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10/7/20 – Kickstart Your Job Search

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Written by Gary Matsuda

Kevin Dumcum

No doubt about it, losing a job is emotional. But now you are out of work and automatically, magically you’re supposed to switch focus from whatever job you had been doing to something we rarely have to think about – job hunting. Unfortunately, we are not used to doing that because few of us are experts in searching for a new employer. The good news is that you are not alone in your experience and there many options for finding assistance.

Kevin Dumcum from Arizona@Work Maricopa County lays out 10 lessons for taking action.

KEYNOTE

Kevin Dumcum, Kickstart Your Job Search

Kevin feels your pain. He has had his share of career setbacks and successes including layoffs during the last great recession to now where his career is helping others get their job search kickstarted. To get us going quickly, here’s Kevin’s whirlwind of 10 quick tips and advice:

Lesson I. Recognize job loss is traumatic. It’s hard to accept that your employer no longer needs you. It can be as agonizing as losing a loved one since our identities are often closely tied to our occupation. Your feelings are valid but don’t let them guide you. Recognize them for what they are and let it help you through the grief process.

Lesson II. On the logical side, job loss is the company’s loss too. But as much as business tries to put value on employees, they must be a functioning organization and make a profit in order to provide jobs. Positions can be eliminated due to no fault of your own so it’s best you take control of your own career.

Lesson III. Be responsible for your own set of skills and take advantage of any coursework, training, classes, reading available. There are more opportunities than ever to get training, so be prepared and go for it.
It is great if companies try to meet your professional growth needs, but if they can’t provide the resources you need then be ready to fill in any skills gaps on your own time and initiative. The next job might not be your last and the job search might start again, so always look to improve skills.

Lesson IV. Take care of yourself. How can a full-time job search effort be sustained without burning out? Your spouse might be working from home, kids need help while distance learning, you can’t see friends or relatives which can all be distracting and stressful so it’s essential to find ways to take care of yourself.
Whether you’re in a full house with multiple generations or just on your own, get connected with someone trustworthy and supportive. Talk to someone who is a good listener, share thoughts and feelings.
Many of us are getting things done around the home too. Doing physical work around the home/garden gets us some exercise while feeling productive and can give our minds respite and recovery. The job search can be a long slog so stay fit by maintaining health and keeping a good frame of mind.

Lesson V. Decide what you really want. While taking care of yourself during those much needed breaks, deeply held values may come to mind and you might get a chance to reevaluate your purpose and mission. Take this time to find out if your values, skills and experience match with what you could be doing.
To find out what you were put on earth to do, go read the mother of all books on career advice, the classic ‘What Color is Your Parachute?’. Updated with annual revisions, this can’t be passed up no matter where you are in your career.
Especially check out the self-discovery exercises where you’ll do an evaluation on your interests, skills and where they can be best applied.
To find out how you are wired, a few of the most well-known tools are: DISC, StrengthFinders and Myers-Briggs.
DISC is a behavioral assessment tool that measures your balance among four personality traits: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness. Find how interests and skills align so you can have more effective working relationships in any career. Plus, through Career Connectors the DISC assessment is free!
StrengthFinders. For $15 on their website it will identify your top innate strengths (not skills which can be learned/change). If you know your strengths you can capitalize on them to find success. Don’t use them and you’re more likely to find frustration. There’s also a book but it’s easiest to go to website for the test to get immediate results.
You might as well be doing something you enjoy so that’s where Myers Briggs comes in. It’s a proctored assessment so there can be a fee associated with this test. It measures for preferences but not traits, ability or character. The scored personality type can also identify possible occupations and career and training paths. However, it can’t specify exactly what career is best for you, for that you’ll have to analyze the results (best done with a professionally trained coach).
Onetonline.org lets you enter a target job through its occupational quick search and list related or trade adjacent occupations to give ideas on what jobs to consider. It also gives an outlook for local area employment outlook 6 to 8 years out. Their short 15 minute quiz identifies strengths and suggests occupations that align with those strengths.

For the Phoenix area there is the ‘Book of Lists’ on Bizjournals.com/phoenix or at your local library. While it doesn’t describe what the listed businesses do, it does include number of clients, employees, total income and it’s a great way to get a list of the largest companies in the local market.

BestcompaniesAZ.com profiles top companies and ranks them by customer satisfaction scores. It’s a good basic overview of verified major companies in Arizona.

Then there’s always Google. But go a little further and research news about companies by going to the 2nd page.

Lesson VI. Get help. The job search is different than what it used to be 5 to 10 years ago so don’t fret about now knowing how to find a job, it’s not something we practice every day, so it can be intimidating to anyone.

Arizona@Work meets regularly with employers to find out hiring needs and provides services and resources for job seekers. The Public Workforce Development program for the State of Arizona does resume reviews, interview workshops, career exploration, assessments, Linkedin profile set up and connects you with employers. But because of Covid, try reaching out to them online first.

Help doesn’t have to be from the obvious places. Goodwill AZ of Central and Northern Arizona is not just a thrift store but a career resource! Let them help you with resume writing, training services and career prep.

Don’t neglect your local Public Library, which may have good (and expensive) resources. It’s quiet, friendly and free!

Lesson VII. Let’s get to work finding work! Most job seekers start with the well-known job boards like Indeed, Localwork.com, Glassdoor, and Google Jobs but here are a couple often overlooked:

AZjobconnection.gov At this time there are 65,000 jobs and 12,000 posted resumes. With a 5 to 1 job openings to resumes ratio, this looks encouraging!

Linkedin Jobs –Optimize your profile. The jobs link on LinkedIn will tell you how closely you match job postings on Linkedin.

On social media, follow the companies you are interested in and get a sense of their culture and direction they’re headed. (Be sure to limit your time to online networking because you know how social media can be a potential time sink.)
Hiring events have moved to virtual and can be industry specific or general purpose events. Sign up for the Arizona@Work email newsletter to get alerts of upcoming hiring events and the most recent 5000 local job postings.

The Hidden Job Market
Most jobs are posted online but it’s estimated almost half of all open or potential open jobs are not publicly advertised. That’s because it can take some time to go through the process of writing, approving, uploading, and updating a formal job description. But increasing your chances of landing the right job will require networking. That means meeting new people and maintaining old contacts, which is something you should be doing whether looking for work or not so you won’t have to start from scratch every time you need to find a new position. As a book said, ‘Dig the Well Before You’re Thirsty.’

But be specific when asking for help so that others will have a better understanding of what you are looking for and how you are helpful. Be reciprocal in relationships both personal and professional so that it’s not all about you.

Networking Phoenix, Eventbrite, BestCompaniesAZ and of course Career Connectors are a few networking organizations built around connecting the right people together. Pay attention to the make-up of the hiring companies or attendees to make sure you’re making the most your time by getting exposure to the type of people you would like to meet. If you’re asked to volunteer, go for it! To be stationed at the registration table is one of the best places to work. You’ll be visible to everyone coming in and there’s connection opportunity with every attendee.

Don’t overlook social groups where participation centers around personal or social interests. Get to know people just to make connections over shared interests. You never know who you’ll meet or who knows someone who has a job opportunity. At least there’s the benefit of personal enrichment as well.

Lesson VIII. Surrender and give yourself away at volunteer opportunities.
Everyone needs a little help, so don’t forget there are those who are in need of basic skills or necessities where you can make a difference by putting your experience or skills to use.

Volunteering counts as experience even if you are unemployed. Not only can it give you additional skills, it can show others what you can do with what you have. Do something different, get out to meet people, lend your expertise, and gain new skills, experiences and connections. Check these organizations out and you may find your calling:

HandsonPhoenix.org
Volunteermatch.org
Volunteer.phoenix.gov

It’s a great way to fill gaps on resume and good for the soul too.

Lesson IX. Expect Rejection. No matter how much work you put in you’re going to get rejected. Keep moving forward as each rejection is just one step closer to that first “Yes”.

Rocky Balboa says, “…it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

Lesson X. Success breeds success. And just one yes is needed to make all the difference in your confidence!

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great” – Zig Ziglar

HIRING COMPANIES

Windsor, Charles Villafranca, Executive Director

Windsor does all they can for residents. To accomplish that, they help employees get the training they need. Windsor has several Senior living, Senior healthcare, behavior health and dementia care facilities in Arizona and 30 locations in California. If you’re looking for a career change they have training programs including OTJT for CNA. If you want to advance from CNA to nursing there are scholarships (and experience) available. Fill out an application and get an immediate interview!

Lifewell, Wendy Flynn, Recruiting Coordinator

As the name implies, Lifewell is here to help enable their clients lives to the fullest. And that includes you the employee. Lifewell provides treatment services and support for low income individuals diagnosed with serious mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders. From assistants to director levels they are hiring. Employees are offered learning and development opportunities in anything to do with healthcare at several locations in Phoenix and Mesa.

Apply at lifewell.us/careers.

TTEC, Erika Flanders and Stephanie Thomas

At TTEC you have more than just a job, you’ll become more like family. The bridge between technology and human connection is here through their expertise in customer service and sales. Together TTEC creates a positive experience for the client, the caller and you. You’ll be empowered to lead everyday, to seek first to understand and do the right thing.

Now hiring for an Inbound Customer Service Rep supporting Blue Shield of CA.

To apply or for more info, go to TTECjobs.com to apply for other temp and FT positions, or text ‘TTEC’ to 97211.

RESOURCES

Joe Bourcier, the Health Insurance Pro, US Health Advisors
Offers help with the best match between health, dental, vision insurance for you, your family or business. They’ve received multiple awards for business excellence, so they’ve got to be good!

Contact:
Joe.bourcier@ushadvisors.com

BestCompaniesAZ
Career Connectors partners with BestCompaniesAZ. Altogether in one place you can find VERIFIED, trusted companies who have tens of thousands of jobs open now. Check them out here if any listed hiring companies match your values. Visit https://bestcompaniesaz.com/covid-19-resources/.

Free DISC Assessment
We all like free, so at no cost to you find your behavior traits (which may help point to your values) and what kind of job will likely fit you through our online DISC assessment at: https://careerconnectors.org/DISC/.

For details about upcoming Career Connectors events, click here to visit the events section on the website for times, dates, and details about hiring companies and keynote topics!

11/12/19 – Confront Change with Confidence

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Written by Michelle Rock

Keynote

The first full time employee to join Jessica Pierce and the Career Connectors organization was Sheila Coulam. As the VP of Operations, she coordinates the volunteer team, oversees event logistics, directs marketing and communication, creates and maintains the website, plans the keynote calendar and provides overall support for the entire Career Connectors Team. Per Jessica, “Sheila takes my crazy and makes it work. She is the backbone of Career Connectors.” As today’s keynote speaker, Sheila shared how we can all Confront Change with Confidence.

To have a clear understanding of the term “change”, it is important to review the definition of change according to Merriam Webster:
a. to make different in some particular way, ALTER (i.e. never bothered to change the will)
b. to make radically different, TRANSFORM (i.e. can’t change human nature)
c. to give different position or direction to (i.e. changed his residence from Ohio to California)

Change is both PLANNED and UNPLANNED. Personally, Sheila chose to become a stay at home mom for 10 Years. When the economy changed in 2008, she had to go back to work. Sheila was scared to get back out there and volunteered for a year before actually excepting a position with a salary. She was inspired when she heard Dave Sherman say, “People want to help you. But if you don’t know what you want, they don’t know how to help.”

7 Strategies to THRIVE during CHANGE

Strategy #1 Expect CHANGE always.
Always “be open-minded”.

Strategy #2 Embrace the CHANGE cycle.
There are 5 Stages of Change and it is important to NOT resist or skip any steps to ensure you are not looking at the PAST but looking to the FUTURE. However, if you feel you are resisting the move from one stage to another, take time to ensure you have truly processed that step in the cycle.

Stage 1 = SHOCK
Stage 2 = ANGER
Stage 3 = ACCEPTANCE
Stage 4 = PLANNING
Stage 5 = ACTION

Sheila shared her sister’s personal story. After being diagnosed with cancer she was able to quickly move though the Change Cycle and turned her treatment plan into a project plan. She embraced the change and stated, “It is what it is!”. And she successfully dealt with the cancer. 😊

As quoted by John Kabat-Zinn, “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf”.

Strategy #3 Understand your emotions.
As you work through the process of change, “be deliberate” in who you include in your network. Ensure you have the right support system to help you through this time of growth that might feel awkward and uncomfortable.

Strategy #4 Work towards balance.
Do you have Balance in your life? Some say balance is the key to everything! Using Sheila’s Balance Circle (diagram below) chart the key aspects in your life that you are trying to balance. For each area you identify, evaluate how satisfied you are today with that area and place a dot on the line for that area. Once you’ve done this for all areas, connect your dots. The result is a visual representation of your overall balance. Do the same evaluation for where you’d like to be a year from now. Now you have a goal to strive for!

Balance CircleDownload

Strategy #5 Visualize a great future.
Images are the language your brain best understands. If you intentionally visualize what you are striving for, your subconscious will help you get there. Top athletes use visualization because it works!

Strategy #6 Demand a positive outlook.
Be resilient, persevere and always push through; striving for the goal even when you might feel deflated. Remember Thomas Edison failed over 1,000 times before he was successful in creating the light bulb. JK Rowling was turned down by 12 publishers before finding success with Harry Potter books. And Walt Disney was fired for lack of imagination and no good ideas. Imagine if Walt Disney had given up on his vision! We would never have grown up knowing about classics like Aladdin, The Lion King or Beauty & The Beast. Disney World, Disney Land and the global media and entertainment empire that the Walt Disney Company is today wouldn’t have existed.

Strategy #7 Keep moving forward.
Pick an action and take the next right step. As Dory says in the Finding Nemo movie, “Just Keep Swimming”.

Hiring Companies

Dexcom
Micaela Drewett – Recruiter

Dexcom was founded in 1999 and develops, manufactures and distributes continuous glucose monitoring systems for diabetes management. Their focus is to provide better outcomes, deliver solutions and empower our community to take control of diabetes. The Mesa location opened in 2017. Dexcom is proud of their great culture focused on Patients First.

Benefits:
Medical, dental and vision
401 (k) Retirement Plan
5 sick days
3 weeks PTO
2 Floating Holidays
Work-life Balance with Flexible Schedules

Open Positions
Supervisor Manufacturing
EHS Specialist
QA Inspector 1 & 2
Engineering Technician 2
Director of Facilities
Hardware Engineer 2
Manager Materials
Senior Hardware Engineer
Manager Purchasing
Senior QA Engineer
Staff Process Sustaining Engineer
QA Engineer 2
Research Associate 1 & 2
Quality Assurance Analyst 2

TTEC
Rob Briggs – Corporate Recruiter

TTEC is a global customer experience and technology services company focused on the design, implementation and delivery of exceptional customer experience. Some of their customers are Verizon, Google and Facebook. The company offers:

  • Fun, talented and witty teammates
  • Knowledgeable, supportive and present leadership
  • Family-friendly environment
  • Free-spirited, theme-based employee events
  • Career-growth and lots of learning opportunities for aspiring minds
  • Community-minded organization
  • Competitive pay and benefits

They are located at:
o 40 E Rio Salado Parkway, floors 1st and 10th, Tempe, AZ 85281
o 8123 S Hardy Drive, Ste 100, Tempe, AZ 85284
o 16404 N Black Canyon Hwy, Ste 100, Phoenix 85053

Currently recruiting for Sales Representative / Online Marketing Sales Executive. Account Management positions will be available at the beginning of 2020.

Optima Tax Relief
Desiree Smith – Talent Acquisition Partner

Optima Tax Relief helps individuals with a lot of tax debt. The company has grown from 30 employees in 2018 to 96 employees today and is targeting 100 by the end of the year. The office is located at 450 N. 54th St. in West Chandler. The growth over the past year is due to robust business growth, a business-friendly environment and the ability to attract skilled labor. The company is also known for its great culture based upon the goals to have fun, enjoy the work and like the people you work with. The Leadership Team invites you to “make this a career for you”. Check out their job openings at www.optimataxrelief.com.

Resources

Goodwill of Central & Northern Arizona
Ron Mack – Community Awareness Partner

The mission of Goodwill is: “Through the goodwill of others, we create the pathway for all by helping those who desire self-sufficiency”. They want to help people find employment. Goodwill Career Centers provide:

  • Career Advisors
  • Career Navigators
  • Mock Interviews/Resumes
  • Employment Support
    o Job postings inside and external to Goodwill (i.e. Amazon and Target)
  • Digital or Computer Basic Skills Training
    o Internet Skills
    o Email
    o Microsoft Word
    o Social Media
    o Excel
    o Powerpoint
    o Windows
    o Mac
    o Information Literacy

The East Valley center is located at 106 E. McKellips, Mesa Arizona, 85201. Check out the website for more details. Goodwill also has a Virtual Career Center located at www.mycareeradvisor.com.

Closing

Jessica Pierce, Founder/CEO of Career Connectors, took the stage to thank everyone for taking the next step in finding a new career. She recognized the many hiring companies, sponsors and partners including Brighton College. Every seeker was encouraged to network with other seekers, build more LinkedIn connections, take a free DISC assessment and have a professional portrait taken by a photography volunteer at the event. Professional resume writers, LinkedIn experts and Career Coaches are also available at the event to perfect your search tools.
Thank you to Central Christian Church for hosting the event and the 90 volunteers that serve Career Connectors around the Valley.

05/10/18 – Becoming Unstoppable

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Jean Briese UnstoppableWritten by Cindy Nowack

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

Becoming Unstoppable

Jean Briese

Jean Briese is extraordinary in her field. She is an award winning business leader, as well as Arizona’s highest ranked and most reviewed motivational speaker and business coach. She speaks and blogs about leadership, high performing cultures and empowering women, and she is the executive director and founder of a non-profit for families of law enforcement officers. Jean has identified five moves, or superpowers, that are shared by all those who are extraordinary in their field. She also provides practical ideas that we can use to become extraordinary and unstoppable. When you are your best self, you are unstoppable.

Superpower 1 – The Power of Habits

Michael Phelps credits his Olympics success to his habits. He has banished the words, “I can’t.” He also realizes the power of visualization. He visualizes obstacles in his way or competitors beating him, and visualizes how he fights back to regain the lead.

How do you start your day? We are what we repeatedly do, so make sure you start your day in a positive, proactive way. Go to the gym, meditate, pray, enjoy nature. Looking at email or social media is reactive and negative. Responding to email makes us think we are busy, but we are not being productive. Instead, schedule time for your non-negotiables and time to check your email throughout the day. Also, consider removing the notifications from your phone.

Adopt a growth mindset. If you’re doing things the way they’ve always been done, then nothing will change. Take a look at your daily life and figure out your best habit. See how you can improve and banish those negative thoughts. Also, consider spending a portion of your time and/or money in helping others – life gets better when you do. Zig Ziglar said, “You can have anything you want as long as you help enough other people get what they want.” Don’t wait for the future.

Superpower 2 – The Power of Purpose

Each of us has been given gifts for a specific purpose. Do you know your gifts? Send an email to 5-7 people and ask them to share your top 3 strengths and 1 thing you can improve. Be aware of your weaknesses, but don’t focus on them. Now pick one strength that speaks to you and become amazing at it. Look at the things you are passionate about, and you will find your purpose.

Superpower 3 – The Power of Your Beliefs

A belief is an acceptance that something is true. We have limiting beliefs that aren’t always true. Some common beliefs are “I can’t,” “What if I fail,” or “I’m not ____ enough.” You can fill in the blank. These things may not be true, but these limiting beliefs lead us to that conclusion anyway. You can use visualization in your struggle with limiting beliefs. You can be like Michael Phelps, who imagines competitors taking the lead in the pool and what he does to take that lead back. Once you visualize a limiting belief, imagine instead that you will not fail and see how your vision changes.

Superpower 4 – The Power of People

You can’t make the journey alone. We need to be encouraged and we need to know when we have gotten off the path. You’ve heard the saying, some people are blessings and some people are lessons. We rise and fall to the level of our relationships, so figure out who you need to meet and who you need to learn from. Surround yourself with your “woo hoo” crowd. Find a mentor. If you’re going to do something you’ve never done, there will be naysayers. Ignore the naysayers!

Superpower 5 – The Power of Action

Fear is the #1 reason we do not take action. You always have a choice in how to proceed, even if the choice is only your attitude. If you don’t know your choices, brainstorm with friends, colleagues or your mentor. Above all, give yourself permission to fail. Failing is how we learn.

So now that you have these five superpowers, you need to use them in your life. Did you know only 10% will take action following this inspirational presentation? Here are four steps to help you engage so that you are part of that 10%:

  • Believe
  • Be deliberate
  • Strategically plan your time
  • Get a mentor

Commit to one goal and act on it within 24 hours.  Once you do that, you are on your way to becoming unstoppable.

HIRING COMPANIES

PrideStaff
Ann Gilbert, Owner/Strategic Partner
Angie Walton, Branch Manager, Tempe

PrideStaff is a locally owned and operated staffing agency with temporary, temp to hire, and direct hire placement opportunities. They are focused on finding out your needs and making good culture fits with you and their clients. They even offer benefits that can begin after 8 hours of employment with PrideStaff. Examples of current positions include Administrative Assistant, Accounting, Inside Sales, Customer Service Rep, and Collections. For current job openings, click here.

TTEC
Rob Briggs, Corporate Recruiter

Recently, Teletech, Revana and their family of brands merged and rebranded themselves as TTEC. TTEC is a billion dollar third party BPO (business process outsourcing) company who partners with Fortune 500 companies. They have two locations in Tempe and are currently looking for several positions:

  • Sales Representative selling digital online advertising to small – medium sized businesses; 1-2 years sales experience, good communication skills, coach ability; $15.87 per hour, plus commission
  • Online Marketing Sales Executive – 3-5 years sales experience, good communication skills; $30-40k per year, plus commission
  • Digital Account Strategist – 3-5 years sales experience, career longevity, digital marketing experience, account management or account executive experience needed; $35-45K base, plus commissions

The company is growing quickly, and looks to increase its sales staff from 30 people to 100 by the end of June for a single client. For additional job openings, go to https://www.ttecjobs.com/en-US/search.

Freedom Financial Network
Linda Luman, Sr. Vice President, Human Resources

Freedom Financial helps people in financial hardship. The founders helped their friends negotiate their student loan debt down, and realized they could help others in the same situation. The company helps its customers move from financial difficulty to financial freedom. Freedom Financial was voted the #1 Best Place to Work in Phoenix two years in a row. They have a new location at the 202 and 101 in Tempe. With more than 2,000 employees and counting, they are looking to add another 1,000 employees this year. The company is looking for compassionate, caring people to fill the following areas:

  • Call center
  • Sales operations
  • Finance
  • Loan Servicing
  • Information technology/Engineering
  • Analytics/Product

Go to the Freedom Financial site for a complete listing of current open positions.

Allstate
Taylor Mathusek, Senior Recruiting Consultant
Nate Smith, LSP (Licensed Sales Professional) Recruiter

Founded in Chicago in 1931, Allstate is a national brand that has your back. They have $125 billion in brand value and $104.7 billion in assets. Maricopa County is the fastest-growing county, so growth in customers equals a growth in new jobs. Here are their open positions in the Tempe regional office:

  • Information Technology (6)
  • Finance & Economics
  • Human Resources (3)
  • Product
  • Claims (2)
  • Sales Management
  • Exclusive Financial Specialist
  • Agency Owner
  • Licensed Sales Producers

Go here for a complete list of openings.

CLOSING REMARKS

Don’t miss our upcoming West Valley Healthcare Expo on Thursday, May 17 at the Avondale Sports Center. This event is a collaboration of all major healthcare organizations in the Phoenix West Valley to connect future and current workforce with employers and education opportunities.  To register or for additional details, click here.

Also, be sure to check the schedule for the dates of upcoming events at careerconnectors.org. A few dates have been moved to accommodate summer programs at our host locations.