, and get offered a dream.” In the end, the “dream job” Williamson landed was an opportunity at Target HQ that Marty brought forth to Williamson based on their specific conversations—a job Williamson says she may never have never considered otherwise.

She really empowered me to go after something big, to the finish line, and get offered a dream.

Sierra Williamson, '24 MBA

Keeping the odometer rolling

The CBCC offers coaching for Carlson School graduate students and all alumni, but when Marty came aboard, alumni coaching was limited—and she saw a huge opportunity. Because of her considerable relationship-building and advocacy skills, and a generous gift from the Carlson Family Foundation, she was able to help expand services to include lifetime access for all Carlson School alums. The decision to do so came about just in time. Though unemployment numbers are touted as historically low at the moment, getting hired seems like it is getting harder, especially for many mid-career MBAs.

Brigette Marty, poses for a portrait next to a 1966 Ford Mustang convertible
Brigette Marty, poses for a portrait next to a 1966 Ford Mustang convertible

That’s due to a number of factors, Marty says. In 2021, there was a lot of job-market movement. The onset of the pandemic caused historic numbers of women to leave their jobs, and work culture shifted dramatically as workers transitioned into (and sometimes out of ) remote and hybrid work setups. For a time, it was an employees’ market. But in short order, the power balance shifted to employers. “There are a lot of quiet layoffs,” she says. “If you’re in an encore career or latercareer chapter, it is very difficult.”

The CBCC appointment scheduling tool indicates a healthy appetite for guidance. In the last year, coaches have advised 1,182 alumni, a 189 percent increase year over year. That is in part due to being able to expand the number of coaches and the marketing of the service.

So Marty’s counseling background really shines with her roster—she is willing and able to sit in the fear and grief that can come with job or soul searches. “A lot of our identity is connected to our work,” she says. “I am so fortunate to get to help Carlson School alumni normalize those feelings ... then find their footing again and get glimmers of hope.” And, she says, before long, they find something that gets them back on the road. “Our alums always land better,” she says.
 

Creating a new roadmap

Jen Estochen, ’03 MBA, is exactly the kind of alum Marty was looking to reach.

After spending nearly 25 years at 3M, Estochen had earned her MBA and become a Lean Six Sigma global operations leader. She’d hopscotched over role changes internally and narrowly missed rounds of layoffs. Each move got her closer to the top. “I was redefining the strategy for the company ... I felt I was moving in the right direction in my career,” she says. But eventually, the ax fell. “I was definitely in the ‘What just happened?’ space,” she says.

Estochen says she was “mid-search” and meeting Marty immediately “changed how I was approaching things.” Marty reassured her through panicked moments, helped her prep for interviews, and even made sure Estochen was making time to exercise and take care of herself—no easy task as a single mother of three in the midst of a career crisis.

“She is very candid but in a good way, because she figured out what made me tick,” Estochen says. “She said to me, ‘Your superpower is connecting with people and making relationships. Do you realize how many people struggle with that, and you don’t even think about it?’ She helped me identify the best things about me that I hadn’t seen about myself.’

 It wasn’t a straight shot to the dream job—Estochen says Marty even talked her through withdrawing consideration from roles that weren’t really the right fit—but she felt confident upon accepting a role at Cargill when the offer came.

When it comes to career, I want to help our candidates do the work that makes their heart sing and time fly.

Brigette Marty

Revving the engines

Marty’s successes deliver a dual-engine power, though it’s hard to tell which powers what: Does her job satisfaction and success fuel that of her students and alums, or does their achievement fuel her success?

Either way, it has propelled her forward. Marty’s ability to steer students and alumni through the varied road hazards that present themselves on every career journey was recently highlighted when she spoke with her team in Portland, Oregon, at a coach-among-coaches conference. The title? “Denials, Delays, and Detours,” which focused on how to hold space for those struggling to find their place in today’s chaotic and increasingly opaque job market of outsourcing résumé screening to AI, LinkedIn’s Easy Apply button, and vague or ghost job postings. According to Tomas, it was met with “rave reviews.”

But the old adage still rings true: It’s often who you know. Marty is a natural connector.

“What I love to do—and I’m very good at—is connecting people,” she says. “I love leaning into that power of community.” Not only does she connect with her clients, but she connects her clients to other alumni to create a broader, more interconnected Carlson School network in the larger community.

“People in the office are constantly going to her,” says Centanni. “I actually can’t believe she knows this many people. She has a Rolodex in her head. It’s an amazing testimony to how she invests in other people. She’s memorable to them, and they’re memorable to her. That, to me, sets her apart.”

Brittany Cardinal, ’22 MBA, who sought Marty’s advice when she was looking to transition out of agency work and subsequently landed at the National Marrow Donor Program (formerly Be the Match), agrees.

Cardinal’s advice to alums is to use the service anytime they need it. “You have lifetime access ... it’s a great resource for anybody who went to Carlson,” she enthuses. And, she adds, she’ll always treasure her connection to Marty. No matter the mileage she’s traveled in her own career, Marty will remain a top contact. “I really think she is the hidden gem of the Carlson experience.”

Brigette Marty's Favorite Phrases

  • Act your way into thinking, instead of thinking your way into action.
  • When in doubt, more data will help you figure it out.
  • Career is a team sport.
  • Acknowledge the assists.
  • Some conversations need to start with "thank you" and others with "my sincere apologies" before anything productive can happen.

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Photography by Pat Vasquez-Cunningham

Fall 2024 alumni magazine cover

This article appeared in the Fall 2024 alumni magazine

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