Harlem Hospital succeeds in Job Fair 2023: Healthcare edition
Entering Harlem Hospital Center Mural Pavilion, ambitious job seekers were warmly welcomed to a Harlem Hospital and Discover Diversity Project Job Fair. This was not your traditional recruiting event that only offered resume drop-offs with recruiters, but meet-and-greet panel discussions with healthcare professionals, resume and career workshop information, and continuing education opportunities, plus fun giveaways.
“This is the first of its kind,” explained Darryl Roberts, principal of the Discover Diversity Project. “This job fair creates a pipeline for talent in the Harlem community to not only Harlem Hospital, but other public and private hospitals.” The job fair welcomes in-person one-on-one access with various recruiters with the city’s major hospitals. Torrence Traynham, co-principal of Discover Diversity, opened the panel discussions by pointing out, “This is the first job fair to have three panel discussions, 10 employers, and 200 candidates and 300 job opportunities all in one place.”
“We’re hiring for everything,” said Jennifer Michel, director of recruitment and employment at Harlem Hospital. “We’re looking for all positions clinical and administrative. We’re looking for not only nursing, but positions in pharmacy, social work, and clerical. I am reviewing resumes and looking at experience, education, and credentials and fitting them in the right opportunities”
Besides meeting recruiters, there were three informative sessions, and panel discussions with healthcare professionals offering Q&A on job advice and what is next for healthcare post-COVID-19. The panel discussions were moderated by Shana Harmongoff, Harlem-born New York State District 30 official. The panel discussions connected job seekers to many healthcare professionals on what advice they can provide on successfully landing a job, and what obstacles they overcome to get to where they are today.
“Don’t be afraid of failure,” said Dr. Terrell Holloway, MD, psychiatry resident physician at Yale New Haven and Mount Sinai Hospital School of Medicine, “Some advice I would give to job seekers: it starts with the basics. If it is your resume, work on that. If it is your attire, work on that. If it is your LinkedIn, work on that. You have to work on you.”
Improving yourself to becoming a stronger job candidate in a job search was an important goal, and the job fair offered access to many career and resume services. Recruiters were providing feedback to job seekers, who needed improvement on their resumes before being submitted for job vacancies. “We’re not only recruiting for jobs, but assisting in resume and career services to help job seekers,” explained Donna Culhane, talent acquisition director at Northwell Health. “Northwell is New York State’s largest private healthcare provider. Besides hiring for all our locations, we offer job seekers many ways to improve themselves,” Culhane said.
“Make sure to keep the resume tight!” declared Dr. Joan Culpepper-Morgan, MD, chief of gastroenterology at Harlem Hospital. She discussed this during the discussion panels in her advice for job seekers that “Resumes should be on point––especially, with spell check.”
The Northwell Harlem @ Work Resume Writing and Career Coaching Workshops, available in English and Spanish, are free workshops that assist in improving chances of success with job opportunities with Northwell Health from food services to nursing.
The workshops will be held at the Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church at 140-6 West 137th Street on December 2nd, 5th and 7th, 2023. Registration can be done in advance at the church at 212-234-5700.
“Gaining credentials and training are beneficial, especially [when we] hire for nurses,” explained Mercedes Bass, associate director of nursing at Harlem Hospital. “Harlem Hospital offers the best training in nursing, especially for new graduates looking to gain experience,” she said. “There is job training in many areas: psychiatry, outpatient, and surgical. Surgery requires two years of experience which can be gained here in the hospital.”
Some job seekers were looking for reinvention and new direction in their careers. This was illustrated by Shantay Carter, a registered nurse with Summit Health, during one of the discussion panels. “After 21 years of nursing, COVID-19 made me open my eyes to make myself more marketable,” explains Carter. Being more marketable can help job seekers be hired on-the-spot, especially with Queens Hospital from Jamaica, Queens. This was another city hospital looking for top talent for nursing supervisory positions in maternity, and pre-op departments. “We wanted to reach out to the other communities,” explained Prachi Parmar, senior acquisition specialist [non-clinical] of the Human Resources Department at Queens Hospital.
“We want to reach out to different people about the openings with Queens, and other future events for the rest of the year. We also want to explain the benefits like loan forgiveness, college tuition, and professional development opportunities, like on-site stimulation training, and fellowship training programs. For further information on job opportunities, benefits, and future hiring events with Queens, email Human Resources at QHCEmployment@nychhc.org with the subject line: Queens Event 2023.
Besides clinical positions, there is a need for liaison support in emergency rooms to provide community-based services for food insecurity, housing issues, legal needs, or transportation.
“We are in great need in the emergency and psychiatric emergency department with our ACT (Assertive Community Team) Team,” said Jason Yarbrough, director of recruitment of Metropolitan Human Resources Administration. “I came to the job fair today and saw some strong candidates and will be reaching out,” stated Yarbrough.
The hiring event was successful in building a bridge for job seekers, recruiters, and healthcare professionals. Harlem native Brenia De La Cruz, former chair of the Employee Engagement Committee at Community Care with NYC Health and Hospital, discussed her unique journey in the healthcare field. “I originally started at Lehman College intending to be a nurse, but after going through the sciences, I decided to look into Health Services Administration,” said De La Cruz who graduated from Lehman with her BS in Health Care Administration in 2012, then her MS in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. She explained her unique career path in a pandemic, “There is opportunity in chaos,” De La Cruz said. She closed the last panel discussion with insightful advice for job seekers in their search of the next major job opportunity, “That careers are not a straight line.”
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