CAREERS CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Last week I attended the Career Management Alliance annual conference in San Antonio, Texas. So much talent in one place was quite the experience. Not only were long-time professional career management members present, but also attendees from military transition career centers. The job of translating military experience into terms easily understood by corporations and private industry is a challenging task. I applaud those working in that field helping our separating and retiring armed forces personnel enter/re-enter the traditional workforce.

There were many good conference speakers and presentations, but the ones that stood out for me were the opening keynote by Peter Weddle, "Work Strong: Career Fitness" and breakout session by Carol McClelland, "Plug into the Green Economy: A Field of Opportunities for You and Your Clients."

A few of Weddle's presentation nuggets included (some paraphrased by me):

• Workplace is seeing downsizing of structure, not just downsizing of jobs.
• Just as individuals are responsible for their health, they are responsible for their careers.
• The career ladder has been replaced with a career jungle gym.
• To be "qualified" isn't enough - must be "best qualified."
• Slide: "The Greater & Unspoken Danger: The Perceptions People Work With" - e.g, do a good job, & you'll advance up the career ladder

A few of McClelland's presentation gems incuded (some paraphrased by me):

• Green economy: ever-evolving & advancing at different rates in different industries
• "Green jobs are jobs that provide products and services which use renewable energy sources, reduce pollution, conserve energy and natural resources, and reconstitute waste" (White House definition)
• Green collar jobs = trades jobs, e.g., installation, manufacturing, distribution
• Green professional jobs = technical - hard science (research, engineering, IT) and non-technical - managment, finance, marketing, human resources, operations
• Find green jobs by "following the money" - the federal government money being invested into a greener economy

Interested in learning more from this conference? You may find tweets from conference attendees by going to search.twitter.com and searching for #careers09. I have some tweets there, too. Look for them - my Twitter handle is @KCCareerCoach.

Comments

[Paul Meyer]

Thanks Meg this sounded an inspirational conference. Career change continues to be pivitol in peoples lives. The challenge is to feel in control of that change. Career jungle gym sounds a great change from the traditional career ladder approach. Perhaps this is why I wrote my book The Naked Career with a co-author. It has become known as "...simple strategies for positive career results." Published in USA we continue to seek out strategic alliances who may have clients who would benefit from such a career tool. Feel free to communicate if this is of interest. Regards Paul