How Playing Dungeons & Dragons Helped My Career

This blog was written by DU student Hannah Renea Bumgarner and originally appeared on HerCampus.com on January 31, 2018.

The return of the liberal arts. The lack of soft skills. Employees who are content experts, but unable to work in groups and think dynamically or creatively. The T-Shaped learner.

These conversations are happening at career and professional development and HR offices all across the country. Hannah Bumgarner, expertly makes the connection between personal hobbies and career development, underscoring the fact that not all learning can happen in a classroom.

How are you growing and learning outside the classroom? Care to share? Submit a guest blog or contact us to share your story via social media.

By: Hannah Bumgarner

You have to face the Boss. You’ve trained for this your whole life, and it’s finally time to ask for a raise. You walk into her office, her lips pull back into a chilling million-dollar grin. She’s been expecting you.

Roll for charisma.

The 20-sided die wobbles, bounces, and flips on the table. Your stomach turns in knots. Everything hangs in the balance of this roll.

The die rocks to a stop and you scream. It’s a nat-20! One of the rarest and most successful rolls in the game. You’re given a raise, a promotion, extra vacation days. She names you the employee of the year. Your coworkers adore you, the papers and blogs write articles on your incredible work ethic and drive.

Okay, maybe Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) won’t help you in that way in your career. The wildly popular tabletop roleplaying game from the 1970s has come a long way, but thankfully life doesn’t hang in the balance of rolls of dice.

I joined DU’s D&D club (affectionately referred to as “DUDAD” by our members) last spring as a fun way to chill on a Friday afternoon and make friends. I had no idea how many soft skills I would gain from simply showing up and having a good time once a week.

They say those soft skills are what gets you in the door and started in your career. Things like interpersonal relations, communication, creativity, and problem-solving. Hard skills, like being proficient in Excel or speaking a second language, are things a company can easily train you for, but those soft skills are how you’re even considered.

Every week, I sit down with a team of “adventurers,” and for a couple hours, we work through problems. Sure, the problems we have to solve aren’t your typical workplace ones. At least, I hope not, we had to battle giant lizards and negotiate with high elven guards last Friday. Still, it’s an excellent way to think outside of the box and come up with clever solutions to get through something.

Not only that, you have to work as a team. Most D&D groups are roughly four people with a Dungeon Master (DM, basically the world builder and leader). Our group is almost ten people, and with that many moving parts, with that many unique personalities and characters, we’ve learned how to use each other’s strengths and weaknesses to better the team.

Communication and patience are key, too. While waiting for your turn, you’re able to assess the situation and negotiate strategies with your teammates. I’d say we do a pretty good job; we managed to save our party from a group of like, twelve ogres one time, and nobody died. Always a plus!

So, if you want to develop your soft skills in a fun way that doesn’t even feel like work, get a group of friends together and have an adventure. If you’re on campus, stop by Driscoll at 7 pm on Fridays and join a group. I made most of my closest friends through DUDAD, and those friends are going to become business colleagues in the future.

Faculty Tips – Integrating Transferable Skills into Syllabus Learning Outcomes

Faculty are in a great position to link classroom learning to posts-graduation goals to help students see the value of their major coursework and common curriculum requirements. Writing, research, verbal communication, critical thinking, and data analysis are just a few examples of skills developed in the classroom that are highly sought by employers for a wide variety of positions.

Bloom’s Taxonomy[1] consists of various levels of observable actions that help describe and classify knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviors and abilities. Consider describing your course outcomes or objectives using an action verb that is most appropriate to the level of your course. For more information on the skills employers seek in your field of expertise, contact DU Career Services for assistance.

Introductory	Intermediate	Advanced
§ Categorize	§ Structure	§ Assess
§ Classify	§ Order	§ Restructure
§ Contribute	§ Strategize	§ Lead
§ Describe	§ Link	§ Plan
§ Demonstrate	§ Clarify	§ Restate
§ Discover	§ Collect	§ Synthesize
§ Discuss	§ Prepare	§ Debate
§ Estimate	§ Calculate	§ Transform
§ Express	§ Persuade	§ Negotiate
§ Infer	§ Deduce	§ Predict
§ Interpret	§ Compare	§ Adapt
§ Listen	§ Comment	§ Moderate
§ Locate	§ Appraise	§ Integrate
§ Observe	§ Predict	§ Hypothesize
§ Record	§ Edit	§ Mix/Remix
§ Relate	§ Share	§ Facilitate
§ Retell	§ Explain	§ Convince
§ Search	§ Organize	§ Integrate
§ Summarize	§ Compare	§ Analyze
§ Tabulate	§ Calculate	§ Extrapolate
§ Utilize	§ Reformulate	§ Create
§ Visualize	§ Illustrate	§ Design

Sample Syllabus Statements

“The learning objectives for this introductory course will develop critical thinking skills that employers seek. They include: (1) discovering the qualitative differences between primary and secondary historical sources; (2) observing different time periods of politics, economy, and culture, and (3) expressing the complexity of American history in regards to significant social topics and events.”

“This upper division course will progressively improve those collaboration and leadership skills valuable in the work place. Course outcomes: (1) contribute to an assigned team task; (2) strategize a task solution in a way that fosters positive team relationships; and (3) lead a group task that makes a contribution to team goals.”

[1] Churches, Andrew. (2009). Bloom’s digital taxonomy. Educational Origami, 4.

Where The Mind Is Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

5 Things I Would Do Differently if I Could Start My Career Again

5 Things I Would Do Differently if I Could Start My Career Again was originally published on The Muse, a great place to research companies and careers. Click here to search for great jobs and companies near you.

My career over the past seven years hasn’t been perfect—in fact, we could all agree that if we had the chance, we’d probably turn back time and do certain things a little bit differently.

Alas, this isn’t possible (otherwise someone please tell me where can I get one of those time machines). However, I have learned several valuable lessons throughout my experience that might help you as you navigate your own career.

Pst—you’re not too late to do any of these things!

1. Invest Less in Materials, More in Your Mind

The trajectory of your career will be largely based on how you decide to spend your initial paychecks. You’ll be tempted to spend it on getting a nicer apartment, upgrading your clothes, and going out to fancier restaurants.

While these aren’t necessarily bad things—you deserve to treat yourself every once in a while—you might want to think about spending your money on knowledge instead. It’ll not only give you the greatest return on investment, but also be the one thing that lasts over time.

There are certain skills that are applicable to any job, such as communication, knowing how to effectively read and write, building strong relationships, networking, and time management, while there are obviously others that are more specific to your industry.

To expand on any of these, you have several options for investing your money (instead of having a luxurious weekend away)—you can take an online class, or buy a career-boosting book, or even hire a career coach.

2. Make Health a Number One Priority

Health is the foundation that accelerates everything in your life, including your career. It elevates your creativity, energy, and grit to get through the inevitable ups and downs you’ll experience.

For far too long, I struggled to find breakthroughs in my career because I was neglecting my health, both mental and physical. This led to having less willpower and discipline during my day, and thus being less productive over time.

Prioritizing your health isn’t just a one-time task. It actually has to take priority over everything you do. That means scheduling it into your calendar, making investments to buy the right food and exercise regularly, and even giving up other bad habits.

It’s true: Once you have your health together, everything else comes easier.

3. Learn How to Best Manage Your Time (Whatever That Means for You)

How we spend our time ultimately determines how much we accomplish in our lifetime. While 30 minutes here or there getting sucked into Facebook or taking one too many coffee breaks doesn’t feel like much, it can start to add up in a bad way.

The thing is, how you manage your time is something only you can figure out—everyone works through their to-dos in different ways.

The best time management tactics I’ve learned over time—that might help you get started—are usually the simplest. For example, you can try scheduling everything into your calendar so each task has a specific time frame for completion.

Or, you can try the “One Thing” strategy of asking yourself, “What’s the one task I can complete that will make everything else easier or unnecessary?”

Or, you can try one of these six better productivity hacks for people who don’t love the “famous” ones.

We can’t control how time passes, but we can maximize it to be, do, and achieve more.

4. Treat Every Relationship as Life-Long

The person you meet today may be someone you work with two, five, or 10 years from now. He or she could be an employee you want to hire, a potential business partner, or even your future boss.

When you treat every relationship as a lifelong relationship, you’ll be more giving, more patient, and more pleasant to be around.

To practice this daily, you need to focus on giving first without expecting anything in return. This might mean checking in with someone you met at a networking event via social media or over email every few months to see what’s new with them. Or, setting aside time in your calendar to regularly have lunch with team members.

And, you never know how even the most insignificant relationships will help you down the road. For example, because she stayed in contact with a networking connection, Ann Shoket, author and former Editor-in-Chief at Seventeen Magazine, turned a one-time meetup into the job that launched her career.

5. Think Bigger

One of the most common regrets I hear from successful people I interview is that they “didn’t think big enough.”

Many of the things we want in our lives will come to us as long as we give ourselves the permission to receive them. I’m sure there are things you have in your life today that five years ago you only dreamed about.

Whether you’re looking for a promotion, a new career opportunity, or a better life overall, it starts by thinking 10X bigger and raising your standards.

For example, billionaire and co-founder of Paypal Peter Thiel came up with a great question you can ask yourself to do just this:

What would you have to do if you want to achieve your 10-year goal in six months?

As unrealistic as it may sound, this level of thinking forces you to break past your current limitations and fears and ultimately approach your career with confidence, ambition, and a clear head.

How about you: What’s one thing that you would do differently if you started your career over? Let me know on Twitter!

9 small business solutions to the Oregon minimum wage increase

Planning for an increase in the Oregon minimum wage

Oregon’s minimum wage will begin increasing this summer, and gradually over the next six years. If you’re not sure how to respond to this news, our business advisers have created this checklist of practical actions to take.

1. Make sure each employee knows what is expected.

A job description is a minimum requirement to accomplish this. Better yet, create “Position Manuals” which are job descriptions on steroids. In addition to listing essential duties, they contain the tips and tricks that have been learned by experienced employees over time; they become a “How to Drive this Desk” booklet for each position. As a side benefit, this will save a ton of money when you experience (the inevitable) employee turnover, by getting the new employee up to speed quickly.

2. Clarify what each employee is NOT responsible for.

This avoids needless duplication of effort within the company, which will become increasingly costly under the new wage regulations. A good way to accomplish this is with a proper organization chart (where each position has its own “position manual”.) An “all-hands meeting” around such a chart will show each employee how they fit into the various systems that comprise the company operation as a whole.

3. Invest in training.

An employee who is not well trained would very likely contribute to higher costs per unit and lower quality. Training is always important, but it will be especially critical as the cost of employees goes up.

4. Delegate more effectively.

As a business owner, it can be tempting to meddle with employee tasks, adding to the amount of time he or she spends on a project. It takes self-discipline to hand off the work, but it’s more efficient and less costly.

5. Get your financial statements current.

You can’t plan if you don’t have solid numbers to work with. If your books aren’t up to date or you haven’t run a P&L statement lately, do it. These will show you the raw facts about where your business is losing and making money. With them, you can create an informed strategy.

6. Avoid creeping cost of goods.

If you have employees who are part of your variable cost structure, production will cost more per item. The wage increase must be passed on to the customer. If the customer balks, then you’ll have to decide whether that product or service is viable long-term.

7. Market better.

Though it might be hard to see, there’s a huge opportunity for your business with this news: your customers will have more cash in their pockets to spend on products and services. The more effective your marketing, the greater your profits.

8. Focus on options.

Don’t waste time dwelling on how awful it is. Focus your energy on how you want to respond, and get yourself out of the loop of negativity. You just need a plan.

9. Get support.

If you’re stumped or overwhelmed, sit down with one of our small business advisers at the SBDC. Together, we can look over your business numbers and help you decide how to respond to this gradual increase in costs. This change doesn’t have to break your business.

Employers’ Biggest Complaint Regarding DU Student Resumes

In August, the Career Services surveyed employers to understand how they rate our students in a variety of skill areas. In regard to resumes, we noted an interesting theme. While, students’ resumes were well written and highly rated, employers repeatedly mentioned one necessary improvement : Students need to BETTER TAILOR their materials to the employer and the job posting!

Writing a strong general resume is a great start for job seekers, but employers fully expect you will adjust that great foundation document to their job posting. Here are some tips for doing this well:

First, highlight all of the skills in the job posting and check off each skill that is clearly mentioned in your resume:

Second, edit your bullet statements to include as many of the remaining skills and qualifications as possible. Do NOT simply add these words to a skills section. Help employers understand where you used those skills:

Communicated research findings to the community by conducting outreach presentations to local nonprofit organizations.
Wrote content for and designed materials summarizing research findings using MS Office.

Following these simple steps will make it clear to employers that you have the skills they need! This also increases the application score assigned by applicant tracking systems used by many companies.

Prepping for an interview – don’t forget to research the company!

Preparing ahead of time can make or break an interview. Many people spend all of their time preparing their answers about themselves and their experience and do little company research. Don’t make this mistake! You need to know the company and position, and be prepared to demonstrate that you have done research—beyond what’s on their website. Interviewers expect that you’ve done your research and that you’re making an informed choice. Things to do and resources to utilize when preparing for an interview:

Scour the company website – know their mission, goals, values, customer base, and anything else you can find
Take a look at the company’s LinkedIn page as well – many times this has additional information that’s not necessarily on their website
Google the company! Have they been in the news for anything recently? Have they had any acquisitions, projects or products that are noteworthy?
Depending on how much time you have leading up to the interview, see if you can set up informational interviews with alumni that may be working there, or recent grads who may be in a similar position to what you are interviewing for

Equally as important as knowing yourself and your experience, as well as the company and position, is knowing the company well enough to prepare some good questions for your interviewers, so don’t forget to do this ahead of time!

How to Set Career Goals (and Meet Them)

When you’re just starting out in your career, thinking five or 10 years ahead might seem overwhelming. After all, how can you determine where you want to go when you’re only just beginning? But setting goals is actually a great way to get past the nerves that comes with a new start and doing so will give you direction that will help guide you throughout your career.

Here’s a step-by-step process on how to set goals, and meet them.

Determine a specific career goal

When coming up with career goals, it’s okay to think about the big picture. In fact, acknowledging your potential is a great way to shape your future success. But the best way to set achievable goals is by narrowing your focus. Take some time to think about what you’d like to do in the long term and then come up with a specific career goal that you can achieve within one to two years. For example, if you’re currently an account executive on a sales team and you’d like to manage the team someday, your specific goal might be to become a relationship manager within one year. Having that goal will give you clear direction in your career path while setting you up for success as a manager down the road.

Outline the steps you’ll need to take to get there

Once you’ve determined your goal, it’s time to come up with a plan that will help you achieve it. This includes knowing what skills and experience you’ll need in order to get to the next phase in your career, and also understanding the typical path involved in getting there. Going back to the sales example, if you know that becoming a relationship manager will require you to improve your communication skills, then one of the steps in your plan should be to sit in on more client calls and meetings in order to sharpen these skills and determine the best approach to take in any give situation.

Ask for advice from your manager or mentor

A great way to fine tune your plan, and to ensure that you’re taking all of the necessary steps you need to succeed, is by asking for advice from your manager or mentor. Don’t be afraid to tell them about your career goals — after all, part of their job is to ensure that you’re continuously growing and learning — but do come prepared with a clear plan of action. This will help them understand your goals and give you effective feedback on what you can do to achieve them.

Set yourself up for success

Once you’ve incorporated your manager’s feedback and solidified your plan, it’s time to focus on some other things you can do to ensure your success. These includes coming up with an effective daily routine, managing your time well and staying organized. Done well, these things will make you efficient in your current role while also showing your manager that you have the ability and the desire to move forward.

By knowing how to set career goals and coming up with a plan to achieve them, you’ll be able to shape your career path and end up in your dream job sooner than you think.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as 6 Ways to Impress Your Boss and find answers to common interview questions such as What Are Your Strengths?

The post How to Set Career Goals (and Meet Them) appeared first on Career Advice & Interview Tips | WayUp Guid

About SBDC

Chemeketa Small Business Development Center (SBDC) gives small business owners the tools and environment they need to make great decisions.

We are located at 626 High Street NE in downtown Salem, OR. Open Monday – Friday from 8 am to 5 pm, and offer classes, small business advising, and resource materials on loan (program participants only).

Chemeketa SBDC is your tax dollar at work – we’re funded in part by the Small Business Administration, State of Oregon, and by Chemeketa Community College.

If you’d like to know more about our classes and programs, check out SBDC Programs page or give us a call at 503.399.5088. We look forward to hearing from you!

UVM Alumna Creates the Right Solution with Chemistry and Public Health

Lyndelle LeBruin, a project manager at the Laboratory for Clinical Biochemistry Research (LCBR) at the UVM College of Medicine, has spent most of her academic career studying chemistry. But when her interest in clinical trials research led to her job at LCBR, she decided to enroll in the UVM Master of Public Health Program to enhance her skillset.

Lyndelle, who grew up in the West Indies on the island of Dominica, describes herself as a dedicated, conscientious, and goal-oriented professional. Her goals are to continue to make positive contributions to the fields of public health and translational research in the future.

We talked to Lyndelle about her work and how the fields of chemistry and public health play a role in helping people live better lives.

What made you decide to pursue the master of public health?

I graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh with a degree in chemistry and went on to earn a master’s in chemistry at UVM. While working on my master’s thesis on the self-assembly of collagen mimetic peptides, I always felt the need to connect my science background to population health and to further translational research that could improve public health.

I decided to pursue the Master of Public Health upon joining the LCBR to both enhance my knowledge base and skillset as I continued to work in clinical trials research, and to make a greater contribution to both public health and translational research.

Could you describe your job at LCBR?

The LCBR focuses on understanding risk factors for heart disease, stroke, venous thrombosis, obesity, diabetes, aging, and frailty using a wide variety of assays in population and family-based research settings. Faculty and staff at the lab are trained in medicine, the basic sciences, epidemiology, and biostatistics, and they apply their training to large-scale, multi-center clinical trials and epidemiological-based studies.

I work in a project management role on the D2d Study at the LCBR. We are the Central Laboratory for this double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial, coordinated out of Tufts University. In my current role, I use quality control measures on a daily basis to monitor sample processing, storage, and data quality. In addition, my role allows active participation in designing study research protocols, training and certifying clinical staff, and managing requests from the Coordinating Center and active field centers in this clinical trial.

What is the most important skill you learned in the UVM Public Health program?

I appreciated the emphasis placed on the proper dissemination of data and public health information. This included, but was not limited to, the effective use of short reports, blogs, discussion boards, and journal reports to communicate information. The correct dissemination of health information and findings is a skill that is integral to public health and research, and this was constantly reinforced throughout the program.

Why would you recommend the program to others?

The program has many positive attributes. It is a flexible yet robust program that allows students to work full time while pursuing graduate school online. The program also has many well-trained, resourceful, and very personable instructors who offer great guidance to students. I would highly recommend this program to anyone who has the desire to become formally trained in public health.

What are some of the common threads between chemistry and public health?

The fields of chemistry and public health both play a role in helping people to live better lives. Chemistry, allows for the molecular design of tools and systems to facilitate this process. Public health encompasses conducting of research, the dissemination of findings, and ultimately policy implementation, in an effort to improve population health.

Why are you passionate about your work?

My work combines health, science, and clinical research, and I trust that it will provide a wealth of information and resources for future research and policies to improve population health. I know that every skill that I learn, and every task that I do, plays an integral role in improving the health of the United States, and by extension global public health. This is something that I remain passionate about, and do not take for granted

UVM Student Changes Course for a Career in Nursing

“Though we can’t always see it at the time, if we look upon events with some perspective, we see things always happen for our best interests. We are always being guided in a way better than we know ourselves.”

– Swami Satchidananda

By Kim O’Leary

In September, I wrote about how I had left behind full-time work in corporate communications, started a position as a cardiology technician at UVM Medical Center, and was about to embark on my first semester as a pre-med student at UVM.

And what a semester it was! I dusted off my creaky old brain and reintroduced it to physics, biology, and chemistry. I worked part-time in cardiology and in marketing and communications at UVM Medical Center, and volunteered at the Vermont Child Health Improvement Program and Lund Family Center. I also squeezed in the parenting and wife-ing thing, too. It was an exhilarating, bewildering, exhausting, and ultimately rewarding experience.

Why I Want a Career in Nursing

In the midst of this schedule, I’ve found time to reflect on what being a physician would require of me. The uncertainty of whether I would get into medical school, whether that medical school would be in Vermont (where my family is happily settled), and how my family would weather a brutal eight or more years of schooling and residency…ultimately became too much uncertainty for me. However, I desperately wanted to practice medicine in my community, to be intellectually challenged, to teach new generations of students, to contribute to health care policy development. Turns out, there is another way!

After discussing with my advisor in the UVM Post-Baccalaureate Premedical Program, I have shifted to the post-baccalaureate nurse practitioner track. As a nurse practitioner, I will have the opportunity to provide holistic, evidence-based care to my patients, with an emphasis on wellness and prevention of disease. I can be a true partner in patient care, and contribute to the health of my community in a profound way. Working alongside many talented nurses over the past several months, I am constantly in awe of their depth and breadth of clinical knowledge, combined with their ability to connect with patients and set them at ease. Nurses are truly at the very center of patient care—and that’s where I want to be, too.

In roughly a year, I will have taken all the courses needed to fulfill my admission requirements, which will allow me to apply to UVM’s College of Nursing and Health Sciences and other nursing schools. If I am accepted into UVM’s rigorous Direct Entry Program in Nursing, I would engage in an intensive year of pre-RN licensure, followed by three years of Doctor of Nursing Practice studies, ideally in family medicine.

While I admittedly have had some mixed feelings about changing course, I realize what an incredible opportunity I have right in front of me, and just how versatile and vital the role nurse practitioners will continue to play in health care reform. So…on to the next bend in the road

Farmer Training Students Look Ahead to Building a Sustainable Food System

Amount made from selling fresh produce at the UVM Farm Stand: $6,000. Pounds of harvested food donated to the local food shelf: 2,150. Number of bed feet planted in the fields: over 40,000. Number of farmers, agricultural specialists, extension agents, and UVM professors who students were exposed to: over 50. Number of days on the farm with no dancing: 0

Students in the UVM Farmer Training Program graduated last week in a heartwarming, intimate ceremony that included a by-the-numbers account of their days at Catamount Farm, personal haikus for each student, photo slide shows, as well as an abundance of hugs and laughter.

But the work these 21 UVM Farmer Training students plan to do after graduation is serious business.

UVM Continuing and Distance Education Dean Cynthia Belliveau, EdD, a chef, environmentalist, and educator, started the program six years ago. She gave students the following words of wisdom in her commencement speech:

“We’ve heard many times that our food system is broken. Yes, it provides unparalleled productivity, but at an incredible cost. It has become entangled in unacceptable levels of diet-related health problems for humans and animals, food-borne disease, hunger, and devastating agricultural pollution.

Our economy is suffering, and our social and cultural connectedness – for so many centuries epitomized by people coming together to cook and to eat, to share with one another – is disappearing.

Wendell Berry said, ‘We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us.’

Standing here today, I am optimistic. I’m convinced that we can build an alternative food economy because you now have the skills to create it. Already, local and organic agriculture is growing far faster than other conventional sectors as a whole. This is a movement, and you are its next leaders.”

Women in Craft Beer: Bailey Spaulding on Opening a Brewery

By Tera Dacek

What does a jackalope, Montpelier, Vt., Harvard University, and brewing kettles all have in common? Bailey Spaulding.

Spaulding was born and raised in Montpelier, graduated from Harvard in 2004, and opened up Jackalope Brewing Company in Nashville in 2011. For our second profile in a series of four women in craft beer, we chatted with Spaulding about her adventures in brewing.

After graduating from Harvard University and enrolling at Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville, how did you decide to open a brewery?

I started home brewing while I was in law school and really loved it. I would spend most of my time thinking about what kind of brewery I would start, rather than what kind of lawyer I would be, so when I graduated, I decided to take the plunge.

Setting up a brewery: nightmares or dreams?

Both! There are really exciting times, like brewing for the first time on your new equipment, and there are really terrifying ones as well. Learning how to deal with the scary times and keep your cool is what I think makes you a real entrepreneur.

What was your ah-ha moment?

I was spending the summer after my first year of law school working for the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York and sitting with my fellow interns. We all talked about what we would do if we could do anything, and one of my friends (not me!) said she would open a brewery. A light bulb went off in my head. I think that’s when I realized that starting a brewery was actually something that people could do.

What’s the real story behind the jackalope?

I believed in jackalopes growing up, so it became a little joke about me with some of my friends. One friend gave me a shirt with a jackalope on it and the text, “Believe in Yourself.” When most people thought I was nuts to be graduating law school and brewing beer, that became our little unofficial motto.

What got you through (and perhaps still does) the long days on a concrete floor and all the hard work?

Yes, the days can still be long sometimes. I would say passion and an undying will to succeed. I really love what I do and what our team has created.

In the craft beer industry, do you feel pressure to come up with new beers, or is this the fun part?

Oh, that’s part of the fun! You can’t spend too much time worrying about what other people want you to do. There aren’t enough hours in the day for that. When we get to come up with new beers, it’s typically a reward for working hard enough to get a little bit of time.

Did you find that being a woman affects who you are in the craft beer industry?

I think it may get me a little bit more attention from the consumer standpoint, but I don’t feel like my colleagues treat me any differently. I’m thrilled that more women are starting to get into brewing.

The brewery production team from left to right: Will Hadley, Bailey, Steve Wright (Bailey’s business partner), and Sally Cooper.

Working in a brewery must feel a bit like a second family. Any funny stories from the floor?

We have an amazing team. It’s hard to pick one story, from karaoke battles to the guys setting up a t-ball station (that has since been removed after too many whiffle balls ended up in the rafters). It is always an adventure.

What advice would you give to someone starting up his or her own brewery?

Be patient, and raise more money than you think you need.

Editor’s note: This is our second post in a four-post blog series introducing you to just a few of the amazing women in the beer industry right now. Cheers to these women and their accomplishments, with hopes that all beer lovers who have been considering a career shift into the beer industry will follow their passion.

Tera Dacek is a consultant and freelance writer. She most recently worked as Marketing Manager for Alchemy and Science. When she unplugs, she can be found at her local mountain or one of the many wonderful breweries in her home state of Vermont

From UVM to WebMD: Alumna Deb Mignucci Offers Career Advice

Photo: Deb Mignucci and her husband, Alberto, graduated from UVM in 1982.

UVM alumna Deb Mignucci started her college career with a focus on pre-med. But after taking a physics class during her sophomore year, she decided the career path wasn’t for her. Instead, she chose to pursue a liberal arts education as a psychology major and graduated from UVM in 1982.

That liberal arts focus served Mignucci well. She went on to earn her MBA at New York University and rose through the ranks in advertising sales, working for Time Inc., American Media, Meredith, BabyCenter.com, and Disney Publishing.

Getting started with a WebMD career

After 25 years in the business, Mignucci was named in 2014 Executive Director of WebMD, the leading source for online medical news and information. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, WebMD reached an average 210 million unique users a month in 2015, generating 4.25 billion page views.

Mignucci’s job as Executive Director involves working with high-profile consumer accounts and leading a team of strategic advertising sales professionals.

In this first post in our new Alumni Advice series, we talked to Mignucci about what it takes to get hired in a competitive market, how to work through discouraging days on the job, and why experience waiting tables is a strong indicator of success in the sales industry.

When you were a UVM psychology major, did you have any idea you wanted to get into publishing?

Back then, I had no idea about publishing. I was a pre-med student, and I was thinking about working in psychiatry. That ended in my sophomore year, when I took physics, which is not my forte. When I was changing my focus in college, I thought, Do I really want to be in school throughout my 20s? I didn’t. So I decided I would get a good liberal arts education and see what happens from there.

What are some of your roles and responsibilities as Executive Director at WebMD?

My role is to lead a team of strategic ad sales professionals. We have large consumer sales accounts, including Nestle and Procter and Gamble, as well clients in the pet category, as many of our readers are pet owners. We figure out how we can build something that will meet our clients’ needs and figure out what our clients are trying to accomplish. We do a lot of entertaining – there are many dinners, events, and cocktail parties. Relationships build trust, which is key to earning your clients’ respect and confidence.

I also need to be fluent in “health” and understand current issues. I need to know who the consumers are and why they are coming to our website. I need to have a thorough understanding of healthcare, medical products, and health regulations. I need to be knowledgeable about how things like Medicaid reimbursement and the Affordable Care Act are directly affecting my clients.

What do you look for in a job applicant?

I have hired hundreds of people in my career and conducted thousands of interviews. The core things I always look for are a high energy level and an ability to connect. In sales in particular, you really need to have energy. It’s hard work, it pays well, but you have to work really hard.

If I’m interviewing you, I need to see that you have done your homework and can ask compelling questions. I want you to show me how experiences from your past connect to the job you’re applying for now. You also have to be personable, make good eye contact, and have a strong handshake. I want to feel respected and I want to respect the person I’m hiring. I want to know I can put them in front of my clients.

What are some questions you ask during a job interview?

I might ask you what gets you excited on Sunday night for the coming work week. Likewise, I want to hear what you look forward to on a Friday afternoon. Are you positive or negative? I look for people who will share something about themselves, who will tell me they look forward to hiking with friends on weekends or spending time with their family. I want to see authenticity.

If you’re coming in for an interview, do some homework beforehand. I would love for a job candidate to say, “I was on your website, and something struck me as odd. I saw an ad for dog food. Can you tell me more?”

I want to see that curiosity. I need to see that someone is thoughtful and curious because that’s something an employee is going to have to be working for me every day.

What do you look for on a resume or LinkedIn profile?

When I review a resume, the first thing I’ll do is double check the person’s LinkedIn profile. If there are inconsistencies, I will call the applicant on it or just pass on them. For obvious reasons, it’s really important that your public LinkedIn profile matches your resume.

(Flickr/Creative Commons)

I want to see your education and relevant experience, and on LinkedIn, I want to see your connections. I want to see that you’re connected to clients and not just sales people. If you’re fresh out of college, I want to know what you’ve done outside of the classroom, whether it be internships or working at various jobs.

As funny as it might sound, one of the strongest indicators for success in sales is having experience waiting tables. Having this work experience tells me you’ve been in a client-facing job and understand how to listen, be personable, and connect with people. If you don’t list waiting tables on your resume or other experience that you can show is relevant, I would suggest putting it in your cover letter. The ability to turn a potential negative into a positive is very valuable.

What do you say to recent graduates or young professionals who are feeling discouraged? What can they feel optimistic about?

I think people always have moments of being discouraged. There are often times that I wish I said something or did something differently. Someone told me a long time ago that if you have a bad day, go home, go for a bike ride, or do something that makes you happy. I have often done that. If I’ve had a string of bad phone calls, I go out for a walk or go down the street to get a frozen yogurt. You need to make your own happiness to get through those tough days. A change in perspective or just clearing your head will often help

Women in Craft Beer: Kristen Sykes on the Craft Beer Community

Photo: Kristen Sykes, left, along with other BABES members, take a break at a hop farm in Western Massachusetts during the Pedal to Pints brewery bike ride.

By Tera Dacek

Kristen Sykes knows a thing or two about beer. She is the former Executive Director of the Massachusetts Beer Guild and currently works on trails and land conservation during the day, while managing a women’s beer club BABES (Boston Area Beer Enthusiasts Society).

We all know some of the best movements and communities start at ground level and are consumer driven. So for our third post in a four-part blog series on Women in Beer, we wanted to learn more about what drives Kristen and what a group like BABES can contribute to the craft-beer industry.

Building a Craft Beer Community:

We understand that you have visited quite a few breweries. What was your most memorable visit and why?

My most memorable visit to a brewery was a super-cool brewery called The Ale Apothecary, which I discovered on the Bend Beer Trail in Bend, Oregon. The brewery, described as a “wilderness brewery” in the beer-trail brochure, is located in a National Forest on the outskirts of Bend. The brewer, Paul Arney, a veteran of Deschutes, is brewing some pretty wild stuff, using a blend of old and new methods. While we were there, Paul pointed to a log lying on the ground of his property that he planned to use to make a Sahati [beer brewed by The Ale Apothecary] the way they were originally made, open-fermented and using juniper branches. I really like unusual beers and have made quite a few weird beers myself, such as a Japanese Knotweed beer, so this really appealed to me. After talking with Paul for quite a while, we also discovered that I worked with his wife, Stacey, years ago, when I was doing an environmental education program.

We noticed BABES was recently in Vermont. What was the purpose of the trip, and was it a success?

There is so much good beer coming out of New England that the BABES like to travel to different beer destinations to sample the local libations. This was our second trip to Vermont. We’ve also done trips to Portland, Maine, and the Seacoast of New Hampshire.

The trip was a great success due in most part to my friend Ruth Miller, the Beer and Cheese Maven. Ruth has been part of the beer and cheese scene in Vermont for many years and set up tours and meetings for the BABES, particularly with women in beer in Vermont, such as Destiny Saxon, head brewer for Zero Gravity out of the American Flatbread location, and Kate Cartwright, Manager Imagination Realization at the Beverage Warehouse of Vermont. It also helped that Burlington has so many breweries/cideries that are a quick walk from each other.

How did you start your career in the beer industry?

My first start in beer was not as a career, but as a hobby when I began home brewing more than 15 years ago. I delved even further into beer when I became a certified beer judge in 2009. My first actual gig in the beer industry was when I became the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Brewers Guild.

Did your role as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Brewers Guild motivate you to start BABES? What is the goal of this society?

I started BABES a couple of years before I joined the Massachusetts Brewers Guild. I moved to Boston from Philadelphia for a promotion. While in Philly I joined a women’s beer club called In Pursuit of Ales (IPA). This was the first time I had ever heard of a women’s beer club. When I moved up to Boston, I looked for a group similar to IPA, but none existed, so I started BABES in November 2011. The goal of BABES is to introduce women to new beer styles, food and beer pairings, beer professionals, and all things related to beer. We also support women in the beer industry and promote the positive image of women who enjoy beer. We take our beer seriously, but don’t take ourselves too seriously and overall aim to have fun! Men who support women who love beer are welcome.

Do you have chapters outside of the Boston area? What do you recommend women do in their own areas, if they are looking to connect with other women in the beer industry?

We do not have chapters outside of Boston, but we have done collaboration events with women’s beer clubs in New England, such as the Maine Beer Mavens. If you’re looking to connect with women in the beer industry, see if there’s a women’s beer club in your town. If not, start one! You can also join the Pink Boots Society (PBS) and use its database to see if there are any other PBS members in your area.

Do you think there are stereotypes around women and beer that prevent qualified women from joining the craft-beer industry?

While things are changing, there are still stereotypes that exist that women don’t like beer, and if they do, it will be something sweet or fruity. I don’t believe that these stereotypes are preventing women from joining the craft-beer industry, but they do continue to perpetuate the idea that beer is a guy thing.

What do you think beer lovers can do to open up these barriers?

Beer does not have a gender. Don’t assume that because the person ordering the beer is a woman, she would like a fruity or light beer over a hoppy beer. The best beer bars have well-trained servers who ask what flavors people like when trying to find the best beer for them and not presuming what kind of beer they might want because of their gender.

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1. Invest Less in Materials, More in Your Mind

2. Make Health a Number One Priority

3. Learn How to Best Manage Your Time (Whatever That Means for You)

4. Treat Every Relationship as Life-Long

5. Think Bigger

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Planning for an increase in the Oregon minimum wage

1. Make sure each employee knows what is expected.

2. Clarify what each employee is NOT responsible for.

3. Invest in training.

4. Delegate more effectively.

5. Get your financial statements current.

6. Avoid creeping cost of goods.

7. Market better.

8. Focus on options.

9. Get support.

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Determine a specific career goal

Outline the steps you’ll need to take to get there

Ask for advice from your manager or mentor

Set yourself up for success

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What made you decide to pursue the master of public health?

Could you describe your job at LCBR?

What is the most important skill you learned in the UVM Public Health program?

Why would you recommend the program to others?

What are some of the common threads between chemistry and public health?

Why are you passionate about your work?

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Why I Want a Career in Nursing

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But the work these 21 UVM Farmer Training students plan to do after graduation is serious business.

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After graduating from Harvard University and enrolling at Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville, how did you decide to open a brewery?

Setting up a brewery: nightmares or dreams?

What was your ah-ha moment?

What’s the real story behind the jackalope?

What got you through (and perhaps still does) the long days on a concrete floor and all the hard work?

In the craft beer industry, do you feel pressure to come up with new beers, or is this the fun part?

Did you find that being a woman affects who you are in the craft beer industry?

Working in a brewery must feel a bit like a second family. Any funny stories from the floor?

What advice would you give to someone starting up his or her own brewery?

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Getting started with a WebMD career

When you were a UVM psychology major, did you have any idea you wanted to get into publishing?

What are some of your roles and responsibilities as Executive Director at WebMD?

What do you look for in a job applicant?

What are some questions you ask during a job interview?

What do you look for on a resume or LinkedIn profile?

What do you say to recent graduates or young professionals who are feeling discouraged? What can they feel optimistic about?

Rate this:

Building a Craft Beer Community:

We understand that you have visited quite a few breweries. What was your most memorable visit and why?

We noticed BABES was recently in Vermont. What was the purpose of the trip, and was it a success?

How did you start your career in the beer industry?

Did your role as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Brewers Guild motivate you to start BABES? What is the goal of this society?

Do you have chapters outside of the Boston area? What do you recommend women do in their own areas, if they are looking to connect with other women in the beer industry?

Do you think there are stereotypes around women and beer that prevent qualified women from joining the craft-beer industry?

What do you think beer lovers can do to open up these barriers?

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