The Powerful Benefits of Informational Interviewing

The highlights from a workshop created as part of The Job Forum’s Workforce of the Future Program, which was supported in part by a grant from The Miranda Lux Foundation to help prepare young people under the age of 25 for the world of work.

Participants who are giving the advice:

Lisa Clark, the Chief People Officer at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, who focuses on Program Management and People Strategy.

Tina Choi, a consultant at Propeller, a management consulting company (with more than 8k employees) who focuses on projects from program management to operations and process improvements, especially in retail and technology spaces.

Penni Hudis, Chair, Board of Directors at Women’s Cancer Resource Center, which is a nonprofit providing cancer support services.

Kaishna Mckenzie, a doctor from the Dominican Republic who works as a medical assistant and social media manager at the Mosaddegh Eye Institute

Roger Brooks, Marketing Research Consultant &Strategist and Vice Chairman of The Job Forum, focused on market research in technology, digital and social media, and the wine industry.

Informational interviewing why and how?

Avoid job choice mistakes: I was talking just today with a good friend of mine, who is telling me that her daughter in law, who graduated college two years ago, took a job that didn’t end up being the job she thought she wanted or the job she thought she was getting into. Some proactive informational interviewing is what could have potentially prevented that lack of fit for ending up in a job that did not satisfy her.

Broaden your understanding: Informational interviews are absolutely critical. If you’re young, starting out in the world of work you’ve seen a job on a TV program, or you’ve talked to one person or two people who are in a job, it may sound interesting, but you hardly know anything about it.

You want to broaden your horizon. You want to talk with the number of people so that you can really get their varying perspectives and understand, via informational interviews, what matters in this job or type of work. Informational interviewing is how you research the roles and the companies. Informational interviewing is a form of data gathering. And you want to do it in a whole variety of settings in jobs that you know something about and jobs you know very little about and yet are potentially interested in.

Build your professional network: When you are lucky enough o be in informational you are starting to build a professional network.  You want to be ready with some really good questions for the person with whom you are speaking. Prepare questions for them about how did you get into this job? How did you prepare? What education did you have to have? Was that education background you had really beneficial? You want to come across as being someone who is someone they want to get to know better, because in the end, this could help you build your professional network.

Develop a business relationship: It is really, really critical to think of informational interviewing as a relationship and so when someone gives you their time, you absolutely want to do a very sincere “thank you” and be specific. Let the person know why you’re thanking them. I learned a lot about the job. I learned about the career path. I learned some really important advice that I will take to heart. I think the information you shared will be very valuable especially what you said about XYZ and ABC. Your thank you note can be an email or in writing and mailing or both.

Expand your contacts to other people and companies or industries: In the course of the informational interview, you ask, “Do you have a colleague or two with whom I could talk?” “Can you introduce me to someone else who got into this job? into this field? “Do you know someone I can meet next who joined the field in a different way? Who has an additional or may have a slightly different take on it?” “Can you please introduce me next to someone who may have a different background? Maybe they’re of a different age. Maybe they’re older, maybe they’re younger? Maybe they come from a different ethnic community”.

You want to be building that network as part of doing your informational interviews.

Company and industry culture fit: I think informational interviews are really important for you to get to know about the company and the role too and really learn about the team dynamic in the company or field and you are doing informational interviewing for you to understand, is that something that you want to do, and are you going to be successful with people depending on you for this kind of work?

 

Ask and you will find friendly people: Ask for an informational interview by name and method. “I wonder if you will allow me a 15-20 minute informational phone interview with you? I will really value being able to ask you about (- be specific – name a job title or say their company or department or industry.)

Most people are really open for giving short phone informational interviews, and they really want you to be to find the right fit and especially if you’re in high school, college, or you are transitioning to a new industry or thinking of switching to a different kind of a career role.  But you have to ask. Ask people you know. Ask on LinkedIn. Ask people you meet by attending The Job Forum. Ask people via Meet Up groups or industry meetings. Many people are going to welcome you with open arms because they want to help you find the jobs that are going to be the right ones for you.

Be prepared and don’t waste the opportunity: You want to treat an informational interview as an interview. You want to be prepared. You want to do your homework. You want to research the industry, so you’re prepared with good questions and questions that you know that you can’t necessarily answer online or looking though LinkedIn posts.

Examples of topics for valuable questions: What are those? What are those questions you have that help you to dig a little bit deeper?

  1. Do your homework on the individual that you’re talking to find out about him or her and then you can ask specifics related to his or her experience in the field. This experience is why you are talking with them.
  2. You also want to be prepared to talk succinctly about yourself and ask for feedback. Take some time to prepare and be able to share about your educational background and any work experience that you have, what your interests are, and ask the person if they think these make you a good fit for this type of a role or company or industry … and ask what you might do a better job of describing or what you might emphasize differently.

Then be prepared to ask between five to 10 questions you have about what related to what it is like to work in this job or field:

– What does a day in this kind of field look like?

– What are you mostly spending your time doing in this role?

– How are people evaluated in the job in this field?

– What is the career path upward for this compony?

– What is the name of the entry-level job title and what potentially comes next?

– Is this a field in which I will be able to financially support myself?

– Is this a field that is growing – or is it contracting or being replaced by other jobs?

– What are some examples of some challenges or the hardest parts of this job or this industry or this career?

– What are some examples of very satisfying aspects of this work?

Be sure to write the down your questions and practice speaking your questions: Review them ahead of time so it’s not the first time you’re asking them when you’re sitting, talking to the individual in your informational interview.

Stay in the data and information collection mode to find out how to succeed: In reality an informational interview is not a real interview for a job. It’s for you to network, and for you to get to know if a certain position or a certain company is going to be relatively ideal for you. I am working in a busy office as a medical assistant right now, This is my third job as a medical assistant. Each doctor has been completely different to assist and I’ve been doing ophthalmology all three times. So the same might be true for your job search. Each company that you’re at will be different. So the best way to understand what you will like and not like, or succeed in doing or not, is through informational interviewing to uncover information. You want to make a good career and job choice decision, so informational interviewing will increase your chances to do that.

The Job Forum’s Workforce of the Future – “Good Careers for Young People to Consider”

Many, if not most, young people are undecided about what kind of work, or careers, they want to pursue, or how to prepare for an effective job search. The Job Forum (a 501c nonprofit now in its 70th year) has created a new youth program to help students and young people with job search and career advice!

 

Initiated last year, with funding support from the Miranda Lux Foundation, The Job Forum created a “Workforce of the Future” workshop series for young (15-25 age) job seekers. Also helpful in getting this important series off the ground was the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) College and Career Readiness Program.

 

The second workshop in this year’s series of six free sessions are devoted to introducing an array of professions to young job searchers who are, or may be, considering different career paths. The schedule and link for more information and way to register appear below.

   
·      Good Careers for Young People to Consider

Part II – Finance, Sales, Social Media, and Technology

 March 8, 2023
   
   

These and all workshops leverage the expertise of Job Forum volunteer panelists who represent a wide range of San Francisco Bay Area professions and companies. All young people are welcome to attend and start to make connections with adults in SF Bay Area businesses who want to help mentor them.

 

To register for free, please visit our Eventbrite page or click here: https://moregoodcareers.eventbrite.com.

Is The Sky Falling?

Is the sky falling?

 

As I write, none of my clients at tech companies like Google and PagerDuty has been laid off, but they have been affected nonetheless. One tried to reach her boss on the day layoffs were announced, only to discover his email had been deactivated; he had been laid off. Another client experienced overwhelming anxiety as an expected layoff was delayed for weeks. Yet another wondered how to complete projects which relied on collaboration with another team which had been eliminated.

Behind the headlines, there are real human beings trying to figure out how to navigate the loss of colleagues, more work on their own plates, and of course their own lives at the same time. Survivor guilt, the challenges of a reconfigured organization, and worry about one’s own future can impede effectiveness, which in turn adds to stress. Some people rush into working harder in hopes that will keep them safe, while others become disengaged, fearing they will be next.
What can you realistically do to protect and take care of yourself in confusing times like these? Here are a few tips:

First, evaluate your sources and the information itself. Learn to recognize both scare headlines and false reassurance, even from legitimate sources. Internal announcements and press releases from an employer are authentic sources, but they often use vague language, without much detail. News media may provide more context, but they often employ scare headlines to attract attention, or they imply trends beyond what the data support.

For example, I have seen quite a number of headlines saying “Another tech company announces layoffs,” sometimes adding “as cuts continue.” I know that the point of headlines is to attract attention, which such phrases do very well. However, to my ears they also suggest that there will be many more layoffs ahead, which cannot be known. In fact, many economists believe there is a continuing shortage of workers for most positions. Therefore, it’s wise to actually pay attention and continue reading with questions in mind such as: What percentage of total staff is being laid off? How fast will it happen? Does the company say anything about severance pay? How is the company actually doing? Looking for this information will help you decide whether the sky is falling or someone is getting excited without enough information.

Second, it’s essential to know your own patterns when unpleasant news arrives. Do you overreact with anxiety or anger? Do you minimize the problem with rationalization, denial, or false hope? Do you isolate yourself, distract yourself, decide “I’m too busy to think about it now”? Being aware of your default pattern allows you to make better decisions about how to react, how to take care of yourself, and what to do immediately and in the coming weeks or months. Meanwhile, you can gather more information and consider your options.

 

 

Photo by ANTONI SHKRABA production from Pexe

 

Third, tune into your values, strengths, and objectives. Focus on what matters most to you, Is it financial security, opportunities to learn new skills, the types of colleagues or customers you interact with? Ask yourself some tough questions: Do you trust that management is making good decisions? Do you feel appreciated for your strengths or are you being given projects that bore you? Are your employer’s mission and organizational culture consistent with your values? Do you have influence in your organization, or do you feel like a cog in the machine?

Fourth, take care of yourself. Take steps to support your physical and mental health, such as exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, practicing mindfulness, and relaxing with friends or a hobby. It can be tempting to let such basic self care lapse in times of stress, but that’s just when we need to be more protective of ourselves in order to be more observant, more creative, and more effective.

Fifth, take appropriate action. Refresh your connections with former colleagues and mentors, update your LinkedIn profile, upgrade and diversify your skills, rethink your expenditures and set aside funds for a rainy day. With your values and objectives in mind, consider whether an internal transfer, external job search, side hustle, or something else will serve you best. Brainstorm with trusted friends and advisors to better understand what you need and what you have to offer. Nourish your curiosity with new experiences and by meeting new people. These approaches will not only support you in the near term, they will strengthen you as a person and as a colleague or manager.

I’m always doubtful about predictions of the future. Most predictions, whether of doom or utopia, turn out to be inaccurate even when they contain elements of insight. I am persuaded that the best path to security, success, and happiness involves knowing what is important to you, cultivating relationships with kindred spirits and also with people with different perspectives, and nourishing your curiosity so that when the unexpected happens you notice potential opportunities as well as risks. It’s unlikely that the sky is falling, but if there are acorns or even debris landing around you, you want to be able to assess what it is and what it means for you.

I’m always interested in hearing from you. Please send me your responses to this newsletter, forward these thoughts to others who may benefit, and let me know if I can support you in important decisions.

 

by Deborah Frangquist – Deborah@chosenfutures.com

Call For Job Forum Volunteers

The Job Forum is looking for great volunteers to help us with the valuable roles. These roles are ones where you can add the experience to your professional work experience. Please ask to interview for the roles you are interested in.

 

Contact Janet Beach for an interview:

 jbeach@usmarketingservices.com

415-309-3575

 

Please briefly state why you are interested and what you hope to contribute.

 

 Non-profit Fundraiser:

  • Conduct research for identifying ten new fundraising sources
  • Help design marketing case statements for communicating the value of The Job Forum for different funding target audiences
  • Create promotional materials and lead our outreach efforts
  • Research and write grant proposals
  • Develop/improve sponsorship descriptions and materials to help our organization achieve more corporate sponsorships to meet fundraising goals.
  • Send appeal letters asking for donations

 

Social Media Marketing Developer for non-profit organization:

 

  • Develop and implement Social Media to build awareness of our organization and its programs that help job hunters.
  • Set up campaigns via Social Media to spread the word about our organization’s mission.
  • Help with fundraising because social media can attract new donors and keeps existing donors engaged and aware of all we are accomplishing weekly
  • Help with attracting new volunteers in that Social Media can assist us in growing a more of network of volunteers especially for high growth job and industry categories.
  • Create Interactive content and post to social media to allow our audience to participate and feel more engaged.

 

Technical Project Assistant for non-profit organization:

  • Provide technical support at select events
  • Technical trouble shooting as needed
  • Streamline and improve ways to use technology at the organization
  • Provide some technical training to volunteers as needed

 

Co-Vice Chairman for non-profit organization:

  • Prepare a path for a change of leadership in the future
  • Take on responsibility for development and implementation of certain programs and events and add to the Job Forum leadership
  • Moderate discussion panels and take over some of the time spent by the ED
  • Conduct outreach to attract more volunteers experts for certain sectors
  • Streamline the work effort and set up systems to repeat successful programs
  • Generate ideas and recommend new programs and processes
  • Become the face of the Job Forum leadership for certain target audiences
  • Prepare and practice to take on more organization leadership in the future

 

Communications Developer

 

Resource Development and engagement communications for non-profit organization:

  • Take on responsibility for development and implementation of finding additional resources and partners and regularly communicating with select cohort groups and programs
  • Set up a regular calendar of communications about Job Forum programs and results and volunteers to send to volunteers and supporters
  • interview job hunters about their path to employment and write articles for the Job Forum digital newsletter
  • Manage and develop regular useful communications for our meet up group to make it more valuable and engaging.

Come To The Job Forum To Expand Your Professional Network

We all have been hearing a lot about gloom in the job market and layoffs by large companies. There are a few things you CAN do:

 

  1. Come to The Job Forum to meet people who know lots of other people and may be able to refer you to a great company you did not know about!

 

  1. Focus on companies who publicly state they are hiring. Where to find these?

You can read the local business newspapers, The San Francisco Business Times, The East Bay Business Times, The North Bay Business Times, and Silicon Valley Business Journal.

 

  1. Here is a link to a list of some companies who are actively hiring. https://stillhiring.today/. Many of these are on growth mode. They include San Francisco Bay Area companies like:

 

Grammerly.

LaunchDarkly,

Clouldflare,

Freshworks,

Pandadoc,

Zip,

Deel,

Secureframe,

Avoma,

Sigma Computing,

Hightouch,

NextHealth,

Pave,

Abnormal Security,

Placer.ai,

Cribl,

Databricks, and more!

 

See you soon at The Job Forum every Wednesday evening sessions on zoom where you can ask in depth questions about your own job search initiatives.

 

Sign up on Eventbrite: https://thejobforumwednesdays.eventbrite.com

Exploring The Professional Summary

As a professional résumé writer, I am always happy to offer advice and support to job seekers who are working to write a résumé that will be impactful and catch attention in today’s competitive job market.  One of the questions that I am asked quite often concerns the Professional Summary as a key section of a well-written résumé.

 

I consider  the Professional Summary to be one of the three key elements I consider important in an effective résumé, the other two being summaries of Core Competencies and Selected Career Highlights.  One of the mistakes job seekers generally make in writing is a résumé is failing to leverage the top half of page one of the résumé to present a strong value proposition to the potential employer, highlighting what sets the job seeker apart from other candidates. These three summaries are key elements of that value proposition and should appear “above the fold,” as it were.

 

First, let me say that the Professional Summary replaces the Professional Objective, which was once the opening statement of a résumé. The problem with an objective statement is that such a statement tends to be heavily focused on what the candidate wants, what he or she is “seeking.” Quite frankly, the employer doesn’t care what the candidate wants; the employer wants to know what the candidate can do and how well he or she can do it. The Professional Summary, on the other hand, is focused on what makes the candidate unique. In essence, the summary answers the age-old first question of the job interview, “Tell me a little bit about yourself.” It is the opening statement of the résumé and might be thought of as an expanded elevator pitch. The following is a sample summary:

 

Results-oriented, team-focused Human Resources (HR)  professional with more than 10 years of management and operations experience and advanced certification (Senior Professional in Human Resources/SPHR). Solid business acumen and ‘big picture’ outlook paired with understanding of the value of dedicated HR departments. High-level emotional intelligence and proven ability to promote visibility, approachability, and availability of HR. Capable of displaying a sense of fairness and openness in coaching and counseling employees. Proven effectiveness in increasing reliability of HR files. Accustomed to managing multiple time-sensitive tasks.

 

Comprised of seven to five lines of block text, the Professional Summary is the place to introduce the prospective employer to who you are as an employee. This is the place for outlining your “soft skills”—your ability to build consensus within a team, your problem-solving and troubleshooting skills, and your ability to cultivate and leverage relationships with strategic partners. In the summary, you might consider highlighting a unique combination of education and skills. Essentially, the summary is like the blurb on the back of the book jacket, compelling the reader to dig deeper and invest in reading the entire novel.

 

A good Professional Summary will define the job seeker’s career objective, but in a much more organic way. In fact, I would be remiss if I did not mention the importance of writing a résumé with a clearly defined career objective in mind. It is always of paramount importance to know what you hope to accomplish with the résumé. Having a career objective front-of-mind during the writing process ensures that your résumé has focus, and it will, indeed, inform the creation of the summary.

 

One word of caution, however. Keep in mind that recruiters and hiring managers (especially the most seasoned ones) are accustomed to skimming résumés rather quickly. Technical or hard skills are best presented in a bulleted list of Core Competencies. I often see résumés in which the writer has buried some very critical technical skills (those which align with the essential job functions of the target) within the opening summary. Making a very clear delineation between soft skills (Professional Summary) and technical/hard skills (Core Competencies) will serve you very well.

Best of luck to you in  your job search.

 

Written by Jerome Imhoff – resumeshopink@gmail.com

You Are Welcome to Volunteer with The Job Forum

The Job Forum welcomes you to volunteer with The Job Forum. This is a unique nonprofit group that has been offering job search advice and support to those who need and want to work for 70 years here in the SF Bay Area. Our volunteer members represent all stages of their careers and all sorts of roles at the companies where they work. Many of our current Job Forum volunteers were job hunters who got advice and encouragement from others, when they themselves were looking for a job!

 

If you want to join us and offer job hunters your valuable job search tips and your advice, encouragement, and potential connections to Bay Area companies, please fill out the new volunteer form here: https://thejobforum.org/volunteer. Volunteering with The Job Forum is very doable as our nonprofit is well organized and respectful of our volunteer’s time. We only ask our volunteers to please volunteer at 3 events in a whole year!

 

The volunteer work is very satisfying. You make a meaningful difference by providing an insider’s viewpoint on how employers may view a job hunters’ experiences and talents. You advise job hunters on what to try next and what steps to take to increase their chances for success in getting a job in the San Francisco Bay Area. You will be joining a truly diverse group of very kind volunteers, who believe in extending a “helping hand”

to those who are looking for work in the SF Bay Area.

 

The next step is for you to tell us when you can come and participate at a Job Forum Wednesday job search session on zoom. There you will experience what it is like to participate helping job hunters – firsthand! You will be glad you did!

Thank you.

Are you sick of answering the strengths and weakness questions during an interview?

As a recruiter I am tired of asking those questions because most of the time the answers are not really truthful, or the interviewee will tell me what they think I want to hear.

 

The Interview process is fundamentally about getting to know you. “I know some people feel like the recruiter/ hiring manager is trying to trip them up or put them in an awkward position, but at the end of the day it’s really about getting to know the person so that I can make the best hiring decision for the job opening.”

 

The actual strengths and weaknesses you bring up probably matter less than how you talk about them. “I’ve done a ton of interviews over the years and when pressed for it, I can’t really remember the answers. That doesn’t mean the questions aren’t important at all, it’s just that what an interviewer is evaluating likely goes deeper. We are trying to understand what kind of employee you’d be and how you’d carry yourself in the role.”

For me it’s: Are they honest?? Can they own their stuff in a professional and mature way? Is this someone that will grow with the company? How they answer those 2 questions tell me a lot about the person.

 

OK, that’s all great in theory, but what do you actually need to do to discuss your strengths and weaknesses successfully?

 

Be Honest 

An answer that sounds genuine and authentic will impress, while one that sounds generic, calculated, and exaggerated will do the opposite. A boss doesn’t want to hire someone who can’t recognize and own what they bring to the table and what they need to work on. You’ll be a better employee if you can understand and leverage your strengths and acknowledge and learn from your weaknesses. So, you want to show in the interview that you’re capable of that kind of self-reflection.

 

Share a Story 

“Show, don’t tell.” Anytime you can have a real-life work example it’s a good idea. It just helps to contextualize the response a little bit, “We just understand concepts and situations better with a story. Talk about a time your strength helped you achieve something in a professional setting or when your weakness impeded you.

 

Remember to Get to the Insight 

An answer that’s genuine and includes an illustrative anecdote is a great start, but it’s not complete until you address the “so what?” When you’re talking about a strength, the last beat of your answer should tie whatever skill or trait you’ve been discussing to the role and company you’re applying for. Tell the interviewer how that strength would be useful in this job at this company. In the case of a weakness, “Really showcase your growth trajectory, you’re learning curve, what you’ve done as a result of the awareness of that weakness, it’ll help the interviewer understand how you’d approach problem-solving and professional growth in this new job.

 

You don’t have to devote half of the interview to these answers. You can keep your response relatively brief and focused on one or two strengths and /or weaknesses. Think quality, not quantity. Don’t dive in and rattle off a litany of things you think you’re good or bad at without explaining anything. Instead, narrow it down and go into detail.

While you definitely want to prepare and do your best to nail your answers, try not to stress too much. Be yourself and do your research on the job that you are interviewing for.

 

Come to The Job Forum Wednesday evenings on Zoom to practice discussing your best and strongest features. Talk with our career experts from local Bay Area companies who are there to advise and support you in your job search. Sign up on Eventbrite for customized help, free on Wednesday evenings: https://thejobforumwednesdays.eventbrite.com.

 

Written by Cindy Fassler – cmfassler@gmail.com

Job Forum Youth Program: Workforce the Future – Tips and ideas from Good professions for Young People to Consider

At a recent Job Forum event to help young students consider opportunities to pursue for their future professions, The Job Forum talked in depth with a biotech executive, a finance company partner and a staffing and HR search professional, two managers from the education field, and a marketing manager who has her own company, working with large healthcare enterprises.

 

Tips for education opportunities:

Paths to take to get into teaching: There are two different main paths to teaching:  One is a teacher, where get your credential directly, including a series of classes and some testing that you take. The second path is a full Masters in Education. (You can get a teaching credential without getting your Masters). To get into the education field, you need a four year degree plus credentials, preferably the credentials plus a Master’s. And then you will go to “practice teaching”, and you take it from there.

Careers in education, please note, it’s not exclusive to teaching:

There are many kinds of paths; working with adults, working with students, coaching teachers as well as working with external company people like The Job Forum who want to reach young people and support the school system.

There are many different ways you can connect with your desire to be in education and so if you want to help others, be clear about that as your why to join the education field.

 

 Tips for Accounting and Financial Advising opportunities:

Accounting:

If you are going to select accounting, you will always have a job no matter what size the company is; small to Fortune, 1 million. Everybody needs an accounting department. Consider accounting, a job security career. To be in accounting you need to be a critical thinker and be a problem solver to analyze the data and numbers and solve a problem.

Accounting clerk: You can start off as an accounting clerk and work your way up to being a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). Accounting clerks, do not need a degree, and one suggestion is start off as an a contractor or an internship, learn accounts receivable and accounts payable, bank reconciliation, a little bit of payroll and calculator 10 Key and data entry. These are the basics for you to begin to move up the accounting ladder.

Bookkeeper: An assistant bookkeeper is a step above an accounting clerk. They post accounts receivable/ accounts payable. In the accounts payable arena, they might be responsible for collection. They prepare an “aging report” to let the company know how much money is outstanding, and what money that they need to call in, so that they can pay bills and staff. The” full charge bookkeeping” role, along with the accounts receivable, accounts payable, bank reconciliation, includes preparation of the financial statements. The financial statement tells where your company is in their financing.

Accounting assistant The next career step is an Accounting Assistant. The accounting assistant definitely needs a bachelor’s degree and as well as a certification.

Budget analysis: A budget person handles the analysis of all the financial records, all of the payroll, reviews the state and federal taxes, so that the company will not get an IRS claim.

Certified public accountant: CPA has to have a bachelor’s degree and pass the CPA exam. And it is not an easy exam. You can start off as an accountant, and learn all of the components of a certified accountant and be trained by the company’s existing certified accountant, while you are studying for your CPA exam Critical thinking part is crucial as a CPA, is the one who prepares the tax returns, working very closely with the Chief Financial Officer for the company’s wellness in the financial area.

 

Finance and financial advising: Financial services is a field that needs people. Only 600,000 financial advisors are left in the United States, yet the need for financial advice is greater than ever. Every company that advises folks about finances, from a small boutique firm to the big ones, the Morgan Stanley’s the UBS, are hiring financial advisors. They’ll provide the training, pay for training, pay for your licensing.  Here is the tip; the one skill set you have to have as a financial advisor, it’s the relationship first. You have to be an active listener, be authentic, be compassionate. Everyone’s got money concerns, you have to take that all in, listen and build out a financial plan for them. It is a rewarding and satisfying field.

 

Tips for Biotech opportunities:

There are so many jobs within biotech. Go into LinkedIn, or go directly to the career sites at Biotech companies, and look at job descriptions. This is the best way to figure out what matches your interest, (Genentech, Gilead, Merck) see what they’re hiring for.

Tip: Here are the buckets for jobs in Biotech:

G and A jobs which stands for general and admin tasks. If you’re passionate about health care, passionate about creating medicines, but you’re not on the scientific side, Biotech still needs IT support, HR functions, Finance and Accounting people, so you get to be part of that science and that mission. Biotech’s also hire a lot of general IT support desk individuals, and you can do IT systems for different lab equipment and get an IT lab based job.

Drug development process Jobs:

Research to develop what the molecules and drugs is key.  Biotech’s have Research Associates, and Research Technicians, (Research Technicians, don’t necessarily have to have a four year degree- associates will do). If you are interested in bio research, you can start working in an academic research lab, volunteer your time, start with a summer internships, any type of actual “hands on lab experience’ outside of college courses, is going to go a long way to distinguish you. There are lab managers that need lab coordinators, there are people who do the shipping of the molecule or drug.

Biotech has research program managers, and becoming a program management is a positive since that is a skill that that is in high demand.

Clinical trial technical operations group: After research people identify or create a molecule, it goes into a group called CMC (Chemical, Manufacturing and Controls), think of it as technical operations, it is where the drug is well characterized, is safe, and can be manufactured, packaged, labeled, and delivered to sites for clinical trials. There are quality control jobs where one defines the manufacturing process and makes sure the drug process is stringently consistently done. There are Quality Assurance people to make sure that the filing of documents is done correctly, all the necessary regulatory requirements are met. There are people who work with FDA partners and with the other government agencies that look to have the drugs approved.

Manufacturing and supply chain jobs: There are a lot of “entry level” jobs in manufacturing and supply chain. People interested in those are always in demand. Getting a drug produced and then out of manufacturing to the different areas is critical. Supply chain is really logistical and requires top organizing skills.

Clinical jobs: Once a drug molecule is designed, and is believed to have potential and makes it through manufacturing, biotech companies start running the clinical trials.  Entry level jobs for this require a four year degree, The jobs path are Clinical Trial Associate, which then leads to a Clinical Research Associate, and Clinical Trial Manager who oversees getting that drug into the clinic, making the different protocols, talking to the clinical sites and managing the clinical study.

Medical doctor and Pharma jobs: MD’s work at biotech companies and do the medical monitoring. They contribute to the company’s decisions from a doctor’s point of view. There are Pharma PhDs who may have a role in medical affairs or help with clinical research as well.

 

Tips for marketing job opportunities:

There are different paths to choose if you’re interested in the product marketing side at a company versus marketing and advertising as done at an advertising agency.

Creative jobs: if you’re really looking for a job on the creative side, where you create the actual marketing and advertising, then you’d best follow an ad agency route, doing creative development, that would be writing, designing, graphic arts, production.

Media and Direct Marketing: using media to generate demand is a science as well as marketing. Digital Advertising has the opportunity to use a lot of analytics to fine-tune the marketing messages and target.

Research: Marketing research is the field where market researchers’ study what people want and what people think about products and services.

Product marketing: The Product Marketing Manager is the business marketing strategist at the company, rather than at the ad agency, in charge of the key decisions for marketing the product.

Tip:

Recommend trying to get a marketing internship in any of the product or service areas that you’re interested in because there is marketing (and advertising) of everything in order to get it to the people who will use the product or service.

 

Here is who we met and from whom heard some good advice:

 

Amanda Santana works for Vir Biotechnology, that develops therapeutics for infectious disease (immunology, manipulation of our human body to create therapeutics). Amanda oversees a talent acquisition team for technical recruiting (anything for the scientific roles, manufacturing development, as well as the clinical such as MDs, and the people running clinical trials). Amanda says she came to the HR/Talent space via a nontraditional route. “I was a scientist for 10 years, then four years ago, I joined the HR team for recruiting, so you see I have been an entry level job seeker in biotech, wanting to get in and have made career changes to get here so I can share my tips”

 

Jonathan Nicholas is a partner at Pettinelli Financial Partners and has been in financial services for 20 years.  He is one of the hiring managers. Jonathon says, “I’m happy to be part of this panel advising young people because our industry is losing finance advisors. There is a great opportunity in finance. On a regular basis, more and more advisors have used COVID to retire early. And we’re not getting enough smart young people to consider our industry.  I am excited to share the potential for what financial services can offer a young person’s life.”

 

Cindy Fassler says “I have been an executive recruiter for over 20 years. I pivoted from being a full time executive recruiter to a career coach, which I absolutely love. It’s just in my DNA to always help people anyway and doing things such as these panel discussions and enlightening people in a new career is what I love to do. I will be sharing about accounting as one profession in the broad finances sector that young people can consider.”

 

Robin Raff, founder and CEO of Pulse Healthcare Marketing, is my small marketing agency.   She has rather large clients: Providence, Health and Services, Banner Health, and a couple of startups. Robin says: “I came out of advertising, I worked for most of the big ad agencies, and I had a stint at a large healthcare enterprise. At my marketing company we crank out a lot of marketing to help our clients so I can share about what is involved in marketing.”

 

Jenny Gibson, Workplace Learning Supervisor in SF Unified School District and the Office of College and Career Readiness. Jenny says,” I have been in the school system for 15 years, as a substitute and now as a supervisor. We do a lot of relationship work so that folks from companies can connect and engage with our youth and we facilitate partnerships so that industry partners can host our high school youth as interns.”

 

Karen Bioski-Simon is a supervisor in college and career readiness, and she has been in education field starting as a science teacher, mostly in high schools and worked in charter schools and in high schools and with adult incarcerated. Karen says, “I am excited to talk to folks who might be interested in joining education as it is a great career.”

The Job Forum’s “Workforce of the Future” Workshop Series for Young Career & Job Searchers

Many, if not most, young people are undecided about what kind of work, or careers, they want to pursue, or how to prepare for an effective job search.

 

With funding assistance from The Miranda Lux Foundation and in partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) College and Career Readiness Program, The Job Forum, has created a series of “Workforce of the Future” workshops for young (15-25 age) job seekers.

 

We had our first four youth program events in 2022 and we will continue the new program in 2023.  Each of the workshops leveraged the expertise of San Francisco Bay Area professions from companies such as Meta (Facebook), LinkedIn, UCSF, TEKsystems, and Exchange Bank to provide practical career and job search guidance and tools.

 

·      Introduction to Key Careers (e.g. Technology, Social Media, Healthcare, Banking) – COMPLETED August 25, 2022
   
·      Introduction to Key Professions (e.g. Marketing, Biotech, Education, Finance) – COMPLETED September 21, 2022
   
·      The Powerful Benefits of Informational Interviewing (15-25’s click link below to register) October 26, 2022
             https://benefitsofinterviewing.eventbrite.com

 

  
·      Developing Compelling Resumes and Cover Letters (15-25’s click link below to register) November 2, 2022
https://developingresumes.eventbrite.com

 

  
   

Comments from the first workshops include:

 

“This event was great and very informative!  I am glad I attended and want to thank everyone for their time and insights.”

 

“It was an unbelievable panel. Yeah. Yeah.”

 

“Yes, this was especially helpful. Before this meeting I didn’t know too much about Staffing Agencies. Now I am excited to work with one or more.”

 

“Thank you for all of the insights!”

 

“Yes, this was very insightful and very nice to put human faces on a whole industry that could be a great partner/asset in my career transition.”

 

“These sessions are great. Learning from people doing this every day is helpful.”

 

“ The managers from local companies make me feel like I can talk to adults and ask for their help and advice. This is an incredible way to broaden my thinking on what kind of study and work I might b find interesting for my own future”.

 

 

The Job Forum’s “Workforce of the Future” Workshop Series for Young Career & Job Searchers is a great new program

 

 

 

Roger Brooks

Market Research Consultant & Strategist, longtime Job Forum volunteer.

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