One on One Interview with Jillian Dumont

In early September, our team had the pleasure of conducting a one-on-one interview with Jillian Dumont, an account manager at Resilience Inc.

Resilience Inc. is a budding sales and marketing firm located in St. Louis, specializing in face-to-face marketing, campaign management, and customer acquisition. As an account manager for the firm, Dumont is an integral piece of the team. However, the road to account management was paved for Dumont long before her work at Resilience.

Jillian Dumont was born in a city near Chicago, before her family relocated to Wisconsin to get away from the city life. In her early years, Dumont could be found editing her high school yearbook, or on various sports teams. As a high schooler, Dumont spent her time on the soccer team, cheerleading team, even pole-vaulting until injuring herself at her last meet. Her high school years were filled with confusion about her future, until her teachers urged her to follow her strongest skills. Dumont earned her CNS certification in high school and planned to pursue a career as a nurse practitioner. However, stronger than her interest in medicine was her desire to be a boss- which she would go on to do only a few years later. “My teachers pointed me in the right direction,” says Dumont, “they told me that my writing and verbal communication skills were strong enough to create a great career, and to consider marketing and PR.” Dumont proved her aptitude for such an industry long before pursuing it. As PR editor of her high school yearbook, Dumont found great success in building support for her cause, both financial backing and student body interest.

After graduating high school, Dumont headed to Southern Illinois University, where alongside her course load, she found fulfillment in a local internship. As a marketing intern for 590 The Fan, the source of all radio promotion for the St. Louis Blues and Cardinals, she gained experience copyediting and writing strong radio ads. Aside from the internship, Dumont spent her collegiate years working multiple jobs, including waitressing, nannying, and even tree trimming. “I was struggling with bills, so I gave it a shot,” says Dumont, “I really loved it, I would show up to work, the only girl on the team, and spend the day cutting down trees.” All of these jobs preceded her time at Resilience Inc., but not for long. Dumont graduated from Southern Illinois University on May 5th, 2018 and by May 7th, the young professional headed to the office of Resilience Inc.

The 5 months Dumont has spent as a team member of Resilience Inc. has flown by, and today she holds the title of Account Manager. On any given day, Dumont can be found helping run the office, conducting preliminary interviews, and collaborating with her team. Her main focus, Dumont is passionate about building up leaders to be stronger than herself. “We really focus on development, and I myself am constantly learning something new,” says Dumont, “if you’re not growing, you’re dying.”

Since starting with the Resilience Inc. team, Dumont has learned more about herself than she ever knew. “This company requires a lot of development, many jobs don’t focus on the person, just on the job,” says Dumont, “in this career, you’re developing into a person that you didn’t know months ago.” In less than two years, Dumont has learned invaluable lessons about business mentality, running an office, and becoming a successful manager. Much of this is thanks to the culture that has been fostered at Resilience Inc. “Our team is very positive, professional, and family oriented,” says Dumont, “we all have something different that we bring to the table”.

Dumont shows no signs of slowing down, keeping her eyes on the target. “My short-term goal is to be promoted to Junior Partner in six months,” says Dumont, “A year from now I hope to open my own office in New York, representing Fortune 500 companies- I love St. Louis, but a big city is where I belong.” While Jillian Dumont stands as an inspiration to us, she is inspired by another boss lady- Brandi Park. Park serves as the National Executive Consultant for Resilience Inc., and a role model for her team. “To me, she is everything a woman should strive to be,” says Dumont, “I love my career, and I never want to stop working, even when I settle down. At 23 years old, Brandie gave a speech about staying career focused and working hard while her peers traveled around the world. She said, ‘if I’m gonna travel, I’m gonna travel first class,’ and two years of hard work later, she did.”

When she’s not being a boss lady at Resilience Inc., Dumont can be found spending time outdoors with her dog Louis or reading inspirational novels. She cites Leave Your Mark by Aliza Licht as her favorite and would recommend it to anyone hoping to make it big in business.

Dumont has already found great success with Resilience Inc., but complacency is not in her nature. The upcoming years will be defined by Dumont’s hard work, dedication, and winning attitude, and we are confident that she will be hard to forget.