Concurrent Sessions for Preparing Workers for the Future
Smart Ways to Network in the Digital Age
Jennifer Brown Wegman - Social Media Strategist & Business Coach
In an era where who you know is often just as important as what you know, it’s imperative that workers build a solid professional network that will stick with them throughout their careers. In this session, counselors and coaches will learn actionable tips to help their clients leverage social media and electronic communications to grow and maintain mutually beneficial long-term professional relationships. Topics discussed will include ways to make new connections on social media, how to affirm connections and follow-up with new and existing contacts without the ick factor, how to build a personal on-line brand that captivates, and tips for maximizing ROI from networking efforts.
Mobilizing Alumni in the Career Development of Students
Lori Moran & Frank Gilmartin - Career Coaches, University of Scranton
Hear how the Center for Career Development at the University of Scranton is utilizing intentional interactions with their Alumni base to advance the career development of students by exposing them to increased networking opportunities.Opportunities include site visits, alumni panels, University networking events, the use of a unique University mentoring program and collaboration with University Advancement.
Negotiate EVERYTHING! Preparing for the Future of Workplace Negotiations
Karen James Chopra, LPC, NCC, CCC - Career Counselor, Chopra Consulting for Consultants
The 21st century workplace is filled with situations that require our clients to negotiate. The gig economy, hourly and contract work, freelancing, lay-offs, mergers and acquisitions, “solopreneurship,” job hopping, and the constant evolution of the nature of work present our clients with seemingly endless negotiations. Whether your clients are college graduates, hourly workers or senior executives, this workshop will provide the tools needed to help your clients master all of the negotiation challenges that lie in their future.
Preparing Workers for the Future by Creating a Value-Added Resume
Jim Peacock - Owner, Peak-Careers Consulting
Job seekers must have a resume that highlights their value, not just their experience. This session we will review three ways to help clients create their value-added statement and a variety of ways of highlighting that value on their resume. We will work on participants value-added statement as a way to understand how to help your clients. Bonus: this same value-added statement can be incorporated into LinkedIn profiles.
Helping Students Make Informed Choices Regarding Major & Career
David Henriques - Professor & Coordinator of the Exploratory Program, Millersville University
Working with exploratory students, major changers, and frequently those in majors, it is uncommon to find a well-developed career plan. Additionally, there is also a disconnect between skills, aptitude, and interests. Not only can this disconnect impact time and money, but when helping students to explore major options, we may not have the tools to change a student’s linear career paradigm. This presentation will highlight the undergraduate major of each CEO listed in the past 10 years of Fortune magazine’s annual 100 largest corporations. These data will be collated by major and college (i.e. College of Business, College of Education, or College of Science, etc.). This two-tiered approach will provide longitudinal data and a foundation highlighting non-linear career development.
Workplace Bullying: A Guide to Assisting Clients Who Are Targeted At Work
Janet Glover-Kerkvliet - Director, Baltimore Job Hunters Support Group
& Sonja Pitts - CEO, SOSolutions Consulting
According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, 60+ million Americans have experienced, observed or been affected by repeated, health-harming, mistreatment of one or more persons by one or more perpetrators on the job. Workplace bullying is abusive conduct that is threatening, humiliating, and/or intimidating. Most workplace bullying is not considered illegal and therefore cannot be prosecuted. Participants will learn about what counselors can do if a client is experiencing bullying in the workplace. Participants will learn about the upcoming formation of the Maryland Healthy Workplace/Freedom from Bullying Task Force, which will promote the professional development of mental health professionals in expanding their ability to assist people experiencing abuse at work and uphold the honor and respect for human dignity that all workers deserve.
Whispering Warriors:
How to Help Introverts Survive & Thrive in the Age of Acceleration
Jane Finkle - Career Consultant, Private Practice
In today's fast-paced, unstable workplace, achieving success requires speaking up, promoting yourself and your ideas, and taking initiative. Extroverts fearless in tooting their own horns, naturally thrive in this environment, but introverts often stumble. While an introvert's natural, ability to reflect and listen can be a drawback, it can also work in their favor. Learn how to work best with introverts to help them appreciate their strengths while taking risks that will help them succeed in job search, self-promotion and career management.
Using Career Genograms in Career Counseling
Ellen Weaver Paquette - Principal, Développé, LLC
Career genograms, a useful tool in career planning, can address myths and realities in the career planning process. Using family systems theory as a base, (Bowen, 1988) career counselors can address perceived roles, expectations, gaps in reality, potential pitfalls and strengths in the career identification or change process. Mary Jacobsen's Hand Me Down Dreams(1999) serves as a backdrop to using the career genogram to delve into patterns, behaviors, attitudes, unfulfilled missions, surprises, definitions of happiness and dreams to be chased. Attendees will receive instructions on the structure, use and cautions of using the career genogram in career counseling. Attendees will develop their own career genograms while provided with questions used in actual sessions.
Your Greatest Strength is What?
Helping Students to Decode and Apply the Language of Career Readiness
Dr. Janet R. Long, Executive Director. Career Design & Development, Widener University
For liberal arts majors and other students without a specialized employment path, appreciating the value of acquiring broad, lifelong skills such as critical thinking through their academic preparation is vitally important. However, the language used to describe such competencies in a classroom setting may not translate seamlessly to the workplace. Higher education career counselors have an opportunity and an obligation to help students bridge this potential gap. During this interactive session, the presenter will share highlights of her recent doctoral dissertation research, “Critical Thinking in Context: An Examination of How Faculty and Prospective Employers Define and Assess a Broad Career-Readiness Competency,” and suggest strategies to prepare students to speak and write about career competencies in a manner that will resonate with potential employers. The discussion will include ideas about how to bring faculty members more directly into career-readiness conversations.
Small Staff, Big Caseload, High Impact!
A Hybrid Model of Group Career Counseling
Jennifer Chiaramonti, Associate Professor of Counseling, Community College of Philadelphia
In 2017, two counselors, already stretched thin with providing academic, transfer, career, and personal counseling services for 1400 students at a branch campus, were tasked with finding a way to provide intrusive career counseling to three additional student caseloads. With insufficient resources to serve the additional students individually, the counselors rose to the occasion by creatively developing and implementing a hybrid career counseling service model, combining in-class group counseling with individual online counseling interventions. The successful program has continued every semester since it launched in 2017, leading to improved relationships between counselors, faculty, and students. Notably, aspects of the program were also later adopted by the main campus counselors. This workshop will provide the materials used for the program and advice from lessons learned along the way.
Promoting Career Vigilance: Assessing and Cultivating
Client Readiness for the Planned and Unanticipated Job Search
Debra Laks - Clinical Career Counselor & Licensed Mental Health Counselor
& Heidi Ravis - Career Counselor & Consultant
With employment security becoming increasingly rare, it is essential to ensure that our clients are job-search-ready at all times. This presentation offers practical tools for assessing and building transition readiness in clients, and highlights specific action steps for helping them prepare for unanticipated and planned job change. Knowledge is empowering, and armed with greater self-awareness and effective career management strategies, our clients can become more resilient and learn to better navigate their career paths and work lives.
Tech Tools and Non-Tech Techniques to Use Today!
Flore Dorcely-Mohr & Rose Santana, Career Services Online, Berkeley College
Hiring freezes, shortened deadlines and tight budgets making it impossible to meet department goals? Berkeley College’s Online Campus Career Services just celebrated their 20 year anniversary. Come to a session where we will share our most creative, low cost/high impact ideas that made a difference in how we engage our student and graduate populations, streamline office operations and even meet leadership reporting obligations. Sure, some of it is based upon using awesome platforms like Salesforce, YouTube and Zoom. But examples like the "Game of Phones" virtual phone interview contest show we don't always need digital software to cleverly address problems and achieve our objectives. Get new ideas to replicate at your school or be inspired to create your own!
Conveying the Power of Networking
Lynn A. Berger & Win Sheffield - Career Coaches, Private Practice
It is widely recognized that more jobs come from networking than any other single source. With increased mobility, the importance of networking will only increase. Even for students coming straight out of school, statistics show us that most jobs come from networking. Yet for many reasons, our clients resist networking and find it hard to stick with it. As hard as we try to encourage networking, clients turn to ads and other, less successful, methods. Join career coaches Lynn Berger and Win Sheffield in an interactive workshop to learn a different approach that allows clients to recognize the value they bring to the workplace and to take the initiative required to networking more easily.
The Cartoon Guide to Career Development
Barry Davis, MS, CTC, CMCS - Career / Executive Coach, Gift of Self Career Services, LLC
In 2008, Dan Pink introduced his Manga Masterpiece, "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko," touted as "the last career guide you'll every need." This tiny tome, easily read in 10 minutes or less, is rich with insights for the careerist at any stage. Attend this interactive presentation to discover the key principles that embody effective employment search and career development.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Online Career Services
Rose Santana & Flore Dorcely-Mohr, Career Services Online, Berkeley College
Berkeley College Online is celebrating its 20th Year Anniversary and the Career Services Team has distilled the best practices that made us so successful. In a 100% virtual environment, we do everything a traditional career center does but rarely meet in person the students and graduates we serve. Learn why it’s important to text and call, use images instead of words, personalize communications and much more. Rosa Santana and Flore Dorcely-Mohr will send you away with hi-tech and hi-touch techniques you can use today.