Diana Orantes is a Senior District manager in group health specialist at ADP.

Her goal is to help small business owners find a great solution for their human resource, payroll and health benefit needs.

Something impressive about Diana is that she has been promoted 3 times in just two and a half years with her current company.

How did she become such a “go getter”?

 

The Job Forum gives you a great start

Diana says, “A big influence on my life and on my career was the volunteering I started doing as a high school student with The Job Forum.

I remember that my tasks as a volunteer were to get more people to come to The Job Forum, to learn how to make cold calls, to follow up, place postings and messages about The Job Forum within various career related organizations.

But what I was really learning was broad and specific skills like these:

– the importance of following up with people

– how to make connections over the phone

– how to get referrals

– how to become a great networker

– how to be able to make outbound cold calls

I felt scared at first but working with the Job Forum leaders and volunteering, The Job Forum gave me more confidence in myself.

I became educated in how to be a service to help others.

This has turned out to be extremely valuable because it translates to my confidence and my ability to do my consultative sales job well today!”

 

Diana attributes getting her college job to her experience at The Job Forum too. She was employed at University of SF in their career center during her college years.

 

Early Job Boost from The Job Forum

 

When Diana landed her job at ADP she explains, “I was worried because I didn’t know how to talk to business owners. I didn’t know how to be a useful and valuable consultant to them. I didn’t know very much about what they had to consider – such as compliance rules and regulations, the development and following through on employee handbooks, so I thought I’ll go back and see who to talk to at The Job Forum.”

 

There, she says she was so fortunate to meet Job Forum member, Brian Kuepper who took some of his time and “mentored“ her.

 

“He runs a business helping small business people and he is so insightful about how to work with business owners. He is a real teacher.  He explained so much about a range of different types of businesses (for example a restaurant owner may need an HR department and hire many people and need to do background checks whereas another company might be a one employee company).

It allowed me to imagine their businesses and know so much more about how to begin talk with them. He also advised me to join various networking groups and told me just the right type of groups to join in addition to regularly coming to The Job Forum.”

 

Diana gratefully acknowledges that Brian introduced her to the CPA he works with too so she could do an informational interview with that very helpful business person as well.

 

She says “All this advice and networking is so valuable and wonderful and you can’t get it anyplace as fully as you can at The Job Forum because of the breadth of managers who volunteer there !”

 

How others can benefit from The Job Forum

Diana says:

“I believe any adult or young person can go to The Job Forum and find ways they will help you too! They can help to speed up your progress as they have helped me!

One great networking contact from the Job Forum gets you started and can lead you to another! That is how I’m managing my career ”

 

Join the Job Forum

Offer to work as a volunteer or intern (in social media or marketing or research) or come to The Job Forum sessions every Wed evening to meet Bay Area managers who are there giving their time to help!

 

From time to time The Job Forum has special events focused primarily on career management (next one coming up is in Feb 2023) but you can come now to any Job Forum Wed night to discuss your career!

 

Volunteer!

Wednesday Meetings

 

Interview with Diana Orantes by Janet Beach 

October 2022

How we Discovered the Fascinating 70 year History of The Job Forum and our founder

 

From Holocaust Roots to the Bay Area to help job hunters

 

I’m Janet Beach. Since 1980 I have been a Job Forum volunteer, helping unemployed people find their next job via The Job Forum.

 

Quite a few years back now, I answered my office phone and heard a deep baritone voice say, “I’m Robert Ronald. I believe I am the person who started The Job Forum organization that you now run.”

This sounded very intriguing….and was surprising to me.

 

At The Job Forum, we had not- at that point- known who really was the originator of The Job Forum. (We had known plenty of volunteers who kept The Job Forum going and who work tirelessly to help those who are out of work.)

 

Robert was persuasive with details of the Job Forum start-up tale and about his long-time interest in helping people who are out of work. He commented about the importance of one’s job for a satisfying and useful life.

 

After that first phone call, we met for lunch and Robert told me some of his life story.

He described his harrowing escape as a young Jewish boy, fleeing, along with his family, from Germany and the Holocaust. He painted the picture of how they emigrated to France and all the dangers there and then their  good fortune in getting to go on to Cuba.

Later, he was able to make the journey to the USA and then went on to found a company here in the Bay Area.

 

That first day, Robert brought with him to lunch, the original 1952 flyer of the very first Job Forum Meeting he created in San Francisco. That is a treasure!

 

The Job Forum organization was started when he was only 26 years old. The mission then, as it still is today, was to help people here in the Bay Area, who were searching for work, unemployed or had to change careers.

 

Robert’s insight was this:

In order to get jobs, people first need to meet people, get their advice and benefit from their referrals into local companies! 

 

Robert Ronald, when age 26, organized The Job Forum to meet that need!

 

In 1952, for that very first Job Forum meeting, volunteers began helping job hunters. Robert invited managers to be the advisors who were from Pacific Telephone and Telegraph, Standard Oil, The Emporium Department Store and the Guy Atkinson company, a national highway and bridge construction company.

 

By his insight and inspiring effort, Robert had set up The Job Forum which still today answers a compelling societal need!

 

Now, so many decades later, and at the first meeting with me, Robert said he was quite startled and very delighted to hear about The Job Forum on the Ron Owens radio show on KGO Radio.

I was one frequent guest on KGO, doing “ real time” job search advice over the radio to job hunters who called in and got advice on-air.

 

On KGO, we invited job hunters from around the San Francisco Bay Area to come to The Job Forum meetings in order to meet Bay Area managers who are willing to help job hunters with job search.

 

KGO was a great way to “get the word out” about The Job Forum that was available to help the unemployed or the miserable with services to get a new job.

 

Robert said that when he heard that KGO radio discussion, he instantly and excitedly knew that “yes, this must be the organization”, the one he had founded decades before!

 

That first lunch began a warm friendship and partnership with Trish and Robert Ronald where they attended Job Forum Events and met many of the Job Forum longtime volunteer advisors and leaders. (including Tom Toy, Penni Hudis, Brent Green, Roger Brooks, Bill Pollak, and more).

 

A decade ago Robert and Trish made a donation that allowed The Job Forum non-profit to continue our work helping those who need this service because they are out of work.

 

Nobody running The Job Forum is paid. (We do have one part timer as our assistant). We run the non-profit by volunteering but of course any nonprofit needs an operating budget to function!

 

The Job Forum needs support and donations to continue our Bay Area valuable service to help job hunters get back to work! Please donate!

 

Robert Ronald was an innovative leader and insightful man who was proud to have created The Job Forum.

 

He always referred to the Job Forum organization as “His Legacy” He was so happy and gratified that his effort back so many years earlier, is still helping people who so urgently need help so many decades and thousands of job hunters later!!

 

The job hunters who come to the weekly Job Forum sessions, come to the SF Bay Area looking for jobs from around 27 countries, or have just moved here from 16 cities around the US and also include Bay Area people who are local job hunters who come from every local Bay Area community.

 

We now meet via weekly zoom webinars.  The Job Forum has more than 100 managers ready to advise and help and brainstorm and make referrals to help those who are out of work. The job hunters usually know nobody here in the Bay Area or know nobody in the field in which they want to get work.  They need to meet people who can help them in a variety of concrete ways to speed up their journey to employment.

 

At The Job Forum they meet managers from a broad range local companies who volunteer as advisors and who actively help them during the meetings and in follow up sessions.

 

Robert created a wonderful organization that certainly adds to the SF Bay Area quality of life. The Job Forum helps people when they are most needy and discouraged and urgently need to land the next job!

 

Most people do not know that, nowadays, Job search is 50 times harder and more complex than it used to be back when Robert Ronald was creating The Job Forum or whenever you last got started on your own job search.

 

As Robert would say, it is better that we teach people to fish rather than only give them a fish!

 

This year Robert Ronald passed away at age 96.

 

We have launched the Robert Ronald Job Forum Memorial Fund to honor him and continue the good work.

 

Robert’s life is a remarkable life! We count ourselves fortunate to have known Robert!

 

Robert‘s insight and founding of The Job Forum has resulted in 70 years of the Job Forum helping job hunters.

 

We hope we can continue The Job Forum as a way to help those who so need help getting work and we honor Robert Ronald, The Job Forum founder by doing so!

 

Help by making your donations to the 501c3 nonprofit in order to continue The Job Forum for future decades serving job hunters here in San Francisco Bay Area. Donate here.

 

Thank you,

Janet Beach

Chairman and Executive Director of The Job Forum and volunteer

Zach Tang began volunteering with The Job Forum in his sophomore year of high school when he was only 16 years old. He came to The Job Forum via the SF police department “Future Grads” program.

 

The Job Forum launched a new program this year called Workforce for the Future, for Young people who are 15-25, to learn about career options and start to learn some vocational skills that will help them be prepared for their futures. This program is partially supported by a grant from The Miranda Lux Foundation and by individual donors who give to the Job Forum fund celebrating 70 years of The Job Forum.

 

Zach is pleased to hear about the new program and has some information to share about job search and what young people can do to figure out where they want to work. He says he experienced that because of his job forum experience he learned it is beneficial to start learning about career options while in high school and to get ready for looking for work.

 

Zach’s story: 

Zach worked at The Job Forum doing cold calling and outreach to build relationships and renew Job Forum contacts with the junior colleges and universities in the Bay Area. Zach says the goal was to get the brand of The Job Forum out there and encourage students – via their career centers – we want people to come to Job Forum programs and learn how to do a proper job search and meet business people who volunteer helping job hunters. At the time Zach started volunteering, he was in high school. He had never done telephone outreach and he was certainly not experienced talking to adults about a service they should look into.

 

Zach says one of the most important things he’s learned is to be willing to take a risk. What if they didn’t talk to him on the phone? What if they said no? So what? He learned and decided to put his best efforts into it. He asked questions about what would be helpful to the career services at the universities, and he listened and learned their points of view as well as shared the details about The Job Forum free services. One of the lessons he learned is that he could quickly become more skilled at speaking in a professional way. He could be more comfortable around adults whom he did not know.

 

Zach’s tips:

Zach says “It’s good to be around adult professionals at an early age because you can learn how to relate more naturally with them. After all, these are the same people who may be hiring you in the future!” He explains, “It’s really important to learn how to have an in-depth conversation and how to gain confidence about just talking with adults in many fields and walks of life.” Zach says his tip for high school and college students is:

“Go to The Job Forum to gain experience and practice having proper work-related conversation in a professional way. At the same time, you will be getting to know kind adults who want to help you succeed.”

 

As an intern, Zach got to attend many Job Forum events with adult job seekers.

He says this is also valuable. Zach came to the Job Forum events and learned about many job titles and careers he had not known much about. He learned how adults who are looking for jobs organize their thoughts and that they have plenty of job strategies to learn too!

 

He says, “I heard firsthand what their questions often are and heard how they process the priorities and the steps for a job search.”

 

Zach says “I got a birds-eye view and kind of a behind-the-scenes look at what adults go through. I understood better what different careers are available and heard of different job titles I had not ever known about! I heard the job hunters asking questions, so I was really seeing into the thought process of people who were in the middle of a job search. I also got another real benefit; I heard the excellent advice that the volunteers at The Job Forum give to Job Hunters. That was really so valuable. I wrote down key information so I would remember it and use it when it got time for me to look for a job.”

 

Zach’s career choice: 

Zach is now focused on a career in construction engineering. He went to a career fair and talked with companies. He has four interviews coming up and feels confident he will meet interesting people and find a great company and team to join. He thanks the volunteers at The Job Forum for the chance to learn and get experience being professional.

 

 

If you want to support our new  “Workforce for the Future” initiative and 70 years of The Job Forum, go to our donate page.

If you want to get involved please visit our volunteer page.

It is a great pleasure to share Mansi Gandhi’s success story as a job hunter and volunteer.

I had the opportunity to work with Mansi on several occasions while she was a volunteer with the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Job Forums Administrative Assistant and Social Media guru. We worked on The Job Forum newsletter, creating flyers for events and company outreach projects.

Mansi was a real go getter she knew one way to make contacts and gain experience was to volunteer.  Mansi created a profile and started to apply for volunteer positions with Red Cross, Volunteer Match, and many other sights. She was referred to The Job Forum by a work colleague.

Her first volunteer job was at African People’s Defense and Education Fund (APDEF). Mansi was part of their social media team and was responsible for content creation.  After several months of volunteering at The Job Forum as a Social Media Strategist and attending The Job Forum meetings, she learned from experts the best way to find a job.

Mansi says “Working directly with Janet Beach, helped me build confidence which I never knew I had. She always supported me with learning new skills and encouraged my innovative ideas beyond my expectations. I truly admire her and have found an amazing mentor”.

Volunteering at The Job Forum helped her to build confidence, stay active and productive. It also helped her realize her true potential and build a solid foundation for the next phase of my career.

“Being part of The Job Forum team led to learning career tips, strategies, resume review and interviewing tips from our variety of marvelous volunteers from a diverse background of SF based companies is a valuable experience that you just can’t get anywhere else but from The Job Forum of San Francisco.”

Personally, Mansi wanted me to share these tips with you if your job hunting.

A few things that I learned while I was volunteering:

• When thinking of a career change, volunteering lets you explore different industries. You get to know the employees, company culture, and also gain a better understanding of the roles and jobs available.
• It helps to practice your skills and develop new ones.
• Volunteering is the best way to expand your professional network. It gives you a chance to meet new people like board members, company HR Managers and other job seekers.
• By being a dedicated and effective volunteer, you can obtain a current reference and use this reference while applying for paid jobs.

Mansi continues volunteering at The Job Forum and says, “I cannot thank the Job Forum enough for the opportunities that it gave me to expand my career”.

 

The Job Forum is looking for other volunteers to help with fundraising proposals, interviews with job hunters to collect information on exactly how the Job Forum helped them, event planners to help create and run special events to help more job hunters, a volunteer for marketing analytics and volunteers to help other job hunters!

 

Please contact Janet Beach thejobforum.org if you want to volunteer and please make a donation to support our efforts to help job hunters!

 

 

By Cindy Fassler

Ex. Recruiter & Career Coach

Job Forum volunteer

Job hunters, we recommend you don’t overlook the wide range of good jobs and satisfying career opportunities at the Cities and Counties around the SF Bay Area region.

 

If you’re looking for a job in San Francisco, one great place to start is the San Francisco Human Services Agency (sfdhr.org) or

(https://smrtr.io/8HmWw)

 

There, they will help you get set up and listed in the City and County of San Francisco system so that you can hear from them about job opportunities, internships and full time job opportunities to be in a position to be able to consider them.

 

The Job Forum participates with these programs to help job hunters.

At the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) there are a number of jobseeker services that provide job training programs to residents for entry level positions in high growth industries.

 

These include construction, healthcare, hospitality and the technology sector. The programs integrate development of skills with support and jobs to place people in growing industries.

 

We at The Job Forum work with OEWD”s Healthcare Academy and have seen firsthand how they provide education, training and employment assistance to help both beginners and experienced healthcare professionals get the skills they need to become home health aides, medical administrative assistants, certified nursing assistants, medical or dental assistants, emergency techs and more.

 

The Job Forum works regularly with the TechSF program that OEWD and the non profit organization, JVS, provides for education, training and job assistance to the tech sector. The TechSF program gives opportunities to  those interested in a career in technology. (Techsf@ jvs.org) They have TechSF apprenticeships and a connector group called “TechSF Connect” where you can connect directly with tech sector employers. The Job Forum co- hosts and delivers valuable sessions for these initiatives of OEWD and of course The Job Forum has many volunteers who are working in companies around the Bay Area, inside technology companies and inside health care companies.

 

The Cities and Counties of our Bay Area region offer all sorts of part-time jobs as well as full time jobs, apprenticeships and training opportunities

 

For example, in San Francisco, an example of part time work is that you can be earning money while serving as a poll worker. The next two San Francisco elections that will need poll workers in SF are June 7 and November 8.

 

City and county governments offer 3 year project employment, temporary positions, part time positions, and lots of full-time career opportunities.

 

The range of departments to work in is impressive and the professional opportunities for you to consider are as well.

These range from technical and computer and IT responsibilities (for instance in the Dept of Technology or Dept of Public Works or at SFO) to scientific and environmental jobs (in Dept of Public Utililties Commission for water, power, and sewer) or for example you can do planning, real estate, maritime management, finance or engineering in your career at The Port of San Francisco (sfport.com/jobs).

 

If administrative jobs appeal to you or are your strength, one place to consider working is the Office of the Assessor – Recorder.  They are responsible for carrying out property tax related functions. The work of the Assessor’s office is important to the city and to the school district and you can work in careers in operations and property appraisal, in records recording, and transactions and in administrative support.

 

The first step is to get listed in the HR systems of the cites and counties here in The Bay Area. (You need to apply to be considered).

 

There are lots of opportunities for young people to learn about career pathways that will lead to stable incomes and interesting careers.

In the future The Job Forum will be creating a careers panel of experts from City and County governments to meet job hunters and and teens in order to make the process of understanding the City and County job opportunities even easier for motivated job hunters!