Originally published June 7, 2012 at 6:47 AM | Page modified June 7, 2012 at 10:51 AM
Young professionals get résumé, networking advice
As part of the Recession Generation series, The Seattle Times, in conjunction with NWJobs.com and the Community Forums Network, held a networking event for young professionals Wednesday night.
Seattle Times staff
About event co-sponsor Community Forums Network
The Community Forums Network (CFN) mission is to discover consensus on hot topics of the day and to share those insights with policy decision-makers. Now through June 17, CFN is asking the question, "what can be done to fix the young adult unemployment crisis?" As background, here is the press release for CFN's Round. CFN helped cater Wednesday night's event.
About event co-sponsor NWjobs.com
NWjobs.com features local and national job listings and stories that focus on workplace topics such as salaries and benefits and career advice from three bloggers (Natalie Singer, Randy Woods and Matt Youngquist). Each writes one post per week within their topics of expertise. The site also features an Events Calendar with listings for job fairs, workshops and networking opportunities.
The Recession Generation
In "The Recession Generation," The Seattle Times explores the experiences of young people who entered the job market during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
To tell the story, we conducted an informal, online survey of students who graduated in 2005 from three Puget Sound-area high schools where the economic and racial diversity is similar to state averages: Hazen in Renton, Shorecrest in Shoreline and Sammamish in Bellevue.
We want to hear from you
ILLUSTRATION BY BOO DAVIS / THE SEATTLE TIMES
This project is intended to be the start of an ongoing conversation. Submit your own story, upload a video.
Coming of age in hard times
Punching below our weight
Empty nest no more
Financial advice for young grads
How do you feel about today's job market?
Join the discussion: What one word best describes how you feel about today's job market?
"Build your network before you need it."
"If you don't have a lot of work experience, list your professional associations on your résumé."
Those tips and many more were offered by professional career counselors at a networking event for young professionals Wednesday night. The event, a part of the Seattle Times' Recession Generation series, was held in conjunction with NWJobs.com and the Community Forums Network.
Job-finding experts gave some general advice and then led small-group sessions aimed at improving résumé, setting career goals and succeeding at networking.
Bill Gregory, a career officer at Bastyr University, gave a presentation entitled "Expanding Opportunities by Talking about Your Unique Competencies." Gregory also does career counseling through www.workfinding.com, which broadens the ways in which job and career searches market themselves and overcome obstacles.
Sonja Price, career coach for Dynamo Careers, provided networking tips as well as résumé critiques.
When making contact at a networking event, Price suggested asking "What are you passionate about?" instead of "What do you do?" Don't deliver a business card to everyone in the room, she said. Instead, choose a handful of people to make real connections with. "Be authentic," she said.
Attendees also had the opportunity to meet with multilingual HR specialist Seia Milin, who, while working at Microsoft and Fluke Corporation, recruited undergraduate, graduate and Ph.D. students from top colleges. Milin provided résumé critiques.
Event co-sponsor Community Forums Network used the opportunity to raise awareness about its current project: "How do we fix young adult unemployment?" Carrie Shaw, the group's executive director, said some 1,500 survey responses have been received, and that they plan to release a consensus report by the end of July.
Among the preliminary findings, Shaw said, is that older, skilled workers are competing for entry-level jobs, making it touch for young workers to get started.
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