Monday, November 17, 2008

Need Help Getting a Job in the Obama Administration? Talent Bank May Be the Answer

Diverse Issues in Higher Education
by Karen Branch-Brioso
Nov 17, 2008, 11:03

The Warren Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law is teaming up with a group of liberal philanthropists to help minorities and women win jobs in President-elect Barack Obama’s administration.

The Diversity in Democracy Project, also dubbed the Talent Bank Project, has already collected about 1,000 resumes as of Friday, according to Steve Phillips, a San Francisco employment lawyer and donor to progressive causes.

“The enthusiasm is off the charts,” says Phillips, who also presides over PowerPAC, a nonprofit advocacy and political organization that has also chipped in with Phillips and others to pay for the $100,000 project.

Organizers will accept rèsumès through Nov. 21, from minorities of all types who are often underrepresented in presidential administrations: Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, gays and lesbians, the disabled and women.

Interested applicants should send rèsumès to warreninstitute@berkeley.edu.

The project will use assessment tools provided by the Korn/Ferry International executive recruiting firm to help match applicants’ resumes with jobs. And then a bi-partisan board, led by Phillips, will winnow down the list and offer a pool of candidates matched up to administration jobs.

The list of final candidates will be presented to the transition team in early December, Phillips said. [Full story: http://diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_11968.shtml ]

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