Useful information in follow-up to our Emerging Economy Forum on Careers in Science and Technology Education

Hello, colleagues.

Thank you for your interest and participation in last week’s forum at BRDG Park on Careers in Science and Technology Education.  Apparently, the word has gotten out that there are some good folks (like you!) considering career moves into teaching, because several people have forwarded helpful information and asked me to share it with you.  Here goes:

Immediate Associate Faculty Openings at the University of Phoenix

The University of Phoenix in St. Louis has immediate openings for associate faculty in the following content areas:

John Sperling School of Business

• Management
• Financial Planning and Control
• Law and Ethics
• Policy, Planning, and Development

College of Education

• Teacher Education

College of Humanities

• Communication
• English
• History

College of Natural Sciences

• Mathematics
• Biology
• Environmental Sciences
• Health and Wellness

Qualifications

To qualify as a University of Phoenix faculty member, you’ll need to meet the following minimum criteria:

• Have a master’s or doctoral degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution (or the international equivalent) related to the subject you wish to teach. (Some courses require a doctoral degree.)

• Work experience related to the subject you wish to teach.

Requirements vary by course and program

For more information and to apply, please contact: Jeremiah Hood, MBA, Campus Director

University of Phoenix | St. Louis Campus | Administration
13801 Riverport Drive | CW-A101 | St. Louis, MO 63043
phone: 314.288.1115 | fax: 602.383.5677 | email: jeremiah.hood@phoenix.edu

Science and Mathematics Academy for the Recruitment and Retention of Teachers Program (SMAR²T)

The SMAR²T program at the University of Missouri is designed for individuals who hold a bachelor’s degree in math, science or a related field and are interested in transitioning to teaching.  The 15 and 24 month programs allow individuals to earn a master’s degree  and Missouri teacher certification.  Many might initially discount this program due to the distance from St. Louis, but the program administrator says that they encourage students to live in their community for the internship portion of the program so the time on campus is short.  Students find the program is quite manageable.  This year, seven students are working in the St. Louis area.

Information about the program is available at www.smar2t.missouri.edu.   Not only has this program served career changers for the last seven years, but we are pleased to be able to extend a ½ in-state tuition waiver to students in this program.  Noyce stipends of $10,000 and the TEACH grant are also available to eligible students.

The next application deadline is March 1, 2010.  For more information and to apply, please contact Marilyn Soucie, SMAR²T Program Coordinator,SoucieMa@missouri.edu

UMSL’s Resources on Alternative Teaching Certifications

For information about alternative certifications for teaching available through the University of Missouri – St. Louis, visithttp://coe.umsl.edu/web/divisions/programs/teach-cert/programs/alternative-certi.html

Great Networking Opportunity – Science on Tap

A great networking and learning opportunity is coming up this Wednesday, but it’s going to be really popular, so you’d better get there early if you want to sit down.  Science On Tap will meet on Wed. Jan. 27th, 7pm-8:30pm at the Schlafly Bottleworks, Crown Room, in Maplewood at 7260 Southwest Ave. and will feature Professor William Wallace who will speak on: Michelangelo: Artist, Aristocrat and Engineer.  Dr. Wallace is the Barbara Murphy Bryant Distinguished Professor of Art History at Washington University and previous Chair of the Department of Art History and Archaeology.  Science On Tap is a free event, but seating is limited and there are no reservations.  They meet on the last Wednesday of the month during the academic year. For more information, please visit: http://scienceontap.wustl.edu

St. Louis Job Angels are Looking Out for You

And don’t forget that the St. Louis Job Angels are working 24 x 7 to find and post good job leads for professionals in transition in the St. Louis market.  Join our LinkedIn Group, St. Louis Job Angels, so you won’t miss out.  Questions?  Contact Job Angels Manager David Strom at david@strom.com .

Bounce Back St Louis Talent Groups and Emerging Economy Forums

Keep an eye out for new announcements on bouncebackstl.net.  That’s our information hub for upcoming programs and career development opportunities.  Please let me know if any of these resources are helpful to you in your search.

Best wishes, from Blair

It's all about the jobs!

by David Strom from http://strominator.com/

Even Conan can’t keep his job, although I am sure many of us would welcome a multi-million dollar payout as he got last week. But as our economy tries to re-start itself, I have seen first-hand how hard it is for people to get new jobs. Over the past seven months, I have been working with our local Regional Chamber and Growth Association in an effort called the St. Louis Job Angels, to help get information about new jobs quickly disseminated to the right people, and also provide self-help and peer networking to job seekers.

The effort was started nationally by consultant Mark Stelzner and has since become very successful here in St. Louis. We have more than 600 people on our LinkedIn group and a new job is posted almost daily. We also send out the postings via Twitter too, although trying to fit an entire job description into 100 or so characters is a challenge. Based on these efforts, I have some advice for employers and job seekers that I want to share.

First off, if you are going to post your opening online, make sure your Web jobs board is both search and Twitter-friendly. Try to have unique and simple URLs that people can email and Tweet to bring job seekers directly to the position at hand. Put all the information about the job on one page, including salary range, prerequisites, and reasonable experiences and skills required. Include a job number or some other identifying string that job applicants can use and reTweet so that others can quickly find the opening. And be specific about how to be contacted and with what information.

You would be surprised (well, maybe not) how many job openings I look at that don’t have this basic information. This isn’t rocket science (and we do have a few openings here in St. Louis for rocket scientists, believe me) and you would think that Al Gore still hasn’t gotten around to inventing the Internet, what with some of the postings that I see.

Some online job boards that are part of individual companies are behind registration walls, so you have to provide all sorts of information about yourself before you can get to see the actual jobs themselves. Bad idea! You want people to browse your board, because they might see something else that they are more qualified or more interested in.

There is a reason not to skimp on descriptions. The more information you can provide the job seeker, the better and more of a match your applicants will be when it comes time to apply.

The unique URL per job makes it easier to reTweet the openings: you use a URL shortening service such as Bit.ly and you can send out the job post quickly without having to worry that Twitter will mangle the URL or that users won’t be able to find it on the Internet someplace.

Some recruiters are told not to divulge the company name for fear that the company will be buried in resumes. Fair enough. But then provide more detail about the job so that applicants can understand what they are getting themselves into.

Also, be fair about telecommuting options. It is time to realize that many of us want to stay put for various reasons. If your management can deal with finding the best candidate in another city, then support this practice. I mean, we are in 2010, people!

Second, spend some time on LinkedIn. Yes, there are still plenty of places where you can post job openings, including Monster, Craigslist, and hundreds of other more specialized sites. And yes, employers should be promiscuous and post openings widely too. But the right use of LinkedIn by both employers and job seekers can be useful.

I keep adjusting my online LinkedIn profile all the time, even though I have had it for many years. I keep forgetting to add particular experiences, or to ask for references from previous bosses. So don’t try to create your entire profile in one sitting, but come back to it frequently. I have some more tips on how to improve your LinkedIn presence here if you want to view my slides.

Most of the people I know are still new at using this service, and some are unaware about the more advanced features such as Groups and Answers that can help augment your job searching and make the service more valuable too. Answers can help build your expertise and demonstrate your knowledge of a topic or niche. Groups can be used, as we do for St. Louis Job Angels group, how to find others who share similar traits and can be quickly scanned for updated information.

LinkedIn can be both a blessing and a curse. Getting groups setup is a slow process, and you have to follow an arcane series of rules if you want to play in their sandbox: for example, as group Admin, I can send out exactly no more than one weekly email to the group. I try not to bury people in emails, but still, sometimes you want to get the word out if we have had a lot of postings or some with very short response times.

Third, become better at marketing yourself. One of my colleagues here and the supervisor of the MissouriCareerSource local office, Frank Alaniz, talks about how to develop a resume that will present your qualifications in a way that a job interviewer or HR screener can quickly see you online. Most employers spend less than three minutes reviewing resumes, which means you have to grab them at hello.

Good luck with your own job search, and maybe you too can host a late-night show in the near future.