Whether new to a job search or weary from the process, being with others "in the trenches" can be extremely beneficial.  NCJS offers a constructive environment in which to share challenges and frustrations as well as offering good leads and encouragement to others.  The "Networking and Issue Sharing" meetings are structured to capitalize on the people resources of NCJS, network with well-connected colleagues, and open doors to new possibilities.  You will help others and gain traction for your own job search.

Rebecca Bosl is a highly-recommended Resume Writer and Career Coach residing in Broadview Heights, Ohio.  The last 8 executives she has worked with have landed 6 interviews in the following week, and at least 1 offer within 4 weeks.
 

She attributes the job search acceleration to the development of a branded resume and an optimized LinkedIn profile.  Rebecca will share some case studies on the process and also share 8 pitfalls to avoid in your job search.
 

Rebecca Bosl is a Certified Resume Writer and former Market Research Consultant, in which her role was to identify what makes products and companies unique and amazing, and why people would want to buy them.  Rebecca’s slant to writing resumes is that she looks for what is unique and amazing about her clients, and why people would want to hire them.  Her resumes and LinkedIn profiles are sales and marketing documents that get noticed and get results – often immediately accelerating even stalled job searches.
 

Rebecca is one of only 100 highly trained Career Coaches that are certified to give WorkPlace Big 5 assessments, providing clients with unparalleled depth of insight.  The reports generated from these assessments will measure her clients on 28 personality traits, 54 competencies and 8 career tests, providing them with hundreds of pages of output.

Rebecca is a member and participant in the NCJS LinkedIn Group and her LinkedIn profile can be found at Rebecca Bosl.

Susie has been lecturing and training executives on LinkedIn for more than a decade.  She will speak on using the new LinkedIn User Interface.  But whether it's the new or old platform, LinkedIn fundamentals remain the same. She has a helpful workaround to share plus a link to download a lot of fresh resources.

Susie Sharp is currently working as an Independent Contractor and Business Consultant.  An active member of the NCJS community, she is an active participant in the NCJS LinkedIn Group and her LinkedIn profile can be found at Susie Sharp.

Janice (Rzepka) Schenk is a marketing professional in Northeast Ohio.  Her background includes marketing leadership roles with OEConnection, ProgressBook by Software Answers, Vendors Exchange, and now United Consumer Financial Services, a subsidiary of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway.  During her career, Janice has led corporate marketing initiatives as well as consulted with companies large and small, including working with a leading IT recruiting firm.  She’s applied her marketing experience to successfully market herself and others to new companies, and she’ll share her strategy and some LinkedIn tactics to help in new job searches.  Her LinkedIn profile can be found at Janice (Rzepka) Schenk.

A conversation with a panel of HR leaders:

- Their BEST TIPS for the job search process.

- What is the best way to get noticed when going after a posted opening?

- Is there more I should be doing? Will my phone calls and emails help or hurt during the process? How much is too much?

- What is the best piece of advice an HR professional could share with you to make your search more effective?

- What burning question do you have that an HR professional could answer?

A panel of HR professionals with unique experiences in diverse organizations will share their job search insights and do their best to answer your important questions.

Gary Szelagowski knows what it is like to go through a long job search.  Drawing on his personal as well as professional experience, he will present a way of going through job transition that addresses more than just resumes and interviews. Gary will encourage job seekers to "feed your soul," manage time and priorities, and find a workable "rhythm."  Networking is essential, of course, and Gary will offer a unique way of tending to your job search network.

Gary Szelagowski is a seasoned HR professional who has delivered game-changing results as a subject matter expert, as well as in generalist roles supporting business line clients.

Between 2010 and 2012, Gary managed a protracted job search at the height of the great recession.  He learned the value of networking, perseverance and working a plan, while keeping a positive attitude and remaining flexible.

Gary is currently an assistant vice president in the Human Resources Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. He is responsible for leading the development and execution of enterprise-wide succession planning, performance and change management, talent development, recruiting and employee engagement.

Prior to joining the Cleveland Reserve Bank in 2014, Gary served as vice president of performance management at PNC Financial Services, in Cleveland. He also held senior human resource positions with National City Corporation, and he has served in technology and sales management at KeyBank.

He is an active member and participant in the NCJS LinkedIn Group and his LinkedIn profile can be found at Gary Szelagowski.

Your resume is done. You have created a marketing plan and a list of target organizations which you have reached out multiple times. You have even had some networking meetings which at the time you felt were productive. But you still don’t have a job offer. What do you do now? Janice has been  in your shoes and will share what you can do to put your job search on track.

Janice Radak is a professional writer and editor specializing in medical content.  She has worked with Medscape, American Heart Association, and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine among others.  She is a member of the NCJS Advisory Board and is active in the NCJS LinkedIn Group.  Her LinkedIn profile can be found at Janice T. Radak.

Jim Folger is a successful headhunter who has been conducting professional and senior level management searches for over twenty years.  He will share techniques he uses to network including how to identify the right people to interface with.  Jim will offer tips to get phone numbers and email addresses of the people you want to connect with, as well as a methodology to initiate networking. Jim’s techniques can easily be adapted to your job search when you are targeting organizations and hiring managers.

Jim Folger, CPC, CPBA, CPVA is President of One Source Technical. Inc.  He is an active member and participant in the NCJS LinkedIn Group and his LinkedIn profile can be found at Jim Folger.

Kris McGuigan believes that strength and confidence are the catalyst to professional growth. She prides herself on relentless resilience and approaches life with an attitude of abundance. Kris is grateful that her broad and inspiring background allows her to be an agent for significant change and advancement in the professional development of others.

Throughout her life, Kris has been engaged in the study of human potential and behavioral change. She graduated from Hiram College with a degree in organizational behavior and went on to obtain an MBA from the Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. The early stages of Kris’ career were spent cultivating relationships within the nonprofit sector. She supported fundraising efforts at Cleveland’s own Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and went on to lead the development team at Brothers Big Sisters. Kris spent the next ten years in the healthcare arena quickly progressing through the ranks of Kaiser Permanente. She was recognized for her strategic anticipation of growth and alignment of resources to reach key deliverables. Kris’ ability to lead and empower human capital set her apart from her peers and led to a promotion into a senior leadership position with the largest hospital system in the state of Ohio, Mercy Health.

After fifteen years of driving results and leading employees within a corporate structure, Kris decided it was time to pursue her passion on a more personal level. She left her corner office to follow her dream of building strength and resilience in the people around her. Through Professional Courage, she leverages her strategic and operational leadership experience to give clients the confidence and courage needed to unleash their potential.

Kris is a Certified Career Management Coach and one of only three Academy Certified Resume Writers in the entire state of Ohio. She belongs to the National Resume Writers’ Association and is an active member of Toastmasters International. Kris resides in Broadview Heights, Ohio. She finds constant inspiration in her husband, Rick, and their two children, Claire and Matthew.

Finding a new job can be either like a painful and serious new health condition, or a ticket to an adventure of a lifetime.  If you find yourself believing this situation more a new health condition rather than an adventure, it’s time for a gut check on what you want next, and why. 

Dan Toussant experienced this ‘finding a new job’ dilemma a few times in his career, and discovered the secret to managing the ‘opportunity’ relies on the development of a new habit.  Dan will present the Why for this new habit, the Building Blocks to formulate a plan for the new habit, and the Steps to Acquire the new habit to get you to your next job/gig.

Dan expects this to be an interactive talk, and will provide you with ideas and tips as well as stories about how to navigate the job-seeker-waters whenever you find yourself in the position that you periodically must take to get to the next career-enhancing move.

Dan Toussant, president and owner of Dan Toussant & Associates, a Sanford Rose affiliate, recruits executive, managerial and professional talent for organizations based or conducting substantial business in Ohio and contiguous states.  With the 2015 affiliation and membership in the Sanford Rose Associates network of offices, Dan Toussant & Associates became a part of the tenth-largest search firm in the world, and broadens its service reach from the primary focus of Ohio-based companies to a national and global footprint.  With eight years in the executive search business and over 30 years as a Human Resource executive and internal chief recruiter, Dan and his team source and vet professional talent from the perspective of an external recruiter/partner. Two benchmarks of their metrics-oriented service business: speed and reliability.  Speed? Two-vetted-and-qualified-candidates-in-14-days; Reliability? Every candidate offered a position accepts the offer.

Active as a leader and mentor within Toastmasters in northeast Ohio, Dan has earned the Distinguished Toastmaster award.  He serves on a non-profit board serving people with re-entry and/or homelessness issues, and visits a detention center for incarcerated youth on a regular basis to share Toastmasters with the inmates, and as a church ministry.  He lives with his wife Colleen in Canton, Ohio, and are parents of three grown children, and grandparents of three children.

Increasing our job search effectiveness is why we're part of North Coast Job Seekers, right?  It's why we perfect our resumes, polish our "elevator speech," and network, network, network.  It's about building, practicing, enduring, and increasing. It's about working the job search process effectively.

This NCJS program is a bit different, though.  Greg Reynolds is a true pro and this program will be an opportunity to learn from his experience and his wisdom.  He's not one to boast about his resume or skills as a presenter and career transition professional.  So we will boast for him:

Greg Reynolds knows a few things about both the job search process AND North Coast Job Seekers. Professionally, Greg's LinkedIn profile says it all: "Executive Search | Retained Search | Outplacement | Career Transition | Head Hunter | Recruiter."  But for NCJS his resume runs even deeper.  Greg was one of the co-founders of the predicessor to NCJS - Chagrin Valley Job Seekers. When that group ended, Greg was among the ones who saw a vision for a new job seeker organization that would become NCJS.

You won't want to miss this opportunity to hear and learn from one of the best.

You’re Invited! A Primer for Mixing Job Seeking and Party Mingling

It’s a recurring nightmare:  You’re at the Holiday party trying to balance a drink and a plate of tasty hors d’oevres when you realize the person you’ve been angling to meet for 2 months is headed straight for you.  You break into a sweat as you realize there’s no place to put the glass or the plate and your mouth is full and Mr. Right is barreling toward you.  And then you hear yourself open your mouth and try to gobblety-speak...  You snap straight up in bed, swearing you’ll get this figured out BEFORE the next party.

Join NCJS for a dress rehearsal Holiday party replete with appetizers and glasses to practice where to put what, safe mingling techniques, and tips for working in your elevator speech, because this is, after all, yet another opportunity for networking.

Black Tie Optional