On October 8, 2020, Image Impact International’s Mentoring 4 Impact program held a workshop on “Transferable Life Skills”. Hosted by VP of Education Ben Hoser and Chair Elaine Rogers, the workshop’s goal was to have students identify one to three transferrable life skills they possess.
 
Defined as skills that are shaped by experiences and expertise in current and past interests or jobs, Ben and Elaine stressed why transferable skills are important. Most importantly, these skills make a student more marketable to an employer through the demonstration of being able to connect with people, critically think, and communicate clearly, both verbally and in writing.
 
A workshop on personal branding was hosted October 15, 2020 by Christine Alvarez, a career coach and adjunct professor of Career Strategies at Pace University. Christine defined someone’s personal brand as their reputation and how they are perceived by others.
 
According to Christine, the keys to a good personal brand are knowing your unique value, targeting where you are going to take your career, and communicating your brand in your chosen industry. This is accomplished by highlighting skills and values, accomplishments, and consistently communicating your brand.
  
Twelve steps to a great resume were discussed October 22, 2020 by Pam Judd, acting President of Image Impact International. Pam went through the twelve integral parts of a great resume. In addition to the “do’s” that should be included in a resume, she detailed the “do nots” that should be kept out of every resume.
 
While each piece of a great resume that was discussed is important in its own way, Pam highlighted how best to display contact information, experience, and education. The key to the experience section of a resume is to make achievements measurable through action verbs such as “performed”, “accomplished”, or “resolved”. Using numbers or percentages to illustrate these achievements was highly recommended. Pam also stressed the importance of computer skills, honors and awards, and community service as a way of catching an employer’s eye, of coming across as a well-rounded individual.
 
The “do nots” that are to be avoided included personal information such as gender, height/weight, and religious affiliation. Lastly, a resume must be free of mistakes. Most importantly, there cannot be any easily identifiable and correctable spelling or grammatical errors.