Dave Horne

In 1971, I entered college to become an architect. My family could only afford four years of school, so I studied Environmental Design with a plan to go to work after school and pursue my architectural degree at some point down the road. Shortly after graduation from the University of Massachusetts, I discovered that not only was that a bad plan, but that being an architect was the wrong career choice for my personality.

I got my first job as an inventory control clerk in a hot young company named Data Terminal Systems and quickly moved from Manufacturing, through Sales and ultimately Marketing. I also achieved multiple promotions ascending from clerk, to planner, to supervisor, to manager, and at the age of 29, director – the youngest in the company. While working full time days, I went to night school at Northeastern University (on DTS’s nickel) and completed my MBA one month before my first lay-off. Although DTS was experiencing a business downturn at the time, my lay-off was the direct result of being on the losing end of a political battle between a peer and my boss.

In 1982, I joined Prime Computer as a Strategic Planner and moved back and forth between sales and marketing. In 1998, the company came under attack in a hostile takeover bid and in the ensuing battle all of my career sponsors were forced into early retirement once again leaving me politically exposed. Faced with an imminent second politically driven lay-off, I learned to network “under fire” and landed a lower ranking job that kept me employed. Parlaying my newly discovered network (and my emerging awareness of the ingredients of Career Secret Sauce), I not only survived, but thrived. By the time I resigned in 1994, I was the head of worldwide marketing operations.

After a brief stint at a company called Concentra – where I worked on my first IPO, I joined another small hot company named Aspect Development as Chief Marketing Officer. By 2000, Aspect had moved from a minor enterprise software vendor to a major player in the B2B Internet boom. After a few years of political warfare at i2, I left to become the President and CEO of a small company called XPORTA.

In 2005, decided it was time to pursue my passion and I began a new life dedicating myself to helping others with their career. I left the hectic life of Silicon Valley and moved to the desert of southern California.

In 2006 I began writing my first book, Career Secret Sauce: 9 Winning Strategies For Building a Great Career, which was published in July of 2008. In 2007, my blog – careersecretsauce.com went live. In 2008 I published my first eBook - Is This The Last Generation of Middle Class Americans?

Finally, in February of 2009, my radio talk show – The Career Mechanic began broadcasting on The Web Talk Radio Network.

Although I have worked exclusively at the executive level for the past 10 years, the first two decades of my career were spent fighting my way up (and occasionally back down) the middle manager food chain. This experience provides the primary grist for Career Secret Sauce, although my recent experience as a CEO has helped me see how individual contributors and middle managers are actually evaluated, compensated, promoted, and occasionally terminated from the top.

You may email Dave at davehorne@careersecretsauce.com.