Wow – the last time the Mesa “laid off” event took place back in May there were about 30 people present. Last night over 125 people registered. The room was packed with people trying to land that next great job. And what a great evening it was. Jessica opened the evening with an introduction and a short talk on her mission to get everyone back to work. There was no microphone but Jessica’s energy and enthusiasm came across loud and clear!

We had a great speaker (Dennis Deaton) talking about a topic that affects us all – choosing whether to be a victim or an owner. In today’s economy, it is easy to become a victim but that won’t help anyone in the long run. For one, your attitude will show through at interview and people will shy away from you because you’re whining instead of trying to stay positive. Playing a victim only increases the damage – hey, you lost your job but you’re still the same person with the same skills and talents and no-one can take that away from you. Besides which, these challenges help us to grow and learn and improve our overall life experiences. Great messages. Way to go Dennis!

After Dennis’s speech, we had a couple of hiring companies on hand. One of them was Cre8tive Associates (Samantha Korbal) and they’re an events planning company that is looking for people to work at Cardinal’s games between now and the end of the year. It’s a great way to earn a bit of extra money just in time for the holiday season and it seems like they’re a great company to work with.

Another exciting opportunity here in the Valley is the arrival of Power-One, a renewable energy company. Their HR director (the newly hired Jennifer Swenson) gave a fantastic speech about what the company is doing as well as their financials and growth prospects which are pretty impressive. They are hiring 350 people at all levels and it looks like a great company to work for and with all the interest in renewable energy, they are definitely one to watch for future opportunities For further details check out their website at www.power-one.com

The evening finished up with a couple of other job leads presented by Sandi Ashton who is now events coordinator at JobSeekers AZ followed by the résumé writing and other break-out sessions.

Something that Sandi said at the end deserves mention – it’s always a great idea to volunteer especially if you’re out of work. It gets you out of the house, helps to lift your spirits and builds self esteem and it gets you networking. So if you’re sitting at home and you’ve got some spare time, come and join us – you are more than welcome. You never know where it might lead!

 Together we can get Arizona back to work!

The next event in Mesa is on 9/27 at Central Christian Church starting at 6-30pm.Check out the website – JobseekersAZ.com – for news and upcoming events.

Jackie Das

Sept 14 2010

www.headstartcareerservices.com

There were many points he made during his 1 hour presentation on how to keep plugging forward and find the ideal position.  One that I completely believe and know is the place to start is Changing Your Outlook to Change Your Outcome.  This is the basis of all other principles he discussed.  Most people are not expecting to get laid-off, and it tends to make us feel depressed and not good enough (not a good spouse, not a good parent, not a good employee, etc, etc, etc).  When we get into this mentality, then everything around us looks drab and deary. 

Jerry – you nailed this, I’d like to share part of my story here.

Last year when my husband and I were both unemployed at the same time and going through the short-sale of our home, I decided to take action.  There had to be some opportunity in this tough time.  This is when I choose to help other people and launch JobSeekersAZ.  Though this program is all volunteer, it has personally been the best thing I could have done for myself (building my confidence, growing skills I needed honing, meeting thousands of people, networking like crazy and building the ability to lead and organization).  I didn’t realize at the time that I was going to gain so much from it as I was doing it purely to help others. 

I love this part of my life because it tells just a piece of the story of how changing my outlook changed my outcome.  There is no way I could have known how a volunteer initiative could lead to one of the best years of my life in so many ways. 

Thank you for reminding all jobseekers of this very important concept.  We are excited to have you speak again in the future. 

Jerry also has a great book of inspiring quotes called Instant Inspiration.  I love the book and use it to Tweet out quotes all the time.  One of the best quotes I heard during the presentation was Jerry’s own quote, “many who are unemployed have psycho-schlerosis, hardening of the attitude”.  

Jobseekers – please know there is an end to this and it will probably lead to something incredible! 

Jessica M. Pierce
JobSeekersAZ
Founding Partner
480-239-6738

The main topic of our session today was LinkedIn Fully Utilized for the jobseeker.  Since LinkedIn is the #1 networking site for professionals, jobseekers need to be using it to the fullest extent possible.  The numbers tell us that approximately 99% of recruiters are actually using LinkedIn as a primary recruiting source. 

There are 5 keys to fully utilizing LinkedIn.

1. Ensure 100% profile completion
2. Make real connections
3. Search for jobs within LinkedIn
4. Join and be active in Groups
5. Follow companies

Step One:  100% Profile Completion.  LinkedIn explains the steps that need to be taken to be 100% on the profile page.  There are some additional strategies that many people may not understand.  First, ensure that you have a powerful headline (not…  seeking work, help).  Something such as Office Manager and your next indispensible right hand.  That one says something interesting and fun, it makes someone want to open up your profile.  Next, ensure that the url is customized to your name or business.  You can do this on the profile page next to the url, click the edit option.  Once you change this, don’t change it again.  Another area often misunderstood is having your picture.  This is important so that you can have 100% completion but also recruiters like to have a personal connection, this is one of the ways to feel like you have a better idea about the candidate.  Keep it clean, keep it professional.  There is a section on the profile that allows for website information.  Choose the option “other” and make sure you fill in website titles for websites that are important to you.  Include urls such as your company and/or business, associations, volunteer programs and your blog.  Lastly to make sure you have a great profile that is 100% complete, fill out the summary and specialties section.  The summary is an explanation of who you are and a review of what you’ve done.  Think about your elevator pitch or the paragraph at the top of your resume, that is good to include here.  Ensure the specialties section includes all your areas of expertise, stay away from generic phrases such as…  team builder, good communicator, hard worker…  These don’t really say anything about you.  One area that is often missed and not well-known is recommendations.  You must have 3 recommendations within the LinkedIn system to get to the 100% completion. 

Step Two:  Make REAL Connections.  The strength of Connections is what makes LinkedIn brilliant.  The recommendation is to have only authentic connections.  These are people you have met, talked to, emailed, contacted or are someone in which you are pursuing a conversation (such as a hiring manager or recruiter).  LinkedIn shows you your Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 connections.  Similar to the 6 Degrees of Separation Theory, your network grows exponentially when you understand the power of connections.

Step Three:  Search LinkedIn Jobs.  In the main toolbar at the top of your Home page, there is a Jobs tab.  Click on that and start searching.  Companies use LinkedIn to post jobs, many times before they ever consider going to a large job board to post them.  There is also a great new tool called JobsInsider which allows you to see on other job boards with whom you are connected on LinkedIn.  You can download this application at http://learn.linkedin.com/job-seekers/. 

Step Four:  Join and be Active on LinkedIn Groups.  LinkedIn Groups is powerful because you can give some immediate value to people by joining in on a discussion.  You can find experts in the field in different groups.  Many groups post jobs that are not listed on the Jobs tab within LinkedIn.  These will show on your profile, though you have the option to block these from your public profile.  You can find groups for just about any topic in which you are interested:  professional, associations, college alumni and personal. 

Step Five:  Follow Companies.  LinkedIn has a new feature, you can now follow companies.  Search for the companies in the search bar, choose the Companies option and type in the company name.  On this feature, you can find out anyone in which you are Linked to that may have been promoted or hired with this company.  The company job openings are also listed.  Great feature from LinkedIn!!!

Make sure you are actively utilizing your LinkedIn account and remember to provide value to your connections.  Please don’t send out your resume and say help.  Tell your connections that you are actively in career transition and that you’d like to see if they have connections in your target companies. 

Enjoy your transition – this could be a fantastic life-changing experience!

Jessica Pierce
jessica@jobseekersaz.com

Contributing Blogger, Geoff Rowe

Another great meeting and intro from Jessica; we have to note the Monday meetings are suspended over the summer and I did sense that there were fewer people at this meeting than before but I guess this is due to summer OR it’s due to more people finding work!

The main guest speaker was Dr. Dennis Deaton, a former (?) dentist which was something of a surprise! I think that the main themes of the talk were that we are very vulnerable to our own thought processes. Without being in careful control of our mental state we are prone to negative thinking. That is a self-feeding process that will eventually come through in your general demeanor and will show up in an interview. The last thing your interviewers want to see is negative thinking (or even the merest hint of it) so you’ll be black-balled before you start.

The story he told was of Renee Riddle. She was a high school girl, who excelled in sports and, well everything. One day, out of the clear blue, she was involved in a single car accident; a rollover and in a heartbeat her spine was broken.

She had dreamed of becoming a doctor, specializing in pediatrics and teaching deaf children. She also dreamed of getting married and having a family. Now she was in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. So, what would you do?

What she did was make a choice. She could be miserable and demand pity for what “life” had done to her or she could chose life. She could ignore what had happened and decide that actually she could achieve all her goals. If just might take a little more effort and a little more time.

I am sure you worked out that she chose life. She achieved all her goals, all of them. It’s an interesting case study. It speaks to the challenges we all face. When we look at things in perspective our trials are not as dramatic however they are important and life changing for us, just not so far reaching! I am not so sure I would go along with the idea that we should be grateful for the ‘opportunity’ this period in our lives affords. I do understand the sentiment though; however I think we are all far too worried about the bill-paying aspects to be “enjoying” the opportunities on offer. Again though, I am taking hold of those opportunities (just as you are, you’re reading this right?) and trying to make the best of the situation and gain new skills and new experiences.

The other thing that was interesting to me from Dennis’s talk was the relationship between our mental wellbeing and our physical. Recent experiments in brain chemistry have shown that we produce different chemical messengers when we’re happy verses when we’re sad. So we need less Serotonin and Irritonin and a whole lot more Melatonin!

Dennis suggested some additional ‘research’ into Edie Eger. Google her name and you’ll find www.dree.com. It’s worth a read! She is one of the very few to survive WWII Auschwitz. I find that fact completely incomprehensible! The ‘accidental’ discovery of her, still alive, after the camp was liberated was one of those ‘monumental’ moments! Her family did not survive. She has dedicated her life to the human psychological health and in particular that question of why some people will rise to a challenge and some will fall, trying to tip the balance in the direction of rising to challenges. I liked her comment that “She is a stretch, not a shrink”!

I have to declare some additional personal interest in the content of this talk. I also want to be very careful how I phrase this but basically a few hours before the talk begun I heard that someone I met once, a while ago and back in the UK, and who was important to someone I knew had committed suicide at the weekend. Can’t go into details but it’s always devastating to hear news such as this.

Finally a HUGE thank you to Jessica for my ‘big-up’ and introduction in the meeting, she’s asked me to give a few details about me, which is something I’m not that used to doing actually. So here goes!

I am from the UK, born in London but brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon (yes we’re picky about the capitalization!). The literary people out there will know that this is the birthplace of William Shakespeare and boy, if you come from Stratford you sure know that! Force-fed “Shakey” from an early age.

Immediately after leaving school I wasn’t so interested but after a while developed a desire to go see the plays and, as you’d expect, the theatre in Stratford is one of, if not the best, outside of London. It’s been renovated for the first time is around 70 years I think and due to re-open towards the end of this year after about 2 years of re-build! Anyway, if you want to know my favorites are the comedies such as Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Taming of the Shrew.  

I have spent over 20 years working in the semiconductor, silicon chip, business as either a process engineer or in the computer systems that run chip factories; that last being an interesting position regarding pressure – performing a system upgrade which I have done many, many times – means shutting the system down briefly and ‘changing’ the database. At this point things could go wrong and you’re keenly aware that the downtime can run into millions of $$$ per hour! The idea of making a mistake doesn’t enter into the equation believe me!

During all this time I worked on my photography as an outlet for the techie work I did and eventually in 2006 and after much persuasion and cajoling from a few friends in the biz, I went for my “pro” qualification and became a Licentiate of the British Institute of Professional Photography which entitles me to use the letters LBIPP after my name! I can deliver most types of photography, but my special loves are portrait and commercial/fashion photography. Anyone wanting to see my work check out http://www.bipp.com/members/GeoffreyRowe/ or http://creativemuse.aperito.net and that is the plug over!

I arrive here about a year and a half ago and I’m now looking to move into business analysis, business process re-engineering – kind of like analysis but added in the suggestions about how to do things better – not necessarily with software, and project management. If you want to see more, http://www.aperito.net and that is the final plug!

Nick is an EXTREMELY interesting guy with a very varied background. If you get a chance to go to one of his seminars, take it!

A few words necessary about him; he’s president and chief executive of Consultants to Management, a Phoenix based firm that assists companies grow profits and people through improved operations management, marketing, sales and human resources strategies. He’s previously served as senior vice president of Service Companies, a division of Dial/Viad Corporation. I’ve missed more than a few other credits so you could say that he’s pretty experienced!

Nick started in the usual style with us introducing ourselves to him. By now we all kinda knew each other so this was getting much easier. The trick was to find something new to tell the class. Nick made this a little easier by giving us a framework to speak to. So we had to give name, previous employment, what we were looking for, some family info, and ‘something odd’!

Nick had some great sayings for us. Here is one of the really good ones, “All people who work hard are not successful however all successful people work hard”, attributed to John Johnson.

We did a short form of the DISC self-analysis. In my case it pretty closely matched the results of the longer one I did early via JobseekersAZ. Initial this is for you to understand yourself but it doesn’t take a huge leap of logic to realize that you can use these processes to ‘read’ those around you. If you can do this successfully you can start to ‘read’ those interviewing you and know the techniques for responding to them based on their personality type! A big advantage I think you’ll agree! Nick used it to build some balanced teams for some team exercises on ethics we did later.

As a project manager I know this so well, but what do you think is THE most often cited most common, most annoying source of issues and problems in just about any work situation? COMMUNICATION!

Back in the day, about 22 years ago actually, when I was a silicon process engineer doing sustaining work one of the jobs I had was writing and checking the specifications we had for the operators to carry out process tasks. So as the engineer who developed the process you walk though it in your mind and document everything that needs to happen to get the job done. Easy; right? WRONG! Whenever we would release a new update to the documentation we would watch the operator carry out the task, and intervene where necessary. You would not believe the number of times the operator ends up doing basically the complete opposite of what you intended! I learned a few lessons about clarity of communication and the implications of getting it wrong on that job!

Lesson number one is that whenever you’ve described something or asked someone to do something for you; seek clarification from the person you’ve asked to do the job! If they recite back to you want you want, big gold stars all around! The worst thing you can do is be vague, if you want a job done by next Tuesday, say next Tuesday not “oh early next week is okay!” If you want a quick and dirty job done say “Just an hour on this is fine!” not “I want it quick but do a good job, but be quick”, it’s misleading!

Anyone have any problems with stress? You’re out of work, you have no income and you have bills so yeah I am guessing that qualifies as a stressful situation.

Bottom line is this. If you are worried constantly about where the next meal is coming from, you get into a ‘defensive’ mode. You’ll never get anything done so guess what; the next meal isn’t coming from anywhere. As difficult as it is, you have to put that stress in a box somewhere in your mind and ignore it!

There was a part of our two days presentation dedicated to ethics. Whether we admit to this or not ethics has to play a very important role in our working life.  We did several exercises and also watched a few videos and the important thing to note is that the ‘ethics’ question isn’t just limited to “do I take a pen from the company stationary cupboard” but also your dealings with fellow employees. This reminded me of a situation with a previous employer of mine – I’m not going to name names ‘cause this is serious but I was horrified and disgusted with their sales approach which was most definitely NOT ethical!

Customer Service: I loved the video that went with this. Let me say this first though. You Americans really don’t know what bad customer service is like! Try dealing with UK banks, government organizations etc. over ‘there’ and you’ll really start to appreciate what you have here! That said there are plenty of examples where customer service falls flat on its face here too! Banks are often cited as delivering bad customer service (though nothing as bad as in that video; you have to see it!). The thing is you have to treat your customers how you would like to be treated, maybe even better! You also have to remember that EVERYONE is your customer or a potential customer. This is so obvious that it surprises me that people forget it however in stressful situations e.g. where something has gone badly wrong with a product or service delivery, it’s easy to go defensive and fail to deliver on service.

We all put up with poor customer service to a certain extent, however what do we do? We tell everyone about the poor experience we had with a certain bank, airline, hotel chain (you wanna hear my stories about the Hyatt Regency in Chicago?). Actually we’ll tell 10 people about our bad experiences but we are rather less willing to praise the good, this is unfortunate but its human nature!

We have a really good example of how customer service can go horribly wrong. BP and that oil spill. Think about how the BP CEO handled the press and you can clearly see some examples of ill-chosen words leading to a public relations disaster. The BP oil spill is probably going to be a text book example of how not to handle a major disaster; however we can all use it as a teaching example!

Diversity: This is a word that has, I think, gotten some very bad press and it’s not deserved. Diversity in the workforce encompasses everything! Techies vs. non-techies, management vs. non-management etc. etc. the list goes on and that is before you add the more often recognized diversity definers such as religion and race. When we don’t have an eye on the issue of diversity we build walls within an organization and they are very bad! Those walls work to blur and prevent communication, break down trust and generally make a business uncompetitive. So the last thing you want to do is bring a load of uncompetitive baggage along to your interview!

Thanks Nick, for two fascinating and informative days!

I could go on but I think you’re getting the message. This program is amazingly good, thoughtful, well put together and a real tribute to the many people working hard to get you back to work. I should mention a few names; firstly Mary Wolf Frances, who persuaded me to get into it when I spoke to her at a recent JobSeekersAZ event. Jessica and Denise for actually holding the JobSeekersAZ events! Janet Hidalgo, my CA, Dr. Jamise Liddell who’s got more energy than the Energizer Bunny! Neva Smith and Kristen Hall for some thought provoking lectures and some great resume tools. Dr. Kim and Dr. George for the very interesting and fascinating Innovation workshop…. I could go on!

I should also thank the “May 17^th Alumni PWC Class” who were a wonderful bunch of people who I most definitely want to meet up with again and find out how they are doing!

Good luck everyone!

I am ‘lumping’ a half day and a day seminar session together as the results were very complimentary to each other. 

The emphasis at this stage is to get you to work on your “Career Blueprint”. Those in the construction trades will know that you use a blueprint to build ‘something’, a house, a skyscraper, whatever! Actually are they still blue? Just a question for the construction guys out there! Anyway!

What you’ll do during this phase is to start assembling your inventory of talents. There are some great exercises that you will carry out. One that I liked a lot as it tested my memory quite considerable, is to list out EVERY job you have ever done. This could be a paper round, being a mother, list everything! The funny things is that several weeks after completing this exercise I was mulling over what I’d written and realized that I’d missed completely a quite important 2 month position I had doing Access database  and design work for a group working in my local government that dispensed several million pounds to volunteer groups! This exercise makes you think! Hard!

There is another segment on time management. How many of us really manage our time well. Go on, you’re amongst friends so I’ll start off and admit that on some days I am okay-ish but on others – most of them as it happens – I am TERRIBLE at personal time management! Projects I can manage fine! In our position this is really unacceptable so I’ll share what is beginning to work for me. I have to set some goals for the day. At the end of the day I’ll put entries in my calendar (thank you Apple iPhone!) for the next day. I don’t always do this and my next day tends to suffer for that. Also be realistic in what you think you can achieve the next day otherwise you’ll not complete all your tasks and end up feeling worse about time management!

Do you end up with family and friends thinking you’re ‘available’ for doing their chores and errands? This speaks to your time management task and you have to be firm and say “No” to their kind offers for you to help them out. Guys, the ONLY exception to his rule is when your wife asks you to do things, not only is the word “no” not allowed but you’ll probably have to supplement your tasks somehow…. Okay maybe that is a little far but you get the idea, be reasonable with your “no’s” as real life has to play its part in your day. If you need to take your grandson to school, so be it. Besides, you need to take a break every now and then. Think of this as your work ‘water-cooler’ moment.

In the copious notes you’ll get, there is a great section entitled “Transferable Skills Inventory”. This section lists a number of topic ‘headlines’ and then the skills typically associated with that topic. An example is “Management” which lists skills such as “manage personnel, projects, and time”. Work though these topics and you can amass a pretty significant inventory of skills, some of which I’d wager you didn’t know you had!

You’ll also get some help with your ‘words’. When writing your resume or cover letter do you get stuck sometimes and find yourself re-using the same tired old words over and over? Well this section will give your verbs a bit of pep!

Another tool for your self-exploration is what engineers are probably somewhat familiar with. The Fishbone Diagram, or Cause and Effect Diagram, but I’ll bet that you’ve not used it on your job search before.

What you might do is take some of those new skills you just realized you have and plot them on the Fishbone with the ‘spine’ being your eventual career goal. You might also list some of the things you think are a barrier to you achieving your goal. You can then find words or experience to talk around in your interview or cover letter. When you have finished listing your tasks you should put a few words together to illustrate why you’re good at a particular topic and use this as a framework for building your resume.

Important to mention here that, Neva in particular, is a great contact for support services such as mock interviews. I intend to do some as soon as possible. They want you to practice as much as you can and in talking about this process often use the example of an actor. How many times do you think Brad (or for those of a certain persuasion) Sir Patrick ‘make it so’ Stewart practice their lines before delivering them? So practice all you can, including those really nasty questions, and they will also video your interview so you can see how you ‘look’!

Contact:

neva.smith@phoenix.gov

kirsten.hall@phoenix.gov

Due to a prior appointment that I simply could not avoid, I had to miss the morning session so I joined after lunch for the afternoon with Dr. Jamise Liddell. Now ‘veterans’ of the Jobseekers meetings will definitely remember Dr. Liddell.

She presented some information to help us navigate job applications! One thing which was a surprise to me was the directive to actually use words or even entire phrases directly from the posted job description.

Given her energy it wasn’t long before she had us all standing up for a group exercise. We were divided into groups of three and told to have a ‘conversation’ with each other to uncover who we were, what we were, what we were looking for oh yes, and something unusual about each other. Now, my group got sensible as everyone else headed outside. It wasn’t a very hot day, but it wasn’t exactly cold either! We stayed in the a/c!!! Well done Rich, Bobby and I!

We had about 10-15mins to complete this exercise then it was back inside and each team worked through all three members introducing ourselves to… Jamise and ourselves!

How many of you have your “elevator pitch” ready? Do you have multiple elevator pitches? You should. I believe that I’m right in the origin of the name. The idea is that you should be able to introduce yourself to a complete stranger in the time it takes an elevator to rise a couple of floors. Think of being able to sum yourself up in 30-45secs (and you’ll probably over-run a little!).

How many of you, like me, have trouble remembering the name of someone you were just introduced to? The trick, when in a conversation with someone, say their name at least three times! That way you’ll remember the name AND you’ll engage more with the person you’re talking to. Listen to a sales person, this trick is burnt into their ‘operating system’ so they use it all the time!

Here are a couple of web sites you might already know but just in case, they are useful! One is O*NET – http://online.onetcenter.org/ and the other is http://www.indeed.com. Check them out, they are useful to you!

What did I remember from this…. Networks = connections = JOBS!

Contact Jamise at jamise.liddell@phoenix.org

So this is the start of an 8 day process that is going to get me a new job, sorry a GREAT new job! The biggest issues for me were transport as I have to share a car with my wife and fit into everyone’s schedules so I know this is going to be a challenging week. Add in that there are some hospital appointments over the next week and a half and…. Well let’s see how we manage!

We start with Day 1 which is Innovation training given by Dr. George Land and Dr. Kim Kressaty. This was a very interesting and different way to start a program that is designed to support and help you get a job and I confess that for the first hour I wasn’t sure about this…. Then the ‘penny’ started to drop and it came about in the material Dr. Land presented. It ran like this; America has already lost the ‘war’ for cheap, basic manufacturing. This is now carried out predominantly in the Far East and it’s not coming back. If America has a future it is inventing new products, concepts and ideas, e.g. the Apple iPad. It’s where the big money is – intellectual property. Want some more proof, here is a quote from the US Council on Competitiveness, I am sure they won’t mind me quoting them and it goes, “The best hope for the US to maintain its edge against rising global competition is by fostering and expanding our most prized intellectual asset: innovation.”

This lecture is titled “The Opportunity Discovery Process”. It’s an appropriate title as the lecture is going to give you tools to help to decompose problems. Another use of this process is to manage change. All of us have to manage change as we seek employment in a landscape that is unrecognizable from that just five or six years ago. We have a choice to fight that change and be left behind or to proactively embrace that change and try to guide it.

The Opportunity Discovery Process helps by giving you tools that allow you to take some control of your choices and to guide them using an actually very precise, near mathematical process (don’t worry, you won’t have to do sums!). I don’t want to spoil the surprises so I won’t give you any information on the exercises that you’re made to do but they are very interesting and you’ll learn a good deal about yourself. Once those initial exercises are completed and your brain is ‘warmed up a little’ you’ll get into the process of analyzing one of your own problems. I’m guessing that this will involve how to seek a new job opportunity (for most of you at least).

What I found to be most interesting at this point is how the process seeks to uncover issues buried in your mind that might be preventing you from achieving your aims; this becomes something of a recurring theme during the week. As well as discovering what might be preventing you from action, the process does something even more important. It helps you discover your strengths.

It’s obvious isn’t it? When you start to understand what is in your mind that’s holding you back you can begin to deal with it. Now you’re probably thinking that you already know all this and you’re dealing with it. I did. I was wrong and you might be also. At this point I’ll give you a clue. You’ll need to purchase some sticky notes or file index cards!

As I said earlier, this is almost a mathematical process that leads you through understanding your problem, understanding issues preventing you from dealing with the problem. Outlining to yourself your strengths and hopefully leading you to one or more possible solutions. The REALLY important thing about this process is that you should be able to use it in that new job you’re going to get and maybe create the next Apple Computer or Walmart!

I was fortunate to be in an excellent group and we mostly kept together for the entire 8 (7) days! Imagine my surprise when I discover that not only is there another Brit in the class but that he is from the same town as me: Stratford-upon-Avon (yeah it’s where William Shakespeare was born!). Thanks guys, you all made an interesting journey hugely enjoyable for me!

Another great networking event last night run by Jessica Pierce to help Arizonans get back to work. The meeting was well attended with about 30 people present. The evening began with an introduction by Jessica followed by our guest speaker for the evening – the effervescent Kristi Staab. For those of you not familiar with Kristi, she is a life coach and her motto is “creating your ideal life just got easier”. She started her coaching business this year and she told us her story about how she decided in 2007 that she needed to change certain aspects of her life including her career and so she started the transition from corporate life to owning her own business. She is being mentored by well known author and coach Jack Canfield who wrote the Chicken Soup books.

Kristi gave a great presentation about the need to assess our lives in terms of what is making us happy and what areas we need to change including developing a life purpose and goals and sticking to those goals. She talked about being laid off as being an opportunity for reassessment (yes, really!) – all too often, people just go back into the workplace to pay the bills but most of us really don’t enjoy what we’re doing. She recommended taking the time to assess what would make us happy – what companies would we like to work for, what do we see ourselves doing in order to be successful?

One thing that she said really hit home for me was that most people spend more time planning the holidays than planning their lives – think about it, it’s true!!!! (and very scary! )

Kristi runs several workshops around the valley and can be contacted via www.krististaab.com

After Kristi, we had a talk from Michael Burchett from Goodwill Arizona. If you thought Goodwill was all about thrift stores and donations, think again! Goodwill runs a career center here in the Valley and a very impressive one at that. Not only do they hold weekly job fairs, they also have a whole host of resources which includes everything from polishing up your computer skills to resume help. Please check them out at www.goodwillaz.org.

Several jobs were displayed during the job leads session including 100 admissions counselors needed by Grand Canyon University – no, this is not a typo! They are hiring a lot of talent as they are growing in leaps and bounds and I hear they are a fabulous organization to work for.

The next networking event in Mesa will be held the second Monday in June (note the workshops are held every second and fourth Monday starting at 6-30. For further details of this event and many more events in support of getting you back to work, please check out their website – www.jobseekersaz.com.

Thanks to Jessica and the team for another great evening!

If you have not yet explored the options of taking part in the Phoenix Workforce Connections program then this blog might help you make up your mind to go for it!

I think that the program might work best if you’ve come from a business or career that is in decline or major change and you’ve tried to locate a new position for yourself but not yet had any success. The Phoenix Workforce Connections (PWC) program should help you locate your strengths, and then analyze the market to find a new direction for you and support you through short duration training while you make that transition. That’s the theory, as I think it works, and this series of blog posts will give you a little taste of my experiences to date in the program (and it’s why I can’t attend the May 18^th JobseekersAZ event!).

It all starts with an orientation event. I did mine in Downtown Phoenix at Phoenix College on 1^st Ave (check your directions on Google as it put me on 1^st St – not a big problem!). This will take about one and a half hours and consists of three parts. The first part is filling out a form requesting some basic information about you.

Next is a presentation giving an overview of the program – thanks Kathy Thiessen! In summary this program is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The aims of the program are explained as “accelerate the ability to help laid off workers find employment in high growth occupations”. Those last few words are also important as the program will be looking to place you in the job sectors that are experiencing growth at present, so including things like heath care, solar energy, and various IT roles.

How they try to achieve this is to deliver short targeted training programs to help you gain the skills and training you need to appeal to a new employer. You’ll get more info from the presentation so I won’t go into more detail here but if you want more info, contact someone from PWC (http://phoenix.gov/econdev/phxwc/index.html) and they will be only too happy to help you!

The final part of the program is the one that’ll hurt the most! I’ll not spoil the surprise but one of the criteria for entry to the program is that you have a Grade 10 level Math and English level education so you might find yourself having to do a few things you’ve not done in many years!

After you’ve finished your test you’ll receive your interview appointment with your career advisor and you should try to see your advisor as soon as possible!

I got my appointment arranged for just a few days later and talked to the very helpful Janet Hidalgo. Your appointment is likely to be at the ‘south’ office at 4732 S Central. It’s just south of Broadway and be careful as you’ll sail past the turn to parking before you even realize and end up annoyed at yourself – not that I did that… okay, yes I did!

It’s essential that you prepare for this meeting. You’ll need to bring some things with you but you have to complete your online resume at www.arizonavirtualonestop.com.  You could do this at the orientation meeting but you don’t have to. As long as it’s done before your interview you should be fine. On your interview form you’ll find detailed all the information you have to bring to the appointment. In short you’ll need identification, a proof of being laid off (letter from former employer?) names and contact details of people who know you, and your employment history such as your resume.

Assuming you’ve brought all your necessary documentation and everything else checks out you’ll be placed on an 8 day long program of lectures and meetings. So that is where I am, preparing for my meetings and lectures to start tomorrow, May 17^th! In Part Two I’ll be able to let you know more about the program of meetings and lectures!

I just want to end with a “plug” for volunteering! Of course it looks great on your resume to say that you have been volunteering but it’s personally so rewarding too! I had been thinking about it for a while but it was after my first JobseekersAZ event that I started to make inquiries (thanks Jessica!). I’m such a science and tech geek that for me it was obvious, the Arizona Science Center would be where I’d look to volunteer.

I’ve been doing it for a week or so and it’s really huge fun and so entertaining! We’re seeing a lot of school groups right now so it’s pretty frantic during the week days. We had about 1,400 children in on Friday and I think every one of them made their way through my exhibit! I see such a variety! It’s so nice to see so many kids really enthusiastic and happy. We don’t just see kids though, parents and grandparents are more than welcome and you’ll have a great day out if you come visit us! http://www.azscience.org/