Tom Sheppard

(aka Thomas Sheppard, aka Thomas K Sheppard)

You are probably asking yourself, "What makes him think he can help me?" OR "Why does he do this?

Here is it in a nutshell: For more than two decacdes I have not had a single day of unemployment. During that time, I changed jobs at least 10 times and my pay has gone up from about $1,000 per month to $10,000 per month. And in the two years before I started that run, I changed jobs four or five times, mostly from one low paying job to another until I finally learned the secrets and immediately doubled my pay and started a relentless upward movement of my career and my life.

If you want the details, here is the whole chronology.

Company: Quality Shoe Repair, Helena Montana      Compensation:  25 cents per day

     Responsibilities: At the age of 12 years, I started working for my Uncle Dan in his shoe repair store in Helena Montana. I swept the floor, cleaned the leather dust off the equipment, shined shoes, and began to learn about shoe repair.

     Lessons Learned: I noticed that Dan did an excellent job of putting finishing touches on shoes he repaired, often making them look nearly new. It was noticed by his customers to. He began to take business away from my other uncle who also ran a shoe repair store in Helena. He had to upgrade his practices to keep up with Dan.

Company: Mann Theaters, Helena Montana      Compensation: $1.85 to $2.20 per hour

     Responsibilities:  The summer between my freshman and sophomore years of high school I was hired as a Lot Attendant at a drive in theater. I provided security and cleanup services.

The next summer I took over the role of Cashier, handling gates sales for the theater.

The summer after that I was promoted to the role of Assistant Manager for the two drive in theaters in Helena. I managed the cashiers, lot attendants, and concession stand staff. I tallied the receipts and deposited the cash.

I was fired after the son of one of the owners took exception to how I spoke to one of the other employees.

     Lessons Learned: I learned that like customers, bosses are always right.  I also learned to trust, but verify. It turned out they manager hadn't given me the pay  raises they had promised along with the promotions. 

Company: Helena Sign and Display, Helena Montana      Compensation: $3 per hour

     Resoonsibilities:  The summer before my first semester of college I worked for John Macbeth in his sign shop. I physically reorganized his sign lot to let him get to what he needed. I also learned a bit about silk screening and graphic design.

     Lessons Learned: I learned that physically demanding work can be very satisfying when done well. In observing John, I also learned how powerful self-education can be. John was largely self-educated and a life-long learner.

Company: LDS Church, Ecuador South America       Compensation: $0

     Responsibilities: After one semester at college I volunteered to spend two years at my own expense as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). I was sent to Ecuador, South America. For the next two years I spent all my days presenting lessons in Spanish. I learned to get myself up every morning and to keep at it no matter how many rejections I experienced. For the last several months I led a team of four missionaries.

     Lessons Learned: While in South America, I got to see real poverty. I got to see a country under the rule of the military and then saw it shift peacefully to civilian rule. I got to see many successful and happy people. I got to see successful unhappy people. I got to see poor happy people and I got to see poor unhappy people - and every combination in between those poles. I learned a lot about what brings lasting happiness and about how precious are the freedoms we enjoy in the US.

Company:  Parents, Helena Montana   Compensation: $5,000

Before returning to college I needed money. My parents house had a dirt basement. I dug the basement floor down several inches so that they could pour a concrete floor. In return, they paid for my next round of college. Frankly, if my sister Christine hadn't pushed me and helped me, I don't know that I would have gotten the job done.

Company: Ricks College, Rexburg Idaho (Ricks College has since been renamed BYU Idaho)

While at college I held down several different jobs at different times. I worked for a restaurant near my apartment, closing up in the evenings for them. I worked for the College as a tutor and helping to develop an English as a Second Language program.

Company: KABE FM 107.5 Radio, Orem Utah      Compensation:  Commission

Responsiblities:  Hired as an Account Manager, it was my job to sell radio advertising to local businesses.

Promoted to "On Air Personality", I was what is known as a disc jockey. Playing songs, doing the weather and other duties from about 11pm until 5am.

Promoted to News Director, it was my job to create and record news broadcasts. I supplemented local news with stories I picked up from an all news station in LA that I could listen to as I drove to work at about 4 am each day. Then I really spiced things up by creating a multi-part story about cyber-crime.

I was fired when I went on vacation and didn't return when the Program Manager thought I should be back.

Company: Wrights Furniture Mill, Provo Utah    Compensation: $500 per month

     Responsibilities:  I sanded sideboards for waterbeds from 3pm to 11pm each day. One day a coworker lost all four fingers off his right hand to a joiner table. I realized then, I needed to get a different job. I was earning minimum wage, about $500 per month.

Company: ComputerLand, Orem Utah    Compensation: $1,000 per month

I used the instruction I received from a church Employment Specialist to create a nice resume and then used it properly to find and get interviewed for an unadvertised job. I was hired as an Account Executive at a salary of $1,000 per month. I was to learn to use and sell the Commodore 64 to new computer users. In 3 months, I sold about $30,000 worth of computers, although my helpful sales manager attributed it to other folks so I didn't get the credit.

I was laid off when the Commodore 64 was released for sales at KMart.

Company: Miss Utah Pageant, Orem Utah      Compensation: Commission 

I briefly tried to sell advertising space in the program for a beauty pageant.

Thanks to my work in ComputerLand, I decided that computers were the up and coming career wave. I realized that for me to do well in that field I needed to know a lot more. I needed to get educated. I investigated several ways to get the training and education I felt I needed. I finally settled on joining the United States Marine Corps. They would train me and help pay for my education.

Company: United States Marine Corps, Quantico Virginia   Compensation:  $18,000 per year + benefits

     Responsbilities:  Initially I was trained to program mainframe computers using COBOL.

Later I was moved to a unit that specialized in programming a mid-range system and what passed for a portable computer in the USMC (two Marines could carry it). At this point I was now an EDL programmer.

When they formed a team to evaluate PC hardware and software for Headquarters USMC, my experience at ComputerLand came into play. I spent the last two years of my active service in this role as a MicroComputer Specialist

While in the Corps, I took advantage of their Tuition Assistance Program and completed my Bachelors Degree, earning a double major in Computer Sciences and Management Information Systems.

     Lessons Learned:  I learned that being a professional means doing your duty regardless of whether or not anyone else will see or know.

Company: Advanced Technology, Inc (ATI), Dumfries Virginia     Compensation: $30,000 per year

     Responsbilities: I started working for ATI while on terminal leave from the Marine Corps so my days of unemployment are actually a negative number. Thanks to my combination of education, training, and experience I was able to get a job earning about $5,000 per year more than others I knew who had either the degree or the experience, but not both.

Working for $30,000 per year as a Computer Scientist, it was my job to analyze computer programming specifications to ensure they were designed to meet the requirements of the Marine Corps. I implemented a new approach which allowed my team to analyze a seven volume specification in just 30 days and produce more than 2,200 detailed comments, over 90% of which were accepted by the developer.

ATI lost its contract with the Corps and that job ended just six months after I started.

Company: ORI, Inc., Fredericksburg Virginia   Compensation: $35,000 per year

ORI was the parent company of the one that won the contract which ATI lost. I started with ORI the day after the ATI office closed. I was working on a different contract, for a different client.

     Responsibilities:  I started out as a Software Analyst. Later I was promoted to a Nuclear Safety Software Analyst and I took on the role of their ADP Manager. As ADP Manager I oversaw the design and implementation of their automation platform, as they brought on a DEC mini-computer and tied it to their PC network and also brought on a satellite office as well as a new office in California.

I got a 3.5% pay raise from what I had been earning at ATI and instead of driving 20 or 30 minutes from my home to an office in Dumfries, I was now less than 5 minutes away from my new office.

I designed, developed and implemented some new tools and processes which, in conjunction with those developed by a coworker allowed the team to take 3 hours to perform analyses that previously would have taken 3 days.

I spent the next 3.5 years working for ORI as it underwent being bought several times. When I left, it was called ARC Professional Services Group. ORI was bought by Atlantic Research Corporation, which in turn was bought later by Sequa Corporation. Sequa made its move when the stock market sagged on Black Friday.

When the Berlin Wall fell, President Bush declared a peace dividend. As a result, although ARC had just won a five-year follow-on contract (I had worked a lot on the proposal), we were ordered to reduce our billing by 20%. Given that we only had 7% overhead, that meant that line people had to go.

While at ORI/ARC I used the company benefits to pay for a Masters Degree in Management. I completed the degree in April. It was awarded in July.

One Wednesday in May I was told that I had three weeks to find myself a new job.

Company: Applied Concepts Engineering, Fredericksburg Virginia   Compensation: $40,000 per year

The day after my job at ARC ended I started working for a local entrepreneur named Bill Jordan. Bill was running his own company providing turnkey networking and programming solutions to various businesses.

Actually, it turned out that Bill was a con man.

When I found out Bill's true colors, I took a job with Dominion Bank.

Company: Dominion Bank, Roanoke Virginia   Compensation:  $45,000 per year

As the Development Center Manager I was hired earning about $7k per year more than I had been earning at ARC. I oversaw all their PC acquisitions, development of productivity aids for programmers, and all computer-related training for the company.

The fact that I managed to save the company more than $1mm per year with my acquisition strategies made no difference when the bank was bought by First Union.

In December, just before Christmas, First Union sent out three different form letters to different groups of Dominion employees. The first type of letter said, in effect, "we love you. Please stay on with us." The second type of letter said, "We love you at least until this date. We will pay you to stay on with us until then." The third type of letter said, "Don't let the door hit you on the way out. When the merger is consumated you are fired." Since merger consumation was scheduled for April 1 of the coming year, those of us who got the third letter referred to ourselves as "April Fools."

     Lessons Learned:  Having been through a few mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and layoffs by this time, when the local news media stopped me for a comment as I was driving into work that day, my response was, "It isn't over until the fat lady sings. Many who got offers will move on, and that will create openings for those who did not initially get an offer."

Two weeks later I got a phone call from someone at First Union, they wanted me to join a project team and they needed me there two weeks ago.

Company: First Union Systems Development Division, Charlotte North Carolina   Compensation: $45,000 per year

     Responsibilities:  For the next two and a half years I helped create and implement the first platform automation lending system for the home equity division of First Union.

In this role I noticed that many times when the systems people would deliver programs to the business people, the business people would say, "that's great, but it doesn't do what I need." The systems people would respond, "but it is what you asked for."

I recognized that this gap between business and technical people was a huge loss of productivity and money and represented an opportunity for me. I began to move myself to take advantage of that opportunity.

Company: First Union Home Equity Bank, Charlotte North Carolina    Compensation:  rose to $60,000 per year

As the first step in my move to take advantage of this gap between technical and business worlds, I moved from the technical side to the business side. I became an Assistant Manager of Total Quality Management. Now, I was working directly for what had been my clients for the preceding two years. I used the next two years to learn a new set of tools and approaches so that I could implement my next strategy.

I made this as a lateral move for the same pay I had been earning in systems.

Company: First Union Insurance Group, Charlotte North Carolina   Compensation:  $100,000 per year (including bonuses)

     Responsibilities: As the Manager of the Performance Management Group, I provided project management services to the entire division. Project management provided me the opportunity to bridge the gap between the technical and business worlds and ensure that my employer would get the most bang for their buck out of their IT efforts. I was quickly recognized for my work and elevated to report directly to the Division President.

When a new team was formed in the division to provide management consulting and both program and project management services, I was brought in to head the program and project management portion. Later I jointly led the entire team with the lead management consultant.

By this time, my compensation was in excess of $100,000 per year.

Oh, and First Union had undergone a merger of equals with Wachovia, so now I was working for Wachovia Insurance. Along the way I had helped raise my visibility in the company by my participation in several different merger activities.

Wachovia Corporate Operational Risk Management, Charlotte North Carolina

As a program manager in Operational Risk, I directly managed the implementation of their operational risk program. This role brought me in contact with leaders in divisions throughout the entire bank.

As I built and then operated the operational risk management program, my role transformed from program management into operations management. Although I performed the role well, it was not one I enjoyed. One day, I told my boss, Richard, that he needed to hire a dedicated operations manager and let me move on to program and project management.

Company: Wachovia Enterprise Risk Management, Charlotte North Carolina   Compensation: $120,000 per year (including bonuses)

     Responsiblities: As an Sr. Enterprise Project Manager and Program Manager, I managed the implementation of regulatory compliance programs in several areas of the bank. I and my team did very good work. Regardless of our excellence, when the bank was bought by Wells Fargo I knew that many jobs would go away. 

While at First Union, I completed a Masters Degree in Project Management and while at Wachovia I had earned and kept in force my Project Management Professional certification.

Lessons Learned:  While the company was in a state of turmoil, I used the tools available to me and took control of my 401k which had already lost 1/3rd of its value.  In six weeks I grew my 401K to five times its previous value.

Today

When Wells Fargo bought Wachovia I was poised to move to Wells Fargo or to go to another company earning as much or more than I was earning with Wachovia.

Instead, I went another direction completely, one I had been planning and preparing to follow for at least seven years.

Many years before this point I had come to the realization that I could not rely on my employer or the government to take care of my financial needs now or when I retire. Knowing that, I looked around to see what I could start doing on the side to bring in extra money and get my money working for me to fund the life I wanted.

I did a lot of teaching for colleges for several years, but that was trading time for money and although I loved teaching, it was beginning to wear me out in combination with the demands of my growing family. I ran my own business preparing resumes and helping people learn how to find and get the job they wanted. But that too was trading time for money and was wearing me out.

Finally, I found real estate investing. I could get into it for very little money and could create income streams that would pay me even when I was doing something else.

So, when the time came to leave Wachovia, I didn't wait for the door to be opened for me, I made the move I had been planning for several years. I retired from the bank and went to work for myself.

Now, I spend my work time doing two things:

      1) managing my real estate investments 

      2) Helping people learn what they need to get and keep the job they want so that they can get and keep the life they want

Lessons Learned: I have been there and done that. I have been a bad employee and an excellent employee. I have worked for others and for myself. I have learned from my experience and that of others. I know what it takes to get where you want to be.

Other Work Experience

In addition to the above, I often worked second jobs or on my own business at the same time I was working full-time during the day.  Below are some of the other concurrent posititions I held or companies I have run on my won.

Company:  Park College (now renamed Park University), Parkville, Missouri (I worked for their extension school in Military District Washington, DC and taught classes at night)

     Responsibilities:  Develop and teach undergraduate classes in computer scienes:  BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, C, C++, Pascal, RDBMS

Company: Rowan Cabarrus Community College (aka RCCC), Concord & Salisbury, NC

      Responsibilities: Develop and teach undergraduate computer sciences classes:  BASIC, C++, RDBMS, Pascal, Excel

Companies I Have Owned and Operated:  A+ Results, ADB Properties

Education

Associate of Sciences Degree in Arts and Sciences, Ricks College

Bachelor of Sciences Degree with double major in Computer Sciences and Management Information Systems, Park College

Master of Sciences Management Human Resources, National Louis University 

Master of Sciences Project Management, Western Carolina University

Certifications

Project Management Professional (PMP), Project Management Institute

Advanced Toastmaster Silver (ATM-S), Toastmasters International

Cash Flow Consultant (CCFC), American Cash Flow Institute

Training