Speaker: Clarissa Mitchell, Manager of Talent Management, Cox Communications
Tell us about yourself!
Clarissa Mitchell: Hi, my name is Clarissa Mitchell I work for Cox Communications I'm the Manager of Talent Management in Atlanta, Georgia.
Please tell us about your career journey
Clarissa Mitchell: I started my career out of college in pharmaceutical sales and from pharmaceutical sales, in pharmaceutical sales and from pharmaceutical sales, I started training the sales representatives and loved training and I decided that I would make it my career for a while. I did everything from career services training, onboarding training, diversity training, and I really enjoyed the professional side of it and helping people with their careers. From this training I was able to transition into what we call a learning management system, where I managed the entire organization's learning systems for anything that employees wanted to do in their development. That was very rewarding. And from there I moved into talent management, which was also part of the human resources umbrella. Talent management, what I currently do, is identifying leaders and developing leaders for the future. Some would call that succession planning. So I make sure that the organization does not have a gap if someone does leave because we have already developed these people to move into that. What I would love to do in the future is in career development and helping high school and college age kids understand about their careers and develop for their futures to have a rewarding career.
How did you first hear about CareerVillage.org?
Clarissa Mitchell: I first heard of a CareerVillage through my son actually. My son was about to go off to college. He was a senior and we were trying to decide what he wanted to do with, you know, his major what he wanted to major in. what he wanted to major in. And he had done some research and came up with exercise science. Well his dad and I did not know anything about exercise science, what it was. He spoke to a counselor at his high school and his counselor told him about CareerVillage and that maybe he and that maybe he should submit questions to ask and get some guidance on what that particular career entailed.
How did CareerVillage.org help your family?
Clarissa Mitchell: CareerVillage helped my son understand what Exercise Science was and what he needed to do, what was the major all about, what the major could lead to, which was like physical therapy or if he wanted to go on to be a sports medicine physician. So getting his questions answered by people who were in the field, who had done, who had majored in, or who was actually working in this profession, really helped him crystallize. And I'm very happy to say that he did major in Exercise Science for four years. He did that at Georgia Southern and he was successful. So I am very um happy to CareerVillage for that. And also, he was able to win a scholarship of $1,500 scholarship from CareerVillage by submitting questions. And, and so that was an added bonus with that.
Why do you think career development is important for students?
Clarissa Mitchell: Career development is very important to help students identify what they are interested in and what they are good at and what they are passionate about, that allows them to be motivated to add value to whatever job that they're on. It is also a very good idea to help them to navigate when they get into the workplace to find those mentors, find someone that will help them through their careers, especially for those unwritten rules, things that that are not in the policy and procedure or handbook. So career development to me is very important to get started. If you have a solid foundation, just like when you are in school and you get a solid foundation in math or solid foundation in reading, career development to me is very much the same way if you get a real good foundation on your career and the unwritten rules of the career, having mentors, having an advocate someone to help sponsor you. I believe that anyone can add value and grow and that's really what it's all about, is adding value and growing your skills, marketing your skills and being able to have a successful career that you would want. Being able to pivot - understanding how to go through challenges and problem solving. I believe that career development is so important for students and that is the reason why I would love to do that in my future career
