Learning & Development Update: My UC Career

MY UC CAREER

For UC employees who have identified career exploration, growth and development opportunities as critical to their engagement and retention, a gift has arrived from UC Office of the President. A new online, self-directed career development portal, My UC Career, is available to all UC employees seeking to advance their career. 

My UC Career consists of the following six, easy-to-use modules:

1. Begin Career Discovery: Use personal assessments to help identify values, personality, skills and talents.
   
   
2. Job Search: Leveraging the existing Systemwide Job Board, in one search, view all UC opportunities by job type, location, or career level. Create multiple alerts for new postings that are most interesting.
   
   
3. Resume: Build a new resume or revise an existing resume using the step-by-step online resume workshop that uses answers to automatically build an accomplishment-based resume tailored to the identified career path. View resume building guides and resume samples by position or type.
   
   
4. Tell Your Story: Create a pitch statement, cover letter, and references to tell what the employee has to offer and how they can help the organization succeed. Use the step by step online workshop to automatically build each document. View samples of each type of document.
   
   
5. Network and Research: Optimize social media presence and use research tools to help leverage employee networks that uncover additional career opportunities.
   
   
6. Pre- and Post-interview: Practice interview skills by recording video interviews using pre-recorded portal interviewers that ask the employee questions review interview type guides, create a post-interview thank you note, and review the offer negotiation guide and decision-making tools.

You will be seeing a lot of information in the coming months about My UC Career. Jump in now and be an early adopter.

CALL FOR MSAP APPLICANTS

If you or your people managers are ready for a leap in professional development, we encourage applying for the Management Skills Assessment Program (MSAP).

The next program will be April 17-20, 2018, at UCLA's Lake Arrowhead Conference Center

How does this program work?

This program assesses the management skills of high potential, early career supervisors and managers for future leadership opportunities at the University of California. Discuss the program with supervisors and managers who have one to five years of people-management experience and exhibit potential for management development.

When are applications due?

Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018

Who is eligible?

Eligibility requirements include:

• Full-time career status with a current, satisfactory (or better) performance evaluation
• Career Tracks job classification as a supervisor or manager with 1 to 5 years experience

Participants will be selected based on an evaluation of the applicant's (1) career goals in management, (2) level of skills essential for performing management functions, and (3) demonstrated career path and/or strong commitment to management skill development.

Who pays?

ANR Learning & Development pays the $1,350 program cost plus transportation and other related travel costs.  

What to expect?

• A demanding program with assessees in activities from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
• No time to check email or attend to work responsibilities.
• Eat with other assessees and share small condos. 

Application instructions and further information about the program are at http://msap.ucr.edu/.  Choose UC ANR (not UC Davis) in the application. 

Supervisors are required to fill in a portion of the application and commit to participate in the required post-program activities. 

A UC ANR committee will review all applications and make the final selection.Completed applications must be submitted online at http://msap.ucr.edu/ by Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018.

For more information, contact Jodi Azulai, ANR Learning and Development Coordinator, at jlazulai@ucanr.edu.

DECEMBER LYNDA COURSE FEATURES

Remember that you can download the Lynda app and think strategically

Strategic thinking is a valuable skill for everyone in ANR. It allows each of us to think on a big and small scale, long- and short-term, back into the past, then into the present and finally to the future.

Thinking strategically becomes more critical as you ascend the career ladder. Now there is a Lynda.com course called Strategic Thinking. Topics include:

• Embracing the strategic mindset
• Making time
• Learning from the past
• Strategic thinking with a team
• Measuring success

Take the initiative today and plug into Lynda.com for a tactical career development opportunity.

Data Visualization Best Practices

Have you ever spent hours on an excellent piece of visual content only to discover that a graph of data has been improperly visualized? In the course Data Visualization Best Practices, you'll

• Learn about data visualization mistakes to avoid
• Learn how to properly visualize data
• Learn how to use data to tell a compelling story and drive action

DESIGNATHON SNEAK PEAK

The eXtension staff and more than a dozen extension innovators are training to be facilitators for Designathon One using Adobe Kickbox. To "meet" the team and to get a preview of the Adobe Kickbox Innovation Kit, be sure to follow @eXtension4u and hashtag #eXtIC on Twitter or eXtensionInitiative on Facebook for photos, videos and other updates.
Visit the Designathon One FAQ page to find answers to questions like these:

• Do I need an established project or program to attend?
• How does Designathon One fit into the impact collaborative?
• What will it cost? 

Look for the registration link and final list of dates/locations soon. Find out if professional development funds or scholarships can help with the cost of attendance. Designathon One aims to work with 35 or more people at every member institution. This critical mass leads to a core of extension innovators who can support and encourage each other as they work to make a difference.

Nine locations will host Designathon One workshops:

• Northeast Region: Portsmouth NH, February 5-7, 2018 (co-hosted by University of New Hampshire Extension); Pittsburgh, PA, February 26-28 (co-hosted by Penn State University Extension); New York State, City TBD & Date TBD (co-hosted by Cornell University) 
  
  
• Southern Region: San Antonio, TX, February 12-14, 2018 (co-hosted by Texas AgriLife Extension & Prairie View A&M University Extension) & Atlanta, GA, March 5-7, 2018 (date is tentative; co-hosted by the University of Georgia Extension and Fort Valley State University Extension)
  
  
• Western Region: Portland OR, February 5-7, 2018 (co-hosted by Oregon State University Extension) & Denver CO, February 26-28, 2018 (co-hosted by Colorado State University Extension)
  
  
• North Central Region: Indianapolis, IN, February 12-14, 2018 (co-hosted by Purdue University Extension). Madison WI, [date TBD] (co-hosted by University of Wisconsin Extension)

Anyone from an eXtension member institution is welcome to attend the Designathon One event that fits their schedule and travel budget.

For more information, contact Jill Heemstra at jillheemstra@extension.org.

Read more