• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Career Connectors

Connecting professionals in career transition with hiring companies and quality resources

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
Career Connectors eUpdate
Subscribe Here
  • Job Seekers
    • Events
      • Event Schedule
      • Webinar Recordings
      • Event Recaps
      • Prepare for an Event
    • Resources
      • PipelineAZ
      • Community Updates
      • Career Chats
      • DISC
      • Business Portraits
      • Career Advice
      • Trusted Resources
      • LinkedIn Basics
    • Featured Companies
    • Volunteer
      • Volunteer Opportunities
      • Volunteer Application
  • Employers
    • Hiring
    • Outplacement Services
    • Partners
  • About Us
    • Donate
    • Applause & Testimonials
    • In The News
    • Mission Statement
    • Board of Directors
    • Contact

03/27/18 – Put Your Strengths to Work – Find a Job That Fits

Mar 29, 2018

Put Your Strengths to WorkWritten by Cindy Nowack

KEYNOTE

Put Your Strengths to Work – Find a Job That Fits
Stephanie Clergé
Stephanie Clergé knows how it feels to be in transition. Throughout her career, she has worked in large and small organizations including Cisco, Deloitte, BMO Harris Bank and Chandler Unified School District. She is now the Director of Training and Consulting at Kolbe Corp, an HR consulting firm specializing in increasing individual and collective performance.
Transition can change one’s sense of security, identity, friend base and more. This provides valuable lessons for the road ahead. Stephanie knew she wanted to find engagement at work and more satisfaction in her job. Her lessons for the road ahead are:
  • Know yourself
  • Plan your work
  • Work your plan
Know yourself – Ensure a strong foundation for career success
Those who know themselves and focus on their strengths are 6x as likely to be successful in their roles, and 3x more likely to say they have a high quality of life. Try this interesting exercise. Write your signature on a piece of paper with your dominant hand. How did that feel? Easy, natural, comfortable, fast and legible were some of the comments in the room. Now write your signature with your non-dominant hand. That signature felt hard, uncomfortable and slow, right? Finding your strengths should be like writing with your dominant hand. Do what comes naturally and gives you energy. Sometimes you have to look for talent in unexpected places, so be aware of your underlying patterns of thought, feeling and behaviors.
Plan your work – Preparing for the job search
Identify what task, team, manager, culture, industry, or other experience you loved. Also, take a look at your non-work and work-adjacent activities such as volunteering, clubs, organizations and hobbies. These activities can shine a light on what energizes you.
You also need to develop your tools for the job search. Is your resume easy to read and reflects how you can best contribute in a new organization? Stephanie says cover letters are not dead, but don’t write a cover letter just to write one. Write a cover letter for a specific job opening when you need to:
  • Captivate your audience
  • Control the message
  • Clarify a situation
  • Customize a response
Your LinkedIn profile should have a clear, concise headline and the summary should show a bit of your personality. Have well-written recommendations from the right people, and be part of relevant groups and companies. Take a critical look at your page from a recruiter’s lens. Does it tell your story?
Connect with your network too. You should be interested and interesting when connecting. Be able to clearly tell your work history story. You never know when you might connect with someone who can help you in your next step.
Your homework is to create at least one Strengths Statement. Pick a strength that really describes you. Think of a task that really energizes you. And then create a sentence with key elements of your talent contribution that you use to complete the task. For example, Stephanie says, “My strength is reviewing documentation (data processes, presentations) written to influence others and providing guidance to make it more compelling.” You should be able to clearly communicate your contributions to interviewers.
Work Your Plan
You want to have a plan that is SMART.
  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Aligned
  • Realistic
  • Timely
Create daily and weekly steps to help you navigate this transition:
  • Review industry websites.
  • Follow up with former colleagues, managers for recommendations.
  • Attend one event a week.
  • Apply to ten positions a week – not quantity, but quality!
  • Call your accountability partner . They are on the journey with you and providing emotional support.
Every career span is different. Today people are in jobs about two years. You have the opportunity to reinvent yourself each time you transition. No road is easy, but your strengths help you do it with ease. Stephanie was kind enough to make her slides available on her website here.
There was time for a few questions:
Should you use Twitter to find a job?
Use Twitter if you’re good at it. You need to invest your time wisely. Also Google yourself to see what’s out there about you.
What is one key thing to share with a negative person who is stuck?
Be honest. If that person is negative with you, it’s coming across to other people as well, including job interviewers. Find that source of inspiration and make it part of your journey. Stay balanced to get rid of negativity.
Do you have advice to follow up on online submissions?
Only follow up if it’s the perfect job. Otherwise don’t waste your time. Remember to always invest your time wisely.

HIRING COMPANIES

Intel
Gil “GW” Williams, Lead Talent Manager
Chances are your connected devices have an Intel processor in them. Intel is going from a PC to a data-centric company that relies on their people. This company hires “niche” applicants so be sure to do your homework on the company!
Intel is placing four big bets:
  • Autonomous driving
  • Virtual reality (VR)
  • 5G
  • Artificial intelligence
In addition to the usual company benefits of stock purchase plan and 401K, employees receive a sabbatical. For every 7 years with the company, the employee gets 8 consecutive weeks off, or every 4 years with the company gets 4 weeks off.
Job openings can be found at www.intel.com/job.
Staff Logic
The scheduled representative was not available, but their current openings include:
  • Accounts Payable
  • Accounts Receivable
  • Banking and Financial sase
  • Software sales
  • Medical
  • Administrative
  • Marketing
  • Human Resources
  • Customer Service
Allstate
Tori Castlegrante, Agency Process Specialist
Taylor Mathusek, Recruiter
The company with Good Hands, Allstate has been in business more than 85 years. There are  1,500 regional company employees, and 700+ small business owners, with a local office in Tempe. Allstate insures 47 products, including auto, home, life and renter’s insurance.
Open Tempe positions include:
IT – 6
Finance and economics – 1
Human resources – 3
Product – 1
Claims – 2
Sales management – 1
To be an agency owner, you should have management/supervisory experience, be business-minded and like being your own boss. There are no franchise or royalty fees, so an agency owner is true small business ownership. There is a $6,000 referral bonus for candidates with supervisory/management experience so apply or recommend someone you know.
To learn more about Allstate careers, go to www.allstate.com/careers.

CLOSING

On Thursday, April 5, Abby Kohut will speak about “Networking for Introverts, Extroverts and In-Between Verts” at our new location at the Grand Canyon University Conference Center. Join us!
Cindy Nowack

Filed Under: Event Recaps Tagged With: Allstate, Finding Your Strengths, Intel, Staff Logic

Primary Sidebar

Recent Event Recaps

2/10/22 – Getting My Career SHIFT Together

1/27/22 – Show Out When You Show Up

11/18/21 – A 7 Step Career Amplifier

12/14/21 – The Perfect Job in 2022

More Event Recaps

Career Advice

12 Tips To Help You Transition Industries in Your Career

12 Career Trends Experts are seeing in 2022

12 Most In-Demand Career Roles In 2022

9 Tips to Help You Move into a New Career

12 Creative Ways To Stand Out On LinkedIn

More Career Advice

Footer

Socialize with us!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Testimonials

Career Connectors offered me a one-stop-shopping capability for all of the coaching, resources and connections I needed to perfect my job searching skills.  The package of services, and support I found while attending these workshops over the past 7 months was unique to, and more productive than any other networking venues I attended. I am thrilled to share that I’ve landed with B/E Aerospace in Tucson.  I recommend to all Job Seekers to find out what works for you, and exploit it for best r… Read more
Aidan F.
Networking helps, especially when you do not directly know anyone at a target company. I have attended 4 of your meetings and at one of them a company representative and recruiter presented. I was already familiar with this company, but she also said some other things in the presentation that made me take notice and created more interest on my part. I spoke with the recruiter at your event and she followed up the next week and from there I went on several phone interviews and on site interview t… Read more
Todd S.
I just wanted to reach out to you and say Thank you to you, Career Connectors and the whole Team! So let me explain why, while I’ve known of Career Connectors for many years, I never thought that I would need employment services or guidance before. On September 19th 2019 I found myself being let go from my job. I later the next day saw the Career Connectors event at Central Christian Church Gilbert Campus coming up on Facebook and signed up for it. While attending my first Career Connectors even… Read more
Brian P.
I took advantage of Career Connectors when I found myself unexpectedly out of work and back in AZ.  The ease in using their website to locate meetings and identify subject matter at their weekly meetings kept me informed and engaged.  Their meetings are interesting and provide relevant and useful information toward getting into the right job.  They say that a network event is what you make of it … with Career Connectors they create the events and provide the resources you need to land your next … Read more
Jennifer V.
Fantastic! Good variety of roles, Obvious interest in quality candidates, really good solid leads. Great investment of time.
Alicia
I want to follow up with you about the position I had hoped to get. I got it! And thanks to Jack Milligan’s Salary Negotiation talk, for the first time I didn’t feel like an idiot when I accepted a job. No one else offers that kind of information.  Thank you for all you do. I appreciate your efforts to bless others.  May you and yours be blessed every day. Thank you for everything,
Cheryl
Thank you, Jessica. Although I wasn’t able to meet you personally, I was able to see you working with another applicant and was impressed with your efforts and the excellent platform that your team presented. Thank you very much.
Luis R.
A good friend told me of her success using Career Connectors networking.  She landed an interview and later, a job in her field, after attending one networking event.  So, when it was my turn, I had to check it out. I was starting to get the blues about being unemployed but the speaker lifted me out of the dumps and put my life back in perspective. So many people were there to help and offer support!   Just by networking that day, I was given a job lead that has led to two interviews and a… Read more
Mary B.
It was amazing, you guys did a great job! I found several potential companies!
Irene
Great lead for follow up with a couple of employers.
Rebecca, R.N.
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Services

© 2022 · Career Connectors. All Rights Reserved.