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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.

6/27/17 – Boosting Your Networking Confidence – Six Tips to Increase Your Comfort and Success

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Boosting Your Networking ConfidenceWritten by Michelle Soracco

Keynote Speaker

Dave Sherman
@DaveSpeaks1

Dave is a sales and marketing guru who tells it like it is. He has worked with a number of large well-known companies over the years, and has run his own business and written three best-selling books. He has also been laid off, so he knows the feeling as many of us do. Dave is one of my favorite Career Connectors speakers.

Boosting Your Networking Confidence – Six Tips to Increase Your Comfort and Success

1. Show up early. Be the first person there, or be at least 15 minutes early. Networking is less intimidating that way.
–Meet all of the players
–Time to relax and prepare
–Become an unofficial host – greet everyone at the door, even though you’re not part of the group!

2. Fear of rejection is all in your head. Repeat out loud to yourself several times (until you believe it) before the networking event: “These people want to talk to me.” The purpose of networking is…to network! Everyone is there for the same purpose, so don’t be afraid to jump in and talk to people. Don’t wait for people to approach you, and allow others to dictate your success at the event.

3. Know how to break the ice and what you’re going to say before you get to the event.
–Smile, relax and breathe. Smiling makes you warmer, friendlier, more approachable and smarter! Don’t be the grumpy person in the room.
–Have a good S.H.E. (smile, handshake, eye contact). Shake hands vertically; don’t use two hands like a politician, make a power play, crush the other person’s hand, shake like a dead fish, or be super dainty and offer only a few fingers. Give the person enough eye contact that you can tell eye color, but not so much that you’re staring a hole through their head because that’s creepy.
–Starting comfortable conversations is a powerful tool. Here are some ice breakers:
* What’s your favorite movie?
* What do you do?
* How are you doing today?
* Ever been to this event before?
* Nice earrings, tie, pin, etc.
* What an interesting name.
* What do you do in your spare time?

4. Be interested, not just interesting. Ask good questions, expand on the answers and don’t hijack the conversation. Also, don’t interrupt–bite the tip of your tongue if you have to.

5. Bring a partner, but don’t spend all of your time talking to them. Have the partner introduce you to people they know and vice versa.

6. Give. Help other people. Ask yourself how you can help people do better. One of Dave’s favorite quotes is: “You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” –Zig Ziglar

Hiring Companies

Hacienda Healthcare
Kent Norris, HR Recruiter

Hacienda Healthcare is a non-profit organization that has been caring for mentally and physically disabled children and young adults in the Valley for 50 years. According to Kent, it takes a special kind of person do this kind of work, so they are always looking for RNs, LPNs, CNAs and caregivers. New nurses, pay attention: no nursing experience required, only your state license. This is a great way to gain experience. Other positions will be opened, pending board approval of the new budget, after July 1st. Apply here. Connect with Kent on LinkedIn, as he has many connections there and is willing to help you find work, even if it’s not at Hacienda.

Asurion
Tasha Ford, Talent Acquisition Consultant @AsurionCareers

Asurion replaces smartphones and tablets that have been damaged. The employees are considered superheroes who can solve smartphone problems faster than a speeding bullet. The culture is fast-paced and fun, with Marvel comics and video games and machines for everyone to use. To learn more about Asurion’s culture, click here.  They are always looking for Customer Support Technicians who have both IT expertise and are extroverts who can break down IT concepts for non-tech people.  Apply here.

MDI Group
Shannon Volk, Managing Director
Tim Jones, Client Manager @MDIGroup

MDI Group is an IT staffing agency that places candidates in companies of all sizes. In their branch office, they are looking for a Sr. IT Recruiter; for their clients, they are looking for SQL Developers, .net, Dev Ops Engineers, project managers and BI folks. If any of these positions sounds good, please contact Shannon via LinkedIn or click here.

Vanguard
Ralph Kimbrough, Senior Recruiter @VanguardCareers

Vanguard manages $4 trillion in assets, even though they’re a relatively new company. The average crew member stays for 9 years, and they’ve never laid off a single crew member! With a 37.5 hour work week, the ability to reinvent yourself, 4% matching and a 10% contribution to their crew members’ 401Ks, it’s not hard to see why. In addition, they have on-site dry-cleaning, 18-23 days PTO, among other benefits. See the company website for open positions and more information. It’s important to get your foot in the door and move up from there.

Dignity Health
Marcos Day, Recruiter @DignityHealth

Human kindness is what Dignity Health is all about–compassionate high level care that heals both the body and the spirit. Everything they do is in house, so the positions available aren’t just nurses and doctors, but electricians and construction work, among others, as they are building new towers at Chandler Hospital and Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Chandler’s new towers are scheduled to be fully built and staffed by early 2019. Right now, Dignity is looking for a Director of Cardiovascular – Cath lab. To apply online for positions, click here.

Resources

Coder Camps
Jason Jones, Admissions @CoderCamps

Coder Camps is a 3- or 6-month boot camp to learn full stack web development. Many of their students have no prior experience in this industry, which is constantly growing and changing. Because the industry is constantly changing, coders need to constantly update their skills. So once you’ve taken the boot camp, you can come back and update your skills for free. They have upcoming events you can attend to see if coding is right for you, such as Campus Tours on July 11th from 2pm – 7pm and Demo Day on July 7th.

Closing

Jessica graciously thanked all of the day’s speakers, volunteers and job seekers for participating. She encouraged job seekers to take advantage of the many Career Connector services like having your resume reviewed, a free professional portrait and visit all of the hiring companies, whether they had jobs in your field or not. She also encouraged everyone to view the career blog, which is up and running and has a lot of good career advice.

1/18/17 – LinkedIn Deep Dive: Get the Inside Track

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Written by Julia Churan

LinkedIn Deep DiveLinkedIn was created as a tool to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.  It has single-handedly redefined job search in the past decade.

Keynote

Laura Williams –  City Profile Manager, LinkedIn

Every second two people join LinkedIn.  Since 95% of job applications today never receive a response, job seekers must use their network and standout more than any time before.  Laura came from the LinkedIn offices to share secrets on doing this.

Your goal as a job seeker is to get in front of the right people: 

  1. Connect
  2. Stay Informed
  3. Get Hired

To make the most of the LinkedIn site, you must:

Create a Strong Profile

Your Profile is your professional brand and how you engage with others: recruiters, hiring manager, other job seekers, and employed professionals.  It is your online resume but needs to function differently than a written resume.  Your profile needs to be specific, highlight your strengths and be concise.

 

Keys to a strong online vita:

  • A professional photo makes the biggest impact – it will get get you 14X the views. It must be professional — no dogs, no hats, no babies – but tell your story.
  • A great headline – can include your last job title but also tell a little more about you and what you are seeking. Be careful of buzzwords and use keywords strategically.
  • Your education – this is not just your degree but consider also continuing education, seminars or certifications.
  • Work experience – minimum of 2 past roles that highlight what you did and what you learned.
  • A compelling summary –  tell your story, if it is complicated you can explain it here.  Focus on your accomplishments and aspirations.
  • Add skills –  they can be managed, rearranged, removed, then request connections to endorse you on these qualities.
  • Multi media portfolio, if applicable – should be used only if you have visuals that will benefit your story.
  • Recommendations – a variety of community leaders, co-workers, managers, and professors — offer direction when requesting a referral.

Search for Jobs
The database currently holds 4 million jobs.  It is unique from others online search tools because you can connect directly to the company’s network.  You can:

  • Search for jobs
  • Set up alerts for new opportunities
  • Filter results to save time
  • Follow companies of interest to stay informed
  • Apply easily to jobs of interest

Make Connections

The key is to use your connections (and second degree) to make a difference in your search.  You will want to follow companies that you are interested in to keep a pulse on the organization to help prepare for your interviews.

Policy, Philanthropy and Vision of LinkedIn

LinkedIn’s Vision – Create economic opportunity for every memember of the global workforce
Laura provided an enthusiastic Q & A session on topics that included:
Privacy – Anyone who you connect with can see your information, but you can set up a public profile and select only what you want to display to non-connections.
Recruiters – This is how LinkedIn makes money – companies purchase subscriptions for sales and recruiters
Skills – They are working on improving the relevancy of the skills section.
Importance of stats in your profile – it is different than your resume so if in Sales, highlight some of the numbers in your summary, but don’t cut and paste all details into each job. People don’t scroll much so maximize the above the fold space.
Profile – managing different skills for searching different roles – Don’t build multiple profiles.  It is OK to tell a complex story in one profile. If you have a side business, consider a business profile that is different from your personal profile.
Applying through LinkedIn – Most jobs that offer this service, are companies paying for this service. Companies that push back on why they don’t use this:  don’t want the cost, many HR systems are still old school and not up with the technology. Recommend that after you apply – find the recruiter, follow the company page, reach out to the recruiter, and see how you rate over others who have applied, if you pay for Premium.

To download Laura’s presentation, click here: L. Williams_LinkedIn Phx_Jan 2017

More Great LinkedIn Resources

Resources and Hiring Companies

Arizona@Work – City of Phoenix

Rob Stenson, Business and Workforce Development Center Supervisor – @phxecondev

The organization’s mission is to help job seekers in Phoenix and Maricopa County find work.

Rob’s team works to evaluate the needs of companies in the area to find employees with the right skills or help seekers get the right skills to land the jobs. They offer everything from resume assistance, job leads, workshops, to training. They also offer grants to help seekers get certification training to enhance their skillset.

Tools to help you:

Other great public resources: Phoenix Public Library – 500 online courses, adult online learning, video resume resources, learning language skills

Asurion, @AsurionCareers

Tasha Ford, Talent Acquisition Consultant

Asurion is a technology company that provides customer service and device protection (repair and replacement) for electronics. They employ 17,000 employees globally and ensure 290 million customer devices.  They offer great benefits, great managers skilled in mapping a career path for each employee, and a relaxed and fun environment. Their main opportunities now are for customer support technicians.

Visit their Careers website for more details on opportunities

TEKsystems – @TEKsystemsJobs

Nick Bielinski – Technical Recruiter

TEKsystems is a top technology staffing agency that places 800 – 1000 positions in the Phoenix area each year.  They work with approximately 90 companies for consultants and contract-to-hire, including Wells Fargo, Amazon, Dignity Health, and ASU. Some jobs are posted online but it is best to call in to speak with a recruiter.

Opportunities are primarily in the following areas:

  • Hardware (servers, data centers) – Apple, Amazon
  • End User Support (great area if you are looking to transition)
  • Communications (VOIP, data, cable installs)

Freedom Financial Network, @FreedomFamily

John Hasna, Director of Talent Acquisition

Freedom Financial Network is a debt consulting company that provides financial solutions and services to enable consumers to achieve financial freedom.  They are based in San Mateo with 3 AZ locations – 1300 employees. They will be hiring approx. 1000 individuals this year primarily in negotiations and sales and are building a new central campus in the Tempe area.  They were recently named as a Phoenix Business Journal “Best Places to Work” Winner.

To apply: www.freedomfinancialnetwork.com/join_our_team.

 

New Horizons Learning Center, @nhphoenix

Zack Hiscock – Vice President of Learning and Development

New Horizons is an international training organization that serves the needs of top companies to help individuals enhance their current skills and go to the next level in their career.

They offer 3 styles of training depending on your needs:

  • In classroom
  • Live online training
  • Self-paced online courses

They offer courses in IT, Office Mgmt, Healthcare Records and Management, Project/Production Mgmt Certifications.  Their Phoenix location is near the airport.

Closing

Jessica Pierce, Executive Director of Career Connectors, graciously thanked all of the day’s speakers, volunteers and job seekers for participating. She encouraged job seekers to take advantage of the many Career Connector services like having your resume reviewed, a free professional portrait and visit all of the other services and hiring companies.  She also encouraged everyone to expand their professional network by introducing themselves to other attendees.

There will be a special event on Feb 22 – partnered with BestCompanies AZ – Military Career Event.  This event is especially for military veterans and significant others.

The next regular event will be in Gilbert, Jan 24 in Gilbert with Abby Kohut speaking on “Taking Your Job by Storm”.  Register here.