Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ramon Santillan. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Ramon thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

Recent studies have shown that up to 85% of adults with autism in the US are unemployed. A portion of this population is highly educated and trained however, the interview, an important step towards employment, trips them reducing and sometimes eliminating any opportunities for which they are highly qualified. This can lead to unemployment and or accepting jobs that are below their education level and abilities.

My goal as an Interview Coach is helping those who are neurodiverse develop a way for them to present themselves in the right way to employers through their resumes, applications, and interviews. This isn’t about being hired through a hiring initiative. This is about showing my clients how to present themselves as the best candidate regardless of industry, company, or role.

Recently I worked with a client who had a bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Political Science. Even though he had high grades and graduated top of his class, he was unable to secure employment in his field of study. To make ends meet, he took a job as a front desk clerk at a hotel while he lived at home with his parents. He had low pay, a toxic work environment, no room for career development, and was taken for granted. Although he was happy to have a job, his goal was to work at a think-tank where he could put his knowledge and passion to good use.

After working with him for several months and showing him to to present himself, he was able to secure a job at a well known think-tank in Washington DC with great pay, benefits, a clear path to develop his career, and more importantly, doing work that was in his field of study. The same individual who was paid minimum wage as a front desk clerk in a dead-end job was now working on creating policy regarding AI for the White House.

There are many others just like him who are highly educated, highly trained, and ready to tackle the workforce. I feel my job is to help them overcome that job search hurdle.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Ramon Santillan and I’m an Interview Coach with a focus on high-performing College Students especially those who are neurodiverse.

My background is in accounting having graduated from the University of Texas which was ranked as the #1 Accounting Program in the country. Aftwerwards, I worked for the world’s largest accounting firm, the world’s largest oil-driller, and many other Fortune 500 companies. I was a first-generation college student so much of the college experience I had to learn along the way.

As part of my degree I had to get an internship in order to graduate so I went to my university’s career service. This was in September 2001 and our country had just been the victim of terrorist attacks. People were scared, the economy was uncertain, and employers weren’t hiring much. Unfortunately, the advice I received was generic (“Make sure your resume is strong” What does that even mean?) or didn’t apply to me (“Tell your dad to share your resume with his friends at the country club” My dad is a Dairy Manager at Walmart and doesn’t have any connections) so I decided to come up with a method that worked for me.

Creating a strategy that worked for someone like me with no connections, no prior industry experience, and maybe not the best GPA came to fruition in a couple of months when I received an offer plus a sign-on bonus at a dream company.

Several years later I started using the same methods to help professionals find and prepare for interviews. I eventually moved on to helping C Suite level executives make sure they were prepared for their interviews. At some point the mom of a student called me and asked if I could help her college student get a co-op in order to graduate. He had spent several semesters looking for a job with little success. I agreed to help and within 30 days, he had received an offer at a dream company. At that point I realized I can have a bigger impact by focusing my work on college students. Although it feels great to help an executive get a $100k pay raise and bump in title, it felt more fulfilling to help a college student start their career.

Since then, I have worked with students including those who are neurodiverse or with high functioning autism secure high paying white collar jobs at companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Blue Origin, and many other household names. I do this through 1 on 1 coaching and online programs.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The best way I have found to growing my clientele and by default, my impact, is by over delivering on my promises. My business has been almost 100% word of mouth through referrals from past clients. They are my #1 fans and the ones responsible for the growth my business has seen in the last 5 years. My clients were also the ones who encouraged me to increase my rates, telling me that I was giving the farm away since they received so much value from my work.

By providing a great service and even beter results, I have not been in a position where I have to worry where my next client is coming from in a while.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I always recommend “Million Dollar Consulting” by Alan Weiss as a must read to anyone considering selling services. It changed how I packaged my services going to a “results” model rather than an hourly rate. This allowed me to have higher rates and provided me with the opportunity to over-deliver withouth having to worry about the bottom line.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.PersuasiveInterview.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/interviewcoach/