When a genie grants three wishes to a savvy businessperson, her or his first thought is to wish for more wishes. Similarly, when Alfa Demmellash was looking to make the greatest difference as a social entrepreneur, she chose to empower still more entrepreneurs for an exponential impact. After graduating from Harvard in 2003, Demmellash founded Rising Tide Capital (RTC), a Jersey City, New Jersey-based non-profit that stimulates low-income communities by training entrepreneurs.
Posts in ‘Career’ Category
A Non-Profit Trains Disadvantaged Entrepreneurs
- By: Guest Contributor
- March 5, 2010
- 0 comments
5 Key Traits of Great Leaders
- By: Guest Contributor
- March 5, 2010
- 0 comments
n the book, Lessons From the Top: The Search for America’s Best Business Leaders, Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, made the following observation:
“I think it’s very difficult to lead today when people are not really truly participating in the decision. You won’t be able to attract and retain great people if they don’t feel like they are part of the authorship of the strategy and the authorship of the really critical issues. If you don’t give people an opportunity to really be engaged, they won’t stay.”
Black Enterprise Exclusive with Xerox CEO Ursula M. Burns (Video)
- By: Guest Contributor
- March 5, 2010
- 0 comments
It all began in 1980 when a 19-year-old Ursula Burns walked through the doors at XEROX Corp. to work as a summer intern. In July 2009, her prowess and performance led to a headline-grabbing milestone: Burns was installed as Xerox’s chief executive officer, becoming the first African American woman to take the helm of one of the nation’s largest publicly traded companies. Black Enterprise Business Report spoke exclusively with the history making Power Player:
It’s always job hunting season and I wanted to leave you with five great tips to having an effective resume.
1) A one page resume is key. Too often people attempt to put all of their experience on the entire resume and it ends up being two or three pages. As a prospective employer, a one page resume is a positive step. If your experience and skills must run over one page, two pages is the absolute maximum but I do not recommend it.
2) Absolutely zero mispellings. No excuse. Proofread your resume and have an honest friend proofread it for you as well. In addition, make sure you explain any anacronyms that are part of company cultures that you include on your resume. Spell them out first and then you can use them a second or third time.
3) Include timely, accurate and pertinent information within the resume. For example, I highly recommend including your own personal Linkedin URL, twitter address, and a personal blog address within the address portion of the resume. Make sure that the blog is professional in the appearance and content because many employers will look at the blog several times during the interviewing process. Also, make sure that your LinkedIn profile is 100% complete and up to date. If you include your twitter address, remember to make sure your tweets are professional and don’t turn into R-rated tweets. You never know when your future boss is watching you tweet (even at 1 AM in the morning after a long night out!).
**Bonus tip** Use your Google Voice number as your phone number on the resume. This will allow you to know when it isn’t a friend calling you to go out on the town. Plus it shows some subtle technical expertise which is always a good thing.
4) Emphasize important accomplishments, statistics and awards with bold text within your resume. There is no need to go overboard, but with subtly placed bold text in various places within a resume, this will subconsciously draw the interviewer’s attention to specific facts that you view as “must see” within the resume.
5) Find a way to display your personality somewhere within the resume. In my opinion, the hobbies and activities section is perfect for this. Community activities, interesting hobbies and association memberships are great talking points for building rapport within an interview. In general, I would avoid using colorful paper with lots of “bedazzlement” unless the type of job you are applying for calls for it. There is no need for your resume to be thrown away without even being examined.
There are my five tips for writing an effective resume. Stay tuned for part 2. Are there any suggestions you would like to add?
Recently, I spoke with a friend that I’ve known since high school. She shared with me her excitement at being promoted to vice president of her company. This is no mean feat for a black woman under 30! I’m really proud of her and know how hard she works to get noticed, reach the heights of achievement that she’s set for herself and deliver results in the workplace.
Now notice I said I’m happy for her. She’s following the path that she set for herself long ago, and no one can follow that path but her. I’m not envious of her success in the least. Because I have my own goals that I’m pursuing, and I’m sure they’re not congruent with who she is either. What’s key here is that both of us consciously decided what success was to us, and that’s the beacon we’re following to get to the end result.
Blacks Should Support ENDA
- By: Talia Whyte
- February 15, 2010
- 0 comments
With February being black history month, many African-Americans began to reminisce about the both the struggles and accomplishments they have made over the years. Recently, I went to a lecture about the life of radical labor activist A. Philip Randolph, who during his lifetime not only advocated for the employment rights of blacks, but also for Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and poor whites.
I was joined at this lecture by a friend who wondered aloud if Randolph were alive today whether he would embrace the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which would end workplace discrimination against LGBT workers. I don’t usually like to predict what dead people would think about current issues, but I would like to believe that Randolph would also be sympathetic to the cause of gay employees.
One thing I do know for sure is homosexuality is still a highly contentious issue within our community. Living in Massachusetts during the height of the same sex marriage debate, I saw first hand the sharp division between blacks and gays, and I don’t think either group will see eye to eye on marriage equality in the near future due to deep religious roots within black community. However, employment rights have nothing to do with religion. Everyone has a right to work and not be discriminated because of their skin color or who they choose to have as a romantic partner.
I remember one of my first jobs out of college I worked for a company that was openly hostile to gay people. A co-worker, who was a closeted lesbian at the time, always cowered in agony when her manager and other co-workers would make crass, homophobic jokes in the office. She knew that she could not speak out about this because she feared being targeted and possibly fired. She would eventually quit the company abruptly, and only tell me years later that she left because of the office homophobia. Looking back, I felt really guilty that I was not a better co-worker and spoke out against this horror that emotionally crippled my friend.
As a tribute to those who fought for the rights of African Americans in the past, maybe it is time for African Americans to help fight for the rights of other marginalized groups.
Entrepreneurs Look to Africa for Opportunities
- By: Talia Whyte
- February 12, 2010
- 1 comments
On Feb. 11, 1989, Nelson Mandela was released from a South African jail after 27 years of unlawful incarceration. With his release and his election to be the country’s president four years later, there was hope from the international community that finally South Africa would rise up from its dark past of racial and class bigotry.
Twenty years later, while the apartheid system is officially dismantled on paper, not only is racial division still a problem, but violent crime, poverty and HIV/AIDS have contributed to unemployment and has financially crippled South Africa from making progress. The 2010 World Cup coming later this year could financially help out South Africa, the rest of the continent and young black professionals in America. Let me explain.
YBP Profiles: Chris-Tia Donaldson
- By: Talia Whyte
- February 9, 2010
- 1 comments
Chris-Tia Donaldson is on a mission to make sure that every black woman knows that natural – hair or otherwise – is beautiful. She is the author of the recent book, “Thank God I’m Natural: The Ultimate Guide to Caring for and Maintaining Natural Hair,” which includes tips for other black women who want to learn how to maintain natural hair.
“Our hair-grooming habits are reflective of our history, and it affects how we go about our daily lives,” she said in a previous interview. “Thankfully, I learned that I am much more than my hair, and I take better care of my hair now.”
If you are in the job market right now, it is not the time to ignore twitter as a resource and a job searching hub. For this exercise, we are going to assume you already have a twitter account. Here are five quick tips to setting up a system to find jobs on twitter:
It’s a new year and there are some small signs that the job market could be turning a corner. That means it’s time to make sure you are properly positioned for any new job opportunities that arise. Here are five tips to make sure you are ready for your next career search:
