Media Review: Living on Earth

Looking for a way to keep up-to-date on news, trends, and trivia about the environment? Living on Earth (LOE), an award-winning weekly news and information radio program is the way to go! Distributed by Public Radio International, Living on Earth (LOE) is broadcast on over 300 public radio stations throughout the country. Each week, at the Jennifer and Ted Stanley Studios in Davis Square in Somerville, MA, host Steve Curwood and his team present stories on any green topic you could conjure up. Each episode consists of a diverse mix of environmental themes, including recycling, environmental technology, regulatory changes, best practices, innovations, water resources, and wildlife. The November 28th episode, for example, consists of stories discussing the upcoming CO2 Emissions conference in Poznan, Poland; the effects of deforestation on the environment; tips for green giving for the holidays; solar panels heating water in Hawaii; Chinese innovations in industrial cleanup; a new sign in Times Square running on 100% renewable energy; and a profile of a woman that raises rare and endangered barnyard animals.

You can catch Living on Earth on many public radio stations, consult their website to find a station near you. Listen to LOE anytime by downloading and subscribing to the podcast. Just search "Living on Earth" in iTunes. You can listen to current and archived shows, get environmental resources, and subscribe to their RSS feed on their website, www.loe.org.

What I'm Thankful For...

Happy Thanksgiving one and all!

With most of us getting caught up in turkey and football on Thanksgiving day, it's easy for us to forget the original purpose of the holiday...to express thanks for what we're grateful for! For the Pilgrims...it was that they actually were able to produce food to eat!

For me....I'm grateful for a lot of things....my family, my friends, my good health...but when I think about work what I'm most appreciative of us my team members. I'm surrounded by passionate, hardworking people who do what it takes to get the job done both in and outside of my department.

In my own department, I work with 7 other people that impress me on a daily basis.

So thank you for all you do: Adina, Adrian, Angela, AnnMarie, Elde, Melissa, and Sylvia! You all make coming to work an enjoyable and fun experience every day.

Moving Into Management

On November 6th, I was a member of a panel discussion hosted by the Environmental Business Council's Young Professionals committee. The topic, "Moving from Analyst, Scientist, and Engineer to Project Manager" proved a lively discussion between the panel and the more than 75 young environmental professionals and college students.

The audience was most interested in what it takes to get into management. Consensus among the panel was that while technical skills are important, it is soft skills, like motivation, drive, and emotional intelligence that matter most.

They key to moving into management is to stand out from the crowd! And how do you that? Incorporate the following in to the way you approach your work...

• Work hard...show up early, stay late, meet deadlines and crank out the work!
• Show interest...in responsibilities and projects outside the scope of your job, in the growth of your team, and in the company's values, mission, and strategy.
• Network internally...build relationships with people outisde your department, particularly company leadership.
• Get involved...join committees, attend events.
• Find a mentor...latch on to a company manager, seek their wisdom and coaching.
• Own something...find a project or task to take the lead on.
• Admit mistakes & weaknesses...own up to your mix-ups, nobody's perfect and mistakes happen. Recognize that you have things to work on...and start working on them!

So many things factor into management decisions, but making these considerations a part of the way you work will go a long way in helping you stand out to the company's leadership.

You Have Transferrable Skills!

October 18th was Massachusetts Career Day. Career Day is a statewide program drawing attention to issues surrounding jobs and careers in the state. The initiative is hosted through the Commonwealth's 32 One-Stop Career Centers. While many of the One-Stops chose to focus on careers in administrative, retail, or hospitality work, The Work Place (www.theworkplace.org), one of Boston's public career centers, chose to focuse on Green Collar Jobs and the Green Economy.

I was asked to participate in a panel discussion that addressed the state of the job market today in the environmental industry. Many questions came up from the eager audience of job seekers, but one question came out repeatedly...."if I have so much experience in _________, how the heck do I break into the environmental industry?"

It's a fair question! Many jobs out there are seeking individuals with varying amounts of experience...and understandably so. If I'm seeking to higher an environmental consultant to provide regulatory advice to a client, that person will need a certain amount of expertise to be taken seriously by the client. Other jobs are entry level, but entry level sometimes means starting over for people with several years of professional experience.

But if working in the 'green economy' is what's most important to you, you can rely on abilities you already bring to the table: TRANSFERRABLE SKILLS! Yes, those skills that are not limited to specific tasks in specific types of companies, but are sought after in all types of companies, including the Environmental industry. Qualities like technology proficiency, expertise in functions such as HR, Finance, Marketing, or Administrative Support, sales and relationship building experience, emotional intelligence, and soft skills are all in high demand by all employers!

Take a look at our online Career Center, www.triumvirate.com/careers.html, and you'll find positions available in many function areas, sales, administration, and general labor and transportation....all with no requirement for environmental experience. You don't have to be advising on environmental compliance or managing hazardous waste to be working in the environmental industry! Rely on the skills that you already have to fulfill your dreams of working in an environmentally-focused company!

Triumvirate Named Best Place to Work by Environmental Business Council

On Friday, September 19th, the Environmental Business Council of New England (http://www.ebcne.org/) named Triumvirate Environmental the BEST large environmental company to work for in New England. This is the second year in a row that the EBC has bestowed this award upon Triumvirate.

This was the second annual Best Places to Work program sponsored by the EBC. The organization issues surveys to its member organization's employees. The awards are presented based on survey results and are given to the top scoring company in four size categories: entrepreneurial, small, mid, and large size.

The EBC also recognized Triumvirate as an Outstanding Corporate Partner to the organization, whose mission is to "support and foster the development of the environmental industry" with a major goal "to enhance business and job growth of both established and emerging environmental and energy businesses".

To learn more about the EBC, check out their site http://www.ebcne.org/ or find them on Facebook.

Happy Labor Day!

Labor Day is a national holiday, giving American workers a day of respite from their usually busy schedules! It comes every year on the first Monday in September.

The holiday came from the American labor movement, and according to the U.S. Department of Labor it is a "national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country".

You can read more about the history of Labor Day at the U.S. Dept. of Labor's website: http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm.

Enjoy your day off! You deserve it!

Monster.com Doesn't Go Green!

Most people have heard of Monster.com, it is arguably the most widely used job search engine out there. But if you're an environmental job seeker, looking for jobs on Monster has become a lot more difficult. Earlier this year, Monster fixed something that wasn't broken, and restructured their job search categories. The result? Monster eliminated it's Environmental category altogether! Instead, it dispersed hundreds of environmental jobs, burying them into one or two functional areas that are too specific for your "average" environmental job seeker, leaving said job seekers frustrated while browsing for career opportunities. This has forced companies like Triumvirate to post in less-than-relevant categories that environmental job seekers would not intuitively search in. For example, we were advised by our sales representative to post in the "Engineering" section. While our firm does do some engineering, none of our open positions are in this area...and unless you're an environmental engineer, you would'nt even be looking in that area!

While the world looks for ways to get greener and more job seekers than ever are pursuing careers in these fields, Monster has taken a step in the opposite direction. So what's a job seeker to do? My best advice is to voice your concerns to Monster.com. We're working on joining with other environmental companies to do just that. Hopefully we'll see changes soon, meanwhile use sites like CareerBuilder, which does have an Environmental industry option, and Indeed to find the careers you're seeking.

Job Search Tip: Careful Applying for Positions That Don't Exist!

When you're applying for a position, your are often competing against lots of job seekers applying for the same job. You need to make sure that you put your best foot forward! One of the most frequent slip-ups in this process is applying for a position that doesn't exist at the company!

We get TONS of resumes and cover letters where the job seeker applies for a job title that doesn't even exist at the company! We get many responses for our Environmental Specialist position where the job seeker lists the position as an "Environmental Scientist". Or, if we're hiring a Marketing Specialist, some job seekers will list Marketing Assistant or Marketing Coordinator.

This can show one of two things....you are either a) not taking the time to personalize your response to the company and may be using the same cover letter you used to apply to XYZ Corporation...or b) you're not paying attention!

I'm not saying we won't look at the resumes, but if we have a lot of interest in a particular position, those who show that they've taken the time to get things right in their resume submission will stand out against those who didn't.

Choose A Job You Love...

So I was in an interview yesterday for an Accounts Payable position and towards the end of the interview, the candidate I was meeting with, Deena, asked me what I liked about working at Triumvirate. I'll spare you my long-winded answer, but at the end of it, Deena said something profound that really summarized my feelings about my job. Quoting Confucius (way to impress an interviewer!) Deena said "Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life." WOW.

Every day I stroll in to Triumvirate bright and early, and I never feel disappointed to be there. My job challenges me, my teammates inspire me, and the company's goals motivate me. It makes being at work all the easier.

So no matter where you take your career...make sure you "find a job you love" so that it doesn't feel like work.

Job Search Site: Indeed.com

If you've been looking for a job, chances are it goes something like this...you open up your browster and go to Monster. After checking out the three new jobs since yesterday's search, you switch over to Careerbuilder, and then Yahoo! HotJobs. And if you're really looking for a job, this is what you do every day! Well, meet Indeed.com...the Google of job search. Why do we use Google? We google to search for absolutely anything, and if we can't find it there, it probably doesn't exist. Same goes for Indeed. Indeed uses the same search (and advertising) technology to compile job postings from all across the Net. So, you'll get listings from Monster, Careerbuilder, and HotJobs, as well as from lesser known job sites, state job banks, corporate and instutional career sites, and newspaper's online classifieds. If the keywords that you are using aren't bringing in the results you were hoping for, you can also browse jobs alphabetically by state, company, or industry.

The site does have a couple of drawbacks. First, you will definitely receive duplicate or irrelevant listings in your results if you are using very broad terms in your keyword searching. Lastly, since the site automatically pulls text from other sites, the job listing summaries can be difficult to understand, but if you click the link, it will take you the posting on its original site.

Happy Job Hunting!

Best Places to Work

On Tuesday, June 10th, the Boston Business Journal (BBJ) hosted the awards breakfast for its 2008 Best Places to Work program at the Boston Copley Marriott Hotel. The BBJ honored 60 companies in 3 size categories: small, mid-sized, and large companies.

Triumvirate Environmental earned the 5th spot on the mid-sized list!!!! In 2007, we were ranked 9th, and in 2006, 12th.

Top honors in each category went to Winchester Hospital (large), Google (mid-sized), and Treeline, Inc. (small). Yes, that is not a mistake, Google won in the mid-sized category because they have less than 500 Boston-based employees.

Congratulations Class of 2008!

It happens every May. Students from across the country leave behind textbooks, shrimp-flavored ramen noodle, and frat parties for the American Dream: starting their career! Here at Triumvirate, we make a point of giving smart, motivated, and driven college grads the opportunity to start their career in the Environmental Health & Safety field. This summer, graduates of universities from around the Northeast are joining the team as Environmental Specialists. This unique opportunity allows those beginning their careers the opportunity to learn hands-on the ins and outs of the industry. Through working directly with our clients, Environmental Specialists learn about environmental regulations and compliance, health and safety, chemical management, and leadership. The position is tied to an advancement program that not only develops technical environmental skills, but also develops leadership and soft skills.

If you are interested in learning more about the Environmental Specialist position, you can e-mail me at careers@triumvirate.com or chat live with one of our Human Resources team members through our website.

So...a big C-O-N-G-R-A-T-U-L-A-T-I-O-N-S to our new team members on their graduating from the following schools:

• University of New Hampshire
• SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry
• Stony Brook University
• University of Connecticut
  
• University of Rhode Island
• Bowdoin College
• Boston University
• Syracuse University
• Keene State College
  

Job Search Site: Eco Employ

If you google "environmental jobs", one of the first sites listed is named EcoEmploy.com. And it's no wonder, the site, a no frills - no thrills compilation of environmental career information, is one of the best resources on the web for environmental job seekers. One will find links to and job postings from environmental organizations, corporations, law firms, and governmental agency websites from all over the US and Canada. You can also post your resume for employers to review, get resume tips, and even sign up to receive job postings in your e-mail! The site has only a few unobtrusive ads, however, it is simple to navigate and free to use. Check it out at http://www.ecoemploy.com/

Triumvirate Named a Best Place to Work!

Triumvirate Environmental was named one of the "Best Places to Work" in Boston for the third consecutive year by the Boston Business Journal!

Each year, the Boston Business Journal selects 60 companies to receive the award, 20 per size catergory: small, medium, or large. The award is given to companies in the metro Boston area based on the results of surveys of employees conducted by the Boston Business Journal. The surveys are conducted anonymously through a web survey and 80% of a company's employees have to complete the survey in order to still be considered for the award.

That's what makes winning this award so rewarding: it's because of employee feedback on how we are doing as an employer! In 2006, the first year we one the award, we placed 12th out of 20 in the mid-size category, and in 2007, 9th. We will find out where we placed this year at the award reception in June. Stay tuned for the results!!

Welcome to the Triumvirate Careers Blog!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out our new Careers blog! The mission of this blog is to share information regarding green jobs, job searching, Human Resources, and specific positions at Triumvirate Environmental. Another topic we'll blog about is Triumvirate news and culture.

Triumvirate is a fast-growing company with offices throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.

We want this to be a resource for you! If you have specific questions regarding any of the above, don't hesitate to contact us. We will respond to all appropriate questions.

About your blogger...
I manage the Human Resources department at Triumvirate. I joined the company in 2004, after working for two and half years in non-profits developing and running employment training programs and career counseling individual job seekers. I came to Triumvirate as a Recruitment Coordinator, and in June of 2006, I was promoted to lead the HR function for the company. I am an alumni of Southern New Hampshire University, where I received my B.S. in Business with a focus in Human Resources and am currently pursuing my Masters of Business Administration at the University of Massachusetts. I am a member of both the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the New England Human Resources Association (NEHRA).