As the new chair of the employment committee, I want to share my road map for the next couple of years of our strategic initiatives. As always, I am open to any suggestions or comments on resources that our membership would find useful.

First, I would be remiss if I did not thank our immediate past chair, Kristine Mogollon, CFA, for all of her tireless efforts over the past number of years. She has done many things that have put us in a great position as I begin my term. Thank you, Kristine, for all your work!

My priority as chair is to provide as much value to our membership regarding resources, programming and opportunities to enhance and grow their careers. While I feel we have done a great job in the past, I still think there is room for improvement.

The ways that we will improve is through more active engagement with both our members and the employers in the investment community. Furthermore, I look to strengthen further our working relationship with the CFA Institute to be better able to leverage their resources and provide a more streamlined outlet for our membership to access those resources.

Secondly, I would like to offer more specialized programming and learning opportunities for our more experienced members to further enhance their careers and skill sets. While we will still provide content and programming that applies to all members, my vision is for our committee to be more of a resource to charterholders that are looking to make the next step in their careers.

A couple of initiatives for this year that I hope to bring to fruition:

• Investment Writing Group that meets on a regular basis with the goal to improve each others’ craft of writing. Please let us know if you would have an interest in joining.
• Public Speaking Group that will also meet on a regular basis with an emphasis on improving investment-related presentations. Speaking and presentation skills are highly sought after by employers. I would like to provide an outlet for our members to hone this skill in an encouraging environment. Again, please let us know if you have interest.
• More Structured Programming. To provide more consistency of our employment-related programming, I would like to have our programming to have regular themes during the year.  For instance, members can expect certain programs related to job-search strategies, resume writing and interviewing workshops at regular intervals so our members can have clear expectations on our offerings and align their needs accordingly.

I look forward to my term as Chair and working with our wonderful volunteers on the committee. Please do not hesitate to reach out if we can be a resource for you. All the best in 2016!