Spotlight on Women Leaders: Jillian Ferry on Redefining Career Readiness

Spotlight on Women Leaders Series

👉Celebrating women leaders across industries and advancing the conversation on leadership—reflecting CFW Careers’ expertise in retained executive search, global executive search, and professional coaching.

Welcome to our Women Leaders Spotlight blog series, part of our Changing the Conversation initiative. This series reflects our founding commitment to advancing women in leadership by moving beyond identifying barriers to focusing on solutions, supporting women in their careers, while also influencing organizational practices and policymaking.

At CFW Careers, we combine the reach of global executive search with the insight of professional coaching, serving leaders and organizations. Since 1973, we’ve been committed to opening doors, creating opportunities, and helping anyone on the rise in their career not just succeed but thrive.

Jillian Ferry | CEO and Co-Founder of Durable Minds Everboarding

Today, we’re featuring Jillian Ferry, the CEO and Co-Founder of Durable Minds Everboarding. Jillian, can you start by introducing yourself and describing your work at Durable Minds?

After more than 16 years in HR and people operations, I saw firsthand how many talented young professionals enter the workplace feeling underprepared—not because they lack ambition, but because traditional career readiness only takes them part of the way. Career readiness has become a buzzword, but too often it stops at the surface level. Students learn how to polish a résumé, answer interview questions, or network effectively, but not how to navigate the day-to-day challenges that come once they’ve been hired.

Our mission is to redefine career readiness by shifting the spotlight to what happens after the job offer. Employers are seeing a growing gap between what schools teach and what the workplace demands. Too many new professionals are blindsided by challenges they never anticipated, and that is why Durable Minds exists: to close that gap and rebuild the bridge between school and work.

At DME, we like to say it’s “the unwritten rules of work finally written down.” Life expects what schools don’t teach, and most students graduate with transcripts, not tools. They know how to take a test, but not how to take feedback. They can write an essay, but not necessarily an email that gets a reply. We give them a head start through our two core programs:

• DurableME is our self-leadership deck and digital workbook. It introduces 24 essential character traits—such as courage, empathy, judgment, and resilience—paired with reflection prompts and exercises. It’s designed to spark conversation, build confidence, and help people reflect on who they are and how they want to show up. The deck is versatile: it works in classrooms, team meetings, family discussions, or retreats.

• DurableSuccess is our career-readiness course. It’s a playbook that guides professionals from the moment they accept their job through their first promotion and beyond. Built around our DME Blueprint, which mirrors the employee life cycle, it equips participants with practical tools for navigating workplace dynamics and making smart career moves.

Both programs are about turning abstract skills into tangible, actionable strategies.

You’ve described entrepreneurship as moving through “the messy middle,” where excitement fades and real challenges begin. How has that experience shaped the way you mentor and prepare early-career professionals for today’s workplace?

Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart. It’s thrilling in the beginning, but the real growth happens in the messy middle, when the excitement wears off and challenges hit harder. In that stage, you’re often running on hope alone, long before the work translates into tangible results. That is where staying power becomes essential.

Living this myself has made me deeply empathetic to early-career professionals. Many expect that once they land a job, everything will fall into place. Then they encounter office politics, unclear expectations, or difficult managers and feel blindsided. I often remind them that the number one reason people leave a job is not because of the work itself, but because of their direct supervisor. Workplace dynamics shape long-term success more than most people realize.

That is why our programs emphasize durable skills like self-awareness, resilience, and adaptability—and we go further by giving practical tools to put those traits into action. What sets you apart in the workplace is not avoiding the messy middle but learning to navigate it with patience, strategy, and courage. Passion alone is not enough; it has to be matched with practical skills and adaptability.

Career readiness is evolving quickly. What gaps do you see in how young professionals are currently prepared for the workforce, and how is Durable Minds Everboarding addressing those gaps?

Most career prep stops at the door: résumés, interviews, networking. Those things matter, but there are already plenty of resources that cover them. While we offer a short module that pulls back the curtain on the interview process, we focus on what happens next.

The real gap is inside the workplace. Many young professionals can get the job, but then struggle with managing expectations, handling feedback, or navigating team dynamics. That’s where Durable Minds steps in.

We put a strong focus on durable skills and self-leadership: how to stay composed under pressure, advocate for yourself, collaborate across teams, and approach challenges with balance and integrity. Then we provide the frameworks and tools that make those skills actionable: reflection exercises, conversation scripts, and strategies for handling difficult scenarios.

Our programs complement each other. DurableME develops the “who you are” piece, self-awareness, resilience, authentic leadership, while DurableSuccess builds the “what you do” piece,  how to move through the employee life cycle strategically. Together, they offer a system we wish every young professional new hire had. It’s grounded in organizational psychology and tested in real workplaces, which is why the tools resonate.

Many of our readers are HR leaders and hiring managers. What advice would you give them about better supporting the next generation of employees as they transition into the workplace?

First, stop buying into the myth that Gen Z is lazy. They are navigating a workplace that looks nothing like the one most of us entered. What they need is clarity, mentorship, and real responsibility that builds confidence.

It starts with onboarding. Too often, onboarding is treated as a one-day orientation or a checklist built into your HR software. But onboarding is not a single event; it’s an ongoing process. That’s why we use the word “everboarding.” It’s about creating a continuous cycle of support that extends beyond day one or even the first 90 days. Done well, it sets the tone for engagement, loyalty, and long-term success. In fact, effective onboarding can increase new hire retention by 82%.

Think of it like this: if you drop someone in the middle of a forest with no map, compass, or tools, you’re asking them to succeed by chance. But if you give them guidance and resources, their odds of reaching their destination increase dramatically. Too often, employers expect young professional new hires to “take initiative” and figure things out alone. That wastes time and talent.

There’s also a growing disconnect between what schools teach and what employers expect. Solving that gap requires collaboration. HR leaders need to see onboarding not as an afterthought, but as a strategic driver of retention and performance. Partnering with organizations like Durable Minds can help, but the larger point is that early-career support should be built into a company’s culture, not added on as an extra.

What would you say to early-career professionals who feel discouraged by rejection or setbacks as they start out in their careers?

Rejection is part of the process, full stop. It doesn’t define your worth. Just like I tell my four-year-old, when you feel uncomfortable or frustrated, it usually means you’re in the learning space: the gap between not knowing and knowing. That’s where growth happens.

Resilience is not only for people with extreme stories or hardships. It’s something everyone can build in small ways every day. It’s in the student who gets a “C” and pushes to earn an “A.” It’s in the job seeker who takes every “No” as feedback or redirection toward a better “Yes.” Careers rarely move in a straight line. What matters is that you keep moving forward and building a foundation you can stand on.

How can people connect with you and learn more about your work?

You can find me on LinkedIn at Jillian Ferry, and you can explore our programs at www.DMEverboarding.com.

At Durable Minds Everboarding, we support people across the entire pipeline: students preparing for their first job, parents of young adults, professionals navigating career transitions, and organizations looking to strengthen onboarding and retention. For companies, we offer ready-to-use onboarding experiences with SOPs, templates, communication scripts, and training resources that save HR teams valuable time.

What makes our work effective is that it’s grounded in real-world experience. Between my 16 years in people operations and my co-founder Dr. Anh Lee’s two decades in learning design, we bring more than 35 years of combined expertise to every program. These are not abstract theories—we’ve built and implemented these systems inside organizations across industries.

Whether it’s a student discovering their strengths, a professional reaching for their first promotion, or a company building a culture that retains talent, our work is about giving people the tools and confidence to thrive. We’d love to connect and share how Durable Minds Everboarding can support your journey.

Through our work in retained executive search and leadership development, at CFW Careers, we’ve seen the powerful impact of amplifying women’s voices in business. This series celebrates women leaders across industries, sharing their perspectives and paving the way for the next generation.