Monday, February 28, 2011

Cohort 2 Finds Their Rhythm

LA Fellows took a break from the classroom to participate in a
lively drum cirlce led by instructor Roberto Gutierrez!






Thursday, February 24, 2011

Week Four (better late than never)



We planned to celebrate the halfway point (lunchtime on Wednesday) and were stymied a bit by not planning quite well enough, but enough of that!



Having reached the halfway point, and the first fulltime placement of one of our Cohort (yay, Nick!) we have all started to realize that it will soon be over.



Last week I talked about building relationships. How important this group has become to one another. And luckily, due to Facebook and email and LinkedIn and Twitter, we will keep in touch, keep track and keep seeing each other in the future. We need to hold each other accountable, to encourage each other and to continue to be a team. And a team we are!



Do you need a reason to get up and get out in the morning? Do you need some friends who understand what you’re going through? Do you need some help refining your brand? Do you need some coaching for interviews?



Join the LA Fellows Cohort 3!



We are all waiting to meet you!

 
 
 
Wendy Stackhouse, Cohort 2 and Blogger since 2005

Want to be an LA Fellow? Recruiting Job Seekers for the Next Class!

Apply to be an LA Fellow


LA Fellows are accepted through an application and interview selection process. The first step is to attend a mandatory orientation at Los Angeles Valley College Job Training.



Orientation

At the orientation, you will meet Los Angeles Valley College Job Training’s staff, learn more about the LA Fellows program and application process, and get your questions answered. Dress for orientation is corporate casual.



Orientation Dates and Locations



All orientation meetings will be held at Los Angeles Valley College at 5800 Fulton Avenue, Valley Glen, CA 91401-4096. You may park in Lot B (map available here) located at the corner of Oxnard Street and Fulton Avenue. Parking tickets will not be issued during the orientation meeting. You only need to attend one orientation.




Tuesday, March 1, 2011


10:00am

Cafeteria Conference Room



Thursday, March 3, 2011

10:00am

Faculty Lounge (located near the Cafeteria)



We hope to see you there!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

A Great Resource for Job Seekers - JobsLA.org




JobsLA.org (https://www.jobsla.org/) is an online resource for job seekers and employers throughout the Los Angeles region. JobsLA provides you with access to workforce development and human resources services at any time wherever you have access to the Internet. It is available both in English and Spanish.



JobsLA provides one site where job seekers can search job postings from thousands of employers in the Los Angeles region. Every day new, unduplicated postings are drawn from all over the Internet, including the web sites of private corporations, state job boards, local newspapers, recruiters, hospitals, government agencies, and more.



In addition to acting as the most comprehensive online job board for Los Angeles, JobsLA provides a number of additional tools.



Tools for Job Seekers:

• Highly targeted job search capabilities that allow you to narrow down your job options based on a variety of criteria, including occupation, industry, skills, salary, employer name, and more

• A virtual recruiter tools that automatically reviews job postings and notifies you of jobs that match your skills

• Career tools that allow you to assess their skills and job interests and to access information about the conditions of the Los Angeles labor market

• Comprehensive information about training and employment opportunities to improve your skills and marketability to employers

• Résumé and cover letter building tools that provide you with simple step-by-step instructions to create professionally formatted documents



Tools for Employers:

• A free job posting board where you can advertise job openings to a wider audience on the Internet

• Targeted résumé search capabilities that allow you to quickly filter through candidates and find the most qualified talent

• An easy-to-use tracking system that allows you to manage all their job openings and to track candidates throughout the recruitment process







JobsLA.org (https://www.jobsla.org/) is available courtesy of the City of Los Angeles Workforce Investment Board.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Don't Get Left in the Dust!

Paula Guenon

Don't Get Left in the Dust



PAULA GUENON, LA Fellows Cohort 1

After 20 years working at Warner Bros. Studios, I was laid off in 2009. This gave me the opportunity to pursue dreams that I had abandoned for some time. I wanted to be more creative and provide a service to the public. However, I realized I was “behind the times” with new and changing technologies. I had to retrain and reinvent myself.

Working as a Manager at Warner Bros., and being officer in the non-profit organization Toastmasters, I enjoyed coaching and training people to succeed in their work and overcoming their fears.

If you would like to be on the show to promote your project, business or non-profit event, contact me at vcmenterprises@gmail.com.



creative-inspire.info/





Orientations for Cohort 3 this month!!!

Interested in being a part of the LA Fellows program? Attend an informational orientation session!




2011 Orientation Dates



Wednesday, February 23, 2011

10:00am

Faculty Lounge (located near the Cafeteria)



Tuesday, March 1, 2011

10:00am

Cafeteria Conference Room



Thursday, March 3, 2011

10:00am

Faculty Lounge (located near the Cafeteria)


Visit http://www.lafellows.org/apply.html for more details. We hope to see you there!

Congratulations Roxanne!!!

Congratulations Roxanne (LA Fellows Cohort 1) for securing employmnet at WB! We are so happy for you!

Roxanne (right) during the LA Fellows Drum Circle!

Monday, February 14, 2011

The Third Week

We are finally used to the schedule and how hard we have to listen all the time. For some of us it has been many years since school. But we are in the zone now.


We started the week with Dr. Virginia Green and Critical Thinking. Wonder what that is? A great class is what that is! Mapping out your future, what you really want, how your brain works—fascinating!



Monday afternoon was Social Networking and our Facebook and LinkedIn groups are starting to really come to the forefront. They tell us it takes at least 75 connections on LinkedIn to start making a difference in your career—I hit 83 that day, very exciting! Cohort 2 also has a Facebook group. Now, not everyone is on Facebook (I wish they were) but those of us who utilize it are getting so much support from one another.

And here’s something I didn’t expect. How important these people already are to me. And what makes this program so special in a difficult time for us all.

Perhaps you are sitting at home, submitting resumes to Monster or Jobfox or CareerBuilders. Is that working? Are you hoping that sheer numbers will do it for you? Imagine having a team of professionals and a group of colleagues all with a vested interest in YOUR job search. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

The people of LA Fellows all care how we do. They want us working and they are actively helping, guiding and teaching. If we don’t get jobs, their program ends. That’s a heck of an incentive! We are surrounded by amazing, experienced, bright, interesting people with our best interests at heart all day, every day. Compare that to submitting online resumes and you must be interested in joining Cohort 3. The orientation process begins very soon. So check out LA Fellows.org. Come to an orientation.

You have no idea what you’re missing.

Wendy Stackhouse, Cohort 2 and Blogger since 2005

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Congratulations Charles and Jaspreet!!!

Congratulations to Charles and Jaspreet from LA Fellows Cohort 1 on securing full time positions!

Charles is working in I.T. Systems Administration at a large medical center.

Jaspreet was hired at the nonprofit organization where he completed his 100 volunteer hours for LA Fellows, as the Director of Specialty Products.



Charles, second from right, and Jaspreet, right, participate in a
teambuilding activity during LA Fellows training.

Monday, February 7, 2011

A Bright, Shiny Penny

A Bright, Shiny Penny






 The second week of the LA Fellows upped the intensity quite a bit. Lynnette Ward is an amazing instructor, incredibly energized and smart and sure.


Lynnette likes “bright, shiny pennies.”


Now, this is a blog post about my experience and everyone else is welcome to blog about theirs so I will talk about my week.


My week was…exhausting. But worthwhile and in the end made me feel more ready to go out into the job search world with better marketing and a better idea of how to do well at all the steps. Not to mention what all the steps ARE.


But life was happening last week, too. My daughter was in her first school play. My mom came from the east coast to see her in it. We have to make an erupting, EDIBLE volcano for 6th grade science. I was up at 5 every day doing MY homework and she was up every night doing hers.


So, time management becomes an important concept.


There is, in fact, only so much time.


And we have to be Bright, Shiny Pennies whatever’s going on.


‘Cause Bright, Shiny Pennies get jobs. We hope!


And so I’m doing my homework, I have three networking events during Week 3, my resume is ready for another round, my daughter’s project is almost done and tonight, even though my mom is in town, I’m staying home and getting some rest.


Job search has no use for dingy buffalo nickels.


A Bright, Shiny Penny am I!


Peace.


Wendy Stackhouse, Cohort 2 and Blogger since 2005


First week: Buckle up!


Second week: Buckle down.

Friday, February 4, 2011

LA Fellows Cohort 2...The First Week

LA Fellows Cohort 2




The First Week



Watch that first step, it’s a doozy! We thought we were ready, we thought we knew what we were in for.



We thought we had had enough sleep.



And enough coffee.



Oh, that’s just me.



Monday’s topic didn’t look too stressful: Team Building and Attitude Adjustment. Hey, my attitude’s pretty good! And I love community building, it’s one of my non-negotiables. What I didn’t count on was the intense level of listening I would have to do. We are getting information every second of every day at LA Fellows. Important information that could change our lives! Better not miss anything!



Allison did the afternoon and I’ve already learned a lot from her, program stuff, sure, but also pacing and how to bring the class into the discussion. She is so warm and friendly, but also knowledgeable and clever: a great facilitator!



Wednesday was hard for everyone, but in a good way. I don’t know about you, but I did NOT think this job search thing would be so difficult. I don’t know why I thought that, of course. If it were easy, all of these amazing Fellows would already be employed! I had a very funny experience, reconnecting after 18 years and another life with our instructor, Larry Braman. We sang together long ago and far away! Larry was terrific and certainly let us know more of the nuts-and-bolts of job search. Some of that we didn’t want to deal with, but I think we recovered and are moving forward from wherever we are now.



Friday we were treated to a “mind dump” from Andrea Mitchel, Grant Proposal Writer extraordinaire! Now there’s something I could do! Andrea is a font of information and clearly a great mentor to the new Proposal Writers in our midst. I can hardly wait till she comes back!



So now we have begun week 2, more focused, more ready, more determined than ever. If you are interested in joining our Fellowship, please do!



Peace.



Wendy Stackhouse, Cohort 2 and Blogger since 2005