Latinos@Work

March 20, 2012 - Free Job Search /Career Makeover Day in Minneapolis

Multicultural Forum on Workplace Diversity's Free Career Services and Career Fair

Minneapolis Convention Center

Career Management Center

Tuesday March 20, 2012 Noon-8:00pm

Wednesday March 21, 2012 8:00am-4:00pm

Career Fair

Wednesday March, 21 2012 9:30am-5:00pm

Career Management Center

Career experts will help you fine-tune your résumé, deliver a compelling elevator pitch, prepare for interviews, and improve job search strategies at the 2012 Multicultural Forum on Workplace Diversity Conference Career Management Center on March 20 and 21 and Career Fair on March 21. Visit the Career Fair Candidates Page for more information.

The Career Management Center is your #1 destination prior to attending the 2012 Career Fair and throughout the day.

“After using the Career Management Center, I landed a job I love. Before, my job search was going nowhere. Everyone attending the Career Fair should go to the Center first!” - Evelyn Gabriel

You will receive individual coaching from leading résumé, career management, and human resources practitioners.

Whether you are in transition, currently employed, or looking for ways to advance your career, the Center has specialized services to assist you. 

• Résumé Critique Clinic
• Résumé Editing Computer & Printing Center
• Mock Interview Clinic
• Elevator Pitch Practice Clinic
• Job Search Coaching
• Job Search Workshops

Not only is the Multicultural Forum’s Career Management Center a must visit for your Career Fair Success

Best yet – it is free!

Career Fair

Sign up for the Career Fair today to have your résumé viewed by participating companies in advance!

Companies are seeking candidates who hold or are pursuing a minimum of a Bachelor's degree in the fields of: accounting, consulting, communications, engineering, finance, government, health care, human resources, information management, information technology, management, marketing, operations and sales.

Register today for this can't miss opportunity to makeover your career. Walk-ins welcome.

The Career Management Center is managed by the MulticulturalCareerCoaches.com and MulticulturalResumes.com, divisions of Global Diversity Solutions Group LLC. We would like to thank the volunteer career coaches from the following organizations.

• Career Thought Leaders
• Minnesota Career Development Association
• Minnesota Coaches Association
• Professional Diversity Network
• National Resume Writers' Association
• The Twin Cities Human Resource Association
• Workplace Coach Institute, Inc.

Posted by Murray A. Mann and Rose Mary Bombela-Tobias

Principals, Global Diversity Solutions Group LLC, MulticulturalCareerCoaches.com and MulticulturalResumes.com

Checklist for Developing Your Personal Career Brand: Part 2

 
In our article, In Today’s Economy, Building a Strong Personal Brand is Key to Job Search and Career Success: Part I we discussed the importance of personal career branding for Latinos. At the end of this series we will provide you with a free 360° online brand assessment and other tools to assist you in advancing your career. 

Below is a step-by-step checklist on how to develop your brand.

• Know yourself. Understand your values, personality, knowledge, skills, abilities, passions, uniqueness, and worthiness.
• Assess your abilities through testing. There are numerous assessment tools to help you identify your personality type, strengths, values, and career orientation.
  Perform your own appraisal.

Examples: Conduct a SWOT analysis - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats as they relate to your career goals. Re-read your performance evaluations from the past couple of years and ask yourself what they are really saying about you. Are there adjectives that are consistently used among all the reviews?

• Brainstorm: Make a list of all the things you are good at. 

Examples: Some ideas for brands include conflict management, sales training, best-practice systems, marketing for service professionals, and customer service.

• Identify your passion.

Example: Using your brainstorming list of what you're good at, circle those items you are most passionate about. Narrow the list down to one or two items.

• Determine the advantages of your passion and best attributes.

Example: If you are great at conflict management, the advantages to recipients (employers) of your brand might be greater cooperation among team members, which leads to enhanced productivity, new ideas, less employee turnover, etc.

• Note at least three distinct advantages for your brand.
• List your contributions and accomplishments.

Examples: Use Barron's The Complete Job Search Guide for Latinos Career Management Toolkit's Primary and Industry Specific Questionnaires for Developing Your Career Marketing Documents.

•  Assess your reputation quotient.

Examples: Listen to what others are saying about you. When people introduce you or talk about you to others, they often make some powerful personal career brand statements and use adjectives that clearly describe you. Pay attention the next time you are being introduced.

 Also, become self-observant and reflect on the following questions honestly.

• How do people respond to my presence?
• Are people glad to see me in meetings or do they sigh with relief when I leave?
• Do people listen to me?
• Do they want to hear what I have to say or are they glad when I stop talking?
• What do I see and hear from others in daily conversation that gives me ideas about who I am to them and how they feel about me?
• Give yourself permission to create and promote your personal career brand.

Examples: Use the power of the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. model from Barron's The Complete Job Search Guide for Latinos to empower your career-building efforts. For some of us, it means starting with your family by asking them what they see as your greatest strengths and accomplishments. Their acknowledgment of your qualities, acts as a blessing for you to embrace your gifts. Then work your way outward by asking your friends, peers, supervisors, employees, friends, mentors, and coaches.

Read more at Embrace Your Value to Unleash Your Career Power and Maximize Your Culture and Language in Your Job Interview. In part 3, we will discuss how to successfully live and market your personal career brand.

 

¡BUENA SUERTE!

 

Posted by Murray A. Mann and Rose Mary Bombela-Tobias

Principals, Global Diversity Solutions Group LLC and MulticulturalResumes.com

Authors, Barron’s The Complete Job Search Guide for Latinos

 

In Today’s Economy, Building a Strong Personal Brand is Key to Latino Job Search and Career Success - Part I

In almost every news report on how to succeed in your job search and career in today's economy, the experts advocate that having a strong personal brand can be the difference in securing employment, surviving a layoff or advancing your career.

Your personal reputation is what lets people know what they can expect from you. Your personal career brand allows you to leverage your reputation, authentic strengths, principles and unique promise of value to distinguish you from your competition. We are not asking that you change who you are. We are suggesting that if you define and live your personal career brand you will reap greater rewards in your job search and career management.

Why Personal Career Branding is Critical for Latinos
- "If you don't build your personal career brand, others will label you."

The fact is you are giving your power to other people to categorize and define you from their perspective. Do you want to be identified as Chuy's sister, Mr. Johnson's assistant, the brown one or the Latino accountant.

You may be described solely as your job title or job description. Is this how you wish to be known? No matter what kind of work you do or where you are in your career, would you prefer to be perceived as the Cadillac, Lexus, or Volvo of employees, or as a 4-cylander basic performance vehicle?

The chart below lists the benefits of building your personal career brand. 

Personal Benefit

1. Helps you understand yourself better.

2. Allows you to embrace your values, knowledge, skills, abilities, contributions, achievements, uniqueness, and worthiness.

3. Strengthens your personal power allowing you to remain honest to yourself, be more flexible, exercise control of your career, and shape how you are perceived by employers.

4. Gives you permission to express your value to employers.

5. Prepares you for the job search.

6. Increases your confidence and ability to conduct a successful job interview.

7. Guides you in making well-founded career decisions.

8. Improves your value and employability.

9. Attracts and opens employment and career building opportunities.

10. Leads to better, more interesting jobs and assignments.

11. Enables you to persist and weather the tough times.

12. All of the above continually empowers you. 

Employment Benefits

1. Paints a compelling concise picture of who you are and the unique promise of the value you offer.

2. Establishes the critical great first impression that makes you stand out as a top candidate that must be considered.

3. Allows employers to learn about you through others, which generates more credibility.

4. Clearly positions you as the best candidate to get the job done.

Maximize Your Culture and Language Skills in Your Job Interview

 

In our turbulent economy, U.S. companies are aggressively seeking competitive advantages in the increasingly diverse local and global marketplaces. It is a matter of not only growth, but for many, survival. These companies are not likely to be successful unless they understand the cultures and languages of their customers and employees. Multicultural experiences and/or language skills are very critical business assets employers are seeking in order to thrive in this new business landscape.

How can you communicate your multicultural experiences and/or language skills as an asset? Some of us, we must first embrace that these attributes are advantageous and worthy of consideration.

Therese Droste, a Washington D.C. based career columnist, suggests writing a list of the benefits you bring to the workplace. Below are few examples that have appeared on lists developed by clients and our readers: 

• My language skills will be used to resolve cultural or language conflicts or problems between customers and colleagues.
• Being multicultural or multilingual demonstrates I can adjust my style to different people and situations. 
• Being multicultural or multilingual indicates I have experienced looking at problems and opportunities from different perspectives.
• Being multicultural or multilingual indicates I think before I act.
• Being multicultural or multilingual means I know how it feels to be misunderstood, and I also know what it takes to reverse misunderstandings.
• My accent will be seen as an additional competence that helps me communicate better with colleagues and customers from diverse backgrounds.
• I understand leadership and creative solutions within the context of my diversity 

The next step is to take your list and match them with positive experiences in your life in which your multicultural background or multilingual abilities helped you resolve a problem or communicate better with another person. It’s similar to creating a life resume. Yet because so many of our life experiences become distant memories, you have to ponder the past, target such situations and write them down. Your multicultural assets must be presented in a manner that proves that you can help drive a company’s business goals.

Let’s say you’re asked in an interview how you would deal with a problem situation with a colleague or customer. You could preface your answer with: “Partly because I know how it feels to have the shoe on the other foot…” and then fill in the rest with a specific example of how your background helped you solve a similar problem. Simply put, you provide the employer with an example of how you used your experiences as a multicultural and / or multilingual person to solve a past business problem or show how your skills helped you in a previous job. We suggest you read Be the S.T.A.R. of Your Next Job Interview and use the article’s worksheet to prepare your answers.

Once you’ve identified and embraced the value your culture and language bring to the workplace, you will articulate them better and gain an employer’s confidence.

¡BUENA SUERTE!

 Posted by Murray A. Mann and Rose Mary Bombela-Tobias

Principals, Global Diversity Solutions Group LLC and MulticulturalResumes.com

Authors, Barron’s The Complete Job Search Guide for Latinos 

Be The S.T.A.R. of Your Next Job Interview or Performance Review - Article and Worksheet

For generations Latino families have passed on stories that teach us about our history, culture, values, and life-lessons. It is this powerful gift of story telling that our parents and abuelos bestowed on us that can make the difference in whether we succeed during our next job interview or performance review. 

Susan Whitcomb, author of Interview Magic and 30-Day Job Promotion, explains that employers are looking for candidates who can do the job, will do the job, and fit into the corporate culture, thus adding value to the company. Value can be woven into your responses to virtually every interview question via story telling. This is your opportunity to create your own chisme and land a job offer. 

Three methods of conveying value are: 

   1.  Linking your past successes and future solutions to employer’s needs.

   2.  Demonstrating a return on investment (ROI).

   3.  Emphasizing the benefits (instead of the features) of your qualifications.

Many employers prefer that you deliver your responses via behavioral or competency based interviews that asks you to outline the given problem or challenge, explain how you handled it, and describe the results of your actions. Try using the S.T.A.R. story technique – Situation, Task, Action, Results when answering these questions.

A S.T.A.R. story will allow you to craft your responses with a targeted beginning, a brief explanatory middle, and a strong ending that provides the interviewer with details that demonstrate what you can do for them. Using this format allows you to neatly link your response to employer’s behavioral or competency question and focus the conversation on how you can do the job.

S.T.A.R. stories should be concise and compelling as outlined below.

SITUATION: Define the situation or “set the stage”:

Example: I was assigned as an account manager to take over an underperforming sales territory – #92 out of 100 districts.

TASK: Identify the key objective / task performed:

Example: Our goal was to increase sales 20% and boost customer base 10%.

ACTION: Describe the action you took or initiated. This response should illustrate the specific skills you used in completing the task.

Example: I (my team or the team that I lead)

1. Conducted a market analysis and customer service survey;

2.  Identified untapped multicultural markets;

1. Developed a business plan that focused on value-added service, sales incentives, multicultural brand adoption and a referral bonus program to benefit customers;
2. Rolled out a 3-level marketing strategy to implement the plan.

 RESULT: Summarize the outcome.

 Our district ranking improved to #9 in the region within a year;

1. Store sales increased 37%; net profit margin per sale improved 7%; and  commercial customer base grew 18%.
2. My business plan was adapted for use by all account managers in the region.
3. Earned Account Manager of the Year Award.

We recommend that you prepare several S.T.A.R. stories to address various aspects of the position you are interviewing for. Your inventory of stories can represent everything from simple improvements to major achievements. They can represent individual successes or team contributions. In short, your S.T.A.R. stories will not only help you feel more confident and better prepared for interviews, but will improve your perceived value in the eyes of your potential and current employers. 

You can read out more about S.T.A.R. stories in Barron's Complete Job Search Guide for Latinos. Another great source is Katherine Hansen's, Tell Me About Yourself: Storytelling to Get Jobs and Propel Your Career.  Dr. Hansen demonstrates how storytelling is also the key to excelling in other job search activities, such as writing resumes and cover letters, networking, creating portfolios, and developing you personal brand. She takes the reader through the steps for executing each of these crucial tasks impressively and successfully. The book also focuses on on-the-job storytelling that enables you to capitalize on opportunities to advance.

Below is a S.T.A.R Story Worksheet to assist you in building powerful responses to job interview and performance evaluation questions.

¡BUENA SUERTE!

Posted by Murray A. Mann and Rose Mary Bombela-Tobias

Principals, Global Diversity Solutions Group LLC and MulticulturalResumes.com

Authors, Barron’s The Complete Job Search Guide for Latinos 

S.T.A.R. Story Worksheet

 S = Situation          T = Task           A = Actions you took            R = Results delivered

 SITUATION:

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

On July 4th Declare Your Career Independence

 

Tu Eres El Arquitecto De Tu Propio Destino -

You Are The Architect Of Your Own Destiny

  

 

July 4 is a perfect time to declare your career independence. 

Yasmin Davidds, international best-selling author and empowerment  specialist, often expresses the following quotation in her presentations:

“Personal power comes from within and when you embrace it, you feel as though there is nothing in the world that you cannot handle. It helps you recognize that everything in your life is a choice, and it reinforces the truth that you have complete control over each and every one of those choices. While we may not have control over the events that occur in our lives, we have control over how we react to these events. You, alone, are in control of your destiny.”

How does this apply to your career? As we stated in our post, Tweve Characteristics of Latino Career Success:

• Trust that you are the most important person in your career.

• Embrace your personal power to fuel your career power.

• Activate your career power so you can be proactive in your job search, manage the process and to respond well, rather than react, to the events you cannot control.

 

                                ¡BUENA SUERTE!

 

Posted by Murray A. Mann and Rose Mary Bombela-Tobias

Principals, Global Diversity Solutions Group
Authors, Barron’s The Complete Job Search Guide for Latinos
Also at http://twitter.com/LatinosAtWork   

 

Twelve Characteristics of Latino Career Success

In the course of writing Barron's The Complete Job Search Guide for Latinos, we interviewed several successful Latinos from all walks of life and asked for opinions on a variety of topics, including the characteristics needed for success. We compiled their answers, added our own experiences, and created twelve factors for a successful career -- a career that successfully coexists with a fulfilled life, uses your talents and skills to their full potential, and maximizes your opportunities and growth.

 

 You are the Architect of Your Own Destiny                        Tu Eres El Arquitecto De Tu Propio Destino

• Life and career success can only be defined by you for you.
• Taking the time to develop your definition of success is essential to achieving career satisfaction.

 

The following are twelve characteristics you should master if you want to achieve career success:

 

Know Yourself

• Evaluate your interests, values, knowledge, skills, abilities, contributions, accomplishments, uniqueness and worthiness.
• Understand your cultural programming, if any, and how to transform those gifts into career assets.
• Embrace your attributes, family history and culture.
• Craft your combined attributes into a foundation to launch or grow your career.

 

Develop a Goal that Inspires You

• Develop a vision of what you want to accomplish in life and your career.
• Arouse your passion and desire to be successful at whatever you do.
• Allow your goals to be courageous to drive your career forward. Your objectives should not be self-limiting.
• Make sure your goals, no matter how large or small, contribute value to others.

 

Believe in Your Personal Power

• Trust that you are the most important person in your career.
• Embrace your personal power to fuel your career power.
• Activate your career power so you can be proactive in your job search, manage the process and to respond well, rather than react, to the events you cannot control.
• Learn to adapt and transform any self-limiting cultural programming into power centers.

 

Learn to Dance in Both Worlds

• Recognize that adapting to an employer's workplace culture is neither selling out nor changing your cultural identity.
• Build a cultural bridge that crosses from one environment to the other that we can walk on and help others to cross.
• Know your culture and share it gently.

 

Create Opportunities and be Prepared to Take Advantage of Them

Career Resolutions Latinos Can Keep In 2011 - Part 2

In Career Resolutions Latino's Can Keep In 2011 - Part 1, we discussed that 2011 is the Year of the Latino Professional and "Easy Resolutions Latinos Can Keep." In 30 days, will you know where your resolutions are? Below are some additional recommendations that be helpful for keeping yours.

Career Resolutions that have Worked for Other Latino Professionals

Want to take your career to the next level? Consider these:

• Create a career portfolio (physical and / or electronic) to record contributions, special projects, and career accomplishments, no matter how small they may seem. Check out the free tools at VisualCV.com or iHispano.com.

• Evolve your personal career brand every day. Your daily "to do" list should include an activity that builds or reinforces your professional reputation. For example, it might be the way you greet your colleagues, the manner in which you execute a major project, or the fact that you followed up with an important contact. Read In Today’s Economy, Building a Strong Personal Brand is Key to Latino Job Search and Career Success - Part I and Checklist for Developing Your Personal Career Brand: Part 2
• Communicate with at least one older and one newer person in your network each week. Rekindle relationships with people from your past. Commit yourself to expanding your personal network of career contacts. At the very least, your name will stay on their radar. Staying in touch can be as simple as wishing someone a happy new year or sending a birthday card. Read Latino-Specific Job Search Communications: Reach Out and Touch Someone
• Begin or expand your "Career Board of Directors". Studies show that mentors, coaches, champions, experts, and colleagues are vital to your professional advancement. Read up on how to make the most of mentor-mentee relationships: The Critical Role of Mentors in Latino Career Success and My Career Mentor Checklist.
• Join your company's Latino or diversity employee resource group or affinity group. These in-house networks can help you adeptly navigate the workplace culture. To learn more, read: Hispanic Employee Networks / Affinity Groups.
• Give back to the community. Helping Latino colleagues or those coming up behind you opens up even more opportunities for other Latinos. Giving back adds to your own value and helps build your personal career brand.

The Anti-Resolutions

It is also time to resolve to not do some things that could inadvertently damage your career:

Career Resolutions Latinos Can Keep In 2011 - Part 1

For Immediate Release (for those who have not figured it out yet): 2011 has been designated as the Year of the Latino Professional. Prominent players that contributed to this selection include:

• Employers must be competitive locally and/or globally and have set significant goals for Latino recruitment, retention, and upward mobility.
• Colleges and Universities are evolving programs to address the needs of Latino students, alumni, and the companies that employ us.
• Mainstream and Latino Professional Organizations for launching more major initiatives to improve our professional growth and career advancement.
• YOU who is dedicated to your professional evolution

In the spirit of the New Year and the Year (decade or millennium) of the Latino Professional, we encourage you make career resolutions that are a combination of those that challenge you to grow, some that are easily achievable, and an anti-resolution or two. Successful resolutions are founded in results-driven S.M.A.R.T. goals which are:

Specific

Measurable

Action Oriented

Realistic

Time-Constrained

The 2010 Resolution that will Rock Your World: MY CAREER IS JOB #1

This is a big, life-changing resolution. It requires that you take an active role in your career awareness on a day-to-day basis. When the "career management mentality" becomes second nature to you, you'll not only achieve your goals but will become a better, more effective and more valuable asset to your employers.

To develop S.M.A.R.T. goals and make your career a priority:

• Internalize the mantra "tu eres el arquitecto de tu propio destino - you are the master of your own destiny." Read Twelve Characteristics of Latino Career Success and Latin@Work's other job search and career management aricles.
• Take a project management approach to your career and adopt the mindset that YOU are the client or assignment. Write out your plan, assess your options, analyze your resources, and focus on activities that will help you achieve your goals.
• Define career success on your own terms.
• "Envision" your career -- one, five, ten, and 20 years out. Visualize in detail the work you do, your physical surroundings, the people in your professional circle, and the feelings you have at this stage of your career.

To be successful in your career, you must be willing to invest in yourself and take a proactive approach to career development and management. Like anything that is worthwhile, it will take action, persistence, and time. The steps to achieving your MY CAREER IS JOB #1 resolution will be discussed in detail in our next article.

Easy Resolutions that Latino Professionals Can Keep

Put the following items on your "to do" list: 

Murray A. Mann and Global Diversity Solutions Group LLC Receive the NSHMBA 2010 Brillante Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence

    

Murray A. Mann, Principal of Global Diversity Solutions Group, LLC and co-author of Barron’s The Complete Job Search Guide for Latinos and Latinos@Work Blog was honored to receive the National Society of Hispanic MBA’s (NSHMBA) 2010 Brillante Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence. this week. 

Previous awardees in this category include:

Linda Alvarado, CEO of Alvarado Construction and co-owner of The Colorado Rockies

Emilio Estefan, Jr., Founder & Chairman - Estefan Enterprises

Julian Posada, Founder and President of Café Media,

Lt. Col. (Ret.) Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch President and Founder | Educational Achievement Services, Inc.

David H. Segura, Founder, President, and CEO | VisionIT

Leonor McCall-Rodriguez, President, One Voice Insurance Services

About Murray A. Mann

Murray A. Mann is a nationally respected thought leader delivering more than 30 years of diversity-inclusion and human resource management stewardship.

Murray and Rose Mary Bombela-Tobias founded Global Diversity Solutions Group LLC (GDSG) to create systemic and sustainable organizational changes that build inclusive workplaces. GDSG focuses on integrated client-centric solutions that expand internal capacity and forge strategic partnerships to successfully recruit, develop and retain a diverse workforce. GDSG clients range from Fortune 500 corporations, mid-size employers, universities and professional associations.

Murray co-authored Barron’s The Complete Job Search Guide for Latinos, has been featured in national media and is a sought after speaker. His groundbreaking work in multicultural career management services has assisted thousands of individuals and organizations to achieve their goals.

Murray conceived and launched NSHMBA’s Career Management Center, professional webinar series and chapter-based career services. Murray is a founding board member of the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE), Society of Latinos in Human Resources (SOLHR) and holds leadership positions in professional, multicultural and disability associations.

About the Brillante Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence