Judith Cushman & Associates

There has been industry-wide support for the Black Lives Matter movement. There is also a sense that it is time to do more than talk about the need for change. Professional associations representing the communications industry have made efforts to continue conversations, encourage and award efforts to hire and retain employees from diverse backgrounds. This is all good news but, in my opinion, there needs to be a major initiative to make a significant and lasting change in the recruitment process. Here is a proposal about forming a new organization enabling candidates from diverse backgrounds to be identified and evaluated for opportunities throughout the United States.

To read the full proposal, here is the link.

I started a blog in the spring of 2017 about career issues for Communications Vice Presidents, leaders of departments and Senior Directors aspiring to those roles. With more than 30 years of experience filling these positions. I’ve interviewed, counseled and answered questions for thousands of outstanding and high potential professionals and wanted to share my insights and provide candid, unvarnished career advice, thinking there would be a lively exchange of questions from my readers. However, it turned out that my 3,500 subscribers and almost 4,000 LinkedIn connections were simply happy to read what I posted.

I also discovered that I couldn’t write a superficial short paragraph or two, that I had more to say about whatever topic I thought I should tackle. And, shortly after I began this effort, I discovered I could serialize practically any subject. The most complex and recent topic was about transitions and “Life after PR” where I told the story of 4 successful, senior executives. They made brave decisions, or at least non-traditional decisions, that led to successful career choices toward the end of their careers. It took almost a year of posts to describe their experiences and career paths.

To provide you with an easy way of reading about a topic that I serialized, I created the following in-depth articles, including my personal recent reflection about BLM. You can follow the link for each article to access a PDF for online viewing, printing or downloading.

• Life After PR Series – “Vicky’s Story” – How following her own instincts (not a plan with long term objectives) allowed her to achieve career success while balancing it with her home life.
• Life After PR Series – “Nathan’s Story” – How a passion for an industry turned into a top tier career track when all the right pieces fell into place. It wasn’t just luck.
• Life After PR Series – “Angela’s Story” – The profile of an exceptional woman, an entrepreneur, risk taker in the competitive space of high tech start-ups, who shares her perspective on success.
• Life After PR Series – “Greg’s Story” – Learn how “Greg” took a non-traditional career turn that led to choices he could never have imagined.
• A Walk in the Park, Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter – Why Now? Why did the country and the world explode over the clear injustice and death of one black man? – A personal reflection by Judith Cushman.
• Millennials – What could be so challenging about hiring millennials for a Social Media Leadership Role? How about giving up fun for serious management challenges? This article addresses what it takes for Millennials to transition into Social Media leadership positions.
• Fixing a Broken Corporate Search Process – compilation of 10 blog posts to help CCOs hire outstanding direct reports more efficiently.
• Negotiating an Offer – What are the key questions to ask about specific terms and benefits?
• Negotiating for a Win – How can negotiation for more money and benefits end up as a positive experience? These 9 blog posts should improve your negotiating skills so everyone wins.
• Resumes – Why are resumes so hard to get right? Here are 11 blog posts to help you create an effective resume.
• Annual Hiring Cycle – advice for planning a job search using the annual hiring cycle.
• Risk Factors in Transitions – advice for quantifying and calculating the risk factors in considering a job offer.
• Compensation Series – advice for analyzing and documenting your total compensation package.
• The “Ah-Ha” About Resumes – advice on resumes for Managers transitioning to EVPs.
• How can you write a “C” level resume about the intangibles that make you an “A” level candidate? – advice on resumes directed specifically to VPs.

If you are interested in reading individual posts, you can use the following links to view all posts about a specific topic or in a series.

• Effective Resume Writing
• How to Reduce Risk in Career Transitions
• Fixing the Corporate Search Process
• Negotiating for a Win
• Recruitment Tips
• Hiring Millennials for Social Media Positions
• Life After PR – “Vicky’s Story”
• Life After PR – “Nathan’s Story”
• Life After PR – “Angela’s Story”
• Life After PR – “Greg’s Story”
• “Matthew’s Story”