Last month our Young Professionals of Osceola County offered advice to their peers who might be thinking about a career pivot or career upgrade with their virtual event titled “Translating Your Experience to What’s Next: Resume & Interview Tips & Tricks.” Consultant Samara Elkins joined attendees via Zoom to share her personal tips for tailoring your particular career and life experiences to the job you are looking to fill. As Samara put it, “You know you can do the job; make sure they know it, too!”
Samara’s presentation included how to create a high-level resume checklist, dissect your experience, identify your key resume content, build relevant resume bullet points, and make the most of your experience.
She began with tips to get past the first phase of most job applications – the Applicant Tracking System, or ATS. The fact remains that many times when you apply for a position with no prior connections to the organization, your resume first passes through a computer scanner to weed out applicants. To beat this system, Samara recommends sending your resume as a pdf document, identifying and using key words from the job description on your resume, including the job title in your resume, and pasting your full resume into an answer field when prompted even if it is included as an attachment elsewhere.
Should your resume pass the scanner and make it to the next round where it will be viewed by human eyes, Samara advised keeping the resume one to two pages, and keeping it clean and simple with all bullet points results-focused. She offered six steps to accomplishing this: 1. explain your day-to-day work, 2. identify special projects or unofficial jobs you filled, 3. quantify your work, 4. find jobs you wish to target, 5. prioritize your content to fit the job, 6. build your resume bullets accordingly.
Lastly, Samara explained three key parts of a solid resume bullet:
If you are looking to make a career switch, but are worried you don’t have applicable work experience, Samara recommends to first identify your career gaps and to include and build on your extra curricular experiences – especially if they showcase things that you are missing from your work experience. As Samara noted, the pandemic has been a great opportunity for people to hone new skills, including non-work skills like volunteering, helping with kids, caring for loved ones, etc.
To keep up-to-date with the YPs, follow them on Facebook, and watch the Chamber event page so you don’t miss their next event!
Here at the Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber, we are continuously proud of the work of the students, teachers, and staff of the School District of Osceola County. Every year our Poinciana Area Council recognizes graduating seniors in the Poinciana area with a scholarship competition. Past winners of this award have attended schools as diverse as Poinciana High School, New Dimensions, Osceola County School for the Arts, and Haines City High School.
This year PAC received many applications from students living in the 34758, 34759, and 34746 zip codes in either Osceola or Polk County. Two winners were chosen to receive scholarships in the amount of $1000 each. The chosen students were Kaitlyn Haslam from the Osceola County School for the Arts and Darrell Nieves-Lugo from Liberty High School. We were thrilled to be able to honor these two amazing students with an in-person awards ceremony once again this year. As in years past, the event was catered by the culinary students of Poinciana High School under the direction of Chef Juan Alamo. They offered a clever build-your-own flatbread or wrap with beef and chick kabobs, salad toppings, a delicious sauce, and an amazing chocolate baklava for desert, served in pandemic-safe individually-boxed servings.
To kick off the proceedings, 2021 Poinciana Area Council Chairman Crystal Bethea of Riviera Spa Massage spoke about the work the PAC Board of Directors has done to keep the scholarship alive during the pandemic. Last year, to support out students during a tricky time, the board used all remaining funds in the scholarship account to provide four students with $1000 scholarships and honor them during a virtual event via Zoom. Unable to offer their signature PoincianaFest event this past October, the PAC board had to be creative about ways to replenish the funds for this year’s awards. As Crystal shared, an awesome Virtual Paint Night on March 5 helped the PAC board raise over half the needed funds. A generous matching grant from Commissioner Brandon Arrington got us to the desired amount.Following Crystal’s opening remarks, School Board Member Jon Arguello offered some inspiring words to our two students. He took the opportunity afforded him by the intimate setting to address the two students directly and praise them for their hard work and inspiring goals that led them to be chosen for the award. He noted that these are two people of strong character, as well as impressive academic resumes, and that often people don’t touch on the amount of character it takes to achieve one’s goals.With some words of introduction from their academic advisors, the students each took the time to read the essays they penned as part of their winning applications. Attendees heard from Kaitlyn about how her mother’s struggle with cancer has inspired her to pursue a career in medical oncology. Meanwhile, Darrell has his sights set on space as he would like to work for NASA or SpaceX one day as an Aerospace Engineer. His immediate plan to is to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Central Florida, while Kaitlyn is headed to the University of Florida to study pre-professional Biology.
Unfortunately, our second keynote speaker, Valencia Poinciana’s Executive Dean, Dr. Jennifer Robertson, was unable to join us due to injury. However, she sent a video that very succinctly expressed her congrats to the winners, specifically calling them out for their achievements and goals, and her general positive impression of the talented students that Valencia accepts to their dual enrollment program from our local high schools. She also noted the historic moment in which we are living and applauded these students’ resilience to pursue their academic achievements during such unprecedented times. Finally, she reminded them that, “to achieve a big goal, you have to set many small goals along with way.”We were also excited to have School District of Osceola County Superintendent Dr. Debra Pace present to congratulate and celebrate the students. If you would like to assist the Poinciana Area Council with either funds or supplies as they support our schools, please contact us at cpilkington@kissimmeechamber.co.
This year the Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber launched a new recurring event called "Osceola Round-Up." The goal of this event is to highlight our attraction and entertainment members while providing an evening of networking in a fun environment. As with our First Friday series that highlights our member restaurants, attendees at this event pay their own way to participate in the attraction or activity, and the Chamber brings the group setting!
Wild Florida
We kicked off our first Osceola Round-Up on March 30 at Wild Florida. Our group took an airboat ride on Lake Toho where they had the opportunity to spot gators in their natural habitat, as well as birds and other wildlife native to Florida. For some, it was their very first time on an airboat, one of Floridians' favorite ways to explore. They then ventured over to Wild Florida's animal park to experience the unique wildlife that the park has to offer. From Florida panthers and albino alligators, to wallabies and adorable baby goats, Wild Florida has a collection of native and non-native animals for visitors to meet and learn about. During the day, shows and demonstrations add to the educational value of the park. Our group didn't have time on their after-work adventure to experience Wild Florida's new drive-through Safari park, but several were anxious to return and check it out! Both the Safari and Airboat Ride at Wild Florida include admission to the animal park.
Gatorland
The April Osceola Round-Up took us to Gatorland for a Gator Night Shine Adventure. Our intimate group of 20 members started the excursion doing what we do best, fueling up for the excitement on delicious food and drinks. Gatorland set up a custom snack bar complete with build-your-own Dorito nachos made to go because, as the tour guide pointed out, “you never know when you might need to outrun a gator.” After enjoying this fun snack and a cool beverage, our group had the park to themselves and set off on a journey to explore some of Gatorland's signature residents. Attendees even had the opportunity to hold baby gators and massive snakes! As the sun set, our Chamber crew made their way to the main event: Gatorland's Night Shine Adventure. Armed with flashlights, the group walked deep into the park to a long bridge over calm black water. It was pitch black, the water was still, and the only sounds came from the silent chatter of the group. Tour guide Michael hollered and threw pellets of food into the water to invite his reptilian friends to the party. With the aid of flashlights, the group could see over 50 gators begin to emerge from the water for a late-night snack in what one attendee described as "epic." Gators of all sizes and temperaments chomped aggressively for the pellets, while others just chilled as bits of food ended up lodged on their backs. While gators and wild animals may provide a thrill, our favorite part was watching attendees form connections over the event. Newer members had an opportunity to meet veteran members who welcomed them into our Chamber and shared information about how being a part of the Chamber has helped their business. Many of them were also experiencing these popular local attractions for the first time!We can't thank Wild Florida and Gatorland enough for being our guinea pigs as we launched this new series. For a change of pace, our next Osceola Round-Up will be at Board and Brush on May 13. You can still register if you wish to join us!
