Hey there!
My name’s Meg Busse and I coordinate Idealist.org’s Nonprofit Career Transitions Initiative. The focus of my work is to find ways to connect people to and educate folks about the exciting, diverse range of career opportunities in the nonprofit sector.
My main project over this past year has been the creation of The Idealist Guide to Nonprofit Careers, a comprehensive guide to finding a job in the nonprofit sector. This free (!) book is available online in downloadable pdfs; check it out at www.idealist.org/careerguide. We’ve just finished the second edition: one version is specifically for first-time job seekers and the other has information tailored to sector switchers and mid-career transitioners.
Along with co-authoring these books, I present workshops around the country at conferences like NACE, NSEE, and ASPA, as well as at Idealist’s Nonprofit Career Fairs.
In fact, I spent this past week in Minneapolis and DC, and am heading to Indianapolis on Tuesday for three of our Nonprofit Career Fairs. It’s been thrilling to talk to so many people at our fairs who are looking for a “career with meaning” or some way to connect their paycheck and their passion. The best news is that there are so many ways for people to do this!
There are also plenty of other things I’m passionate about. I’ve lived in Portland, OR and Seattle, WA for the past five years and love the Pacific Northwest for a whole host of reasons, including great food, amazing music and hiking, and the fact that I could snowboard, swim, windsurf, walk on the beach, and take a vineyard tour all within the same day (if I had enough energy!). I love Portland, but I did grow up in New Jersey and am a Jersey girl through and through and always love to connect with fellow New Jerseyians.
I’m so excited to be back in New Orleans this May—it’ll be my second NACE national conference (I had the opportunity to present a workshop at last year’s conference in New York) and this year I’m excited to be exhibiting and roaming around trying to meet as many folks as possible! Do stop by and see me at booth 505 in the exhibit hall and share the nonprofit, west coast, or Jersey love!
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
The Big Easy is alive and thriving!
First of all, by the way of introduction, I'm Pam Webster, Corporate Recruiting Manager with Enterprise Rent-A-Car. I work at our corporate office in St. Louis where I've been in my current role for the past three years. Prior to moving to St. Louis, I spent 20 years with our Southern California operations where I began my career with Enterprise in our Management Training Program. I worked my way into management before moving into HR and Recruiting and have been involved in college recruiting for the past 19 years. I've been actively involved in WACE, then MPACE where I served on the board. I've been a member of NACE for many of those years and have served on the NACE Future Directions Task Force, and this year had the pleasure and honor of serving as a co-chair for the 2008 Conference Programming Committee.
I am now a NACE blogger, and am also a first time blogger............Steven, you may need to teach me a thing or two.
I'm actually in New Orleans as I write this blog, attending the American Marketing Association's 50th Annual Collegiate Conferece. I've spent the past two days getting to know some amazing students that are here for training and development in the chosen major of business and marketing, even with the tempt of Bourban Street just a few blocks away. I've been back to New Orleans several times a year since Katrina, and the city is getting back to the great city that New Orleans is. You will experience, great food, great music, great history and great hospitality! And guaranteed, you'll gain a few pounds while you're here. While you are here, make sure you head down to the Cafe Du Monde, an original french market since 1862, and taste the beignets, the state donut of Louisiana........and at a price you can't beat--three for $1.82.
If you've never been to New Orleans, you may have a difficult time understanding the city. It looks like no other place in the United States---it seems almost European.The first puzzling impression usually comes from the appearance of the French Quarter near many of the city's hotels. It is more than just a few blocks of townhouses and cottages standing side-by-side, up against the sidewalk. The size of the district startles even those well traveled in the rest of the nation. You'll experience a melange of people moving at all hours of the day and night in the very center of the city. You will quickly learn that bars have no closing hour (and I know how NACE folks love to party), that the food is spicy, and that the music is pulsating almost everywhere.
What's exciting to me about NACE 2008 in New Orleans, is an opportunity to work with the Area Habitat for Humanity, helping families realize their dream of affordable housing. More than 100 families have benefited since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. We've also got some great programming planned and of course the best networking where friends and colleagues can come together to catch up and share idea and have the opportunity to meet new friends along the way.
So, if you haven't made plans to attend the conference yet, we hope it will fit into your busy schedules and you can join us in New Orleans!
How to be a part of the Recovery!
Thanks to all our bloggers for jumping in!
And just a reminder, after reading Steves post of 4/4, that NACE has TWO work days scheduled with Habitat for Humanity. You can read all about the project here.
Dont think you can swing a hammer or hang drywall? ME neither....but I can wield a mean paintbrush if I need to.:)) Regardless, we can all do something. Even if it just means carrying water for another person, I can contribute.
I personally will be working on Saturday and promise we will all have a great time! Why not join the fun and help out!
And just a reminder, after reading Steves post of 4/4, that NACE has TWO work days scheduled with Habitat for Humanity. You can read all about the project here.
Dont think you can swing a hammer or hang drywall? ME neither....but I can wield a mean paintbrush if I need to.:)) Regardless, we can all do something. Even if it just means carrying water for another person, I can contribute.
I personally will be working on Saturday and promise we will all have a great time! Why not join the fun and help out!
Returning to New Orleans
One of the reasons that I'm excited about the NACE conference this year is that it is located in New Orleans. For those of us who had the good fortune of visiting New Orleans prior to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we know what an incredible city it was. There are so few cities in the world which are electric and New Orleans was definitely one of those. In the U.S., I would put New York, San Francisco, and Chicago into that same bucket.
I joined the board of the non-profit organization, Nechama: Jewish Response to Disaster, about four years ago. I flew down to Mississippi five days after Katrina to see what help we could be in helping people clean out their homes and small businesses. You couldn't get near New Orleans as it was still under water and the gulf coast from western Alabama all the way through Mississippi and Louisiana was absolutely devastated. There was too much damage and too little water, fuel, electricity, and security for us to attempt to help out in those areas. But I found that there was plenty of work and logistical support a little further north near Hattiesburg, Mississippi so we started there and as life started to return to normal or at least somewhat normal further south we moved down there. Nechama has gutted out dozens of homes in New Orleans since then and we're quite proud of the work that we've done there.
Today, New Orleans is again a vibrant city, especially in the tourist areas. But I urge all attendees of the conference to venture outside of the tourist areas. Go to some of the devastated areas and see first hand how terrible the flooding was and how much work remains to be done. This is a city that needs and deserves the help of all of us. Bringing NACE to New Orleans will help tremendously. Consider donating a day or even part of a day to the ongoing clean-up efforts. Consider contacting your federal political representatives to get the money flowing properly. But above all, come to NACE, enjoy New Orleans, and be part of the process in getting this proud and wonderful city back to 100 percent.
I joined the board of the non-profit organization, Nechama: Jewish Response to Disaster, about four years ago. I flew down to Mississippi five days after Katrina to see what help we could be in helping people clean out their homes and small businesses. You couldn't get near New Orleans as it was still under water and the gulf coast from western Alabama all the way through Mississippi and Louisiana was absolutely devastated. There was too much damage and too little water, fuel, electricity, and security for us to attempt to help out in those areas. But I found that there was plenty of work and logistical support a little further north near Hattiesburg, Mississippi so we started there and as life started to return to normal or at least somewhat normal further south we moved down there. Nechama has gutted out dozens of homes in New Orleans since then and we're quite proud of the work that we've done there.
Today, New Orleans is again a vibrant city, especially in the tourist areas. But I urge all attendees of the conference to venture outside of the tourist areas. Go to some of the devastated areas and see first hand how terrible the flooding was and how much work remains to be done. This is a city that needs and deserves the help of all of us. Bringing NACE to New Orleans will help tremendously. Consider donating a day or even part of a day to the ongoing clean-up efforts. Consider contacting your federal political representatives to get the money flowing properly. But above all, come to NACE, enjoy New Orleans, and be part of the process in getting this proud and wonderful city back to 100 percent.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Becky Vianden Introduction
Hello everyone!
I am excited to be a NACE Blogger! This is my first experience at blogging, and I'm sure it will be fun. Hopefully it will be fun (and of course educational) for those of you reading as well. :)
Currently, I am at the University of Arkansas Career Development Center, serving as Associate Director for Program Development. I'm fairly new in this position - just started in December 2007. My previous experience in Career Services has been as Associate Director of Informatics Career Services at Indiana University as well as some time with eCampusRecruiter as a Software Consultant.
There are several reasons why I was interested in becoming a blogger for the NACE conference, but one of the reasons stems from our attempt at using a blog here at the UA Career Development Center. This semester, we started a blog for our Sophomores, called the "Sophomore Scoop" to provide a place for sophomores to "discuss" career development "stuff" for students at that level (choice of major, internships, campus involvement, etc). We have a real Sophomore student as the blogger, presenting topics for discussion based on her experiences. We envisioned a blog where most of the student learning was coming from the comments that various students would make to the blog - kind of like discussion among the blogger and all those making comments to the blog. Being a blogger for NACE will, I hope, be a learning experience for me not only about NACE related information, but also about the process of blogging. I hope to learn some tips that we can apply to our own CDC blog about how to get those blog "conversations" going. (Any advice welcome!)
This will be my third national NACE Conference. One of my favorite aspects of attending the NACE conference is having the chance to learn about new ideas that are out there. If you're like me, I always feel renewed and refreshed after attending a conference because I see so many great ideas out there that are being done in other centers that I'm inspired to try some of those ideas as well. For example, in our center, we'd like to start a blog in the Fall where we follow a few seniors as they make their way through the job search. And wouldn't you know it, there is a session to be presented at the conference that details this very topic. I'm excited to see how this campus went about doing this, what their outcomes were, and if they'd do anything differently.
And of course, there's nothing better than meeting up with old friends and making new ones at the conference. See you in New Orleans!
I am excited to be a NACE Blogger! This is my first experience at blogging, and I'm sure it will be fun. Hopefully it will be fun (and of course educational) for those of you reading as well. :)
Currently, I am at the University of Arkansas Career Development Center, serving as Associate Director for Program Development. I'm fairly new in this position - just started in December 2007. My previous experience in Career Services has been as Associate Director of Informatics Career Services at Indiana University as well as some time with eCampusRecruiter as a Software Consultant.
There are several reasons why I was interested in becoming a blogger for the NACE conference, but one of the reasons stems from our attempt at using a blog here at the UA Career Development Center. This semester, we started a blog for our Sophomores, called the "Sophomore Scoop" to provide a place for sophomores to "discuss" career development "stuff" for students at that level (choice of major, internships, campus involvement, etc). We have a real Sophomore student as the blogger, presenting topics for discussion based on her experiences. We envisioned a blog where most of the student learning was coming from the comments that various students would make to the blog - kind of like discussion among the blogger and all those making comments to the blog. Being a blogger for NACE will, I hope, be a learning experience for me not only about NACE related information, but also about the process of blogging. I hope to learn some tips that we can apply to our own CDC blog about how to get those blog "conversations" going. (Any advice welcome!)
This will be my third national NACE Conference. One of my favorite aspects of attending the NACE conference is having the chance to learn about new ideas that are out there. If you're like me, I always feel renewed and refreshed after attending a conference because I see so many great ideas out there that are being done in other centers that I'm inspired to try some of those ideas as well. For example, in our center, we'd like to start a blog in the Fall where we follow a few seniors as they make their way through the job search. And wouldn't you know it, there is a session to be presented at the conference that details this very topic. I'm excited to see how this campus went about doing this, what their outcomes were, and if they'd do anything differently.
And of course, there's nothing better than meeting up with old friends and making new ones at the conference. See you in New Orleans!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Intro from Steven Rothberg, CollegeRecruiter.com
I'm honored to have been selected by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) to again present at their annual conference and to also be part of this group blog effort.
For those who don't yet know me, I'm the President and Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading job board for college students searching for internships and recent graduates hunting for entry level jobs. Our business model is much like that of Monster or Careerbuilder in that employers pay to advertise their job openings and the students and recent graduates use our site for free. Unlike some of our college job board competitors, we don't provide job board software to individual career service offices so we're set up more like sites such as Monster and less like sites such as MonsterTRAK or NACELink.
The origins of CollegeRecruiter.com date back to my senior year in college in 1988 when I published a campus map for my undergraduate school, the University of Manitoba. That's right. I'm a Canuck. Actually, I'm now dual as I moved to Minneapolis later that year and became a U.S. citizen the same day that O.J. Simpson was acquitted. My guess is that the connection between those two events means more to me than it does to him but that's okay.
After moving to Minneapolis I attended and graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Law so I'm a Golden Gopher fan and also a lawyer. Well, I'm actually a fully recovered lawyer as I only practiced for a year and then got out to enjoy my life. In 1991, I re-started the undergraduate business and in 1995 we added an employment magazine called College Recruiter.
The magazine initially was only distributed by University of Minnesota career service offices to their students but due to employer client demand we expanded the distribution metro-wide then state-wide then to the five state area in the Upper Midwest. We then added similar publications for Chicago, Illinois; Phoenix, Arizona; and Columbus, Ohio. But in 1996 a career service office director at the University of Minnesota told me that there was this thing called the Internet. She'd never been on it but she was hearing from her students that they were doing job research on it so she thought we should get a site. Later that year we went live and we gradually moved our business away from campus maps and employment magazines and to CollegeRecruiter.com. By the fall of 2000, we were only on-line.
Those who know me know that I'm an avid blogger. I write almost every day and often multiple times a day at CollegeRecruiter.com Blog about issues mostly related to college recruiting, social networking, and occasionally unrelated topics for which I have a personal passion such as retired hockey star Mark Messier.
Another passion that I have is how social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace can and should be used by candidates and employers. I've been fortunate enough to be quoted about these issues by a number of local and national publications and been a guest on some radio shows and television broadcasts. The NACE conference selection committee was kind enough to allow me to speak about this topic at this spring's conference in New Orleans. My goal is to show employers how they can destroy their brand by misusing the social network sites. I hope that you'll attend and help spread the word that employers should use but not misuse Facebook, MySpace, and the other social networking sites.
For those who don't yet know me, I'm the President and Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading job board for college students searching for internships and recent graduates hunting for entry level jobs. Our business model is much like that of Monster or Careerbuilder in that employers pay to advertise their job openings and the students and recent graduates use our site for free. Unlike some of our college job board competitors, we don't provide job board software to individual career service offices so we're set up more like sites such as Monster and less like sites such as MonsterTRAK or NACELink.
The origins of CollegeRecruiter.com date back to my senior year in college in 1988 when I published a campus map for my undergraduate school, the University of Manitoba. That's right. I'm a Canuck. Actually, I'm now dual as I moved to Minneapolis later that year and became a U.S. citizen the same day that O.J. Simpson was acquitted. My guess is that the connection between those two events means more to me than it does to him but that's okay.
After moving to Minneapolis I attended and graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Law so I'm a Golden Gopher fan and also a lawyer. Well, I'm actually a fully recovered lawyer as I only practiced for a year and then got out to enjoy my life. In 1991, I re-started the undergraduate business and in 1995 we added an employment magazine called College Recruiter.
The magazine initially was only distributed by University of Minnesota career service offices to their students but due to employer client demand we expanded the distribution metro-wide then state-wide then to the five state area in the Upper Midwest. We then added similar publications for Chicago, Illinois; Phoenix, Arizona; and Columbus, Ohio. But in 1996 a career service office director at the University of Minnesota told me that there was this thing called the Internet. She'd never been on it but she was hearing from her students that they were doing job research on it so she thought we should get a site. Later that year we went live and we gradually moved our business away from campus maps and employment magazines and to CollegeRecruiter.com. By the fall of 2000, we were only on-line.
Those who know me know that I'm an avid blogger. I write almost every day and often multiple times a day at CollegeRecruiter.com Blog about issues mostly related to college recruiting, social networking, and occasionally unrelated topics for which I have a personal passion such as retired hockey star Mark Messier.
Another passion that I have is how social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace can and should be used by candidates and employers. I've been fortunate enough to be quoted about these issues by a number of local and national publications and been a guest on some radio shows and television broadcasts. The NACE conference selection committee was kind enough to allow me to speak about this topic at this spring's conference in New Orleans. My goal is to show employers how they can destroy their brand by misusing the social network sites. I hope that you'll attend and help spread the word that employers should use but not misuse Facebook, MySpace, and the other social networking sites.
Caponi Introduction
Hello everyone,
I am Kim Caponi, Assistant Director of Career Services for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. I started this position in December 2007 prior to that I was the Career Center Director at North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City, IA. In addition, I have taught goal setting and job search skills through the welfare reform program.
Currently, I continue to live in Mason City and drive up to 2 hours or more to Ames for work (depending on traffic and the number of stops I need to make). Although I have been a NACE member since 2000, was involved in the Attracting New Professionals committee and wrote an article for the 2-year articles collection, this will be the first national conference I have attended. This will also be my first visit to New Orleans.
It is always exciting to me to attend various conferences as I return to work with renewed energy and new ideas. Although I still have the new energy that comes with a job change I am still excited to meet new people, put faces to names I have seen through the listserv, and come back bubbling with ideas. I'm also hoping for a little sightseeing and if anyone knows of some great vegetarian restaurants in the area please look me up. I look forward to meeting many of you in New Orleans!
I am Kim Caponi, Assistant Director of Career Services for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. I started this position in December 2007 prior to that I was the Career Center Director at North Iowa Area Community College in Mason City, IA. In addition, I have taught goal setting and job search skills through the welfare reform program.
Currently, I continue to live in Mason City and drive up to 2 hours or more to Ames for work (depending on traffic and the number of stops I need to make). Although I have been a NACE member since 2000, was involved in the Attracting New Professionals committee and wrote an article for the 2-year articles collection, this will be the first national conference I have attended. This will also be my first visit to New Orleans.
It is always exciting to me to attend various conferences as I return to work with renewed energy and new ideas. Although I still have the new energy that comes with a job change I am still excited to meet new people, put faces to names I have seen through the listserv, and come back bubbling with ideas. I'm also hoping for a little sightseeing and if anyone knows of some great vegetarian restaurants in the area please look me up. I look forward to meeting many of you in New Orleans!
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