w-
Portland Observer, May 29, 1906, Section II, Page 3
approach to finding a career
needs and expectations. That's the
point behind individual differences.
Dig deep and id en tify what
motivates you and what your
psychological needs are: Pow er,
prestige, challenge, money, advan-
:ement, fulfillm ent, opportunity to
make a contribution, and so on.
Decide which o f these needs are
superficial and which will have the
greatest im pact on your overall
career.
One im portant criterion to con
sider is access to professional role
models whom you admire. While a
prestigious job title may please your
parents or a high salary might im
press your classmates, your career
might benefit more from access to a
professional leader who has a vision
about what he or she is doing:
Someone who w ill stretch you,
make you grow, serve as a mentor
and an advocate. Rub minds with
the achievers. That will pay o ff even
more in the long run. D o n 't just
look
at
the
im m ediate
benefits— consider the long range
im plications o f your career.
N othing w ill influence that more
than a person on the move up who
w ill pull you along— u ntil you
become that visionary professional
yourself.
and put it together again. Let it
repiesent your best writing: Weigh
every word. M ake it concise, a r
ticulate, and to the point.
Practice your interviewing skills
w ith friends. A tten d interview
clinics held at your school. Role
play the interview w ith another
friend and have a th ird serve as
critic. Let them rake you over the
coals. Even if it hurts a bit now,
poor interviewing will slam the door
shut. And, unfortunately, we often
don't know if we are poor at inter
viewing and too many people are
afraid to confront us with that fact.
Interview ing is a s k ill— it can be
learned, with practice and concen
tration. Invest energy here— don’ t
just hope for the best.
Know your
alternatives
Practice the
interview
9 Put to g e th e r the beet job
h u n tin g tools you cen em ess.
D on’ t just slop together an outline
o f your education and experience
and call it a resume. Let your
resume, letters and correspondence,
credentials and interview skills shine
as an example of the best work you
can do.
Get some guidelines from the
counseling section o f the College
Placemen! A nn u al 1984 (available
for free in college placement offices)
and then get some personal help in
constructing job hunting tools.
A fter three or four rough drafts
o f your resume, ask your career
counselor, friends and professional
associates to rip it to shreds for you
10 Aim for the ideal, but have
a second choice and a third
choice and a b ack-u p plan in
case your choices d o n 't w o rk
o u t . Don’t avoid your ideal, even if
it looks like a long shot Hut by all
means, have a back-up p i*
'¿ hat
doesn't mean, for example, that if
you can’t get a job as . tc.i.b' you
should work in a factory Know
what your similar level alternatives
are and be prepared fo r the
possibility that you may need to
start out in your second or third
choice.
The concept of multiple careers is
no longer novel or rare. People have
a way o f changing interests and
values. Seek some breadth as well as
depth, recognizing the likelihood
that you may make some dramatic
career changes in your lifetime.
to get a job. Master many different
strategies and approaches fo r job
hunting.
One of the most popular job hun
ting approaches— perhaps the most
widely used by college graduates— is
the shot-gun approach: Mailing out
piles and miles of resumes. Popular,
it is Effective it’s not.
Your odds are that about one or
two out of a hundred will lead to an
in terview . A nd, you w ill need
roughly three interviews to lead to
an offer. And of two offers— using
this random approach— one w ill
likely fit you so poorly that you
w ill reject it. T hat's 1 out o f 600.
One renowned jo b hunting expert
revealed, from his research, that
only one in 1.400 resumes led to an
actual job offer.
T here's got to be a better way.
Use a number o f d iffe re n t a p
proaches, but not one at a lim e.
Pursue
d iffe re n t
strategies
simultaneously. Gel a career coun
selor to help you to devise an in
dividually tailored approach to your
chosen fie ld , and then do many
things at the same time.
The more personal you make
your job hunting, the more effective
you will be. This doesn't mean you
should sell your typewriter, but the
phone will be better than a letter, a
visit better than a call. Go ahead
and play the numbers game, to be
sure, but supplement that with as
personalized an approach as
possible. Very few job hunters make
"contacts” through the mail.
Find your
“mission”
12 C onsider th e "h ig h est level
of c a re e r p l a n n i n g I l ' s not tor
everybody and maybe not for you.
Hut you should know that there is a
step beyond the “ W h at-can -l do
with my degree-in ...? ” approach
The highest level o f career plan
ning is to first identify a cause or
value or ideal or belief that you
want to commit your life to and
then plug in occupationally.
W illia m C lare M cnninger, the
Try new
approaches
I I Becom e an expert in th e job
bunting process. Who gets the job
is not necessarily who knows how to
do the job best, but who knows how
noted psychiatrist, toured the coun
try for years as a lecturer and con
sultant He was frequently asked the
secret o f a good and happy life .
Menninger’s answer was usually the
same: " F in d a mission in life and
take it seriously."
A story is told about a class in a
theological seminary. The professor
came in and asked each student to
go around in turn and answer the
question. "W h at is your mission in
life ? " Despite the nature o f the
school — to prepare m inisters— he
received answers like " I don 't
k n o w " or " I ’ ve never thought
about it."
Only one student in the class an
swered the question affirm atively.
" M y mission,” said M artin luther
King, Jr., "is to help Black people
to help themselves.”
Years later he stood before two
hundred tw enty-five thousand
people
at
the
M arch
on
Washington. You can imagine the
noise two hundred tw enty-five
thousand people can make with kids
crying, radios blaring, and people
talking Hut you can't imagine the
silence two hundred tw enty-five
thousand people made when King
began speaking these words: " I have
a dream."
It is having a dream and a vision
that drives men and women to
realize their fullest potential and to
enhance the very meaning of their
existence.
It's not tor everyone. In fact, it is
unlikely that a young person would
have such a vision— it usually comes
later Hut if you know it's there and
go looking lor it, chances arc that
you will find it ...if you want it.
Portland Women's
Crisis Line
A Public S » w « nt lb« P ortland O h ir r w r
GERALD MecKENNAN
Blazer's scholarship
For the fifth consecutive year, the
Portland Trail Blazers, in cixiperation
with the National Basketball Associa
tion's College Scholarship program,
has awarded S I, (XX) scholarships to
four outstanding high vchixil stu
dents.
The 1985 winners include:
G e ra ld
M ackam an
of South
Salem High School. He's described by
his counselor. Bonnie Peter, as “ dis
tinctively versatile and energetic.
He is one of those students who man
age academic excellence as well as a
wide variety ol high school activities,
sports and community services. He is
highly motivated and seeks to work
to his potential as demonstrated by his
4.0 grade point average." tierald
plans to attend Stanford in the Fall.
Anna Martin of Evergreen High
School, Vanoxiver, Washington, was
the second winner. Her counselor,
Terry Cappiello, says, "Anne is
one of the most accomplished stu
dents to attend Evergreen in many
years. She is truly an outstanding
young woman. Anne has maintained
an
impressive academic
record
(G .P.A . of 4.0) and she has earned
the respect and admiration of the fac
ulty and student body. Anne Martin is
a line example of the promise of our
young people."
Jacob Menasha of Centennial
High School, Portland, was our third
winner. Kay Peterson, a coun
selor at the school, says, "Rarely,
in 17 years of teaching and coun
seling, have I been more lavoiably
impressed with a student than I am
with Jacob Harod Menashe. As both
his transcript and his list of extra
curricular activities will attest, Jacob
is a prodigious worker. He is greatly
admired for his ability to do so much
and do it all so well.”
Robert B. Nixon of Rixisevell
High School, Portland, was our
final winner. He plans to enter Brown
University this Fall where he will
pursue a combined major of Inter
national Relations and Business.
He's currently serving as student body
president of Rixisevell and is valedic
tortan of his class.
Contest entries were judged on
academic and extracurricular achieve
ments and on an essay on “ The Im
portance of a College Education."
The Trail Blazer winners wee selected
by a committee that included George
Pasero, Sports Columnist for the
Oregonian, Dr. Ernest Hartzog of
the Portland Public Schools, Dr.
Aleigh Dodson of le w is A Clark
College, former Blazer star Lloyd
Neal and (ieorge Rickies, Vice Pres
ident of Administration for the Port
land (lu b .
The NBA Scholarship program al
lows students from 21 NBA cities to
receive more than $50, (XXI in aca
demic assistance each year.
Each team is given two scholar
ships by (he NBA Through the cour
tesy of Blazer President l.arry Wein
berg, two additional scholarships
are also awarded.
Employment
with
Multnomah County
m uLTnom A H
COUHTM
PEOPLE FVWER
number one fashion
feels strongly about
Multnomah County operates under a merit system of personnel administration which guarantees
that each employee will receive fair and impartial treatment in all personnel actions regardless of
race, religion, color, sex, age, marital status, national origin, handicap or political affiliation.
. e o p le p o v v M C o m e s ^ r n o o ^
women **no v—
s
X DasAn/« « with motivation'
*
—
employer; * * 0
Within the departments of Human Services. Justice Services, General Services, Environmental
Services, and the Sheriff s Office, Multnomah County employs approximately 2,000 peojile De
pending upon departmental need, the county perxxJically offers career opportunities in the follow
ing general categories:
nnioina
*
with all
Service Occupations
Skilled Trades
Clerical
Data Processing
Planning, Engineering, Appraising ft Drafting
Law ft Law Enforcement
Counseling, Guidance ft Social Work
Medicine, Health ft Sanitation
Para-professional, Professional ft M anagerial
°no clerical. restaurant and
cessing, cienc
excellent
customer service
, ^ e r It's the difference
People power,
et Nordstrom
Positions are filled through open competitive recruitment and testing to determine the qualifica
tions, competence and ability of the applicants to perform the duties of the specific position
n n r d S t r_Q_m
Application for empkiyment may tie m xto at tfie county's application center, m Rtxxn 134, First
R oot , of Multnomah County Courthouse, 1021 S W Fourth ¿venue. Portland, Oregon For mfor
mation regarding current job openings, a listing is avertable on tne Job Recording at (5O3I2485O36
The recording is updated on a weekly bests
For more information, you may call Multnomah County Employee Relations Dtviston or the Af
fxmative Action Officer at (503) 2485015, or address inquiries to 1120 S .W Fifth Avenue. Suite
1430, Portland, Oregon 97204
M ultnom ah County is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
‘ r.
■fetff
V
.*•<