Lucy Cherkasets's Linkedin Analytics

At Ready to Succeed, I am lucky to bring together over 17 years of HR, recruiting, interview and communications coaching experience to supporting talented first generation and foster youth college students in chasing their career dreams. But really it is I who have truly found my own dream job here, putting my expertise to work for the most deserving young people. When I joined RTS in 2017, we had six scholars. In 2023, we have close to 200 active scholars annually and a staff of 15, over 400 alumni, hundreds of industry volunteers, and dozens of employment partnerships. I oversee all career opportunities as well as our volunteer engagement with our wonderful community of supporters. I am an advocate, employment advisor, storytelling/communications magician and sales director. My days are busy extracting all the best stories and soundbites of our scholars as they prepare to ace their interviews and networking opportunities. When I am not pitching employers on our scholar talent, I am texting, calling and video conferencing with scholars (maybe they would say nagging at times) with great opportunities that align with their dreams, skills and experience. To say I am passionate about them and this work would be an understatement. I am relentless when it comes to pushing our scholars forward to where they want to go. A bit about my background: Early on, I found that my greatest satisfaction came from helping others achieve their professional goals. I was able to do just that as HR Director for various communications agencies in New York and London, where I ushered hundreds of professionals through all levels of career development, from entry level to the C-suite. In my HR roles I interviewed over 1,000 job applicants. I would often find myself helping top candidates sell themselves to our executives because they didn’t have a strong, persuasive narrative. This inadvertent coaching inspired me to to create the job interview division for Clarity Media Group, a top coaching firm that has elevated the communication skills of thousands, from Fortune 500 executives to startup founders and everyone in between. By combining my HR experience with the same methodology applied in Clarity trainings for companies like Facebook, Airbnb, NBCUniversal, Credit Suisse, I helped candidates better convey their stories to secure their dream jobs. When I am not at the office, I used to be found on a Santa Monica beach with my family but now I am outside of Portland, missing the sunshine but enjoying the beautiful PNW nature, trees, and gorgeous light.