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.
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