30. Transitions Across Sectors with Eric Barela
The Evaluation Couch
In this episode, Eric Barela shares his career journey spanning 20 years in various sectors, including non-profits, foundations, and corporate settings. Eric discusses his roles in differet organizations and his recent shift to consulting. Eric reflects on the importance of support systems, both personal and professional, and emphasizes the need for evaluators to remain adaptable and continuously learning. He also touches on the challenges and opportunities that come with transitioning between different sectors and how his evaluation practice has evolved throughout these changes. Eric...
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29. Ratiba's Learnings From Navigating Uncertainty in International Development
The Evaluation Couch
In this episode, Ratiba Taouti Cherif joins Maria to share insights from her 20 years of experience in international development. Together, they explore Ratiba's learnings from navigating uncertainty in this space: Your industry is not your identity You will lose networks and build new ones Diverisying income isn't a backup plan. It's a power move The future of work is independent and global Sitting on both ends of the table changed everything Stability isn't a job. It's adaptability. Where to start Resources To learn more about Her podcast is available on all...
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28. Transitioning to Corporate Philanthropy with Veronica Olazabal
The Evaluation Couch
In this episode, Maria interviews Veronica Olazabal about transitioning as an evaluator into the private sector, focusing on philanthropy and corporate philanthropy. Veronica shares her experiences, the skills required for such transitions, and the differences evaluators may face in corporate settings. She also offers key advice for those considering this transition such as understanding different terminologies, aligning skillsets to new roles, the importance of conflict resolution, communication, and risk management. Veronica emphasizes the significance of resilience, adaptability, and...
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27. Building Community: A Dialogue on Values and Collaborative Reflective Practice
The Evaluation Couch
This episode features Libby Smith, Deven Wisner, and Tiffany Tovey who share about their new community of practice for higher education evaluators and assessment professionals. This episode discusses alignment with our values, the value of collaborative reflective practice, and the role of community in navigating professional challenges. Resources Learn more about... Libby's work through her website: The community of practice here: Libby, Deven, and Tiffany's collaborative reflective practice through their podcast
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26. The Power of Community in Our Careers: A Conversation with Torriel Harris
The Evaluation Couch
This episode features Torriel Harris, a career coach who is on a mission to help 500 women in their careers. The episode starts with a discussion of how community can help us heal from career related events. Then, Torriel shares her views on building community, how community has played a role in her career, and how she is incorporating community in her coaching program "Command the Room, Sis!". Maria and Torriel end the episode with practical tips for people wanting to start building their own communities to support their careers. on LinkedIn to learn more about her work and...
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25. Navigating Salary Negotiations as a Woman
The Evaluation Couch
In this episode Maria shares stories of her experieces negotiating job offers. The episode starts with statistics and research findings related to women and men's perceptions and experiences towards negotiating. Then, Maria shares stories from her career when she negotiated a salary offer and the lessons she learned from each of those experiences. Resources: The book Maria references in the episode is Learn more of the Vanderbilt Business research study The study providing evidence on the backlash account towards women's assertiveness during negotiations can be found...
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24. The Evaluation Hiring Perspective: Resume Myths and Tips
The Evaluation Couch
In this episode, Shelby Corley and Stephanie Mui join Maria to discuss myths and questions about resumes based on their perspectives hiring for evaluation positions. They discuss their preferences when reviewing applications and provide valuable tips for those seeking to apply to evaluation jobs.
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23. Writing Cover Letters
The Evaluation Couch
This episode covers why cover letters are important and provides guidelines to write them effectively. Maria shares examples of effective cover letters she has written in the past. This episode also includes an exercise you can work through to identify effective stories for your cover letters. The statistics mentioned in this episode come from
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22. Knocking On Other Doors
The Evaluation Couch
In this episode, Diego Luces shares a story about how he knocked on a company's door and ended up landing on a job when he was still a fairly new immigrant in Canada. Diego shares what motivated him to take this risk and how he maintained a positive mindset after being rejected in his job search process. He offers useful advice to help others navigate the job search process. This episode discusses the importance of diversifying our job search strategies as well as barriers faced by immigrants in searching jobs in a different country.
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21. Beyond the Basics: Transforming Your Resume
The Evaluation Couch
In this episode, Maria provides useful content to help you transform your resume. This episode covers the cognitive processes behind common resume tips, general rules for effective resumes and how to organize your information. Maria shares three frameworks you can adopt to write effective work experience content. She also shares things to avoid using real-life examples to showcase how to improve your resume content. She ends with a few strategies you can use to maintain updated and effective resumes.
info_outlineDiego Luces joins Maria to discuss evaluators' use of artificial intelligence (AI). Diego brings a lens to this discussion from his work as a software engineer working on AI tools. This episode discusses barriers and self-limiting beliefs that evaluators shared with Maria about AI. It includes suggestions for how evaluators can address some of their concerns and reframe their limiting beliefs if they choose to prioritize embracing this technology.
Resources:
Microsoft's Responsible AI: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/responsible-ai
Resources to improve your Copilot prompts: https://copilot.cloud.microsoft/prompts