Senior Consultant Advisor TJ McGoldrick is a team player, both in his personal life and his professional life. TJ, a former outfielder for Furman University, has worked in staffing firms as well as corporate recruiting since 1999, so he’s an expert in building teams – from the athletic field to the office. TJ was born in Savannah, Ga., and given his love for anything fitness related, it’s no wonder he’s working at a company with “run” in its name.
Q: How did you get to Run Consultants?
A: When I started recruiting, one of the first account managers I worked with was (Run Consultants’ principal) Bobby Smith. I kept in touch with him over the years, and he invited me to lead the company’s Salesforce.com recruiting effort in 2013.
Q: What is your favorite part of working for Run Consultants?
A: Being a part of building a new brand within the cloud space. With the wave of technology related to the cloud and big data, it’s like working on a new opportunity every day.
Q: Who would you most like to meet, in history or current?
A: Professional golfer Jack Nicklaus. Growing up, all my dad ever did and all he ever wanted to do was play golf. I played a lot too, until I had kids. Jack Nicklaus was the standard everyone wanted to shoot for, so it’d be interesting to pick his brain.
Q: What’s your favorite thing to do outside of work?
A: Any kind of fitness – half to full marathons. I ran the Savannah half marathon in November, and now I’m trying to get into triathlons.
Q: What was your favorite TV show when you were little?
A: The Dukes of Hazard. I always wanted to be Bo.
Q: What’s your favorite food or favorite kind of food?
A: Pepperoni pizza would be at the top of the list. I could eat that every day.
Q: If you could be an animal, what animal would you be and why?
A: Probably a cheetah, because I like to run really fast.
Q: Least favorite animal and why?
A: The skunk – because, you know, has anyone really found anything they would like about the skunk? I mean, poor guy, but what value do skunks provide?
Q: What would you do or buy if you won the lottery?
A: I would provide financial security for as much of my family as I could. Then I would travel all over the world. There are so many things that would be cool to witness first-hand that pictures alone just won’t do justice. I would also train to do the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii.
Q: What gets you up in the morning?
A: My family – my wife and three children.
Q: What about you would surprise your coworkers?
A: I wrecked a professional athlete’s car. When I was in college, I was an intern at the Greenville Braves, and part of my role for the night was taking (Atlanta Braves’ pitcher) John Smoltz to meet the fans. At the end of the night, he threw me his keys and asked if I could bring his car around the back so he could leave privately. It was a stick shift, a brand-new BMW, and I didn’t know how to drive it. When I got in it, I didn’t know to press the clutch, so the car lurched forward and John Smoltz’s front bumper got stuck on a trailer hitch on the car in front of me. When I reversed, it pulled the whole bumper off of his car. I had to take the bumper inside and show him, and he was actually very nice about it. It made the papers the next day – “Furman Intern Crashes Professional Athlete’s Car” – and I had the nickname “Crash” for about a year.
