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Event Recaps

8/5/20 – Ready, Reset, Go! Finding the Right Career

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Written by Debbie Adkins

Wade Thomas

In today’s crazy world…It can be a time and an opportunity to “hit reset” on a career that maybe is not working or fulfilling. Perhaps there is no or little chance for advancement.

Keynote

Wade Thomas will tell us that there is a formula for finding your career “sweet spot,” and to brand your new self in that opportunity. To find your career sweet spot, find the intersection between your talent, aspirations and the job market.

Currently unemployment is at 11.1% while 4.8 million jobs have been added. Is it time to reset for the future? Reset means to redo and change one’s life. So here we go…..

Ready…is setting up a place, time and get your “thinking cap” on. Do the work to choose your path.

Reset…is to a need to redo and change your life and maybe your career.

Go…is to go to work and figure out, think about what you need to do…finally go and do it. Below are areas in which you should take to heart and try and do.

Aspirations are for you to think about and figure out. Here is your future…what is it going to look like?  Areas you should look at are what you want, who are you and what is your legacy of the future. Figure out what your passions are.

Market is what is out there. You need to see what problems can be solved, to be curious about things and the job market and research what is your career interest in connection to that market.

Talents are about you. Things like what make you unique and different, what you can do. Anything that would make future employers looks at you and actions that move you forward. You can list your talents that should include the above.

After this then image yourself with all of this…envision what this will look like.

To fit into what is going on in the current job market and life, you may have to expand your talents to match up with this market. You can do this by growing your network connections, reading books/magazines and exploring other areas that can help you. Go above and beyond!

In doing this you will be able to leverage your talents, fill in any gaps and have a good chance to a good future. Plus do not be afraid to ask for help.

There is another area that you could look at and update….Your Brand. Your brand should tie into the target job market. That can be done by using what makes you special:

*Messaging-which is stories you tell, tools like resumes and LinkedIn profiles that give companies proof of what you say and do.

*Image-is what you wear, your actions and your appearance such as posture.

The last thing you can do and should do is have an Engage Team. They can help you with everything….like grow your network strategically, analyze your network by identifying who you need and evaluate them.

Here are other things to know, learn and use:

*Make all of this real…tell the truth

*Even when you are working add to your network.

*Value Quality over Quantity

*Look at the whole picture not just part of it and all at once

Hiring Company

Asurion

Brittney Rideout, Recruiter

Asurion offers Work from Home to people living anywhere in Arizona at $16.75 per hour. Incentives can be up to $550/month and benefits start after 31 days of employment. Spanish bilingual and English speaking people are needed.

For more information about these roles and more, visit Asurion’s website.

7/29/20 – Know your story, Tell your story, Sell your story

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Written by Sheri Kerr

Geoff Woliner

Keynote

Geoff Woliner is an author, speaker, founder of Winning Wit, writer and a former recruiter.
Geoff’s presentation encourages the audience to develop “their” story. This story is the emotional currency to a new position. Your story needs to outline your achievements and explain how you have overcome adversities. They synthesis your story to showcase your achievements, abilities to overcome adversity and explain how this will benefit an employer.
He encouraged the audience to create an emotional connection with your story. This story includes challenges, and how you achieved them, describe what you have overcome, what difficulties’ have you scaled and achieved.
Next, the power of using LinkedIn to grow your network. He outlines how to tell your story using LinkedIn’s profile header and summary. Again, create a story that highlights your achievements, explain challenges faced, how you have overcome them and explain how this will benefit others. It important to draw out the emotion!
Building and creating a LinkedIn audience by replying to posts & comments. The goal is to grow your connections to be visible on LinkedIn.

Hiring Companies

Dexcom

Monica Brown, Talent Acquisition Sourer
Dexcom develops, manufactures and distributes continuous glucose monitoring systems for diabetes management. Dexcom focus: Better outcomes for patients, deliver solutions – partnering with Apple and Google, empowering our community to take control of diabetes.
Dexcom offers a culture of a welcoming environment, diversity & inclusion, patients first, fast paced, challenging, evolving, and opportunistic. They provide a competitive salary and robust benefits for their employees.
Monica is currently recruiting for current open positions:

  • EHS Engineer (Safety)
  • Quality Inspectors
  • Sr. Manager Manufacturing Automation
  • Engineering Technicians
  • Manufacturing Associates
  • Industrial Engineer- Production Systems
  • Manager Mfg. Training- Evaluation
  • Distribution Supervisor
  • Sr. Industrial Engineer- Analytics & Simulation
  • Sr. Production Controller- Operations
  • Supervisor Manufacturing
  • Sr. Manager Facilities
  • Sr. Manager Manufacturing

If interested go to Dexcom’s website: http://careers.dexcom.com/ then select “Mesa” as the location.

ADP

Laura Lynn Smith, Division Vice President and Pam Farling, Talent Acquisition Business Partner
ADP is a global company with a location in Tempe, Arizona. ADP has been defining the future of business solutions for 70 years and has earned Fortune Magazines’ “Worlds Most Admired Companies” for 12 years.
ADP is a comprehensive global provider of cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solutions that unite HR, payroll, talent, time, tax and benefits administration, and is a leader in business outsourcing services, analytics and compliance expertise.
ADP values its employees by providing a rich culture with work life balance, teamwork, collaboration with others, core values, onsite events, celebrations, diversity organization and business resources group. ADP provides their employees with career growth and a strong brand. They offer rich and robust benefits to employees.
ADP Open Positions:
• Associate Client Support Consultant
• Client Support Specialist
• Implementation Specialist II
• Implementation Consultant II-Time
• Implementation Consultant II-HR
• Implementation Consultant II-Payroll
• Manager, Implementation Delivery
• Strategic Outside Account Executive

https://jobs.adp.com/locations/arizona/

7/15/20 – The Leader’s Mindset

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Written by Gary Matsuda

Kristi Staab

Your ‘good enough’ is no longer good enough. Excellence is required. As the economy slows, there are more applicants than jobs and you’re competing with so many others with the same skills and experience. But there’s a way to give yourself an edge over other candidates.

Kristi Staab has the secret sauce you may need to stand out. An international speaker, author, trainer, and consultant, Kristi has been coaching and developing individuals, teams, and organizations to excellence in the areas of leadership, sales, and success for over two decades.

Keynote

More Than a Feeling

Emotions exert powerful influence on how we perceive events around us. They seem to come and go involuntarily. Yet you can think yourself happy, sad, angry just by associating with positive, negative or neutral thoughts. But career wise, we don’t do something just because we’re in the mood or not do something just because we’re just not into it right now. You’re a professional, don’t serve your feelings, instead let your values drive your actions.

Developed over time our values are relatively stable and come from our cumulative experiences, how we’ve been raised and lessons learned from difficult times. It defines what is important to us individually and brings context on how we build our character, mindset and actions which can be radically different between us. If situations or people are in conflict with our values, we will feel it intensely and emotions start coming to take control. Most of us aren’t going to seek out trouble, but will try to live in alignment with our values. Do the same with your career search to find the right environment that lines up with your values.

Values Drive Decisions

During the Covid pandemic, many of us have been stripped of our professional identity. Not only are some of us out of work but we’re also isolated, compounding the feelings of no longer being part of a group. Kristi says when we are under stress, we often start doubting ourselves and examining our basic needs which she calls deficiency needs. These are:

  1. Do I have enough to be safe, protected?
  2. Am I accepted, part of a group?
  3. I am enough or do I have worth?

We certainly don’t want to show employers that we need money, are lonely and need our self-esteem boosted! When these concerns become top of mind, that’s where our values can come in to help guide our next steps. With so many of us going through social and economic uncertainty in a competitive job market, we can create an advantage for ourselves if we get out of our negative mindset and into action.

You Don’t Have to Master Your Career Search

While your job is looking for a job, unfortunately you can’t add that to your resume. To be sure, you must put in the work to sell yourself which is an essential skill. But what is it about yourself that you’re selling?

This is where Kristi can help define your true values and make you more market ready. How close you are to a match for your next job and how long you last there depends on the degree to which your values align with the organization. We all know someone who has done something just for the money. How long do they last and more importantly, how satisfied were they? Consider matching as many of your needs, motivations and purpose with your next employer, so you’ll be more actively engaged with your work, bring out your best and embody excellence. Work might actually become easy!

Kristi doesn’t like to see people suffer (that’s one of her values) and instead wants to see people not just to survive a crisis, but to thrive according to their values. Your sense of purpose and mission should be so clear to you that you feel you can power through just about any obstacle in order to achieve your goals.

Find what a company values through who you know in the organization. What’s their mission, have they been mentioned in the news or social media? Use Glassdoor, LinkedIn, expand your network so you might be able to find those who currently work at your target organization. Consider reaching out to ex-employees, they may have valuable unbiased positive or negative insights of their previous employer.

What mindset do you bring?

Check in with yourself during your job search and well before an interview to recognize and stop letting your feelings tell you that because you were laid off that you’re not good enough, not skilled enough or not something else enough.

To help you grow personally and professionally, use professional organizations like Career Connectors who offer so many resources that will fit your needs. For now, you get to reinvest, reset, re-imagine, and renew! When you can bring that to your next job, you’ll be able to inspire others who may have doubts of their own. (Hey, you’ve been there, and you know what it’s like.)

When you’re crystal clear on your values and willing to stand alone you become the motivation, inspiration, representative of what others can become — in other words, a leader. For now, forget virtual. Get values. Get into your mindset.

Hiring Company

WealthWave
Jason Wiseman, Sr. Marketing Director
For those of you who aren’t sure about returning as a corporate employee with a steady paycheck, here’s an opportunity to exploit your values through your own business or side gig. But if you are hesitant about moving all at once towards being an entrepreneur, WealthWave is flexible enough so they can help you transition into something part time. Their mission is to eliminate financial illiteracy that means keeping people from making easy, avoidable financial mistakes.

And speaking of values, Wealthwave is a big believer of personal self-development so you’ll learn much about yourself along the way, including examining what you really want out of life. That sounds hard to beat: being able to build a business plan around what you really want.

Contact Jason Wiseman: 480.861.6111
Email: Jason.Wiseman@wealthwave.com
https://wealthwave.com/jasonwiseman
https://howmoneyworks.com/jasonwiseman

Resources

BestCompaniesAZ
This is a new Career Connectors partnership with several organizations under Best CompaniesAZ brand. Altogether in one place you can find verified, trusted companies who have thousands of jobs (120,000 at last count!) open now. Check them out here to see if any listed hiring companies match your values. For employees who are going through difficult situations, this is a great resource.

Coaching

Career Connectors has a new program to get you remote support in these areas:

  • LinkedIn reviews
  • Resume reviews
  • Career Coaching/Development
  • Financial Coaching
  • Mock Interviews

Go here for support from experienced pros.

For information on future events, please visit the Event Schedule.

07/09/2020 – I Lost My Job, Now What?

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Written by: Connie Huber SHRM-CP PHR

Naomi Buckta

“Hello COVID19, hello unemployment”.-Steven Magee

COVID 19 has introduced much chaos and fear to the world. In addition, the pandemic has drastically changed today’s economic landscape. According to Center for Infectious Disease and Research and Policy, “The country has lost 20.6 million jobs since mid-March. Today’s unemployment rate is now 14.7% and at a level not seen since the Great Depression in 1930’s.
The number of jobs lost more than doubles the number seen in the number seen in the 2007-2009 Great Recession, when 8.7 million Americans lost their jobs.
Before the pandemic, the US marked a 50 year unemployment low in February, with just 3.5% of unemployed Americans.
According to USA Today of the 20.6 million jobs lost, 18 million are expected to be temporary when the pandemic recedes.”

Keynote

Naomi Buckta is an accomplished professional that has walked in the shoes of being unemployed. Naomi has been very successful recovering from unemployment and securing rewarding future employment opportunities. Recently she also lost her job like many of us. Naomi was very gracious and informative in sharing her action plans she goes through to land a new professional opportunity.
Getting started and continuing a job search is a tough assignment. Not only has your source of income been eliminated but your emotions are on a roller coast ride. You may be depressed, seeking solitude, nursing a fractured self-esteem or hiding out under your bed covers
WHERE TO START
So where do you start in your search? Areas you need to consider in attacking your job search include:
HOW TO SELL YOURSELF
CREATE AN ELEVATOR SPEECH. An elevator speech is a 15-20 second informative overview of who you are and where you are going. The pitch should be a summary of your professional background, your current situation and where you are going. The benefits of the elevator speech help you capitalize on opportunities, forces you to think your profession identity, informs the listener where you are heading and opens the door for meaningful connections.

IMMEDIATE ACTIVITIES: There are several things that require your immediate attention such as get organized; file for unemployment; list your skills, abilities, successes and gifts; begin to organize your resume; list network connections; list target companies; and prepare elevator speech.

SELF ASSESSMENT
Take the time to better understand and know yourself. What are your priorities, what do you want to do with your careers? Does your DISC assessment match your career path? Have you spoken to a career coach/mentor? What does your social network say about you?
NETWORKING……DO IT!
SOCIAL MEDIA AND RELATIONSHIPS
SOCIAL MEDIA IMPORTANCE: Plays a big part in letting employers get to know If you are the best candidate for the job. 65% of companies said that social media posts have helped research applicant’s qualifications.
SOCIAL MEDIA ADVANTAGES: There are many social media advantages including your resume is always “on”; your career changes are communicated as they happen; presents career paths that you may not have considered; make new contacts through people you know; establishes your online brand; join groups that share your interests, community, or profession.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIPS!
Think about who you know? Current/former business associates; peers; past companies; friends; recruiters; connections of your connections. Determine what networking events are available to you.

*PLAN OF ACTION FOR RESUMES, INTERVIEWING, AND UPSKILLING
• CONNECTIONS
• COMPANY TARGET LIST
• RESUMES
• FUNNEL APPROACH TO JOB SEARCH METHODOLOGY
• REACH OUT DIRECTLY TO HIRING MANAGER & AUTOMATED RECRUITING SITES
• INTERVIEWS
• GET OFF THE COACH
• UPSKILL; LEARN WHILE YOU JOB SEARCH BY USING MOOC’S(MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSES)
• MOOC’S
*Chat was extremely active. In response we have provided relevant details. Plan of actions were many and useful. Please see this list for the details on the different plan of actions:

Chat-ResourcesDownload

GET OFF THE COUCH!
You will feel better and may even find some leads. Volunteer and be active in your community. Make a 30 day commitment. Add it to your resume and LinkedIn. Upskilling is very beneficial to your future and can be done while your unemployed.

MAKE YOUR OWN OPPORTUNITIES
Now with extra time you can do those things you have wanted to do but didn’t have time to do so. Some possibilities include do contract work, consult, teach a class, work part time to make ends meet, pack a lunch & take the kids to the park, organize your family photos, or plant an herb garden.

REMINDERS
Speak positively about the company you left. Be positive every time you meet people. Every person you talk to can be a potential employer-even if they are currently unemployed.
Attend virtual meetings.

“You must do the thing you think you cannot do”. – Eleanor Roosevelt
PS…..This does not apply to giving haircuts during quarantine.

HIRING COMPANIES

BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF ARIZONA
LIZ MARTINEZ, LEAD STAFFING SPECIALIST

One-third of Americans have a Blue plan. 17,000+ contracted Arizona physicians. More than 1.7 million customers. Employee population is 2,400+. Offices are in Phoenix, East
Valley, Flagstaff and Tucson. BCBS has numerous corporate awards and is dedicat4ed to inspiring health.
All interviews and onboarding are virtual. New employee orientations including training with executive team. Current openings include IT Manager, Customer Service Advocate, Continuous Improvement Manager, Manager – Database, Cloud Security Engineer, Solution Architecture Manager and more. If interested, view current openings and apply at this website.

CLOSING

Jessica Pierce, Founder & CEO, Career Connectors, closed the meeting by thanking the speakers & the volunteers. The next Career Connectors meetings will be a virtual event on July 15, 2020; “The Leader’s MINDset: Your Values Measure What Matters” and July 22, 2020; “How to Shine Using LinkedIn”. For additional information on this event & future events, please visit the Event Schedule.