Author: careerswithmichelle

A Day in the Life of a Journalism Major with Juana Norales

Posted on by careerswithmichelle

Journalism has always been a hot topic due to current events that are happening in our daily lives. A journalist is someone that everyone depends on in order to stay on top of the news trends across various news outlets and social media platforms.

Popular and Reliable TV News Channels & Outlets
Popular Social Media Platforms for Breaking News

For those of you who have heard the term but are not familiar with the exact duties in the field, according to WayUp Experts, a journalist plays many different roles such as researching stories (A LOT OF RESEARCH), interviewing people, and writing and editing.

Many individuals who I surround myself with, oftentimes bring up the question on which news/media outlet is the MOST trusted source. Well, it is hard to answer that since everyone has their own opinion on where to go. Some actually rely on Twitter, according to Forbes as it is the best place for breaking news. However, Business Insider’s statistics below will give you a peace of mind.

Among all adult Americans surveyed:

  • On average, 55% of adults found the nine outlets in the survey credible.  
  • 63% of adults said CBS is credible.
  • 61% of adults said NBC is credible.
  • 60% of adults said ABC is credible. 
  • 59% of adults said The Wall Street Journal is credible.
  • 53% of adults said CNN is credible, the same percentage as The New York Times.
  • 51% of adults said Fox News is credible.
  • 49% of adults said NPR is credible. 
  • 48% of adults said MSNBC is credible.

Juana Norales has always known that journalism was her passion at a very young age. She is currently attending Brooklyn College (CUNY) and pursuing her Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism. For a while, she has been tirelessly searching for internships. In my due diligence, I decided to go out of my way, to put on my career coach hat and touched up her resume & cover letter. I provided her tips, gave her my honest opinions and coached her in every way possible to the best version of herself. I made sure that she was able to land a role in her field and begin her journey towards her dream career.

First, she applied for a role at BuzzFeed and was really hoping to land that remote internship due to their strong employer brand (who doesn’t know what BuzzFeed is?), and because of its perks and it was a pretty good pay. And not to mention, it’s very rare to find paid internships nowadays… many just do not have the budget to afford it. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 situation, BuzzFeed’s 2020 summer internship program has been cancelled (just like many others, including the NYC Summer Youth Employment Program – which is the nation’s largest youth employment program, connecting NYC youth between the ages of 14 and 24 with career exploration opportunities and paid work experience each summer) and her application has been rescinded. This global crisis made a significant impact to our economy. Due to the uncertainties of the job market outlook, many companies are making plans in anticipation of revenue loss for 2020, with BuzzFeed being one of the many. The BuzzFeed leadership team has been highly focused on taking steps to ensure that their company is prepared to withstand a negative impact to their business and those steps included cutting costs in several places.

However, I advised her to not give up. Luckily, a few days later, she heard back from one of the employers that she applied for a role as an Editorial Intern at Access by NKC, a leading public relations and brand strategy agency for luxury, fashion, beauty, lifestyle, culture, art and design industry leaders. Although it was not what she expected, she was still very much content – since of course, experience matters more. And she loves fashion, beauty and lifestyle (which was a plus) therefore, that would make her an asset in this internship. The key to success is that we all have to start somewhere and to climb our way up the ladder.

Access by NKC has published a variety of articles that she has written. Feel free to check out her written pieces for inspiration!

Now let’s jump into the Q&A to learn more about Juana’s experience and what she has to say!

• How did you realize that journalism was the path to your dream career?

Growing up, I’ve always loved meeting people from different backgrounds and ethnicities and I enjoyed learning about them. I love learning about different cultures, languages and religions and I always believed that everyone has a story to tell. I knew that as a journalist, one of my goals would be to share other people’s stories along with my own. Believe it or not, when I was a little girl I literally had so many different diaries probably 5 or more. I would write in them. I’d write out my feelings, my secrets and just anything that I felt like sharing. My diaries were a safe and creative space for me. Whenever I would write in them I felt like everything was going to be okay because I felt like all I needed was my diary and when I felt like I had no one that’s what I normally turned to.

• What career do you want to pursue within this field?

That’s still undecided. For a really long time, I wanted to be a journalist for entertainment news but, as I get older and witness what’s going on in today’s world, I realize that I really want to share my thoughts along with other peoples perspectives on important topics and things that we face today. So many different topics need to be brought to light and there needs to be more awareness. I want to be able to teach people so many different things, I want people to be able to relate to me or feel like they can tune in or read my work because it’s meaningful. As for now, I’d say I would like to do my own thing. Maybe create my own blog, start my own podcast, and I even have my YouTube channel so that will definitely help me in the long run for future opportunities!

• Did you have any role models who inspired you to major in journalism?

One role model that has inspired me to major in journalism is Zuri Hall. She is an entertainment reporter and co host of Access Hollywood. I love her drive, ambition and hustle. Hearing her stories about college, love and life really inspired me and in some ways I really felt that like I could relate to her. I love people that I can relate to.

• What do you like about journalism? What do you dislike about it?

What I like about journalism is that there are so many different ways and paths that you can take when it comes to this field. You don’t necessarily have to be a writer. Everyone automatically thinks journalism relates to writing. Although writing is an important aspect in journalism, as a journalist you need to make sure that you know how to do everything – edit, write, report etc. You need to make sure that you know how to speak. With journalism you can be a writer, TV anchor or host, and even a YouTube Creator. You can do whatever you want and find your own path. What I don’t like is that as a journalist you must state the facts and not be biased. There are so many things that are going on in the world that I feel so passionate about or that I would want to give my opinion on, however if I were to work for a news media outlet I would only be able to state the facts, nothing else. That can be hard.

• How do you know when to distinguish between fake and real news?

I know when to distinguish between fake news and real news because fake news to me usually comes off of an untrustworthy source. For example, many people get their news from social media and everything that you see on social media isn’t always accurate. Whenever I see the website that the information is coming from I can tell it’s fake, just by the title or name of the website. People tend to fall into that trap where they believe the news that they see on social media. Real news to me comes from a trustworthy source, usually the more familiar news media outlets. One thing I learned being in college is that you always want to compare articles and it’s always good to see how different news media outlets report on certain topics.

• Recently, you’ve started an internship. How has your experience been so far and what do you enjoy about it?

Ahh yes.. my internship. I love it! My experience has been amazing. I love being able to write about whatever I want. Being able to write editorials for a boutique PR agency and having my work published on their website makes me extremely happy. The feeling and rush that I get whenever I see that my work is being published is such an exciting feeling. I know that this internship is going to take me so far. I am excited for what’s to come! My internship allows me to be creative in terms of my writing and I love creativity. I am blessed, especially because this is my first internship ever and so far it has been the absolute best!

• How does journalism work?

Journalism works when everyone is coming together and doing their part. Think about the articles you read from news media outlets like The Daily News, The New York Times, CNN, The New York Post etc. How are they getting their news? There’s a reporter who goes out and gets the information. They are interviewing people or even making calls. The reporter is making sure that they get quotes from the people they are interviewing. The reporter is also making sure that they have multiple sources and usually they have a photographer, if not I believe sometimes you are your own photographer. Once you have all of your information, quotes and any other sources, there’s your story. Hopefully I’ve summed that up as best as possible.

• How would you tell someone who asks “Should I major or pursue a degree in journalism?”

I would tell them do it because we need more journalists and we need a different variety of journalists. We also need people who are willing to put themselves in the front lines. I would also tell them that journalism has so much room for creativity and you can choose your own path. Make sure that you are doing your research, see what stories and topics need the most coverage, find what inspires you and find out how you want to bring light to these topics. Create your own way and be genuine and authentic because that is how you will get people to listen to you. Once you find your own way, everything else will follow.

Journalism is actually a great career to pursue if you love to write, talk and meet new people who are actually passionate about their work. It gives you the opportunity to turn your curiosity, penmanship (if you’ve been writing all your life) or your passion into a living rather than working at a miserable job just to live off of a paycheck! If you want to be challenged and work on something exciting all the time, this could be the career for you! Oh, and the perks are – you get to travel as well!! That’s a full package right there.

A BIG THANK YOU TO JUANA FOR SHARING HER INSIGHT! You are much appreciated and wishing you many success in your future endeavors, wherever your path may take you.

Diversity and Inclusion Should Not Only Exist In The Workplace, But In Our Everyday Life

Posted on by careerswithmichelle

Due to recent events, I would like to focus on diversity and inclusion for today’s blog post as a way of spreading the importance and raising awareness of becoming more conscious of our thoughts and actions, to wake up to our privileges to handle unconscious bias.

Diversity and inclusion is a company’s mission, strategies, and practices to support a diverse workplace and leverage the effects of diversity to achieve a competitive business advantage.

Ideal.com

While the world of human resources has a powerful role to play in tackling and controlling both overt and covert racism across our workforce communities and organizations, what’s more important is that one’s actions begins with how one is raised and taught.

This dispiriting event has reminded our NYC workforce communities and human services organizations to redouble their efforts by:

  • Molding & building an internal workplace culture and environment where we can all intently listen and offer the support that provides an additional space of comfort, as well as extending our grace to staff and job seekers of color
  • Supporting employer partners, community partners, funders, donors in taking bold and pivotal actions on equity and inclusion by hiring and promoting more diverse candidates
  • Participating with our partners to further learn, support, educate, guide, engage others and to do more than just nation together
Image from Global Village Space’s article
They have a very thorough article below that I encourage folks to check out.
What Top Leaders Get About the Importance of Diversity in the Workplace

While others continue to protest across the country due to the Black Lives Matter movement and the recent tragic death of George Floyd, this is a first instance of true crisis in the country.

As we are all aware, racism has always been an issue – in addition to inequality and injustice running deep in America. Humans have always been here to belong. However, for many decades, our country has always been culturally and innately diverse due to the large parts of immigrant population that makes up America’s cultural heritage. But then, why does this issue still subsist?

How can we move forward, let alone escape from our past if we don’t learn and acknowledge from our history?

Michelle Chen

In my opinion, it is due to the way we are raised and taught, and the individuals that we surround ourselves with, and the lack of understanding of another individual’s experience and the history behind it. Many do not recognize their privilege to speak up for the community, which seems to be the focal point of the rising issue. So what can we do? We can all teach America to be better by educating our folks to not be selective with anti-racism and to learn the history behind it. Unless we have faced racial injustice, we will never truly understand what the black community has endured.

When will we learn? When will the people of the world get up and say, enough is enough. God created us for fellowship. God created us so that we should form the human family, existing together because we were made for one another.

Desmond Tutu

When something happens in the world that is wrong, don’t try to move on with your life like it is right. The voice within you that says “This is not okay” is a direct call from the basic goodness of your spirit. Pick it up. Every time. Pick it up. And stay on the line until you figure out to to help.

Cleo Wade, Where to Begin: A Small Book about Your Power to Create Big Change in Our Crazy World

We need to stand up and call out discrimination when we see it, in both HR and leadership roles and as individuals. Whether we are in the workplace or outside of the workplace, it is crucial that we are empathetic with each other during these trying times because our colleagues could be facing many challenges that we don’t know about. If the workplace has no empathetic culture, the organization could pose potential risks.

Whatever is planted in our minds, that affects the way we think and act on this issue, we can correct that behavior and intuition whether consciously or unconsciously held. By doing that, we can all seek inspiration from others to engage in the critical importance of these uncomfortable conversations and constantly remind ourselves that we are all equally human. I believe that as a nation, we all should work together in fostering better equality so the generations henceforth may prosper from our choices today. To truly move the diversity and inclusion agenda forward is the only way.

Black-Owned Businesses To Support Right Now and Always

Posted on by careerswithmichelle

This year, let alone the past few months in the U.S. has been a challenging and dispiriting one for all of us while we are currently dealing with the uncertainty of a health and economic crisis, hardship and loss that it has caused, topped with the nationwide racial tensions & discrimination, biases and systemic inequality – hitting communities of color hardest. This has been compounded by visceral reminders of prejudice and inequality that still perseveres especially for our Black communities.

With the recent tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Alton Sterling, Tamir Rice, Sandra Bland and countless others, I have seen communities stand up in the looks of pain and misery as we protest across the nation. Many in our NYC workforce development/human services community are grieving, as are many others that we serve. This has been an extremely hard time for everyone to digest including myself, to just ignore the racism and injustice happening in the U.S. right now. The Black community has always been resilient despite their experienced violence/tragedies, in disparity as they still continue to push forward. I can feel the pain echo from NYC, from the East Coast to the West Coast of how this is affecting the black community, my black friends, former classmates, current and former colleagues, professors & teachers and this does not sit well with me. I stand with you all, in solidarity during this trying time. Our lives do not matter until Black lives matter.

All I can say is that I hope these horrific tragedies will help bring us together and encourage us to spend more time by having these difficult discussions about racism online and offline. While we take the time to learn and educate ourselves, to realize and change is much more important and needed in this world. There is so much anxiety and negativity in the world today and it’s hard not to get caught up in it, but we should also be reminded of the beauty and love that is humanity – that we should all come stronger together as ONE HUMAN RACE. We have to do more and be allies for each other. This world needs more peace, unity, love and harmony.

I understand and respect those who need to take a break and focus on their mental health as the persistence of the news media resurfaces, causing a public backlash against racism. The recent headlines and media are a lot to cope with and it is only right that they need their time to do so. On top of the global pandemic and the economic recession that afflicts our world, as an Asian American with privilege, I will never truly understand the oppression that our black brothers and sisters faces as they continuously concern themselves with the prolonged thought of not making it home safe due to the injudiciousness of vigilantes. However, I hear you and I will always stand with you.

For those who do not fully understand the situation, it’s okay. But please, this is the time where we all need to take a moment to self educate, intently listen, speak up and to bring awareness of these kinds of issues, into our own families and communities. Read up articles, videos and research on what systemic racism is. Eventbrite is graciously offering virtual events and workshops on Online Racial Equity, Inclusion and Allyship for their workforce communities, businesses and basically everyone.

This is a sticker sold by Hopeslopes
According to the seller: “All personal profit will be donated to Campaign Zero, an organization that utilizes research-based policy solutions to end police brutality in America.”

Black-Owned Businesses That We Should Support

Due to COVID-19, many challenges have affected the food service industry, which includes restaurants and bars that not only focuses on delivery, however also those that are established locally and owned independently. According to the National Restaurant Association, “the restaurant industry, more than any other industry in the nation, has suffered the most significant sales and job losses since the COVID-19 outbreak began.” In addition, Bloomberg‘s article reports that “the U.S. restaurant industry is set to lose 7.4 million jobs, according to a report from consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.” on March 17th.

I have listed below, as many valuable resources for us all to make the effort to contribute and support Black-owned businesses:

Marie Claire‘s published article – 51 Black-Owned Brands to Support Today and Everyday
Support Black Owned – Displays tons of black-owned businesses not only nationwide but globally across all different industries and sectors.
Black-Owned Brooklyn – Many black-owned businesses throughout Brooklyn, New York.
Los Angeles Times – Here’s a list of more than 85 black-owned food businesses in L.A.
Chicago Tribune – Back to Black: 24 Black-owned restaurants on Chicago’s North Side
Minneapolis, Minnesota (via City Pages) – Black-owned restaurants in the Twin Cities to support right now (and always)
Louisville (via Yelp) – Spotlight: Black-Owned Restaurants In Louisville
Refinery29 – Find & Support Black-Owned Businesses With These Apps & Websites
Baltimore, Maryland – Black-Owned Food Businesses to Support in the Baltimore Area
Elle Magazine – 52 Black-Owned and Designed Fashion Brands To Support Forever, From Fenty to Cushnie
House Beautiful – Black-Owned Home Stores To Support Right Now
Columbus Navigator – 70+ Black-Owned Businesses To Support In Columbus
The Strategist / NY MAG – 77 Black-Owned Businesses to Support Right Now
Well and Good – 50+ Black-owned wellness businesses to support now and always

In addition, if you are a huge fan of Sephora, usually members can accumulate points for every purchase they make. Now is the perfect time to redeem your points. I have recently discovered that every 500 points will result in a $10 donation to the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC). This is a way of empowering and contributing to the Black LGBTQ/SGL individuals, including those living with HIV/Aids.

Although these are all I have for now, there are definitely more black-owned businesses that are awaiting our support and donations, so please do not forget to check your social media platforms as well.. your peers may be sharing posts and stories of black-owned businesses that their friends or your friends may be running!

Donate where you can, share a post where you can and listen to all the voices that have been muted for so long.

When you learn, teach. When you get, give.

Maya Angelou


As a country, as a nation and as one human race, let’s do better in supporting our diverse communities and foster a culture that deeply values and respects diversity and inclusion in all aspects.

Internal Values and Effective Communication Within the Organization

Posted on by careerswithmichelle

While everyone is working remotely from home due to the global crisis, it is important that colleagues keep the office culture alive and maintain that effective communication. You want to limit the distractions and practice your daily work routine – such as dressing up for success, and setting your own boundaries. This will definitely reduce procrastination. Most importantly, when you set and prioritize your goals, you can accomplish so much. And this begins with having a dedicated workspace to yourself.

Smarp outlined a very resourceful article that will help improve the Workplace Communication: 20 Ways to Effectively Communicate with Your Employees.

I have also created an infographic below illustrating some of the main points of effective communication because working from home can cause things to drift and we don’t want that. We don’t want miscommunication.

Q & A’s with Colleagues

During this uncertain and unprecedented time, I felt that it is very important to know how your teammates and colleagues are doing emotionally. We are all humans. We are there to support one another and provide feedback.

When talking about improving employee motivation, satisfaction, engagement and productivity, companies have mostly been focusing on employee recognition, feedback and appreciation. However, are we focusing enough on continuous employee communication?

blog.smarp.com


I have gathered some Q&A’s from colleagues regarding how they feel about their current job, which involves their confidence level and their ideal employers. Their names will remain anonymous.


1. What do you enjoy most about your role and the work you do for your organization?

Colleague 1 (Work Readiness Instructor/Mental Health Counselor)
The management for the organization is pretty laid back and doesn’t micromanage. Upper management has an open door policy.

Colleague 2 (Basic Skills Instructor)
What I like best about my current job is having a very considerate and supporting team. As I am a mom with two very young kids, once in a while I might need to switch my teaching time slot with other instructors, and sometimes I might even need to bring my kids to work. My team members are very supportive and have never ever said no to any of my requests.

Colleague 3 (Director of Career and Community Development)
Although not for profit, I enjoy and appreciate the opportunities to learn and grow professionally. I especially appreciate the fact that the work I do focus on ONE goal. Goal of educating, seeking and striving alongside those wanting to achieve self-sufficiency and attain personal/professional growth.

Colleague 4 (Mobile Jobs Program Coordinator)
My colleagues and upper management is what I like best about my job. They fully trust me with any type of work or project that I do and give me the autonomy. In addition, I like the fact that I get to be creative to help people who are in need.

Colleague 5 (Summer Youth Internship Coordinator and Adult Literacy Instructor)
This is my first time working in a non-profit organization. I love the decentralized organizational structure of our organization. It allows me to able to collaborate with and learn from individuals from other departments more easily. Also, it enables me to develop new knowledge and skills in the cross-department tasks.

Colleague 6 (Special Projects Coordinator)
Having worked with non-profits for a long time, I like that my line of work has a real positive impact on people’s lives, and I can work with colleagues who genuinely care about what they do.

2. What do you find in your role and organization that is special and unique and sets apart from other organizations?

Colleague 1 (Work Readiness Instructor/Mental Health Counselor)
The organization has more of a family feel to it. The organizational culture is pretty laid back.

Colleague 2 (Basic Skills Instructor)
This is my first job in the USA, so it is no way for me to make any comparison. But I used to be a Chinese teacher in Hong Kong. Compared to the international school I used to work in HK, our organization doesn’t put too much pressure on me, which is good for a working mom like me. As a teacher in HK, I needed to accomplish many goals during an academic year, such as cover all the teaching contents, meeting all the teaching goals, help students pass exams, etc. In our organization currently, it is quite flexible. I have no pressure in guiding students to pass their college entrance test. I like this stress free working environment.

Colleague 3 (Director of Career and Community Development)
I have deep respect and appreciation for our organization, as it remained a one-service organization for the past 48 years. It’s all about workforce.

Colleague 4 (Mobile Jobs Program Coordinator)
Although, our organization may not be well known. However, in terms of ethics and integrity, I can confidently say that we go out of our way to give help to whoever is in need. We are known to provide jobs for immigrants or people who are having a hard time, but whether it be legal, health, or etc., we go out of our way to successfully navigate for the client so that they can get their needs fulfilled.

Colleague 5 (Summer Youth Internship Coordinator and Adult Literacy Instructor)
Flexible working schedule, caring working environment are two major areas that my current company has done differently from my previous employers.

Colleague 6 (Special Projects Coordinator)
This organization runs with a genuine purpose for the betterment of society, not just rhetoric.

3. How would you tell others about your role or your organization?

Colleague 1 (Work Readiness Instructor/Mental Health Counselor)
Our organization focuses on providing Workforce Development assistance as well as English Language Learning assistance from a Work Preparedness focus.

Colleague 2 (Basic Skills Instructor)
I would say our organization provides employees a very warm, friendly, and home-like working environment. It is a government-funded organization, so don’t expect to have a very competitive pay. But if you want to go to work happily every day, this organization could be one of your choices.

Colleague 3 (Director of Career and Community Development)
I work in an organization that focuses on providing opportunities for new immigrants to obtain a job. We provide basic training/skills so that one can find employment. All programs, events, services we provide reflect required methods/tools necessary for obtaining employment. Wonderful benefit about our work is that; we do not limit our efforts to just new immigrants but to the larger job seeking community of the larger community of NYC and in partnership with 50 plus employers seeking the right candidates daily, monthly and bi-annually with our Queens and Manhattan Job Fairs.

Colleague 4 (Mobile Jobs Program Coordinator)
It doesn’t matter what ethnicity you may be. If you need help, we will always be here to help you out with anything. We try our best to make a great impact for everyone who are in need.

Colleague 5 (Summer Youth Internship Coordinator and Adult Literacy Instructor)
My organization’s aim is to help not only immigrants, but also all individuals to get a better life here in the U.S. It is not only a workforce-training agency, but also a place that feels like home.

Colleague 6 (Special Projects Coordinator)
I would tell them that you should talk to the people who work there. They will really try to help you. They actually care about people.

4. How would you describe your ideal job? What are its qualities and attributes?

Colleague 1 (Work Readiness Instructor/Mental Health Counselor)
A good combination of supervision as well as space to work independently, be creative, a supportive organizational culture (especially from a direct supervisor).

Colleague 2 (Basic Skills Instructor)
A comfortable working environment, friendly and helpful colleagues, supportive employer, stress-free, reasonable pay, commute within 30 minutes as well as being able to further develop my strengths.

Colleague 3 (Director of Career and Community Development)
People focused/caring for the young and the old/raising others up;
Have impact with purpose on the family or the individual;
Cultivate resources from those who have/can afford them and share with those who do not.

Colleague 4 (Mobile Jobs Program Coordinator)
The upper management and core value of the company. Of course high paying salary may be ideal and nice, but if I have to force myself to get up in the morning and go to work, then that is not the ideal job. However, if the colleagues/upper management is making a positive impact in my life, then I value that more than the high paying salary job.

Colleague 5 (Summer Youth Internship Coordinator and Adult Literacy Instructor)
My ideal job would be one that allows me to meet people from all walks of life.

Colleague 6 (Special Projects Coordinator)
When it comes to my ideal job, they must meet the following:
(1) Has positive impact on society
(2) Help me grow as a person
(3) Has a strong sense of community support

5. If you could think of any of the best employers in this field of work, what is it that you value the most from them?

Colleague 1 (Work Readiness Instructor/Mental Health Counselor)
The best employers in my field of work are empathetic, compassionate, knowledgeable, patient teachers as well as leaders, who know how to delegate and show trust to subordinates. The best employers give employees room and space to learn and grow as people and professionals.

Colleague 2 (Basic Skills Instructor)
So far the best employers in this field of work, my favorite part of it is the casual, not-too-strict, kind of home-like working environment they bring to employees. Although dress code has been emphasized later on, the overall ambiance in terms of relationship between employees, between employees and employers, between students and instructors, is still very home-like.

Colleague 3 (Director of Career and Community Development)
What comes to my mind about the best employers in this field of work:
Knowledgeable about the field and committed
Have strong work ethics with ability to work effectively under different situations
Innovative and creative with purpose
Have empathy and respect for those they want to impact
Hard worker with respect for people, rules and regulations 

Colleague 4 (Mobile Jobs Program Coordinator)
The best employer in this field of work allows colleagues be in their own comfort zone due to the flexible work culture and the respect that all staff has for each other.

Colleague 5 (Summer Youth Internship Coordinator and Adult Literacy Instructor)
I am not sure how to define the ‘best’ in the field, but I am pretty sure that the current company that I work in is setting high standards for fellow organizations, which can be seen from our client retention rate and students’ feedback.

Colleague 6 (Special Projects Coordinator)
When I think of the best employers in this field of work, I like that they care about their employees and are honest to their clients.

Now that you’ve made it towards the end, you have learned that all 6 of these colleagues that I have interviewed – desire a comfortable work-life balance culture (that feels at home) where there is no pressure, but also allows the flexibility for each employee to complete their tasks and meet deadlines based on their own pace. They reiterate the fact that they value those employers who care about people and that the work they do should be something that serves their own purpose for the betterment of the organization as well as seeing professional growth in the individual. And this is why communication is very important, as employees need to feel comfortable in speaking up for themselves and voice out. This brings out transparency.

Now, it is your turn to apply yourself with these questions!