Mike Lappa is the founder of Professional Transitions, L.L.C., a service agency assisting business professionals navigating a career change, whether it was a voluntary or involuntary change. Lappa has 37 years of professional experience in the Forest Products and Packaging Industries, with key executive positions in Sales, Marketing, Human Resources and General Management. He created the first col
lege recruiting organization for a Fortune 300 company, staffed it with 8 professional recruiters, and processed over 6,000 resumes to hire 120 professionals each year. Over his career, he has conducted business in over 50 countries, holding Corporate Officer positions as Vice President and General Manager of businesses in Canada, Latin America and Australia. He led four major business turnarounds, by designing and building strong teams, identifying the key strategic issues and then designing and implementing their solutions. During his 37 year career, he held 16 different positions in three multi-billion dollar firms, relocating 11 times throughout North America and working in major cities and small towns, in both manufacturing sites and corporate headquarters. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University, an M.B.A. degree in Marketing and Finance from the University of Dayton, and completed the Program for Management Development at Duke University. He personally experienced career transition twice, and following a systematic process, he received double digit percentage salary increases and improved perks and benefits each time. Over the past 11 years while working full-time, he taught numerous professionals his successful system for career transitions, via a one-on-one, in-depth and personal approach. He retired in 2008 at age 59, when he opened Professional Transitions to provide advice and support to others, on a full-time basis. Most career transition services only have human resource staff experience. At Professional Transitions, you are dealing directly with someone who, for 32 of his 37 years, has actually been one of those hiring managers who you must impress to be selected for an interview and to receive the final job offer. Only someone with such actual experience can tell you exactly what hiring managers look for in candidates, when they are deciding who receives the job offer, and who receives a polite rejection letter.
