Search Results: green careers recap

March 2, 2019

Green Careers February Recap: Resume Workshop

By Emily Taubenblatt     February’s Green Careers event had participants refresh their resumes “speed dating” style. Volunteer reviewers offered tips and best practices for the most successful resumes and participants walked away with multiple perspectives on how best to showcase their experience to land the job of their dreams.   In case you missed it, here are some of the tips that were given: Fit your resume onto one page. Send your resume in PDF format to preserve the formatting on any computer. Position your relevant skills and experience at the top of your resume, and put education further down the page. Include an objective or goal at the top of your resume. When describing internship experience, avoid using the term “intern”. Instead, take credit for the work you did as an intern by calling it the job that it is! Avoid extra white space and unnecessary lines. When describing your skills, keep it limited to those that are the most impressive — everyone knows how to use Microsoft Word! Break up large chunks of text into bullet points. Start each descriptive line with a strong verb. Know your audience and tailor your presentation of your experience to match the job you’re applying for. Make your experience sound exciting.  

January 30, 2019

{Green Careers} January Recap: Sustainability Careers Tracks: Building Design for People

Nadine Rachid, Mary Jo Peterson, Melanie Koch

By Jenny Dranetz
Photos by Rishika Shrivastava

January’s Green Careers panel featured three professionals working to design and create built environments that not only work to meet sustainability goals but also positively impact the health and well-being of their occupants. Specifically, this month’s panelists’ work focuses on active design, universal design and building standards looking at the built environment’s impact on occupant health.

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September 28, 2018

{Green Careers} August Recap: Sustainable Career Tracks: Environmental Science

September 12, 2018 Hosted by New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, 1359 Broadway Recap by Curtis Morrow
 
On Wednesday, September 12, GHNYC Careers Transitions hosted our Career Tracks “Environmental Science” where GHNYC volunteer Michelle Andry supplied our venue at New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Our guest panelists included:
 
George Jackman, PhD, Habitat Restoration Manager at Riverkeeper Wayne Swenson, Energy Engineer at Steven Winter Associates Vinicius De Paula, Staff Engineer at Langan Engineering & Environmental Services Eric Auerbach, Environmental Engineer and Resource Recovery Specialist at ARCADIS (more…)

June 18, 2018

{Green Careers} June Recap: Women and Minorities in Green

by Curtis Morrow   The June Green Careers event, held at GroheLive! Center, focused on women and minorities in the green sector.  Former Green Careers Lead Volunteer, Samantha Yost hosted the event, the topic of which holds special meaning for her.  As an LGBTQ woman, Yost believes that GreenHomeNYC “had her back” and helped her break into the sustainability field.   Our panelists for the evening spoke about their experiences in the green sector as either a woman, a minority or both.  Julianna Wei, Energy Engineer and Technical Project Manager at TRC Energy Services, is a female engineer of Chinese descent, who as a child, was a minority in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).  She highlighted the importance of finding allies and mentors at every stage of one’s career. Mentors may not directly present themselves as such – it’s up to you to build the relationship through on-on-one, person-to-person discussions. She advised acknowledging the lack of diversity in a specific setting as objectively as possible without adding subjective commentary on how to deal with it.   (more…)

May 17, 2018

{Green Careers} April Recap: Speed (Up)Dating Your Resume

by Curtis Morrow and Emily Taubenblatt   During our annual Resume Workshop, the Green Careers team invited professionals representing the public sector (Department of Buildings, New York City Housing Authority – NYCHA), the private sector (Kenneth Cole, Community Preservation Corporation, and Steven Winter Associates), and the non-profit sector (Self-Help Community Services) to offer tips and critique participants’ resumes. In several fifteen-minute round-robin rotations, all attendees received one-on-one sessions with feedback, advice, and pointers to help grab and keep the attention of hiring managers.  The experts agreed on several resume tips: Make the best use of white space on the page Keep the resume to a single page Ensure that formatting and alignment is consistent Specify details with quantitative or qualitative values Use active verbs in place of adjectives to show rather than tell your achievements (more…)

April 23, 2018

{Green Careers} Recap: Exploring Corporate Social Responsibility

Recap by Miaoru Guan   Corporate Social Responsibility, commonly referred to as CSR, describes companies’ initiatives to give back to the environment and community. The April 2018 Green Careers panelists spoke about their extensive experience with a wide range of CSR initiatives that help companies fulfill these goals while also improving the bottom line.   Zoha Karmali began her career in sales and marketing for Tata Group and combined her skills with her passion for CSR to eventually transition into the field. She coordinated volunteer programming and corporate hotel sustainable practices for 100 locations and 25,000 employees of Tata Group’s luxury hospitality firm. Abisola Adekoya is currently a consultant at Salterbaxter MSL Group and advises companies in telling stories of sustainability through reporting. Prior to sustainability consulting, Abisola worked to bring together companies and NGOs to solve pressing issues in international development. Heliana Higbie has experience with both the public and private sector. Heliana has implemented sustainable agriculture programs for PepsiCo in addition to renewable energy resilience efforts for the City of Yonkers and NYC Transit.   Photo by Rishika Shrivastava   CSR efforts not only benefit the community and the environment but also increase long term profits for the company. Zoha talked about how company-wide employee volunteer programs allowed for inter-departmental networking within her company. Abisola agreed and mentioned that volunteering activities increase employee engagement and overall productivity. Heliana discussed climate resiliency fixes for the MTA that improve transportation reliability during natural disasters, reducing the cost of recovery.   For companies interested in starting or increasing their CSR initiatives, the panelists gave insights into strategies that encourage CSR. The easiest way to implement programs is to have support from upper management. When the CEO or other decision-makers recognize the benefits of CSR and emphasize it as a priority for the company, sustainability professionals have the necessary support to organize initiatives and employees are encouraged to participate in events. When there is no clear mandate, sustainability professionals can engage individual departments and people to elicit interest. The panelists also highlighted the most effective CSR strategies, such as volunteer programs that integrate job responsibilities.   Drawing from their unique backgrounds, the speakers gave advice to those interested in entering the CSR industry. The panelists all agreed that is not necessary to have a direct career path to CSR. Abisola mentioned that having colleagues with different backgrounds is an asset because it brings more nuanced perspectives to the table when making CSR decisions. Zoha emphasized the importance of applying skills gained from other opportunities to CSR jobs, such as communication and teamwork. Heliana encouraged people to think outside the box for career decisions and to carve one’s own path by using resources from schools and professional networks.    

February 26, 2018

{Green Careers} February Recap: Telling Your Sustainability Story

by Carl Hourihan One February 13th, GreenHomeNYC hosted Jacquelyn Ottman for a workshop on Telling Your Sustainability Story.   Jacquelyn is an internationally recognized expert on green marketing and eco-innovation and author of five award-winning books, including The New Rules of Green Marketing. She is the founder of Ottman Consulting, which has guided strategy for over sixty Fortune 500 companies, the EPA’s Energy Star, and the USDA’s Certified Biobased Labels. Jacquelyn writes and blogs for her sites wehatetowaste.com, greenmarketing.com, and contributes to the Huffington Post. She is also a certified Zero Waste Professional and is the Residential Recycling Committee Chair on the Solid Waste Advisory Board (SWAB) committee to the Manhattan Borough President.   Jacquelyn offered her insights, as well as provided activities for attendees to participate in order to help everyone understand how to tell their own stories, whether it be for their job search or over-arching careers. She stressed the importance of telling a story to demonstrate our credibility rather than a grocery list of accomplishments and qualifications. (more…)

August 7, 2017

{Green Careers} Guide to Starting a Green Career in NYC Launch Party, Recap

by Peter Dietrich On Tuesday, August 1st, GreenHomeNYC released the Guide to Starting a Green Career in New York City, written by Sam Yost, and hosted a release event at NYSERDA with career development professionals (and guide contributors) John Crant and Celia Currin. The guide, long in the making, is the result of an agglomeration of experiences and tips from GreenHomeNYC members and staff. We all know that job hunting is rarely fun, so this guide should help take some of the pain out of the process. It features advice for the gamut of the job search, including interviews, resumes, cover letters, networking, finding a mentor and more. Some tips that apply especially to the green job space are that you should get relevant certifications or accreditations, you should join local green groups (oh hey, you’re already reading this at the GHNYC site) and you should volunteer with groups doing what you want to do. You can download it free from the GHNYC website. (more…)

July 15, 2017

Green Careers July Event Recap: “Six Degrees of Separation” Networking Workshop

Recap by Brigitta Berze     On July 11, Green Careers hosted a workshop where participants were taught the dos and don’ts of networking and guided through exercises to practice networking in a more relaxed environment. Thanks to the helpful tips given by GreenHomeNYC volunteers Emily Taubenblatt and Samantha Yost, attendees walked away with a practical guide on how to properly network.   According to Sam, the first rule of any networking event is to Be on Time! She then asked the timeless question: What is your fear about networking? Naturally, people’s biggest fears related to their confidence in their knowledge about relevant topics to discuss, the awkwardness of selling yourself to someone in a high position, and not having anything in common with the person with whom you are speaking.   Sam eased concerns as she explained that having a successful networking experience does not depend on being a social butterfly. Proper networking is about making connections and building professional relationships. She recommended Kate Griffin’s ‘Human to Human Networking’. Sam reminded us that at the end of the day the CEO or Vice President of a company is human too, and asking for an informational interview is always a good idea. Trying to get to know someone professionally is a process and networking is building long-term relationships. Don’t be afraid to e-mail the person you really want to meet to start the conversation. (more…)

April 4, 2017

{Green Careers} March Event Recap: Freelancing and Starting Your Own Business

by Radhika Sri Paravastu   Many professionals have had an idea of starting their own business, either from an early age or due to dissatisfaction with their current work. Whether you want to bring a new idea or service to the world or offer services in an established field, it can be challenging to strike out on your own. To learn how to put the right foot forward while starting one’s own freelancing or entrepreneurial journey, GreenhomeNYC’s March event focused on “Freelancing and Starting Your Own Business.” It saw speakers who are both established and budding entrepreneurs in building software, engineering, solar, and business consulting. Each speaker gave us a glimpse into their professional lives and how entrepreneurship is different than working in a more traditional setting: (more…)