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StrengthsPro

6/1/16 – Start Strong, Finish Stronger: Your Best Self in Your Next Chapter

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Written by: Connie Huber PHR SHRM-CP

All of us have our own special strengths and weaknesses that influence our career and life. But can you quickly share with someone what your strengths and weaknesses are that define you as an individual?
The best thing you can do with your strengths once they have been identified is to own them as described in the article “Owning It: Identifying Your Strengths and Weaknesses” as shared in Prepary, September 07, 2012.
• “Acknowledge your strengths and truly believe in them.”
• “Put all of your energy into your strengths.”
• “Keep developing your strengths.”
The article goes on to note that defining your weaknesses is far more challenging than establishing your strengths. It is noted just knowing your weaker areas will make you more successful. Prepary encourages us to:
• “Take your weaknesses into account when making career decisions.”
• “Look at the other side.” Weaknesses can be turned around into strength and vice versa.
• “Don’t be too hard on yourself.” Everyone has weak areas!
Lastly, the author reminds us our strengths and weaknesses will always be evolving. As you move forward in your career, not only do you grow and change professionally but also your strengths and weaknesses will adjust and evolve. Embrace the constant evolution and welcome what is to come.

Keynote

Start Strong, Finish Stronger: Your Best Self in Your Next Chapter

Stephanie Clergé

@StrengthsPro

Remember when we were young and you dreamed of growing up and what profession you wanted to pursue? If you are like most, you changed your mind several times. Based on 2012 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the list shared 15 kids’ dream jobs. Among the top 5 were:
1. Astronaut
2. Musician
3. Actor
4. Dancer
5. Teacher
Stephanie began her time with the group sharing the story about her kindergartener sharing during his graduation what he wanted to be when he grew up. This little guy boldly told his fellow students, parents and family he wanted to “kill vampires and zombies!” Needless to say, Stephanie and her husband were horrified with their son’s desires. After much reflection and acceptance, Stephanie came to the conclusion her son’s declaration was not far fetched. When you think about it, the vampires and zombies among us are the walking dead and energy suckers in our work environment.

Stephanie like many of us at Career Connectors has also been in career transition. She knows first hand the frustrations and challenges we encounter during this time.

LESSONS FOR THE ROAD AHEAD
In preparing for your career, you need to consider these key strategies.
1. Know Yourself
2. Plan Your Work
3. Work Your Plan

KNOW YOURSELF
In establishing a strong foundation for career success, we were encouraged to begin in establishing our strengths.
• Why Strengths?
According to Gallup, those employees who focus on their strengths are….6 times as likely to be successful in their roles and 3 times as likely to say they have a high quality of life.
• What is a Strength?
Having a firm understanding of your strengths will….
 Make you feel strong.
 Give you energy.
 Come naturally.
 Identify what you do well.
 Show the part of you that is unique and special.
 Helps you succeed.
• Gallup Definitions
According to Gallup STRENGTH is the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance in a specific activity. TALENTS are naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied.
• Turning Talent into Strength
Talent is the foundation for your strengths and basis for achieving your full potential. Skills and knowledge are your investment. Skills are the capacity to perform the fundamental steps of an activity. Knowledge is factual and experiential lessons learned. The final touch is passion. Passion is intrinsic satisfaction or the inherent gratification and positive anticipation.

• How do I find my strengths?
There are a number of assessment test that will help you discover your strengths. One assessment that is very reliable and free to Career Connector participants is DISC.
• DISC Assessment
DISC measures your personality and behavioral style. The assessment will ask you to answer a simple questionnaire about your own behavior. You will be asked to select the word that describes you the most or least. There are no right or wrong answers.

PLAN YOUR WORK
In preparing for your job search you need to
 Define your strong career.
 Develop your tools.
 Determine your plan.

LESSONS FOR THE ROAD AHEAD
In preparing for your job search, Stephanie shared with us a few reminders regarding wisdom including: No Road is Easy! Your Strengths help you grow with ease. Learn as you grow! And….. beware of the zombies and vampires in life!!!!

“Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses.” Marilyn Savant

HIRING COMPANIES

Abrazo Health
Christi Wedemeyer, Recruiter

Abrazo means embrace and Abrazo Health and its employees strive to help people live happier, healthier lives.. The organization is a leader in healthcare and spans from coast to coast. Abrazo spends approximately 53% of its net revenue on total rewards. Some positions offer a sign on bonus.
Current openings include experienced RN’s, Rehab professionals such as Physical Therapists, Director of Nursing, Nursing Manager, Manger of Medical Staff Services, Manager of Clinical Documentation Program, Director of Quality & Risk Management, Computer professionals along with many other healthcare related positions, both clinical and nonclinical.

Ajilon & Parker & Lynch
Ajilon: Katy Lyden, Managing Director
Parker & Lynch: Nicole Heckaman, Executive Director

Ajilon is a leader in temporary and permanent placement of Human Resources, Administrative, Supply Chain & Logistics, Non-Clinical Healthcare and Operational Professionals. Parker & Lynch is a leader in Finance and Accounting recruitment. Its focus on people is what sets the organization from others.
Job seekers are able to have their resume reviewed, practice interviews and interview prep, competitive salary information, salary and offer negotiation, detailed market information, customized candidate marketing strategy and overall support through the entire hiring practice.
Opportunities available at Parker Lynch include Senior Accountant, Sr. Financial Analyst, Controller, CFO, Accounting Manager, and Staff Accountant.
Ajilon has openings for HR Generalist, Executive Assistant, Full Cycle Recruiter, Administrative Assistant, Customer Service, Medical Front Office and Logistics Specialist, and Procurement. Ajilon has needs for an Accounting Associate, Payroll Clerk, AP Clerk, AR Clerk, and Medical Biller.

State Farm
DeAnne Prigmore, Recruiter

The State Farm mission is to help people manage the risks of everyday life, recover from the unexpected and realize their dreams. State Farm is building a 2 million square feet campus in Tempe by ASU and will house 8-10,000 employees. It will consist of four buildings and house varied retail outlets along with restaurants and fitness center. The organization has great benefit offerings including a pension plan and base salary plus commission. A sampling of open opportunities includes entry-level positions such as Claims Associate for Initial Loss Reporting, Express and Interpretation Representative, Customer Care Service and Sales Representative. Bank openings include Bank Supervisor, Loan Processor & Loan Services Representative, Bank Support Rep & Customer Service Rep. Immediate Systems and IT opportunities include Software Developer, Infra Analysts for Malware Tool Support and Tech Support, IT Analyst-Solutions and Bank Technical Analyst.  DeAnne extended an invitation to visit the new facility in Marina Heights.

Resources

Arizona@Work, City of Phoenix
Waleed Alani, Employment Specialist

Waleed shared with the group the latest unemployment statistics. There are currently approximately 69,000 available jobs in the Phoenix area. The numbers are down a little due to the quickly approaching summer months and election. Opportunities include retail, hotel management, project management and nurses. Some of the top skills being requested are bilingual, quality assurance, IT networking, quality control and IT networking project management. A sampling of hiring employers include Banner Health, Honor Health, CVS Health, Dignity Health, Pizza Hut, United Healthcare, Bank of America, Well Fargo and Oracle.
Waleed enlightened us with the different skill development packages offered by the City of Phoenix. Those include Seminars available to the public; Level 1 Package-Skills Match the Job Market; and Level 2 Package-Research Pathways to Higher Wages. Seminars include: Arizona Job Connection (AJC), How to Create a Winning Resume, Perfecting Your Interviewing Skills, Mock Interview Lab, Understanding LinkedIn, Leveraging LinkedIn, 21st Century Job Search Seminar, and Job Clubs. The 3-day sessions are focused on ways to jumpstart your job search. Topics discussed are Social Skills, Creating and Implementing a Job Search Plan, Interviewing, and Long Term Career Management. The 3-hour session emphasizes Employability. For more details on the Skills Development Packages, reach out to Waleed at 602-255-4628 or waleed.alani@phoenix.gov.
If interested in a job with the state of Arizona or City of Phoenix please go to Arizona at Work.

Dynamic Worldwide Training Consultants
Rodger Brubacher, Director of Continuing Education

Dynamic Worldwide will prepare you with an edge in this competitive job market. DWWTC offers programs and certificates in professional development, cyber security programs, advanced cyber security programs and information technology. DWWTC was awarded the 2015 Juniper Platinum Education Partner of the Year for its award winning instruction. The facilities are state of the art and maintain a low student to instructor ratio. Instruction is available on multiple platforms. DWWTC is licensed by the State Board for Private Postsecondary Education; certified through Arizona@Work; and approved for Grant Programs. For more information, please visit the website.

Closing

Jessica Pierce, Executive Director, Career Connectors, closed the meeting by thanking North Phoenix Baptist Church and the volunteers. The next Career Connectors meeting will be in Scottsdale on Thursday, June 9, 2016 and features Deborah Dubree as speaker for the topic “Up Yours! Up Your Power, Up Your Performance, Up Your Personal Pitch!” For additional information on this event and future events, please visit the website.

7/28/15 – Start Strong Finish Stronger: Your Best Self in Your Next Chapter

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Written by Debbie Webber

Career Connectors is 6 years told today!  Although Jessica Pierce and her husband were both unemployed at the height of the Great Recession, she felt a need to volunteer her time to others in the same situation by providing resume writing services. That small start grew like wildfire and has evolved into the Career Connectors we know today – and it’s still growing! Jessica says that “bad times lead to good things,” and Career Connectors is proof of that!

Keynote Speaker

Stephanie Clerge is a coach, trainer and founder of StrengthsPro, producing radical outcomes.  She maximizes the unique strengths of each individual on a team, and thereby strengthens the entire team by developing leadership and professional growth.

Stephanie started by telling us the story of Bohio’s (her son’s) preschool graduation. Stephanie recalled a question the teachers asked each child as they crossed the graduation stage. “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  A doctor, lawyer or even an engineer like his mother and father would have been a great answer. But Bohio answered “I want to kill vampires and zombies!”  After a bit of reflection, Stephanie decided that she wanted to do that too—by fixing the walking working dead and energy suckers in workplaces. And that is how her path changed from engineering to becoming a strengths-based leadership and career coach.

Stephanie encouraged us to find our path in 3 steps: Know Ourselves, Plan Our Work and Work Our Plan.  But how? Where do you start? You start with your strengths. Employees who focus on their strengths are 6 times as likely to be successful in their roles and 3 times as likely to say they have a high quality of life. People who use their strengths are more energetic, engaged, resilient, happier and more confident.

Sign your name with your non-dominant hand. Now look at it. Probably pretty ugly since writing with this hand is a weakness; something you’re not confident in doing.  Are you going to spend a lot of time trying to write well with your non-dominant hand? Of course not.  But this is what we often do with other areas of our lives. We focus on our weaknesses and not our strengths to become even stronger.

Know Yourself

What is a Strength?
A strength is what makes you feel strong, gives you energy and comes naturally. It’s what you do well, it’s the part of you that is unique and special and it helps you succeed. It is the ability to provide consistent, near-perfect performance in a specific task.  Your talents are naturally recurring patterns of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied—talent is NOT just a behavior.

How do I find my Strengths?
There are various assessment tools that help you with this. As an attendee at Career Connectors, you have free access to the DISC analysis, which helps you define your behavior and strengths.

Another way to find your strengths without using an assessment tool is to look to your “triple E’s.”

    • Ease – what comes naturally to you (but is not necessarily easy).
    • Energy  – Activities that are your strength give you energy; look for your underlying patterns of thought; feelings and behaviors you’ve productively applied.
    • Excellence – what have you found that you excel at easily?

Plan Your Work – Preparing for Your Job Search

Define your strong career
You choose your strong career by considering a 4th E: Experience. Your experiences in your previous positions should give you clues. When did you love: the job/task, the team, manager, culture, industry, learning, commute, travel, benefits? Also think out of the box about non-work or work adjacent activities such as internships, volunteer activities, clubs and hobbies. Knowing these strengths about yourself can help you define where your next position or career could be.

Develop your tools
Build a strong resume. Tell potential employers what you’re good at and how you complete job tasks and your impact, not just what you did.

Work on your LinkedIn profile with the view from a recruiter’s lens. Get your profile as close to 100% as possible, and have a clear, concise (not cheesy) headline. In the summary, tell them your beliefs about your job or industry. Have well written recommendations with details. List a contact email and answer any InMails promptly. And finally, be a part of relevant groups and follow relevant individuals and companies.

Develop a list of 3-5 companies you want to work for and research them. This helps you focus your mindset.

Get your story straight.  Be able to clearly tell your work history story. Your story should include things like where you worked, how you contributed and why you left. Highlight your greatest accomplishment in each role, your strengths and how they help you at work. Have an answer for gaps in employment or other interesting circumstances. And be prepared for behavioral interviews. This type of question starts with “Tell me about a time when…” Have at least 3 stories you can flex for different situations.

Work on developing a strengths statement for each of your strengths. Describe a task (a distinct kind of work) that you perform consistently well with satisfaction. Be specific enough to be clear – does it matter why I do this activity? Does it matter what this activity is about?  Make it broad enough to apply in many circumstances.

Example: My strength is reviewing documentation (data, processes, presentations) written to influence others and providing guidance to make it more compelling.

Work Your Plan

Now that you’ve spent some time getting to know yourself and your strengths, and using tools to further define and develop those strengths into stories, you need to work your plan.

Getting a job takes a big plan, so break it down into tiny steps in order to keep yourself and your progress on track. Stephanie offered 6 steps that encompass this process.

  1. Impact:          This is your “Why?”
  2. Information: What do I need to know and how do I find it
  3. Inspiration:   Use what motivates you – vision boards or affirmations
  4. Strengths:      Know them and how to use them
  5. Strategies:      Break down the big picture to daily, even hourly, activities
  6. Support:         You can’t do it alone. Attend events (like Career Connectors) and use LinkedIn Groups

Write your plans down and incorporate them into your daily life. Only you can do what you can do. No road is easy, but your strengths can help you move along with ease while you learn as you grow.  Stephanie’s presentation is available on her website, about half way down this page, under Documents for Work and Life.

So – What is Your Plan to Start Strong and Finish Stronger?

DES: Unemployment Benefits

Jim Sorensen, UI Client Advocate

Jim has been the Phoenix Unemployment Client Advocate since 2000, and gave us some great insights into Unemployment Insurance (UI).

  • UI turned 80 this year. It came about in 1935 as part of the Social Security Act.
  • Although UI is federally funded, each state is allowed to make its own rules.
  • ALL money contributed into the system comes from employers. The higher the number of layoffs, the higher the percentage an employer pays into the system.
  • Employees pay NOTHING into the system.
  • The key word is insurance. Don’t feel badly about filing. Would you feel badly about receiving a payment from your auto insurance after an accident?
  • Your weekly payment is determined by the last 15 months of your income.
  • As mentioned before, each state makes its own rules. With a maximum payout of $240/week, Arizona is #49 in the U.S. It’s not much, but it helps.
  • If you have moved here recently, you may be able to apply for benefits in your previous state.
  • You do not qualify for UI if you quit – you must be separated from your job through no fault of your own.
  • You can work part time while collecting benefits, but what you earn will be deducted from your weekly check.
  • You must be ACTIVELY seeking work while you collect. You must file weekly claims with proof of your search.
  • UI is taxable income.
  • Enthusiasm is ALWAYS noticed, so make sure you have plenty during your job search.

ALL information is online – it is a very robust website.

Go to www.azui.com and select Apply for UI Benefits.

Hiring Companies

DHL
Lindsey Jones, Sr. Talent Acquisition Specialist

DHL is an international shipping and delivery corporation. They are in over 200 countries (and growing) and are the number one international express service. The call center in Tempe is growing into a new building and moving from Priest and Washington into a new building across the street on Rio Salado Parkway. Every person who works for DHL receives a week of paid training and becomes a Certified International Specialist. Benefits include medical/dental, 401k, tuition reimbursements, an on-site gym and many career advancement opportunities. Available positions include front line customer service and direct channel (inside) sales. Apply online here.

State of Arizona
Jan Plank, HR Manager III

The state employs approximately 35,000 people in over 100 agencies, boards and commissions. In 2016, fully 25% of State workers will be retirement eligible. So now is a great time to join the State! Benefits include 10 paid holidays, liberal sick/vacation time, disability insurance, 11% retirement match, exceptionally low healthcare premiums, dental, and vision, life and training opportunities. You MUST apply on-line. The majority of the agencies use the azstatejobs.gov website. Although you must follow the website instructions, Jan emphasized that it is important to differentiate yourself when possible. Current open positions range from HR Generalist to Investigator to Senior Paralegal. Positions change often so check the application website.

Mountain Vista Medical Center
Gaynell Jenkins LinkedIn profiles, Recruiter and Rene Batson, Marketing Manager

Mountain Vista Medical Center is a 178 bed acute care facility and full service hospital. They recently celebrated their 8th anniversary at Crimson and Southern in Mesa.  Current available positions include case managers, RNs, diet technician, department secretary, cooks and medical technologists. Apply here.

Education Management Group
Carissa Allen, Admissions Manager

EDMC is composed of The Art Institute, Argosy University, Western State College of Law (as part of Argosy), Brown Mackie College and South University. Student success is the strongest value at EDMC and the culture of education and success extends to the employees as well. Open positions include Administration Reps, Academic Counselors and Admission Managers. There are also many other positions available in other locations outside of Phoenix. Benefits include PTO, 401K, health and dental insurance as well as short/long term insurance and a generous tuition program. Find open positions and apply here.

Next Event

Wednesday, August 5, 2015, 9:00am, North Phoenix Baptist Church
Mingling Your Way to Networking Success, Gloria Peterson
City of Phoenix, Kathy Thiessen
Hiring companies: The Hartford, Discover, Paychex and Education Management Corporation