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If you host it, they will come |
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Friday, 28 March 2008 |
 Bishop Police Chief Kathleen Sheehan leads the opening session for participants at a career seminar being held this week at Cerro Coso Community College. A three-day schedule of workshops for job-seekers will be followed by a job fair at Cerro Coso on Friday, March 28. Photo by Ken Koerner By Ken Koerner
Register Staff 3-27-2008
Some have said that looking for a job is so much harder than actually doing a job. Well, those holding that opinion might find it changing if they were participating in the career seminars going on right now in Bishop.
A three-day series of career workshops got under way at Cerro Coso Community College on Tuesday morning. Those workshops will conclude this afternoon and be followed by a job fair on Friday. It’s an opportunity designed for job-seekers to be better prepared after their three days of learning sessions, to meet the many job-fillers coming to Cerro Coso on that fourth day.
This inaugural Bishop event is being sponsored by the Bishop Sunrise Rotary, Bishop Police and Community Services and Cerro Coso Community College. Not only are all of the workshops and the job fair being offered at no charge, lunch is being provided for free each day and even shuttle van service to the campus is being provided from downtown Bishop at no cost.
The opening career session at 9 a.m. on March 25 brought together a group of attendees of mixed ages and work experiences, though it is safe to say that many of those participating fell comfortably into the category of “young people.”
Bishop Sunrise Rotary Club President Tom Hardy was the first to address those assembled. Hardy’s welcoming remarks were laced with grateful acknowledgments to the many people, businesses and agencies that are providing the much needed support for this week’s event.
Having expressed some earlier reservations about whether the career seminar had been sufficiently publicized to attract participants, Bishop Police Chief Kathleen Sheehan found herself delivering her own opening remarks to a substantial audience in a large classroom at Cerro Coso College.
“It’s so great to see all these young and not-so-young faces here this morning,” Sheehan said. “I’d like to inform each and every one of you that your presence here this morning – and throughout the remainder of this week – is a genuinely big step toward investing in your life.”
Sheehan went on to explain that “everything you’re going to be doing here during these coming days is really all about you! You are the entire point of this community coming together to make these workshops and this job fair possible.”
The orientation session presided over by Sheehan reflected the out-of-the-box approach to career education that was to come.
“Among the things we are all going to be discussing and reflecting on here this morning and throughout the week,” said Sheehan, “is looking at your ability and your willingness to be ‘leaders’ in your own life.”
This leadership presentation was a distillation of a program Sheehan had attended some years back.
“In 1994, I had the opportunity to go to the West Point Military Academy to participate with some two-dozen people in a special leadership program,” Sheehan said. “Our nation’s top Pentagon officials had directed scholarly researchers to look closely at the concept of leadership, not from a strictly military perspective, mind you, but from a uniquely human one.”
As Sheehan went through the visual slides highlighting the essence of the researchers’ findings, she encouraged interaction with her “students.” Though some showed a hesitation to speak aloud in a room full of “strangers,” Sheehan effectively drew comments and personal observations from those present.
“This isn’t exactly what you may have expected on the first day of a career seminar; you’re not simply listening to someone else, you’re speaking, too,” said Sheehan, “but I assure you that being willing to communicate and share, to be willing to recognize the leadership qualities within yourselves – and to further develop those qualities – will leave you prepared to succeed on any career path you may follow, not to mention just living each and every day at your highest potential.”
Sierra Employment Services’ owner, Monica Allen, whose casual conversation with Sheehan about helping “kids find work” evolved into this fully-developed seminar and job fair week, was also on hand to share some of her insights with attendees.
“Many of you sitting here this morning have skills that you haven’t even recognized in yourselves,” Allen said. “Many of you have developed business-friendly computer skills just from playing video games, creating a ‘MySpace’ page or texting with your friends. I invite all of you to come by our offices and let us work with you on taking some computer proficiency tests – you may find that you’ll quickly have earned certificates verifying your typing skills and a number of other useful skills.”
These certificates, Allen explained, can be attached to the resumes that the career seminar participants will be creating during another workshop being held the next day.
Everyone attending these seminars becomes a registered student at Cerro Coso Community College. This will enable them to return to the campus following this week’s activities to make use of the college’s computer lab and other resources. This, too, is being provided at no charge.
The final day of the career seminar will offer four new workshops for those looking to enhance interview and career skills. The early session begins at 9 a.m. and features Sierra Business Council board member Allan Pietrasanta discussing “What the Boss Expects.”
For anyone yet to participate in the career seminars, Sheehan explained that not having been present for any of the earlier workshops does not mean a person can’t “simply show up and take advantage of the sessions still being held throughout the day” (today, March 27). Sheehan also points out that not having been at any of the lead-up workshop days does not preclude anyone from being welcomed at the formal job fair that kicks off at noon on Friday.
The job fair will also be held at Cerro Coso Community College. Among those sending a representative to the job fair will be Alta One, the Bureau of Land Management, County of Inyo Sheriffs, Dwayne’s Friendly Pharmacy, California Highway Patrol, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, the U.S. Forest Service, Northern Inyo Hospital, the Paiute Palace Casino, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Caltrans, Wachovia Financial Services, Edison, Inc., the U.S. Coast Guard, Inyo County Health and Human Services and Sierra Employment Services.
For additional information, contact Monica Allen at (760) 873-8599.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 01 May 2008 )
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