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01-15-15 What’s Your Why?

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By Susan Lamphiear

Do you have any CAVE dwellers at your company?  (CAVE: Consistently Against Virtually Everything.) The Q12 Gallup Survey calls them disengaged workers. Our keynote speaker today referenced the term in a recent You Tube speech. And he stressed results of the Gallup poll in his presentation today.

All these disengaged workers, about 15-20% of Americans and 13% worldwide, are still hovering out there in the work place. Yikes. One stat even suggests 71% of workers are either disengaged or actively undermining all the other workers. This sounds like a huge problem.

Keynote

Keynote speaker Brian Mohr is convinced, after getting an inside view of many companies over the years, that the lack of magic in the work place (you can either feel it or not when you walk in the doors of a company) all comes back to passion. Is each employee passionate about the company and the company’s purpose? (Some would ask, based on the data, if employers or employees even know what the company purpose is.)

Brian’s Mentor: Thoughts on life’s challenges and the secret of life

During his presentation, Brian introduced his mentor, Dr. Jason Kolber, who has been an important influence on both Brian’s professional and personal life. Jason gave an overview of the rhythms of life we all go through, referencing examples from his own personal experiences. Stages he highlighted included 1. Nothing works 2. You’ll be happy when… 3. Feeling stuck 4.Taking my power back, referencing the triumphant Rocky in the popular movie. He concluded his portion of the presentation with a story about the gods and the secret of life.  As the story goes, the gods discussed where to put the secret of life. Should they put the secret on the mountain? No, because someone would find it. Should they place it under the sea? No, again. Too easy to find.  Finally, they decided to place the secret of life inside people. “They’ll never look there.”

Purpose

At one point in his career, Brian began to journal, trying to figure out what he should be doing. As he wrote, the words just poured out and he decided that ultimately he wanted to have a positive impact on other people. He decided that giving to a cause greater than self is probably the greatest purpose any of us can aspire to. He’d personally like to be a beacon to every interaction he ever makes.

Having a purpose can be hard to describe. These days, he avoids asking his children, ages 8 and 10, what they want to BE when they grow up. Instead, he asks them, “What do you want to be a PART of when you grow up?”

Bananas in the tailpipe as a metaphor for employees undermining efforts

As for that 70-some percent of the workforce who are, as Brian puts it,  somewhere between bananas in tailpipes (movie Beverly Hills Cop) and sleepwalking , what’s the solution?

The Q12 Gallup Survey results place workers into three categories.

  • Engaged—passionate,  feeling profound connection with the company
  • Not engaged—checked out, sleep walking
  • Disengaged—emotionally detached, sometimes to the point of undermining the efforts of others

After many years, the disengaged worker stats remain unchanged, despite new processes and other attempts to change this. It continues to hurt profits and negatively impacts retention of employees.

Answer to the dilemma of the disengaged workforce

Brian’s convinced the answer to this disengagement problem involves creating a passionate workforce, but the responsibility rests on both the employee and the employer.  The employer must create the atmosphere where workers feel dedicated to the purpose of the company. Employees must do their research and find these purpose-driven companies and settle for no less than a match.

On a bright note, Brian says the job market is strong. Jobs are out there. But companies are struggling to find the talented workers the jobs require, even as employees are struggling to find the companies they can be passionate about.

It’s up to the employer to create an atmosphere where the devoted, passionate employee can thrive. But the employee must be focused and do their research to find companies compatible with their own life purpose. To find these employers means networking, engaging, meeting people, in addition to Internet research and interviewing people at the company.

Once again, we’re reminded that technology can be a magnificent tool, but the bottom line is people meeting real live people and making connections. Businesses are overwhelmed with the volume of resumes passing through their systems. Job candidates must proactively look for companies whose purposes align with their own.  It’s a lot of work, but the payoff is that meaningful job you’re passionate about.

(For an analysis of the Gallup Survey, and to see the 12 Q12 Gallup questions, visit this link.)

Hiring Companies

Northcentral University

Khristine Anderson & Becky Neal, Talent Acquisition Specialists

Northcentral University, an online University voted one of the best places to work, maintains a 100% doctoral faculty. The largest percent of their students are graduate or doctoral students, so they are quite suited to help working professionals. Current positions at the university include their academic team, along with positions in accounting and finances, information technology, and training and learning development. For more information about the university, and to apply for positions, visit their website.

Nextiva

Amanda Dziuk, Corporate Recruiter

Nextiva, part of United Web, was named  the fastest growing tech company in Phoenix by  Deloitte’s 2014 Technology Fast 500 Ranking. The cloud-based company offers a variety of telecommunications products. A number of positions are available including sales, support, and upper level management. No positions are outsourced. Benefits include 15 days PTO, medical insurance, company paid life insurance, short and long term disability, 401K, and free catered lunch every Friday. For more information and to apply, visit their website.

US Census Bureau

Marjorie Watkins and Starla Curley, Recruiters

The US Census Bureau has selected Maricopa County as one of its test sites in preparation for the 2020 census. Locally the Census Bureau will be hiring approximately 1000 people, including field services workers and supervisors. Candidates may take both the supervisory and non-supervisory tests. For information on taking the required test and applying, call 1-800-361-6891.

Revana

Octavio Duarte, Talent Acquisition Specialist

Revana is a professional inside sales organization which outsources sales and marketing solutions for some of industry’s leading clients, including Google, Verizon, FedEx and Toshiba. Octavio stressed that Revana is not a staffing company but a company with fulltime workers and benefits. Benefits of working in their call center include paid training, competitive salaries, and career development. The company has a current need for inbound/outbound sales reps and sales managers. They’re also still looking for a fluent French speaker for their customer service department. The company has locations in Tempe and North Phoenix. To apply, visit their website.

Resources

Canyon State Institute

Steve Carparelli, Acting Director

Canyon State Institute is a training company and a partner with Career Connectors. The school offers training in several areas of certification including vocational rehab, SHRM and more, all of which are nationally based. The training can be completed in anywhere from 4 to 12 weeks and funding is available. For information on funding or applying, visit their website.

Closing

Executive Director of Career Connectors, Jessica Pierce, closed the formal part of the meeting by reminding everyone they are invited to take for free the DISC assessment, usually $99. Attendees were also invited to speak directly to hiring companies, get expert advice on resume writing and using LinkedIn, and pose for free professional business portraits.

The next event for Career Connectors is scheduled for Thursday, January 27, 2015, at 9: AM in Gilbert and features a keynote presentation by Kirk Wilkinson: The Optimist’s Advantage.

The next Scottsdale event meets Thursday, February 12, 2015 and features Sandi Ashton’s presentation: DISCovering Your Unique Value.

For more information on these events, including addresses and directions, click here.

02/05/2014 – Job Search in the 21st Century

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By Ken Abramczyk (Twitter: KabramczKen)

Jessica Pierce, Executive Director of Career Connectors, opened this week’s event with a reminder to job candidates that they should limit interview answers to five minutes. Jessica knew of one candidate who opened an interview with a 30-minute answer to the first question.

With that, she introduced Justin Jones (@1ResumeResource). Justin talked about ways to land that next job interview using the Internet to connect with decision makers, research companies, and check on posted jobs and industries, before filling out applications and writing resumes, during his presentation of  “Job Search in the 21st Century.”

Keynote Speaker

Justin, a former training and assessment supervisor with Maricopa Workforce Connections and a professional instructor at Hard Dollar, compared job loss and the ongoing job hunt to skydiving and a free fall. Falling at 13,000 feet – and losing a job – is scary, Justin said.

“I want you to stop your free-falling today,” Justin told the audience.

When job seekers aren’t sure what career path that they want to take after a job loss and are willing to take any employment, they actually continue their free fall. “You’re desperate, lost or are not sure what’s going on,” Justin said. “That tells me you need to get grounded.”

We need to “get grounded,” Justin said. Assess your skills with the DISC assessment through Career Connectors, Justin said.

Today, several web sites can assist in your career plans, Justin said, including the following:

For job searches, use:

Justin used O*Net OnLine as an example to research occupations. That site allows you to enter a keyword, takes you to a list and outlines information about the occupation.

Use LinkedIn to inform you who your first connections are, but quite often it is who they know who work at the companies where you want to work, so you need to connect with those who know someone at the company, Justin said. Simply Hired allows you to connect through LinkedIn and check your LinkedIn connections.

Once you discover the job,  Justin suggests that you research first before applying, through online networks, obtaining information on the company through its web site and LinkedIn.

Jobs are also posted on Networking Phoenix, Facebook, Nextdoor (which is a website that connects neighbors), Twitter, Meetup, Foursquare and blogs with user groups. Networking Phoenix allows us to see what networking meetings are scheduled throughout the Valley.

When you job hunt, you also need to familiarize yourself with the salary range. Justin recommends that you visit:

When you discuss salary with your next employer, don’t tell them you are basing it on “your information,” but tell them your salary discussion is “based on the labor market and information from the federal government, the state of Arizona and others, ” Justin said.

When researching companies, use:

Check out classes and information at these sites: gcflearnfree.org, Alison.com, coursera.org, saylor.org, khanacademy.org, ted.com and youtube.com. Other useful web sites are: FreetypingGame.net, learn2type.com, goodtyping.com, TagCrowd.com and mail.com.

Justin closed his presentation with words of encouragement for us and reminding us to use these web sites in our search.

Hiring companies

Farmers Insurance

Debra Schubert, recruiter

Debra discussed how job seekers can look for opportunities through Farmers Insurance, including opening their own Farmers Insurance office. Farmers Insurance offers financial assistance for the first three years for agency owners. Employees at the district office will assist them by attending events with the owner to help market the company. New owners do not have to pay for office space because they use office space at the district office when starting their agency.  Those interested in opening an office can visit www.farmers.com for information. Additional jobs are available online at www.farmers.com/careers/.

Progrexion

Ryan Reeder, director of talent acquisition

Ryan ( rreeder@progrexion.com)  said Progrexion markets services of Lexington Law and Creditrepair.com to help people remove errors from their credit reports and achieve their financial goals. The company employs 2,000 people.

The company is hiring inside sales consultant, help desk levels I and II, a sales trainer and sales coach. The company expects to move Lexington Law to Phoenix in April and will hire two attorneys, one recruiter and IT employees. For information on current job postings, visit www.progrexion.com/careers. Recruiters are Dana Noweder dnoweder@progrexion.com and Jennifer Tate jtate@progrexion.com.

VACO

Jarrod Lauer, director of business development

Jarrod (jlauer@vaco.com ), said VACO serves 30 markets in the United States with 5,000 client engagements. In Latin, vaco means to “free yourself from work.” Vaco provides talent solutions to manage mounting workloads in the fields of technology, finance and accounting. Vaco works with clients to identify opportunities and identify what client’s needs are.  Available positions are systems engineer, service coordinator, software developer and others. Visit www.vaco.com.

Vanguard

Stephanie Scher, Human Resources and Marketing

Stephanie Scher said Vanguard is the only client-owned mutual fund in the world. Approximately 2,300 employees work in Scottsdale. Vanguard hired 490 people last year and expects to add another 400 this year. Most employees begin as client relationship specialists, but employees can advance in the company into retail services, retail client account services and business development group. Visit www.vanguard.com/careers.

Closing

Jessica also thanked Dusty Parsons and the North Phoenix Baptist Church for hosting today’s event.

Jessica encouraged attendees to complete their DISC assessments to help them on their career path by highlighting their communication styles and their desired ideal work environment.

Jessica highlighted upcoming Career Connectors events:

  • Janice Hurley-Trailor with “HIRE ME-Please” on Thursday, Feb. 13, in Scottsdale with hiring companies Appointment-Plus, International Cruise & Excursions and Education Management Corporation
  • Kimber Lanning with “The Upside of a Down Economy,” on Wednesday, Feb. 19 in Phoenix with DES, Hotfoot Recruiters, Global Tranz and Revana
  • Dusty Parsons with “Twitter – A Love Story” on Tuesday, Feb. 25 in Gilbert with Intel Corporation, Clearcall Solutions, Charles Schwab and Insight.

Check the events calendar for details and exact locations.

01/16/2014 — Salary Negotiation — Make More Money

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Written by Susan Lamphiear

Career Connectors continues its plans to launch an additional site on the West side of town, as announced by Jessica Pierce, Executive Director of Career Connectors.  That’s in line with one of its core values — to have a   “heart of service to job seekers”.

After other opening remarks and welcoming new attendees, including a review of the agenda, Jessica introduced the keynote speaker, Jack Milligan, President and CEO of Leathers, Milligan and Associates, a global management-consulting firm.

Keynote

Jack Milligan, with over 40 year of experience in HR, has led a few people through the salary negotiation process.  Actually, that’s about 25,000 people if you count his direct and indirect influence.

Jack came to reveal some simple techniques because he’s found most people really don’t know the art of negotiating a salary. When finally offered a job, most people are so thrilled, they quickly accept. They don’t realize when the job offer is made, that’s probably the most leverage a job seeker will ever have. But not just any negotiating style will do.

1. The ultimatum is the least effective strategy. Offered $100,000, the job seeker might say, “I’d need $150,000 to accept the job.”

2. The demand strategy might sound like this. “Thanks very much for your offer of $100,000 but I’m thinking more like $120 to $125,000.”

3. The most effective strategy, the requestive, goes like this. “Thanks for the offer of $100,000. I’m excited about this job. Do you have any space to negotiate?” Notice the sentence ends with a question.

Jack’s Salary Negotiation Tips for New Employees

1. At the moment of the job offer, take a deep breath, but never accept right away. Any employer worth working for will give you a little time to think, or check with your spouse, your family, your rabbi, your dog. Remember that employers don’t like ambiguity. Once the offer is made, they’re ready to hire you.

2. Not all salaries are negotiable. Rated, or hourly jobs, are hard to negotiate. But range jobs, as the name implies, have a range and it’s ok to ask what the range is…just wait for the appropriate time.

3. It never hurts to ask, and of people who do ask, 91%, get something. If not, you’ve set the tone and shown the employer how you act under pressure. Also, you might be able to negotiate a non-salary item such as vacation.

Jack closed by reminding everyone he didn’t invent the art of salary negotiation. Instead, he just assigned labels to observable human behavior.

Hiring Companies

Nautilus Insurance Group

Kathy Sandow, Sr. HR Specialist

Nautilus Insurance Group insures high risk areas that other companies won’t cover including daycare centers, tanning companies and even doves at a wedding! One of the areas Kathy loves about her job at Nautilus is that resumes come directly to her where she personally reads them. The A-plus rated company employs 255 people at their Scottsdale location. Because the company is owned by the large W. R. Berkley Corporation, Nautilus is able to offer top benefits to their employees including health insurance. A range of open positions include business analyst, IT, accounting and some positions specific to the industry. For more information, visit their website.

Manpower

Jo Bryant, Associate Recruiter

Manpower, named the number two among the most admired companies by Fortune magazine in 2012, has been a leader in employment services worldwide for over 60 years. Jo loves the company because she feels she can really make a difference in people’s lives. She told us the company offers a large network of open positions and works with a range of strong and connected brands here in the Valley, including the Mayo Clinic. Open positions include general labor and customer service but also include executive listings, and range from temp jobs to contract-to-hire to fulltime. Free training is also available through Manpower. The Manpower office is located in Chandler. For more information or to send a resume, visit their website.

Vanguard

Eunice Cardenas, Client Relationship Specialist

Vanguard, the largest financial group in the world, is also the only financial company in the world that is client owned. The Scottsdale location employs 2100, includes 70 departments, and continues to grow, including expansion into a new building. Eunice explained that every employee is part of a team in what she describes as a family culture. The company hired more than 300 new employees in Scottsdale last year and plans to hire another 300 in 2014. The company is currently hiring client relationship specialists. With one application and one interview, job candidates can be considered for six different positions. For more information or to apply, visit their website.

Resources

Canyon State Institute (Formerly Computer Skills Institute)

Steve Carparelli, Program Director

Steve, from Canyon State Institute, was on hand to remind everyone that funding is available for many of the certifications offered at their school, ranging from Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) to Six Sigma Green Belt to Project Management. The school also partners with Western International University to turn the training offerings into college credits. For more information about funding and classes, go to their website.

Closing

Before releasing everyone into the breakout sessions, Jessica Pierce thanked  Highlands Church for hosting the meeting and the volunteers for their continued assistance.

The next Career Connectors meeting takes place in Phoenix on Wednesday, January 22, 2014. Keynote topic will be DISCover Your Unique Value presented by Brian Mohr and Sandi Ashton. Check the events calendar for details, including registration and exact location.

The next Scottsdale meeting will be held Thursday, February 13, and features Janice Hurley-Trailor speaking on HIRE Me, Please. (Use the visual, verbal and body language skills to get your career back on track.) For details and registration, click here.

09/24/2013 – 12 Minutes Which Win Every Interview

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Written by Bethany Wolf

Opening Remarks

“Hope changes everything.”

That’s how Jessica Pierce, Executive Director of Career Connectors, opened today’s event held at the Gilbert Campus of Central Christian Church. After welcoming participants, Jessica went on to tell the inspirational  story of one recent Career Connectors graduate who had landed a job with Green Tree after hearing about the company at a Career Connectors event in Gilbert two weeks ago.

Keynote Speaker

According to today’s keynote speaker, Bill Markham, hope means to look forward to with confidence and expectation. Having the right attitude and staying motivated can mean the difference between disappointment and self-pity, and landing your dream job.

As president of Winnerviewer and a career coach with over 35 years of experience, Bill has worked with countless professionals in transition to help them prepare for and succeed in their job search. In today’s keynote, Bill outlined 12 steps to winning every job interview:

  1. Decision – Read the job description and ask yourself, does this job work for me? Should I go for the job or not? Evaluate whether you should apply to it. Do your skills match up? As Bill pointed out, 80% of people don’t know what they want to do.  Rather than sending out hundreds of resumes, be selective on what companies you apply to. Some great questions to ask yourself are: Is this a job to which I can become committed? Do I even want this job? Can I see myself doing this job every day for 40 hours a week (or more)?
  2. Squaring up – Bill stressed the importance of “squaring up” – pulling yourself together mentally before your interview. It’s important to review your strengths and think about why you can be hired. He also talked about visualizing the interview room and the interview itself before going in as a way to help calm nerves.
  3. Gangplank –  Bill used the word “gangplank” to describe the walk from the lobby to the interview room.  The gangplank is a wonderful opportunity to start selling yourself and establish rapport with the interviewer.  Have a brilliant opening – smile and give a firm handshake. Lead with the best you’ve got. This shows you have a positive attitude and that you have confidence, passion and are engaged in the interview process. Smiling is one of the best indicators of self confidence. You need to be confident in yourself before someone else can be confident in you.
  4. Yourself –  The “tell me about yourself” question is crucial. Be brief and keep your answer to a minute and a half max. The interviewer doesn’t want to know your life story. This is an opportunity to describe your skills and the results you’ve delivered on previous jobs. Bill stressed the importance of focusing on results. Go through your resume and find the results you delivered, then weave them into your answer.
  5. Results –  Results are the number one thing you need to convey to win the interview. Talk about your strengths and greatest accomplishments. Are you skilled in leadership? Problem-solving? IT? What can you deliver that someone else can’t?  What makes you unique? During your interview, talk about your accomplishments on previous jobs. It’s all about the results.
  6. Weaknesses –   Being asked to describe your weaknesses during an interview can be tricky. Don’t let your guard down when the hiring manager throws this difficult question at you. These types of questions are designed to trip you up.  Keep your answer focused to administrative functions, never behavioral weaknesses.
  7. The Company –  The hiring manager’s job is to screen people out and pick the best candidate. One question you might get asked is what do you know about the company. Do your research before the interview and come prepared.  Not knowing what the company does, it’s philosophy or who works there could be a fatal mistake.
  8. Value –  As Bill pointed out, the interviewer will try to determine what value  you can add to the company. What are you good at? What expertise do you have that they need? Are you a good cultural fit for the organization?
  9. Revenue –  The bottom line to getting hired is whether you can create revenue and/or lower the company’s expenses.  Answer this question by focusing on your results in revenue generation or cost savings.
  10. Summary –  Towards the end of your interview, Bill described giving the interviewer a quick summary. Review your 4 – 5 best points for the interviewer and why you are the best person for job. This will help leave them with a good lasting impression.
  11. Close / Pick Me – The best way to close the interview is to ask for the job. Bill suggested saying something like, “I’m very interested in the job and I’d like to work for you. If given the opportunity, I know I could make an immediate impact on the job.” Remember, you have the skills and talent to succeed. You can be the answer to an employer’s problem.
  12. Hello Boss – It’s important to follow up with the hiring manager after your interview. Thank them for the opportunity and reiterate how much you want the job.

The key thing you must do in the interview is sell yourself. It’s okay to brag about your accomplishments. The more successes you can list, the higher you will rise above your competition.

Hiring Companies

State of Arizona

Jan Plank,  Human Resources Division, Department of Administration

The State of Arizona is comprised of over 100 agencies, boards and commissions with approx 35,000 employees. But don’t overlook the State as a potential employer because of it’s size;  25% of State employees will be retirement eligible in 2014, meaning the State of Arizona is hiring. The best way to land a State job is to apply online and use networking techniques. Try to track down the  hiring manager (using public records – internal State of AZ phone directory). Send that person a hard copy of your resume, or  leave a voice mail for the hiring manager after hours. In your voicemail you might say something like, “I’m […] and I applied for […] job. Thank you for your consideration I hope I get a chance to meet you.”  Find ways to differentiate yourself. Customize your resume for each specific state job. Make sure job description keywords are in the resume.

Jobs on offer: Graphic design, fish and wildlife, child protective services, corrections, administrative assistance, human resources.

Clearcall Solutions

Danny Real, Talent Acquisition

Clearcall Solutions is a growing sales and marketing company in the East Valley offering security and systems and dish satellite services.  It also operates a call center with a “sales floor” culture. They are looking for people who can fit the corporate culture, who are coachable and highly motivated. You will need great attitude to succeed at Clearcall Solutions.  The company works hard and plays hard together.

Jobs on offer: Sales advisors and recruiters, sales managers, director of marketing, IT specialists, marketing analyst.

Insight

Linda Michaels, HR Manager

Insight is a  fortune 500 computer technology company. It is the largest global software reseller in the U.S with extensive license management services. Client focused, accountability, and excellent customer service define it’s corporate culture.  Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Tempe, Insight operates in 23 countries. There is a strong emphasis on community involvement. Staff are given time off to volunteer and the company offers an on-site health center.

Jobs on offer: Account executive, sales, financial analyst, network engineers, services technician, pricing analyst, developers.

Closing Remarks

Jessica encouraged participants to take advantage of the full range of services on offer. These included professional resume writing services,  taking the DISC assessment, getting a professional photo, and talking with educators about national certification programs.

The next Career Connectors event will be held Thursday, October 3, 2013 at 9:00am in Scottsdale. Check out the Events Schedule on the website for further details and information on how to register.

 

 

 

 

 

6/25/2013 – Creating Real Connections!

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Written by Trudy Jo Ware

A body of seekers sits within the conference room and whether we believe it or not, today, we are entrepreneurial marketers.  We have professions, dream jobs and career choices and accompanying issues that cloud our direction.  Indeed, we know keys are available to obtain answers to our query.

“Creating real connections”, is an abbreviated meaning of Marketing. No longer are companies practicing marketing techniques based on what they produce the customers will buy.  The shift is to understand what customers might want and then produce the service or product.  It’s all about relationship building and packaging that develop customer purchasing.  Analogues are company hiring practices.  In our case we are an innovative service to companies, as such we use numerous approaches to create value in our service.  Our intentions are designed to enact interactions between individuals, organizations and customers.

Keynote

Sandi Ashton, Leadership Development Coach and stakeholder in Career Connectors, assures us of a marketing approach if used appropriately will work in relationship building, packaging ourselves and create real connections leading to hire! DISC, she explains, is an assessment tool that helps people be more effective by understanding themselves, both their strengths and weaknesses so strategies can be developed to meet the demands of their environment.  She explains further that the tool encompasses a body of organized research that collaborates observable behavior inherently and environmentally … AND the tool’s importance helps us understand our job choices in terms of our behavior and the environment that harmonizes or conflicts with it.

In fact, our career choices represent a way of life influenced by our behavior and environment, rather than a set of isolated work functions or skills (The old adage: “what is produced the customer will buy.”) Our way of life means we express our behavioral tendencies through career choices, just as we express those tendencies when selecting friends, hobbies, recreation, and schools.  Our choice means career satisfaction which depends on a good match between our behavior and work environment.

So we need to enlist a marketing perspective linking how we look at ourselves and how others see us.  All this matters because of the emphasis placed on understanding value and the nature of relations between people and other people, between people and things, between people and companies, and between companies of different kinds, is central to our design as a marketable service.

Sandi encourages those of us who have not taken the DISC Assessment to go to Career Connectors website and select the Resource tab free of charge.  The questionnaire and results are presented in an easy to read.  Keep in mind that the DISC is an assessment that measures behavior style – no right or wrong answer.  It is not to be confused with a measurement of the seeker’s intelligence, but simply identifies behavior traits for the seeker’s understanding in relationship to self, to others whether it is the workplace, community or home.

The DISC measures normal behavior against four dimensions. They are:

  • how you respond to problems and challenges.
  • how you influence others to your point of view.
  • how you respond to the pace of the environment.
  • how you respond to rules and procedures set by others.

Include your DISC as added-value when giving thought to yourself as a marketable service for a hiring company.

Resources

LPL Financial

Jian Boldi

Although LPL Financial may be the nation’s largest independent broker-dealer, a top RIA custodian, and a leading independent consultant to retirement plans, it is an enabling partner to more than 13,300 financial advisors and approximately 700 financial institutions.  Jian Boldi represents one of the financial advisors having a depth of concern and a wide-breadth of knowledge to guide the financial well-being of today’s audience, perhaps, future clients. He enjoys assisting people in a variety of financial phases while they are in transition and has identified a number of steps for consideration:

  1.  Understand your unemployment benefits
  2.  Don’t forget to continue paying taxes
  3.  Deduct job hunting expenses
  4.  Go back to school or attend workshops to improve yourself
  5.  Become underemployed: consult with businesses, associations to commission yourself for a fee.
  6.  Budget, Budget, Budget
  7.  Rule 72t
  8.  Purchase health insurance with your IRA funds
  9.  Considering reversing a contribution made to IRA
  10.  Ask for help: financially or share transportation or entertainment to reduce costs.

Hiring Companies

PayPal

Amanda Bollard, Talent Acquisition Global Operations Chad Luchiano, Merchant Account Consultant 

Payment processing giant PayPal houses a customer service and operations center employing 1300 employees in Chandler, Arizona and is looking to hire as many as 3000 more employees. Both Amanda and Chad provided testimony indicating PayPal is an exciting place to work with plenty of growth opportunities and advancement for prospective employee.  PayPal a 24/7 call center makes it possible for people to pay and be paid online across locations, languages, and currencies through technologically advanced systems.  Full and part time positions are available from customer to merchant solutions.

Manpower

Gail Cunningham, Human Resources, Metro Recruiter 

Gail Cunningham indicates the world of work is changing regarding talent and workforce.  The Manpower Group is a leader in innovative workforce solutions that sustain global markets.  Manpower recruits for hire and contracts with over 10,000 people across 80 countries. Companies are looking for talent, job seekers with polished skills. Apply online – no more paper applications.  A Manpower recruiter is available to help you.

Revana

Richard Rizzo, Talent Acquisition Specialist 

Revana, once known as Direct Alliance, has achieved tremendous growth over the last 20 years and is known as a professional inside sales organization and recognized leader in outsourcing sales and marketing solutions for industry leading clients. The company is located in Tempe and Phoenix, Arizona and employs over 1,500 people. Annually the company generates more than $5 billion in client revenue. Revana’s Revenue Generating Solutions comprise:

  •  Professional Inside Sales
  •  Account Management
  •  Lead Generation
  •  Customer Acquisition & Retention
  •  Integrated Marketing
  •  Electronic Direct Marketing 

Dynamic Worldwide Training Consultants

Rodger Brubacker

Roger Brubacher and Dynamic Worldwide have many training courses to engage you in developing skills and working your certifications. They are one resource approved by the Maricopa Workforce Connection for funding.  These courses are offered in-person and online by certified instructors and so can be flexible to meet YOUR needs.

Resources and Closing

Jessica Pierce closed the event by thanking all attendees, guest speakers, volunteers, corporate partners and Central Christian Church who cares deeply about where we are going.

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Next Up

Wednesday, July 17, 2013, 9:00 AM at North Phoenix Baptist Church