FYI About Work at the UW

This came in from Briana Keller, UW Career Advisor for Grad Students and I thought you might want to see it.

Think No One Is Hiring? Think UW

Be a part of President Obama's economic stimulus plan by applying for
ARRA grant-funded positions that are becoming available at the UW. As of
August 2009, the UW has received almost $42 million in ARRA funding. The
bulk of the funding is expected to be received by the end of September.
While many of the awards continue to be for science and engineering
projects, a few fund arts and the humanities.

Curious about how your skill set fits with these jobs? Then visit with
the ARRA Employment Team at our next virtual career fair on:

Wednesday, September 16, 2009
6:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Register now

http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/jobs/arra/

In the meantime, check out a series of virtual career fairs that the ARRA
Employment Team hosted for UW's graduating seniors, graduate students,
and recent grads. The transcripts may answer questions you have about the
broad range of research-related positions expected from the ARRA funding.
The web chats have been archived on our archive page.

Here's Briana's contact info. Since I'm no longer at the UW, you may want to check with her if you need free career help.
Cheers,
Kate 

Briana K Keller, PhD
(206) 685-4139 direct
kellerb@uw.edu

UW Career Center
University of Washington
main: (206) 543-0535 fax: (206) 616-4863
http://careers.washington.edu

Federal Hiring Promises To Be Up This Year

Note the following article in the Washington Post today.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/02/AR2009090203571.html?

I’ve seen an enormous number of contract positions filled in government while I was at SMA, but predictions are that the Obama administration intends to replace many of the contractors with government workers, so the cycle may reverse in the near-term future. (But it does take time to change the course of a very large ship of state.) Be aware of the changing potential for more policy positions.

For Updates on Student Loans

IBRinfo (http://www.ibrinfo.org/)is an initiative of the Institute for College Access & Success,
which also runs the Project on Student Debt. If you don’t already receive
email updates from the Project on Student Debt, we encourage you to sign
up (https://projectonstudentdebt.org/join.php) to get occasional policy and advocacy updates about student loans and
related issues, such as the following message:

Alarming Private Loan Trends

Our new analysis of federal data from 2007-08 reveals that two-thirds of
private loan borrowers did not take out all they could in safer, more
affordable federal loans. Private Loans: Facts and Trends also found that
a majority of private loan borrowers in 2007-08 attended schools with
tuition and fees of $10,000 or less, and that African-American students
were the most likely to take out private student loans.

See the analysis, Private Loans: Facts and Trends
(http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/Aug09_private_loan_NR.pdf)

Note to SMA Readers

Greetings All,

I wanted to let you know that I’ve been experimenting today, by listing professional jobs here and also on the “SMA at the UW” group on LinkedIn.  In terms of ease of posting, it looks like the LinkedIn “group” section is going to be the easiest, and it looks as though any group member can post jobs to it. (Haven’t been able to experiment, but please feel free to join and try listing a job.)   I want to make it as easy a possible for you to get to the job listings, whether you’re looking or just interested in what’s out there.

Now, the reason for this – as you may already know, the Career Coordinator position is being eliminated, along with many other university positions, in order to save the “academic core” of the university. When the budget recovers, some of those positions may be restored, but it does underline the fact that we all are on our own when it comes to our careers. We must be responsible for that on our own.

My plan is to help you all replace the Alumni Directory - with LinkedIn, FaceBook and maybe even Twitter!  It seems almost radical to many academics, but I’m certainly seeing more academics and scientists in LinkedIn, the more professionally inclined of those three “social networking” sites.  And, if you all actually use it, it can be even more effective than the SMA Directory for finding each other and staying in touch with each other.

It has a ton of useful features that you control in terms of your own level of privacy, but you can list your own profile and control how much email and updates you get, and there are ways you can get in contact with people beyond your own primary network.

Please do think about going to LinkedIn.com and setting up your profile. Invite the people you know (including me!), and join the SMA at the UW group. 

I’ll be writing more about LinkedIn and other networking in the time I have left here at SMA (August 7), but much of that will be on my own website and other online resources. Here are two links where you can find that information.

http://Job-Hunt.org  Look in the left column, near the bottom, for my articles.

http://careerchangeforacademics.com  The whole site is mine, and various sections are unfinished, but I’ll soon have more time to add to them. And, if you have questions for me, ask, and I’ll be happy to answer them by writing a blog post, just for you!

To Know About If You Have Loans

Thousands of college graduates across the country will be able to get some relief from their student-loan bills under a new federal program that goes into effect July 1.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2009381333_studentloan25m0.html

Potential Project/Job

Short-term funding opportunity available for someone (likely ideal for an undergraduate or graduate student) to do a project with NOAA’s NEMO program. Potential candidates invited to consider the position.  The project might be helpful for a student working towards a research or thesis project. Details follow.

NOAA Short-Term Position Available in Marine Science Education PRIMARY PROJECT/DELIVERABLE The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently developed a pilot project “NEMO” to promote ocean literacy in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and encourage DCPS participation in a national academic competition for high school students in the ocean sciences, the National Ocean Sciences Bowl. Towards this end, several activities and lesson plans have either been developed or adapted, but none are currently linked to national, DCPS, or ocean literacy standards. The primary project would be to develop a NEMO marine science curriculum using existing NEMO lesson plans and align all lessons to national, DCPS, and ocean literacy standards. The potential to develop new lessons exists if student is interested. The objective would be to produce a NEMO curriculum on a cd that could be distributed at conferences such as NSTA and the National Marine Educators Association Conference. Depending on time and interest, the potential would also exist to work on other projects related to the NEMO program such as survey development and analysis, school recruitment, and program planning. JOB REQUIREMENTS A class or some prior experience in marine or environmental science as well as experience developing lesson plans linked to standards. Computer skill requirements – experience using Microsoft Office. Good communication skills helpful. TIME FRAME: The project would be for up to 20 hours for 4 months though some flexibility exists in how we set up the hourly and monthly commitment. The main objective is to complete the NEMO curriculum. SALARY: $15-17/hour CONTACT: Laura Oremland  at  Laura.Oremland@noaa.gov

Maritime & Port Security Summit in Seattle

Resiliency Planning in a Difficult Economy – held in conjunction with the 2nd Annual University of Washington Conference on Safety and Security Education & Research (SASER)

May 28 & 29, 2009 at the Bell Harbor Conference Center

http://www.rhppublishing.com/mpshome.htm

Greg Shelton says, “FYI- this event dovetails nicely with the GTTL Annual Conference on June 8^th , “Competitive Catalysts — Balancing Recovery, Infrastructure, Trade, and Sustainability.”

ARRA $ Coming to UW HR

Be a part of Obama’s economic stimulus plan by applying for ARRA
grant-funded positions that are becoming available at the UW.

The ARRA Employment Team is hosting a special virtual career fair for
UW’s graduating seniors, graduate students, and recent grads with an
interest in research-related positions in a broad range of fields from
the liberal arts to the hard sciences.

Learn more about these terrific job opportunities during online chats.
Mark your calendar and return to this page for :

* Graduating Seniors: Tuesday, May 26; 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
* Grad Students: Wednesday, May 27; 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
* Young Alumni: Thursday, May 28; 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/jobs/arra/

Summer Biz Certificate Program Meeting

The Certificate Program in Business Administration (CBA) is offered as a summer intensive starting Monday, June 22nd 2009. This certificate provides a core business administration curriculum that will give one the tools and knowledge to evaluate new business ventures or improve operations.  With a Certificate of Business Administration, you’ll be able to:

 -Sharpen your understanding of business fundamentals
 -Create a great business plan and secure funding
 -Gain a credential and skills to move up to management and improve your salary
 -Redesign a process or double your productivity
 -Enhance your team management skills
 -Earn graduate credit to complement your masters or PhD degree 

This 15 graduate credit program was designed and is taught by UW Foster School of Business faculty and lecturers. 

The summer intensive CBA program will be holding an information meeting on April 21^st located on the UW Seattle Campus in the Allen Library Auditorium.  

Program Overview – http://www.extension.washington.edu/ext/certificates/imp/imp_gen.asp

Program Application Process – http://www.extension.washington.edu/ext/certificates/imp/imp_hta.asp#app

FYI on WA DNR Hiring Freeze

Hiring Freeze
Job Seeker – Questions and Answers
1. Does the state hiring freeze apply to the Department of
Natural Resources?    Yes. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is fully participating in the state hiring freeze.

2. How long will the hiring freeze be in effect?     DNR¡¦s hiring freeze became effective August 7, 2008. We are uncertain of an end date.

3. What types of positions are affected by the hiring freeze?    The hiring freeze applies to all positions, including permanent, non-permanent, classified (includes Washington Management Service), and exempt.

4. Are there any positions that are exempted from the hiring
freeze?     Yes. Certain activities will be exempted from the hiring freeze.  The exemptions include:    „X Fire fighting    „X Enforcement officers     „X Revenue production

5. What if a recruitment was already in progress at the time of
the freeze?    DNR is reviewing every recruitment that was in progress at the time of the freeze to determine if it meets one of the exemptions. As soon as decisions are made, candidates are being notified as to
their status. We appreciate your patience.

6. If I applied to a recruitment that was affected by the
freeze, will I remain in that candidate pool and be considered when
the freeze is over?    Every recruitment and candidate pool is being handled on a case-by-case basis. Because we do not know how long the hiring freeze will be in effect, our best answer for those candidates who applied to a recruitment affected by the freeze is to expect to need to re-apply at some future point when the freeze on that position is lifted.

7. Are all the recruitments posted at the DNR job site going to
be filled?     We are in the process of reviewing every recruitment to determine if  it meets one of the exemptions and removing those recruitment announcements from our web site that do not meet one of the exemptions. This process has not been completed. Our goal is to
only show jobs on our site that will be filled.

8. Who can I call to find out more details about a position for
which I am being considered?     You should contact the individual supervisor indicated on our recruitment announcements for specific questions about the status of  their recruitment. You can also call our recruiting staff at 360-902-1228 or 360-902-1350.