ajcjobs > BlogBreak > Archives > 2006 > March
March 2006
Broken health care system?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The U.S. Health Care System has been declared to be broken and in need of a complete makeover from ground zero.
A recent Google search indicates that there are at least 7.5 million entries on the internet that support this position.
Job projections continue to indicate that the health care sector will be one of the strongest areas for job growth in the upcoming decade.
Whether you are a baby boomer who realizes that you will be a growing consumer of health care in the near future; a current health care professional working in the “broken” system; or a prospective health care professional of the future.
You have to consider the impact that maintaining the status quo or building a new system from the ashes of the old will have on your life and career opportunities.
If you had a crystal ball, what do you think will happen? Will we bite the bullet and make the changes needed or will the system blunder along into the future in a gradual deterioration?
Either of these scenarios will have a direct impact on the health care job market of the future.
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Every coin has two sides
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is true about our strengths and our weaknesses. Consider asking yourself what you are most proud of in your career?
For me, it was an easy answer. I built my business on a meager amount of start-up money and now enjoy a thriving business 16 years later.
On one side of the coin, you might believe that I was “tenacious” and therefore committed to my success at all costs. In this light, tenacity could be considered a strength.
On the other side of the coin, you might also deduce that I was too “stubborn” to accept failure. This is also true and it reframes my strength as a potential weakness since I put myself through years of personal challenges to make my business succeed.
My advice is to learn the value of your strengths in your own career. Before launching your job search, make sure to craft a resume that communicates your strengths by highlighting prior success stories.
Be aware, though, of how a core strength may also become a weakness.
Not only will you likely be asked to reveal your greatest weakness in an interview, if you are clever you can demonstrate how this weakness is also one of your greatest strengths.
Understanding both sides of this ‘coin’ may help you earn more of them in your next job!
Women returning to work
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An overlooked talent resource? As the labor shortage continues to heat up, companies are seeking innovative and non-traditional solutions to securing the proper talent for their business employment needs.
It pains me when I see hiring managers pass over resumes of women desiring to return to work after they have left the workforce for any period of time whether to have children and be an at-home mom, or become a trailing spouse to their husband’s career.
I was at a dinner party recently, and I was sitting next to a woman whom I will call Cindy, whose husband is an executive of a global upscale hotel chain.
She talked about how his career caused their family to move from city to city over the last twenty years. They were finally settling down permanently in Atlanta and her children were in college.
This seemed like a perfect time to jump-start her postponed caree - she had a masters degree in industrial psychology and worked for a few years before she married and had children.
The problem was that most companies wanted to see a resume but she felt she had nothing to put on a resume since she had been a stay at home mom for so long. What did Cindy have to offer? What were her marketable skills?
After further conversation, I discovered that Cindy’s life experiences are very transferable, but you have to connect the dots to market yourself to hiring employers.
Here are some of her transferable skills that would be very useful to the right company:
Logistics expertise - after having moved her family seven different times from one city to another, she was an expert in handling logistics from interviewing and selecting the proper moving/relocation company to settling moving insurance claims.
Management skills - as a mother of three children each with different personalities and talents, Cindy had honed her management skills to motivate each to be the best that they could be. All of her children were successful in school and one was an aspiring Olympic gymnastics athlete.
Time management - each of Cindy’s children had different and complex schedules to be managed by her. She became an expert in multi-tasking schedules, transportation logistics, and recruiting resources to help her manage multiple busy schedules.
Organizational skills - Cindy was very active in civic affairs and was named the committee chair for several different volunteer groups over the years. She was routinely active as a board member of the PTA as well as the YWCA which she was able to connect with when moving to a new and strange city.
Leadership skills - Being named chair of a group by her peers demonstrates that others view her as an effective leader.
Relationship skills - This is probably Cindy’s greatest strength. As their family moved from city to city, Cindy would immediately determine how to best integrate her family into new social settings whether it was getting involved with school or non-profit associations.
The skills that Cindy has used in her life are what every company seeks along with the maturity to know how to make things work.
Wake up hiring managers and smell the coffee!! Here is a talent pool that is that can be a solution to a shrinking talent pool…give somebody a break!
More cuts: GM to lay off hundreds of U.S. workers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
General Motors Corp. announced today that it is laying off several hundreds of U.S. salaried workers in order to restore profitability within its North American operations.
According to The Associated Press, GM spokesman Robert Herta cannot provide an exact amount of lay offs ‘but said the cuts involve fewer than 500 workers at 30 locations across the United States, including factories and engineering centers.’
This is the second time GM has slashed jobs this year.
Read the full story here.
Does this announcement impact you? Does it mean big changes for Atlanta?
How can I land a job with an Employer of Choice?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s never been more important to ask yourself that question!
Plan for it before you start taking or looking for job interviews.
Organizations know that it’s time to become an Employer of Choice if they intend to hire and retain the best talent AND be successful in today’s economy.
Learn what an Employer of Choice is about and put together your strategy for landing in such an organization by reviewing these sites:
- Becoming an Employer of Choice
- A Journey to Excellence with The Disney Institute
- Choose the right employer
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The view from a cube
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Welcome to ajcjobs’ first ever blog!
We are pleased to announce that you can find the latest Atlanta career news and developments here. We hope that you enjoy reading this blog and possibly post a comment or two.
We have selected a number of local career experts to participate in this group blog because we hope that you will appreciate their experiences and advice.
Having said that, the main story in this Sunday’s Job section is about different office environments.
The story explores that fact that companies are now trying to jazz up their offices to boost creativity and comfort.
I don’t know about you but I have worked in some pretty boring work places. Do you know of any groovy offices in Atlanta? Has your company stepped up its efforts to revitalize its offices?
Do you find cubicles comforting or confining? Are you encouraged to personalize yours, or do the corporate masters frown on expressions of individuality? What’s life like in your cubicle city?
Margot King
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
President/CEO, OnSite Recruit
Margot King is the Founder and CEO of OnSite Recruiting Solutions, LLC, an Atlanta based professional services firm that specializes in recruiting strategy and execution in the mid to executive level hiring.
She is also the creator, producer and host of Job Talk, a nationally syndicated radio talk show about career empowerment.
Margot has had 25 years experience in the human resource consulting business and is a nationally recognized pioneer in the concept of on-site recruitment and retention solutions.
She was the former founder and CEO of Select Resource, a national human resource consulting firm with more than 80 full time consultants working on-site with Fortune 500 clients globally.
The business model and processes she developed has attracted a blue chip clientele like General Motors, Rockwell International, Hewlett-Packard, Accenture and others where companies outsourced part or all of their recruitment management responsibilities to her company.
As Margot says, “When a company invites you into their home and asks you to stay for years, you have to be doing something right.”
Select Resource was acquired at the end of 1999 and was part of one of the largest private equity funds ever raised in the Southeast through Cravey, Green, and Walden.
In addition to running her company, OnSite Recruiting Solutions, Margot is a sought after speaker for professional and business function, and has been a contributing writer/columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Atlanta Woman magazine.
Margot has been very active with non-profit endeavors serving on the advisory board of the Women’s Commerce Club; the advisory board of the Atlanta Women’s Network; a member of National Association of Women Business Owners; a certified woman-owned business member of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council; is a member of the Society of Human Resource Management and is the 2005-6 Chairperson for their fund-raising signature event; Member’s Guild of the Atlanta History Center; Steering Committee for the Board of Visitors of the Henry Grady Health Center.
Margot and her husband, Jerry Watkins have been residents of Atlanta, Georgia for over twenty-five years, and have a daughter who is a practicing attorney in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Jennifer B. Kahnweiler
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Founder and owner of AboutYOU, Inc
Jennifer B. Kahnweiler, Ph.D. is founder and owner of AboutYOU, Inc., an Atlanta based firm specializing in providing career management expertise to professionals, organizations and the media.
She has over 25 years experience in consulting across a wide range of industries and has helped thousands of individuals resolve their career challenges.
As an active faculty member of the American Management Association and an instructor in Emory University’s Institute for Professional Learning, Jennifer delivers a wide array of highly regarded career development and leadership courses.
Dr. Kahnweiler has been an internal consultant for GE Capital, AGL Resources and the U.S. Dept. of Education.
External consulting assignments have included projects with Turner Broadcasting, the Coca-Cola Company and the Department of Homeland Security.
As Vice President of Manchester, an international human resources consulting firm, she delivered and marketed programs to senior executives.
Earlier in her career, Jennifer was Director of Career Development and Placement at the University of Cincinnati.
She collaborated with Catalyst to create one of the first firms in the country to offer nationwide career assistance to relocating dual income families.
Jennifer is co-author with Dr. Bill Kahnweiler of a highly regarded book for HR professionals called Shaping Your HR Role: Succeeding in Today’s Organizations (Elsevier, 2005), a results driven guide for crafting a successful HR career.
As a media expert, Dr. Kahnweiler writes the Advisor column in the award winning Navigator section of AARP The Magazine and the biweekly career column for the national Society for Human Resource Management’s website.
She has been a featured career expert on the national T.V. show, Movie and a Makeover on WTBS and has hosted radio shows in Atlanta and Cincinnati.
In addition to being a keynote speaker for many local and national organizations, Jennifer has been published in over 20 trade and professional publications and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, NY Times and Washington Post among others.
Dr. Kahnweiler earned her Ph.D. in Counseling and Human Systems from Florida State University.
She received her Masters in Counseling and Bachelors in Sociology from Washington University, St. Louis. She holds Master Career Counselor (MCC), National Certified Counselor (NCC) and Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) certifications and has served on the boards of the National Career Development Association (NCDA) and the Georgia Executive Women’s Network.
She was awarded the Outstanding Career Practitioner of the Year by NCDA in 2005 and has been deemed a “world class expert” by AMA.
Jennifer is on the Lunch with a Leader fundraising event committee of SHRM-Atlanta and is a volunteer ESL tutor at the Sandy Springs Adult Education Center.
Visit her website at www.aboutyouinc.com or www.myhrsuccess.com or contact her at jennifer@aboutyouinc.com.
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David N. Bennett
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Chair, WellStar School of Nursing, Kennesaw State University
Dr. David Bennett is a Professor of Nursing and Chairman of the WellStar School of Nursing at Kennesaw State University in Marietta, Georgia.
He holds a PhD in Higher Education and Administration, a Masters in Nursing with emphasis in Diabetes and Endocrinology and Bachelors degrees in Nursing and Biology.
His current role is primarily administrative but he continues to teach the skills of physical examination to undergraduate students, leadership courses to graduate students and maintains a clinical practice in local health clinics.
Dr. Bennett has been involved in the local community as the co-founder of several clinics for the homeless and disadvantaged.
Dr. Bennett is bilingual in Spanish and English and the clinics he helped begin in the Cobb County area now serve a population made up of 66% Latino immigrants most of whom only speak Spanish.
He also leads study abroad programs to Mexico to allow nursing students the opportunity to learn Spanish, work in the Mexican healthcare system and study the history and culture of the country.
He co-teaches a program in Oaxaca, Mexico and recently initiated a program in Xalapa, Mexico to provide nurse practitioner students with clinical experiences in women’s health in Mexican hospitals and clinics.
He also co-developed a similar program in comparative health policy with the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.
His research interests include the experience of men in nursing education and the development of community clinics to promote health care of the disadvantaged and undocumented immigrants.
Dr. Bennett has presented nationally and regionally on the success of nurse-managed clinics as sites for faculty practice, student clinical experience and as a service to the community.
He has also published articles related to his research interests and community development experiences.
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Niketa Patel
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Online Content Producer
Niketa Patel was hired to enhance online content, increase pageviews, site retention and revenue opportunities for ajcjobs.com.
She has been developing online content for 3 years, having held online positions with Media General and Morris Digital Works in the past.
She specializes in creating interactive multimedia, such as message boards, blogs, forums/chats, video reports and audio slideshows.
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Chandra Fox
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Vice President, e-resume.net, Athens, Ga.
Chandra has played a key role in the growth and leadership of e-resume.net, the leading resume writing company on the Internet.
In addition, she has written articles for top job sites on the topics of interviewing, resumes, cover letters, negotiations and employment.
Her insights and articles have made the employment search easier and less frightening for job seekers throughout the world.
Prior to her position with e-resume.net, she worked with large multi-national companies including Con-Agra Foods and Georgia-Pacific.
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Kimberly Guelcher
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Assistant Director, Alumni Career Services, Georgia State University
Kimberly Coleman Guelcher is currently the Assistant Director, of Alumni Career Services at Georgia State University.
She has experience as a recruiter and in higher education as a career services professional, advising diverse college student and alumni populations for more than a decade.
Prior to moving to Atlanta in 2004, Kimberly worked at the University of Kentucky Career Center in Lexington, as well as Sullivan University, Lexington campus and the Louisville Technical Institute.
Throughout her career, she has taught professional development courses at the University level, advised and lectured students and alumni on a wide array of career related issues, managed educational outreach programs and organized efforts to create an ongoing professional recognition program for young professionals, as a co-founder of the Lexington Young Professionals Association.
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Leonard Rothman
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Executive Business Coach & Diversity Consultant
Len has an extensive corporate and non-profit background with more than 20 years of senior management experience in management, sales, marketing and a variety of diversity initiatives.
He works as a corporate and small business executive coach, and diversity management
consultant.
He consulted with several Fortune 500 companies in the implementation of their corporate-wide diversity management initiative, which included coaching and strategic planning with senior management, the creation and implementation of the Diversity Action Council and the delivery of diversity training. Also, he has been a presenter of diversity workshops at national conferences.
He owns a business coaching firm that uses Action International’s systems and process to help business owners create a better business and a better life.
For six years, he developed and co-facilitated an on-going series of multicultural community-based initiatives in collaboration with metro-Atlanta service providers and non-profit organizations.
During his career, Len has provided consulting services in organizational development, diversity management, conflict resolution and youth, family and community management. He has years of experience with his own training in group dynamics, psychotherapy and conflict resolution for organizations, community groups, families and couples.
Len credits his passion for and effectiveness in executive business coaching and consulting with matters of diversity to his own participation in many weeklong experiential multicultural retreats.
Len holds an MBA from Wharton Graduate School, an MA in psychology and organizational development from the State University of West Georgia, and Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.
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Gayle Oliver
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
President/CEO of Execume
Founder and CEO of EXECUME Corporation, Gayle Oliver is a national resume writing expert, career consultant, recruiter, and author of a leading book called EXECUME - It’s More Than A Resume, It’s A Reflection of You.
Recognized as an authority on resumes,
Gayle has earned national acclaim that has resulted in expert quotes, articles, and book reviews in major news publications including
Atlanta Journal & Constitution, Atlanta Business Chronicle, Investor’s Business Daily, and LA Times.
Gayle has been a guest on multiple television and radio programs including Star 94 Steve & Vikki Morning Show and Career Doctors.
In addition to consulting job seekers on how to find the job of their dreams, Gayle is also an experienced recruiter who serves employers by expediting and adding value to the hiring process through laser-focused and strategic candidate sourcing.
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Gary Wheeler
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
President & CEO of Human Resource Business Partner Consultant, LLC
Gary Wheeler owns a HR Consulting practice, Human Resource Business Partner Consultant, LLC and is an Action International Business Coach.
Prior to becoming a business owner, Gary spent 24-years at United Parcel Service
(UPS) working in various assignments that include operations, Industrial Engineering
and Human Resources (HR).
Nineteen of the 24-years were spent in HR which encompassed everything from strategic planning to compliance.
Gary received his undergraduate degree and completed the Executive MBA program at the University of Maryland University College (UMUC).
He also holds a Master’s Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University, and four HR certifications; Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR), Certified Compensation Professional (CCP), and Certified Benefits Professional (CBP).
Gary is currently serving as the Vice Chair on the Atlanta Community Food Bank Board, The WorldatWork Compensation Advisory Board and the Board for SHRM-Atlanta.
Gary served as President of SHRM-Atlanta in 2005 and was member of the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) Board from 2002 2005.
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