Main Meeting Presentation Archive

This page contains the most recently archived presentations. For older presentations, select the menu item on the left for the calendar-quarter the presentation was given.

Unless otherwise stated, all presentations are copyright the presenter, all rights reserved, and are used here with permission.

Overcome Ageism with YOUR best ‘Me’

Presentation Date: July 17, 2018



Presenter Website: N/A
Presentation Material: Pending Upload
Description: Let’s face it, Austin is a ‘young’ city. As we grow older, we need to deal with ageism. First, we must begin to truly understand age prejudice and age discrimination. Then we can take effective steps to combat them.

This week’s presentation, “Overcome Ageism with YOUR best ‘Me'” will help you answer the questions:

• What is Ageism?
• Is my age being used against me?
• What tips and tricks can I use to overcome ageism?
• How do I package myself to bring out the best “Me”?

A Circus Act, Two Lab Rats, and a Crab!

Presentation Date: July 10, 2018


Presenter Website: LaunchPad Job Club
Presentation Material: Pending Upload
Description: Kathy’s talk will examine the time between your last job and your next job. It starts with science, moves deftly into inspiration, and careens to a climactic finish with a series of recommended actions. There will be a handout, but no test.

Many of you know Kathy as founder and facilitator of the Launch Pad Job Club and as the job search skills trainer at Workforce Solutions.

Conversational Networking

Presentation Date: July 3, 2018


Ripple Website: Ripple Central
Presentation Material: N/A
Description: Your goal in networking is to initiate and significantly enhance relationships. That happens when two or more people step outside the box and connect as individuals. This fun-filled, interaction-heavy workshop teaches you to do that.

Use conversational networking to learn about another person, connect with them, and lay a foundation upon which a larger, longer-term relationship can be built. You’ll walk away with greater insight about yourself and the art of connecting. You’ll be surprised to see how a few well-placed questions open up a world full of potential: rapport with the people you speak with, information about your target market and your field, new possibilities you never expected, and introductions to others on your path to your next job.

Brand You: Discover How You Bring Value & Put Your Future In Your Own Hands

Presentation Date: June 26, 2018


Presenter Website: In Sync Resources
Presentation Material: Brand You
Description:Have you heard the country song with the refrain, “You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything?” It turns out that advice can help you find a better job. This week’s workshop will show us how to discover what we stand for and then attract and approach employers we can stand with.

You have two choices. You can develop a brand that’s based on who you really are, or you can allow others to dictate it for you based on what they need you to be. What will you choose?

Angela will help you:

• discover how your personal brand impacts your career goals and job search,
• begin identifying the unique value you bring to your job and industry, and
• use your personal brand to take control of your career.

Developing your brand only begins with this hour. Come ready to take notes about exercises you can do as homework.

Clean Out Your Mental Closet

Presentation Date: June 19, 2018


Presenter Website: The Soul Whisperer
Presentation Material: Pending Upload
Description: Do you sometimes think in circles, or get distracted, or find it hard to focus on the next steps in your job search? Does mental clutter get in your way?

This week’s presenter can help. Her workshop, “ConverSOULutions: Spruce up Your Soul by Cleaning Out Your Mental Closet,” provides a template for evaluating mental clutter. It helps participants identify and remove limiting beliefs, and set goals that are more genuine, more realistic, and more ambitious.

Janifer Wheeler is a Certified Life Coach and National Adult Learning Presenter.
Janifer provides business and educational development tools including customized journaling, painting, interactive games, and workshops that inspire her clients to unlock their potential and facilitate self-discovery.

Use CRM In Your Job Search

Presentation Date: June 12, 2018


Presenter Handout: Free CRM Handout
Presentation Material: Free CRM – Use It To Power Your Job Search
Description: To find that next job, we each talk with lots of people. We make and maintain new relationships. We help others and accept help. And as we find opportunities, we often have several applications in progress at the same time.

How do you stay in touch with so many people and on top of multiple commitments?

Job searches have rapidly evolved from resumes, Rolodexes, and want ads to LinkedIn, Indeed.com, and Applicant Tracking Systems. Employers and recruiters seem to have driven most of these technical advances, and have reaped most of the benefits.

Fortunately, free, simple, yet sophisticated sales and marketing tools are now available to help any job seeker and anyone seeking to promote a career. Customer relationship management (CRM) apps can increase the efficiency of your job search. It will help you track the progress of each application, stay in touch with each contact, and free your time for in-person networking. In this week’s presentation, John Rothgeb will show you how to take the leap from spreadsheets and note pads to using CRM in your job search.

How to be Found on LinkedIn: Think Like a Recruiter

Presentation Date: June 5, 2018


Presenter Website: Career Pivot
Presentation Material: Think Like a Recruiter
Description:Does your LinkedIn profile seem like a ghost town? Is it getting very few views? Do recruiters avoid you and make you wonder why?

If your LinkedIn profile seems invisible to recruiters, the problem has nothing to do with your qualifications. Even the best candidate can be missed completely.

Recruiters use search methods to find candidates. If you don’t know those methods, your chance of being found by an electronic search is much lower. If you learn to think like a recruiter, you can structure your LinkedIn profile so that it is found.

Let’s talk about how to optimize your LinkedIn profile so that recruiters and potential customers will find it!
Key Points:

• Recruiters search on Current Job Titles and Keywords
• You MUST have a current job title to be found
• You can have multiple current job titles and multiple current jobs
• Keywords should be placed in every section of your profile

If you understand how recruiters source candidates on LinkedIn, then you can create a profile that is an opportunity magnet.

Marc Miller is the founder of Career Pivot. His book Repurpose Your Career: A Practical Guide for the 2nd Half of Life was published in April 2017. Marc is on Next Avenue’s list of Influencers in Aging for 2017.

Retool for your next job at ACC

Presentation Date: May 29, 2018


Presenter Website: Austin Community College Continuing Education
Presentation Material: N/A – Verbal Only
Description: Do you want to broaden, brush up on, or certify technical skills, knowledge, and capabilities that will help you land your next job?

Austin Community College can help.

Stephen Marengo Jr. will be here this week to discuss the training and certifications ACC has to offer, and how to use them to meet the hiring expectations of local businesses.

Network With a Purpose

Presentation Date: May 22, 2018


Presenter Website: N/A
Presenter Handouts: Available directly from Alex.
Presentation Material: Network With a Purpose
Description: Over 80% of jobs are found through networking—yet many of us never learned how to network well.

• Are you spending 80% of your time chasing 20% of the jobs?
• Have you answered the three questions that will guide your networking?
• Do you want to improve your confidence and effectiveness in networking?

If you learn to network effectively, you will find your next job faster. Plus, it’ll be a lot more fun. So stay off the job boards and come let Alex McCarthy show you how to Network With A Purpose.

Alex McCarthy is dedicated to helping leaders make smart, fast job transitions into careers where they are passionate and engaged. On his way to becoming an executive career coach, he worked in product management, software development, marketing, and sales roles in companies ranging from early-stage startups to publicly-traded global companies. He built successful product management and marketing teams for embedded hardware, enterprise software, and web application solutions.

The 12 Week Year

Presentation Date: May 15, 2018


Presenter Website: Danny Smith
Presentation Material: N/A – Verbal Only
Description: Does it seem like your job search is moving too slowly? Do you wonder how you can accomplish more in less time?

Everyone has the same amount of time available. The secret is learning to effectively execute in cycles by identifying what you need to do, focusing on that, and ignoring the “noise”.

This Tuesday, acclaimed speaker Danny Smith will share an approach that will help you to:

• Take control of your day
• Balance your priorities
• Lower your stress
• Accomplish your goal

Danny’s presentation will guide you to execute your job search more effectively with accountability. It can also help you improve your performance in your next job.

His talk is based on the bestselling book “The Twelve Week Year” by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington.

Dressing for the Job you want

Presentation Date: May 8, 2018


Presenter Website: It’s Just Living Lifestyle
Presentation Material: Dressing for the Job you want
Description: A friend of mine says, “It’s not real until I know what I’m going to wear!”
Do you feel that way sometimes? Does it affect how you think about your next job?

Our speaker this week can make it real.

Jessica Clarke is an artist, costumer, and wardrobe consultant. She guides her clients to be themselves in a new environment. Her mission is to assist us to be comfortable being who we are, build our confidence, and make our networking and interviewing more effective.

Jessica will guide you, step by step, to dress for the job you want:

• Know your audience.
• Be aware of your best qualities and features.
• Choose an outfit that fits the part you plan to play.

Using Project Management Certifications in Your Job Search

Presentation Date: May 1, 2018


Presenter LinkedIn: Ahmed Zouhair
Presenter Website: PM Training Consulting
Presentation Material: GetHired Workshop – Could a certification help your job search
Description:There are so many different project-management-related disciplines and certification programs. Can one or more of them help you position yourself for your next job?

This week, Ahmed Zouhair, PMP introduces us to several certifications that Austin employers look for, explains how to obtain one, and discusses how they fit with different roles and careers.

Ahmed has more than 20 years of experience teaching, training and consulting in project and program management for Fortune 500 companies, most often on IT projects, ITIL, Agile/Scrum, and PMOs.

Ahmed Zouhair founded the Austin Project Management Toastmasters club and the Central Texas College (CTC) Project Management Program. His firm, Project Management Training and Consulting, Inc, provides training and consulting in project management to small businesses. He is also an active volunteer with the Austin Project Management Institute and with SCORE.

Behavioral Interviewing 101

Presentation Date: April 24, 2018


Presentation Material: Behavioral Interviewing
Behavioural Interview Questions:Sample Behavioral Interview Questions
Description:Employers today use behavioral questions to uncover a job applicant’s past work performance, to predict future performance, and to reveal character and personality traits. Experienced recruiter Amanda Osuna can help with her presentation, “Behavioral Interviewing 101.” She will explain why questions that reveal how we respond to stress have become so important in the hiring process. And she will teach us how to be prepared to react well to these sorts of questions and to answer them effectively.

Marketing Plan Workshop

Presentation Date: April 17, 2018


Presenter Website: N/A
Presentation Material: N/A
Description: In the hills, you need a map and a compass. Up a creek, you need a boat and a paddle. When you are looking for a job and managing your career, you need to network. To network, you need a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is an essential tool for conducting a job search and for managing a career. This week, Glenn Burchard will show us how to put a marketing plan together, and how to use it as a guide to networking.

Glenn spearheads the delivery of leadership consulting and career management services in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and San Antonio (and in Oklahoma) for outplacement firm Lee Hecht Harrison.

Before joining LHH, Glenn enjoyed a twenty year, varied career within AT&T. He was the organization’s “go-to” person for career management advice and performance management coaching, and served as an internal consultant, facilitating organizational development programs and partnering with key leaders to enhance individual and team performance. He has effectively delivered Team Learning, Systems Thinking, and Mind/Body/Team Building programs.

“A Crash Course in Positivity” Workshop

Presentation Date: April 10, 2018


Presenter Website: Steve H Lawton
Presentation Material: Head First
Description: When calamity strikes, or when something worse than we can imagine happens, what can we do? How do we find our way back to assess, engage, find resources, and put our lives back together?

Steve Lawton has been there and done that. He survived a severe trauma in 2014 that could have killed him or left him severely disabled. Steve shares how the lessons he learned throughout his life, including his time at Texas A∓M, as a NASA engineer, and as an executive at Dell, set him up to not only survive, but to nearly completely recover. You will hear his inspiring story along with practical advice on how you can create a more positive mindset and overcome any obstacle you encounter.

Steve is the author of “Head First! A Crash Course in Positivity,” an inspirational story about how his attitude literally saved his life from a near fatal skiing accident. He is a TEDx speaker and has helped thousands of people with his inspirational speaking at Dell, Accenture, Starbucks, VMWare, EMC and others. He has been featured on multiple media outlets and podcasts such as LittleThingsUSA, Eternal Leadership, BizJournals.com and as a guest lecturer at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas.

“My Next Move” Workshop

Presentation Date: April 3, 2018


Presenter Website: N/A
Presentation Material: N/A
Description: Is it time to decide and commit on a job track? Do you know what your transferable skills are? Have you decided what industries are best for you? Do you know the key words and phrases to include in your scannable and online resume? Is it time to create, refresh or update your marketing plan?

Did you answer the first or last question with “Yes”? Or answer any question, “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure”? Then Patti Boyle can help. Come hear this outplacement expert as she demonstrates how to integrate “My Next Move” into your job search or career change.

“My Next Move” (also called the O*Net Interest Profiler) is a free, easy-to-use online tool. It quickly assesses the kinds of work you enjoy. It allows you to explore jobs you might like and to identify your transferable skills. It highlights occupations that may appeal to you. It lists current job openings, the outlook for the future, average national and local salaries, apprenticeships, and related education and training programs.