Jacqueline McDermott
Jacqueline McDermott is a seasoned talent acquisition executive and staffing leader with more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. As Firm Talent Acquisition Director and Vice President at Blue Ocean Wealth Solutions, a MassMutual firm, she leads strategic recruiting, onboarding, and retention initiatives for financial professionals across the organization. Based in Greenvale, New York, Jacqueline is recognized for her ability to identify high-potential talent and align individuals with meaningful career opportunities that drive both personal and organizational success.
What distinguishes Jacqueline is her core strength in listening and communication. Rather than taking a transactional approach to recruiting, she prioritizes understanding people on a deeper level—asking thoughtful questions, uncovering unspoken goals, and guiding candidates with clarity and care. Her persistence and commitment to follow-through ensure that every individual she works with feels supported and informed throughout the process. Once a shy child, Jacqueline credits her career in financial services with helping her find her voice, and she now channels that experience into empowering others to do the same. Her responsibilities span the full talent lifecycle, including marketing open roles, managing and developing a team of recruiters, sourcing and interviewing candidates, collaborating with experienced advisors, and building relationships with HR leaders for best practices. She also plays a key role in business development, succession planning, and coaching advisors to grow and sustain their practices.
Throughout her career, Jacqueline has built a strong reputation for delivering measurable results and developing high-performing teams. She consistently recruits 16 to 17 professionals annually into a 100% commission-based environment, achieving an impressive first-year retention rate of approximately 80% and an overall retention rate of 50%—both exceeding industry benchmarks. In addition to her corporate leadership, she is the owner of Blue Ocean Staffing Solutions, LLC, where she extends her passion for connecting talent with opportunity through customized staffing and consulting services. Outside of her professional life, Jacqueline enjoys baseball, exploring new dining experiences, and traveling, reflecting her appreciation for connection, culture, and lifelong learning.
• Life and Health License
• The Berkeley College - AS
• Finseca
• HR East End Roundtable
• American Cancer Society
• Light the Night
• Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
What do you attribute your success to?
I really attribute my success to my mom and my dad, and my husband. When you have a family who supports you, and they back you, and they encourage you to try, try, and try again, that's really who I attribute my success to. My parents were always very supportive. They always communicated with me, they listened to me, they let me be who I am, and then encouraged me to grow. And so did my husband. Now I have one son, and he inspires me as well with his outlook - he's a different generation, so he has a different outlook than I do. He got an academic and athletic scholarship to St. Thomas Aquinas College, graduated two years ago, and now he's working as an auditor in a bank. He's doing very well and still inspires me.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Never give up. Keep going. Even when you hear a no, you just keep moving forward. No is not an option - it's a request to redirect, and you figure out how to redirect that.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think the advice that I would give someone is to be true to yourself and follow your dreams. Keep moving. Keep going. I encourage, I don't discourage. When you think about being a young lady in a male-dominated industry, it's not easy. I was very shy. Had I not had a voice inside me, and listened to it, and had family to support me, I probably wouldn't be in this industry. But I kept going, and so, never give up. I went to a Catholic grammar school and a Catholic high school, so you had to keep quiet. I'm from an Italian background where you need to be quiet and let the older people speak. Once I came out of my shell, my parents weren't stopping me - they wanted to teach me manners, but they let me grow. And that's how I evolved in this industry.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
It's really attracting female advisors to this particular industry in financial services. I do a very good job of it, but having people see and look at this industry as a tremendous career for someone is sometimes a challenge because of how they are paid financially - they're 100% commissioned. As this generation looks for opportunities, there's a lot of succession planning happening, but I don't think we have enough folks coming in that are younger, and especially female advisors. I tend to go for female advisors because I think they have an amazing heart, empathy, and they can really relate to people, to business owners and their situations. I think we're articulate, we take the time. This has always been a male-dominated industry, and I think females now really need to get more involved. This is really a tremendous opportunity when we have children and we balance a family life, a personal life, and business - we can have it all in this industry. Women are making decisions now in the household, they have been for the last 10, 15, 20 years, but even more so now. Sometimes a woman wants to work with a woman.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
My values, for me, are to be honest. You have to have integrity. And you really need to be very empathetic. When I help people, I want them to just give me their true self. When I speak with people, I say, listen, this is a safe place, so I need you to be honest and upfront. And always say please and thank you - I'm grateful for what I have. Say please and thank you, and when you start something, finish something. That's really important to me - being there from start to finish for people.