LinkedIn Mania (Career Services Write Up)

So, as I am currently living in LA, I am unable to attend the career service events for the class.  However, as me and my coworker (also in this internship class) have found, there are a vast library of webinars available for ASU students.  To make up for my career service event, I chose to watch a webinar from November 15^th by Jennifer Rhodes.  The webinar is titled “How do I use LinkedIn for Networking and a Jo Search”.

I chose this webinar for a couple of reasons.  First and foremost, I will be graduating next summer and could use any small advantage possible.  Second, I have been meaning to create a LinkedIn profile for a couple years now, but have never really gotten around to utilizing one.  I did actually start one about a year ago with the help of a friend, but I have not looked at it since that first day.  Needless to say, I don’t even know what LinkedIn is capable of.  I found this webinar very inspiring and informative.  I would recommend any student who is curious to check it out.  It was 56 minutes well spent. 

The first thing that jumped out at me was that the presenter highlighted that LinkedIn is a great networking tool.  She shared a statistic that over 70% of available jobs are never even posted.  This means that establishing networks and connections will likely be the most important method of finding a job opportunity. 

Another interesting recommendation that stuck out to me was to look up your interviewers on LinkedIn before going into an interview.  This is one way to gather background information and provide you with topics to use in conversation.  I guess it is like Facebook stalking, only to find a job rather than spy on your friends J. 

That said, all of the bells and whistles that are found on LinkedIn remind me of Facebook.  The LinkedIn interface allows you to input much more information than would be warranted on a resume.  You can get recommendations from previous employers and coworkers, or even upload presentations or previous work that you have accomplished.  You can even see key anniversary dates (hiring or promotion date) of those in your network.  This way you can congratulate them to maintain communication.  (I guess this is akin to the birthday feature on Facebook)

For anyone who is not a wiz at LinkedIn, I would recommend you go here to listen to this webinar.  I realize that I am not fully using all the tools that I have at my disposal.  I know what I will be doing tonight J. 

The Granddaddy Of Them All

So, because my internship is here in the LA area, there are certain bucket list items I had to accomplish while I was here.  While I had accomplished some through the years of traveling in and out of the city, I had never been to any of the iconic sports venues.  I am a sports nut, and LA has two of the most historical places in the United States.  I previously posted a blog about my trip to the LA Coliseum, the site of the LA Olympics.  This past Saturday, I was able to see the “Granddaddy of Them All”—the Rose Bowl!

View From My Seat

The Rose Bowl has hosted football and other athletics for over 100 years.  It has hosted games for both the men’s and woman’s world cup.  It seats just over 100,000 spectators, and it currently is the site of one of the biggest college football bowl games each year (this year it will also host the national championship game). 

I bought a $20 ticket to the UCLA vs Arizona State football game.  Of course, as it is LA, parking at the stadium is $25, and you really have no choice as there is no other parking for miles.  The rose bowl is actually located in the city of Pasadena, CA, and it is surrounded by golf courses and some very well to do country clubs.  Because of this, in order to provide parking for spectators, they close down all the roads and the golf course, and park everyone on the golf course.  Now when I say park on the golf course, I don’t mean in the rough, I mean, right on the golf course.  They rope off the tee boxes, greens, and sand traps, and then everything else is used for parking.  I have never seen anything like it.  I cant even imagine how much they must pay the golf course to close down all Saturday, allow 30,000 cars to park on its grass, and allow tailgaters to trash the place.

The Golf Course Parking Lot.  Notice The Sand Trap 

The stadium itself was quite beautiful for an old bowl.  It is simple by today’s standards, but that is what I think I like best about it.  The view was better than I thought it would be, and I was amazed at how many ASU fans were in attendance.  I ended up in a section that easily had 8-10 thousand of them.  It was a weird game for me because I am an ASU student, but I have a good friend who is a senior, and current offensive lineman for UCLA.  I kind of wanted him to go out a winner.  But, it was not to be.  They lost after a brave come back attempt.  Still, it was a good game, and another check off of my bucket list. 

Strength In Numbers

I currently work with the Alliance For Innovation.  As you have seen in previous posts, they look to solve future challenges that cities will face with new and innovative practices.  The Alliance’s goal is to be the premier organization collaboration and innovation in local government.  This drive to consistently push the envelope and improve, I believe is one of the reasons they have been so successful. 

Strength in numbers is also another important part of the Alliances strategy.  Currently, there are over 200 member cities spanning the United States and Australia.  Having a diverse list of members allows the member cities to share ideas and learn from other cities.  These new perspectives combine professional knowledge and industry resources to affect change, promote connectedness, and provide problem-solving capabilities.  The Alliance proudly displays that 82% of its member cities have an above average rating in their adoption of innovative practices.  Over half of member cities are rated as “very high”.  Former board member, and city manager of Arlington, Texas (quite a large and important city in that state) says that “everyone in public service who is tackling today’s challenges needs the type of support, research, and ideas the alliance provides”.  And from what I have seen, I agree with him. 

I specifically like the organization of the Alliance.  The alliance is made up of a board of directors, and board members rotate every two years.  This way it keeps fresh ideas and avoids complacency.  The Alliance does employ a small staff that conducts research, plans activities, coordinates webinars, recruits sponsors, and facilitates communication between member cities.  This organization has proved very effective as member cities are able to benefit from independent research tailored to their needs.  Successful fundraising has afforded the Alliance a very manageable budget to accomplish their current goals, as well as save for the future. 

To be honest, I am not sure what I would do differently if I were to be in charge of a similar organization.  In fact, if I were in charge of a similar organization, I would probably look for a way to merge with the Alliance.  Such a merger (or just the Alliances natural growth) may bring fears that too large a size would make the Alliance less effective.  However, I believe that with their current framework, the Alliance could then start breaking up into more regional groupings so that cities with the same attributes can spend more time learning from each other.  But as it stands right now, there is no such problem.  In fact, I believe having too many member cities would be a positive, rather than a negative. 

In short, I believe that the Alliance has done a great job building a structure that can accommodate numerous members and provide useful benefits to all of its member cities.  So if you are currently working for a non member city, look up the Alliance and see what they have to offer!

Eternally Sore

A couple weeks ago I took a drastic measure to help get myself back in shape; I joined a rugby club.  The Santa Monica Rugby Club to be exact.  Now I played rugby in high school, and some club ball in Asia, and then played at university…but that was a few years ago.  In fact, the last time I actually played real 15 man rugby was 5 years ago.  Since then, I have just played in the odd 7’s or 10’s tournament.  I guess what I am saying is that I am probably 10 years and a couple surgeries past my prime. 

I showed up for the first practice and found out that the club has three teams, kind of an A, B, and C team.  Their first team plays in Men’s Division 1.  There are guys that play for the USA national team in that league.  Their second team plays in division 2, which is still a pretty high level, at least for this continent.  So these guys are serious.  I finished my first practice…barely.  I think there were only three or 4 guys out of the 60-70 that were there that were in worse shape than I was.  The next morning I found it pretty hard to roll out of bed.  I was feeling pain in areas I forgot existed.  I honestly had not trained as hard or as serious since my days playing Division 1 back at university. 

The team practices twice a week, and I figured that my goal would be to make the second team.  Through the first two weeks of practice I have given it my all and realized that while I may not be the youngest or most in shape, I do have a little bit higher rugby IQ than many of these kids, as some of them are relatively new to the game.  This past week we had our first scrimmage game, and I started for the second team, played three different positions, and played all but 4 minutes.  I was absolutely exhausted and found all sorts of bumps and bruises later that night that I did not remember getting. 

It feels great to be playing again, and I am beginning to progress slowly.  My goal is to continue getting in better shape, and reward the faith they have to keep me starting with the second team.  The season I young, so anything is possible.  But at the very least, staying with the team will give me much needed exercise, regardless of what team I play for. 

What A Conference

This past weekend presented me the opportunity to help with and attend the “Big Ideas” conference.  This is a big event put on every year by the Alliance for Innovation, the company I am working for.   Every year well over 100 city planners, city managers, mayors, councilmen, and other professionals gather in some Alliance affiliated city to discuss current and future challenges facing their cities.  Last year they met in Ann Harbor, Michigan.   This year, the cities of West Hollywood and Santa Monica were co-hosts. 

It all started with the board of director’s dinner on Halloween.  I was able to meet with some pretty interesting people, half of which were dressed up in costumes.   Dinner was at the Grand Marquis hotel, less than a half a mile from the world’s largest Halloween party, thrown every year in West Hollywood.  As soon as dinner was finished, we all went down and joined over 400,000 of our closest friends wondering up and down Santa Monica Blvd.  Although I did not dress up, it was quite an enjoyable time people watching and seeing the tens of thousands who were. 

Me and Bob's Big Boy at the Halloween event in West Hollywood

The conference continued the next day in the Mondarin Hotel on the Sunset Strip, with an early morning board meeting.  During which I learned much about the structure of the Alliance, as they went over budgets, personnel, etc.  I then went with the event organizer Brandi to help prepare for the over 100 non board members who would arrive later that evening.  The preparation involved putting together “hand bags” that included everything from free drink vouchers to merchandise from the event sponsors. 

Board of Directors Meeting

The evening portion that we were setting up for was at the beautiful Andaz Hotel in the Hollywood Hills on Sunset Blvd.  While now called the Andaz, used to be the original Hard Rock Hotel.  Our event space was beautiful, as we were in their “view room” which was attached to their pool.  The view room was used for the conference and dinner, and the pool as a lounge while the conference room tables were turned set up for dinner.

Roof top Pool attached to our even space at the Andaz Hotel.  The location of our reception

View room set up for dinner at the Andaz with the city of LA in the background 

The next day (Saturday) began early, with a breakfast held at the iconic Anneberg Beach House.  This was also where we held the day part of the conference.  It was quite good weather, and the beach was remarkably empty.  After the afternoon session, the participants were given a few hours to either go on a guided tour of Santa Monica, or wander around the beach on their own.  I chose to use the time to sit and do homework, as I had had little to no time so far during the weekend. 

Standing at the entrance of our conference room at the Annenberg Beach House

After the free time in Santa Monica, the conference resumed at the Mondarin Hotel, where they reserved the pool and event space for a drink mixer and dinner.  Each dinner allowed for me to meet with different city managers and professionals from a vast array of locations.  To me that was the most interesting part of the whole conference, to be able to sit down, unwind, and get to know the people who run many of the largest cities in the United States. 

The pool and reception at the Mondarin overlooking the city of Los Angeles

The last day (Sunday) found us back in the View Room of the Andaz for breakfast and the last session of the conference.  The breakfast was probably the best breakfast I have had in over a year, and probably the most expensive I have had ever.  It was a great way to end what had been a long, yet fruitful weekend.

View of LA from the view room before breakfast at 6:45 am