Good Fit Careers

I help people achieve their career goals, navigate complex hiring processes, and make the most of their career transitions. In short, I help people tell their stories then find and land jobs that are a good fit for them.

With the skills and experiences I gained as a headhunter and executive recruiter hiring for companies large and small, I have an informed perspective on what goes into an effective resume, interview, and job search strategy.

I made my first hires as the founder of a college startup. Several years later I ventured into the world of recruiting so I could learn how to hire more effectively. For nearly a decade, companies hired me to hire well on their behalf or to help them build systems and processes to hire more effectively as an enterprise.

With Korn Ferry (NYSE: KFY), as a member of the Global Technology Officer's practice, I hired C-Level Executives for some of the most prominent companies in the world in a retained exclusive executive search format. 

With Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX), I had the opportunity to design a comprehensive hiring process, configure and implement the enterprise applicant tracking system (ATS), and hire the global Chief Technology Officer. After helping to prepare the enterprise to hire at scale, the company executed a successful IPO.

After Cardlytics, I served as General Manager of the Austin division of a headhunting firm where I trained, developed, and provided leadership to a team of 18 technical recruiters who hired for companies like Bloomberg, HBO, Goldman Sachs, Amazon, Hulu, and ByteDance.

Executive Transition Consultant | Executive Career Coaching | Career Coaching | Career Coach | Resume Writing | LinkedIn Profile Optimization | Interview Coaching | Mock Interviewing | Job Search Strategies | Job Search Coaching | Offer Negotiation | Executive Recruiting | Technical Recruiting | C-Level Recruiting | Recruitment Process Improvement | Cover Letter | Resume Refresh | LinkedIn Refresh | Executive Search

Executive Career Coach

Andiamo Partners

Reporting to the CEO, provided leadership to the 18 members of Andiamo's Austin Division. 
Responsible for leading teams focused on Executive Recruiting, RPO Services, Diversity and Inclusion Recruiting Services, and Hiring Events Recruitment. 

Hired, on-boarded, trained, and developed both experienced and inexperienced recruiters, sourcers, technical recruiters, and executive recruiters. 

Andiamo maintains the status of tier-one vendor for firms such as Goldman Sachs, Amazon.com, Bloomberg, HBO, TwoSigma and Citadel; as well as other major financial services firms, elite hedge funds, Google-backed tech start-ups & major software firms.

Executive Transition Consultant | Executive Career Coaching | Career Coaching | Career Consulting | Resume Writing | LinkedIn Profile Optimization | Profile Writing | Career Branding | Interview Coaching | Mock Interviewing | Job Search Strategies Consulting | Job Search Coaching | Offer Negotiation | Cover Letter Writing | Executive Recruiting | Technical Recruiting | Hiring Process Consulting | C-Level Recruiting | Recruiter Training | Recruitment Process Improvement | Cover Letter | Resume Refresh | LinkedIn Refresh | Executive Search | Technical Recruiter | Personal Branding Strategy | Leadership Development | Executive Presence Coaching | Talent Acquisition Strategy

Executive Recruiting Manager

Cardlytics, Inc.

Reporting to the Senior Director of People Operations, responsible for hiring across the engineering side of the business. Hired the Chief Technology Officer, the Head of Product, Vice Presidents, Senior Directors, and Directors of Engineering, Principal and Senior Engineers, as well as Data Scientists and Analysts across the Engineering, Technology Services, R&D, Data Science, Machine Learning, and Analytics teams.

Contributed to the preparations for Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX) to go public by rebuilding the Cardlytics engineering hiring process, independently implementing Greenhouse as the new Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and training the enterprise on how to use the new ATS and hiring process.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Cardlytics has offices in London, New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Cardlytics was one of the fastest growing U.S. companies ranked #88 on the 2015 Inc. 5000 and #25 on the Deloitte 2015 Technology Fast 500™.

Executive Transition Consultant | Executive Career Coaching | Career Coaching | Career Consulting | Resume Writing | LinkedIn Profile Optimization | Profile Writing | Career Branding | Interview Coaching | Mock Interviewing | Job Search Strategies Consulting | Job Search Coaching | Offer Negotiation | Cover Letter Writing | Executive Recruiting | Technical Recruiting | Hiring Process Consulting | C-Level Recruiting | Recruiter Training | Recruitment Process Improvement | Cover Letter | Resume Refresh | LinkedIn Refresh | Executive Search | Technical Recruiter | Personal Branding Strategy | Leadership Development | Executive Presence Coaching | Talent Acquisition Strategy

Talent Partner - Technology Recruiter & Executive Headhunter

Korn Ferry

Specializing in CTO and CIO Retained Executive Search as well as Leadership Assessment Consulting for large public, privately held, and private equity backed organizations. 

In addition to CTO and CIO search and assessment work, executed a range of CMO | CPO | EVP | SVP | CVP and VP level searches for technical positions as well as general management roles ranging from PE-backed organizations through large and small, publicly traded, and privately held companies. 

Executive Search Client base centered on Augmented Reality Devices, Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Wearables, Mobility, Robotics, Software, Hardware, Mobile Devices, Retail, Professional Services, Hospitality and Biotechnology.

Korn Ferry International (NYSE: KFY) is a global provider of talent management solutions, generating $1.03B in revenues in 2014 with 3800 employees. Korn/Ferry provides retained executive search services focused on board level, chief executive and other senior executive positions for clients in the consumer, financial services, industrial, life sciences, automotive, manufacturing, aerospace, defense and advanced technology industries. Korn/Ferry also provides a broad range of leadership and talent consulting services, including executive assessment, leadership coaching, CEO and senior executive succession planning.

Executive Transition Consultant | Executive Career Coaching | Career Coaching | Career Consulting | Resume Writing | LinkedIn Profile Optimization | Profile Writing | Career Branding | Interview Coaching | Mock Interviewing | Job Search Strategies Consulting | Job Search Coaching | Offer Negotiation | Cover Letter Writing | Executive Recruiting | Technical Recruiting | Hiring Process Consulting | C-Level Recruiting | Recruiter Training | Recruitment Process Improvement | Cover Letter | Resume Refresh | LinkedIn Refresh | Executive Search | Personal Branding Strategy | Leadership Development | Executive Presence Coaching | Talent Acquisition Strategy

Senior Associate - Executive Recruiter

As a member of the Global Technology Officer's Practice reporting to a Managing Director, responsible for supporting three Senior Client Partners in Korn Ferry's Atlanta office.

• Responsible for leading search strategy through execution and delivery of retained executive searches for companies ranging from the Fortune 50 through pre revenue private equity backed ventures.
• Successfully placed 11 senior executives within the first 12 months at Korn/Ferry with an average time to identify the placement of 47 days, contributing to $2.21m in revenues with 6 different Senior Client Partners. 
• Client base centers on Augmented Reality Devices, Wearables, Mobility, Robotics, Software, Hardware, Mobile Devices, Retail, Professional Services, Hospitality and Biotechnology.
• Specialized in leading, managing and executing an efficient and effective executive search, evaluation and hiring process from pitching Korn/Ferry’s services through executive evaluation and placement selection.
• Responsible for leading and managing teams of researchers, associates and project coordinators tailored to the needs of each individual project.
• Selected to train, coach and develop new Associate and Senior Associate hires based on a proven track record of excellence in process, execution, evaluation, and completion of challenging executive searches.

Executive Transition Consultant | Executive Career Coaching | Career Coaching | Career Consulting | Resume Writing | LinkedIn Profile Optimization | Profile Writing | Career Branding | Interview Coaching | Mock Interviewing | Job Search Strategies Consulting | Job Search Coaching | Offer Negotiation | Cover Letter Writing | Executive Recruiting | Technical Recruiting | Hiring Process Consulting | C-Level Recruiting | Recruiter Training | Recruitment Process Improvement | Cover Letter | Resume Refresh | LinkedIn Refresh | Executive Search | Personal Branding Strategy | Leadership Development | Talent Acquisition Strategy

Associate - Executive Recruiter

BIAS Corporation

Reporting to the Director of Talent Acquisition, responsible for identifying, evaluating, and hiring full time and contract employees for direct placement, contingent recruiting, and Federal consulting projects. 

• Responsible for managing the full lifecycle hiring process for project teams and internal full-time hires. 
• Achieved a 92% offer acceptance ratio, contributed to $285,110 in profit margin from contractors and successfully hired 11 full time hires ranging from practice leaders to senior executives and sales leaders.
• Led the design, rationalization and implementation of the BIAS Corporation hiring process for both internal and external placements. 

Executive Transition Consultant | Executive Career Coaching | Career Coaching | Career Consulting | Resume Writing | LinkedIn Profile Optimization | Profile Writing | Career Branding | Interview Coaching | Mock Interviewing | Job Search Strategies Consulting | Job Search Coaching | Offer Negotiation | Cover Letter Writing | Executive Recruiting | Technical Recruiting | Hiring Process Consulting | C-Level Recruiting | Recruiter Training | Recruitment Process Improvement | Cover Letter | Resume Refresh | LinkedIn Refresh | Executive Search | Technical Recruiter | Personal Branding Strategy | Leadership Development | Executive Presence Coaching | Talent Acquisition Strategy

Technical Recruiter

Helping Executives Land Opportunities That Fit | Executive Career Coaching | Interview Coach | Former Executive Recruiter

Changing jobs after several years with the same company can be confusing, frustrating, and painful. 

Good Fit Careers guides you through the hiring process to help you find and land a job that you love.

Hi, I’m Ryan 👋

After 8 years in Retained Executive Search, in-house Talent Acquisition, and Contingent Recruiting General Management, I started coaching. 

This recruiting experience helped me understand how to build an effective resume, search for a job efficiently, deliver outstanding interviews, and negotiate reasonable compensation packages.

With Korn Ferry (NYSE: KFY), I hired C-level executives for some of the world's most prominent companies. 

With Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX), I had the opportunity to design a comprehensive hiring process, configure and implement the enterprise applicant tracking system (ATS), and hire the global Chief Technology Officer. After helping to prepare the enterprise to hire at scale, the company executed a successful IPO.

After Cardlytics, I served as General Manager of the Austin division of a headhunting firm where I trained, developed, and provided leadership to a team of 18 technical recruiters who hired for companies like Bloomberg, HBO, Goldman Sachs, Amazon, Hulu, and ByteDance.

While working in each of those roles, I saw executives struggling to transition out of companies for which they were no longer a good fit. 

I saw the frustration, confusion, and uncertainty they faced – even when they were exceptionally qualified and highly experienced.

So, I decided that I would try to help. 

In 2019, I switched sides and started my executive coaching practice. The Good Fit Formula is a blueprint for professionals ready to make a change in their professional lives.

Ryan Dickerson

Avant Executive Search & Talent Advisory

Sonia Prais, Laurie Ryan, and I co-founded Avant Executive Search in 2020, and let's face it, if you were going to just dive in and try to shake things up, that was a great year to do it! It's been an absolute blast and I love my team, what we do, and who we do it for. The growth we've achieved has been phenomenal and we cannot thank all the early clients and advisors that believed in us and played a huge role in getting us launched. A big thank you also goes to our employees and partners that took a leap of faith and trusted us with the next stage of their career journey, we couldn't have delivered for the 30+ global clients we've partnered with without each of you!

Here's the official skinny:

Avant is a female-owned, retained executive search firm and talent consultancy servicing private equity, fashion, retail, technology, and hospitality brands in the U.S., Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

One of the fastest growing firms in the search industry, we were born from one simple philosophy: Ego is the enemy of great work.

Reach out to me anytime to learn more about how we can help your firm acquire executive talent, diversify the team, gain real-time insight into compensation trends and plan for future growth.

President

After consulting on strategy and partnerships for 4 years I joined Korn Ferry in 2017 in a shift to executive search and organizational consulting. I had gotten to know KF as a candidate back in 2010 when Clearwire was a hot name that they wanted to recruit leadership talent out of. I kept in touch over the next few years and ended up joining the firm when an opening to lead the technology sector for the Professional Search business came up in 2017. We achieved almost 40% growth in the 18 months after I came on and I hired some fantastic people who are still doing well there. 

Korn Ferry was a great transitional learning experience and I discovered that my years of operating experience were invaluable in terms of relating to clients, candidates and unique business challenges in a way that you just can't if you haven't managed at scale on the client side.

Sector Leader, North American Technology Market

ChannelPeak

Having worked with big brands and customer acquisition agencies for 15 years I decided to leverage the knowledge and relationships I'd acquired to found ChannelPeak. 

Our primary focus was helping companies expand distribution through new partnerships but we got to do some interesting stuff that was pretty far out of my wheelhouse at the time such as help develop a cosmeceutical line and source an entire catalog of home products for a foreign multi-level marketing firm. We also helped create new multi-channel platforms for customer acquisition firms and assist in M&A analysis between them.

Founder and Principal

Clearwire

This is pretty amazing in retrospect. I inherited a team of about 50 people in 4 markets that we grew to over 600 people in 53 markets in about 18 months for what's still one of the most the most heavily funded startups in US history. In 2009-10 I did hundreds of phone and in-person interviews from Boston to Austin and everywhere in between to staff up from zero and get each market to a successful launch. That experience was one that helped me transition quickly into talent acquisition.

Having all-channel responsibility across so many markets would still rank as the toughest but most valuable executive experience I've ever had. You definitely learn to prioritize quickly or risk getting too far behind to be able implement and execute strategy in time to be effective. 

My team was even able to create and execute a plan to pivot the retail business from post-paid to pre-paid in 2011 which improved cash-flow by over $100M annually and ended up being a major factor in our final purchase price improving by almost 50% from Sprint's initial offer to acquire us. But by far the coolest, most rewarding thing from this experience is seeing all the amazing success that people on my teams have had the last 7 years. These were some LONG, crazy hard days but ones I'll always remember as some of the most fun in my career.

Senior Vice President of Sales (now part of T-Mobile)

AT&T

Such a great place to start my career, I still appreciate the effort and investment that BellSouth put into developing me. Nowhere since then has close to matching that. Uber-conservative, plodding culture, but diplomatically navigating old bell-co bureaucracy to create wildly successful new channels here was what landed me my next gig. 

Promoted 5 times in 8 years, winning Pinnacle Club Awards 4 times and being selected for executive leadership development in 2004.

Regional Sales Manager, Lead Staff Manager, Distribution Channel Manager

My career successes, even before I pivoted into Executive Search & Human Capital Advisory, were all enabled by trying to better understand people and what excites them, scares them, and inspires them, to ultimately do my best to help them get where they want to go. It's been a lifelong passion for me and it is something I keep front and center in everything I do. No matter the business relationship, it all starts with building enough trust to get people to open up about what their most ambitious dreams are, and then working back to how achieving our common, near-term business objectives can support their journey towards those dreams. And sometimes there's not much of a path to connect those things, but the foundation to us all getting on the track we want to be on is that process of honest discovery. 

So it seems only natural that I would find my way into helping clients attract, develop, and retain great people. Getting to do that while having the opportunity to also do those things for my own people inside my own firm is the most rewarding thing I have experienced in my career.

David  Gray Barnette

Private equity wants 2026 results with 2006 hiring filters. Growth is the engine, but we’re still hiring for cost cops.
 
So many of the leadership searches we see are still built around the same old questions....SG&A reduction...expanded margins...cost out playbooks...

Then there's the cognitive assessments that rule out the most creative GTM talent over how fast they can solve math problems.  And the prestige bias that seems to forever haunt the sector where Ivy league degrees and early career blue chip consulting stints get added as talent filters where no one can attribute any tangible benefit to them that justifies ruling out a proven rainmaker or brand building wizard that went to North Dakota State and started their career selling from an end cap inside of a WalMart. 

So real growth operators — the ones who can redesign GTM, rebuild pricing, launch adjacencies, and accelerate revenue velocity — too often get filtered out.

And value creation stalls because the system keeps producing “cost cutters” when the thesis requires a “growth architect.”

Let’s call it what it is:

A lot of PE firms have a 2026 investment thesis and a 2006 hiring model.

If you want real upside:
 
-Start hiring builders, not just “fixers.”
-Start assessing growth intuition, not just operational track records.
-Start valuing commercial creativity as much as spreadsheet discipline.

The firms that evolve their talent lens fastest are going to own the next decade of returns.

#PrivateEquity #ValueCreation #ExecutiveHiring #Leadership #GrowthOperators #CommercialExcellence #PEPortfolioLeadership

We deliver top global talent to clients in Private Equity & Venture Capital, Retail, Fashion, Hospitality, & Technology

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