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Welcome to The Evaluation Couch, where we discuss topics related to evaluation and navigating a career in evaluation. In this space, I will share about my evaluation journey, share tips from my career advising and management experience, and invite other evaluators to hear about their perspectives. My goal is to continue promoting the use of evaluation and help evaluators build the careers they deserve.
25 Episodes
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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.
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 this study.
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.
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.
This episode features several attendees of Eval24, the 2024 American Evaluation Association conference that took place in Portland, Oregon. Maria engaged several attendees to ask them about risks they have taken in their careers, goals they are working towards and advice they would give their younger selves. This episode features several amazing evaluators. I am grateful for their generosity with their time and wisdom. Featured evaluators in alphabetical order: Allison Prieur, Angela Suarez, Audacity Nadler, Bijan Kimiagar, Carolyn Haythorn, Eddah Kanini, Elizabeth DiLuzio, François-Daniel Portelance, Gabriela Castro, Gladys Rowe, Grace, Joanna Hillman, Olivia Melvin, Prabin Nanicha, Rachael Kenney, Theodore Theoharis, Tian Ford, Veronica Olazabal, Vivien Ahrens, Zach Tilton.
This episodes focuses on our experiences of getting stuck when deciding whether to apply to a job or not. Maria shares experiences when getting stuck and building scenarios based on speculation have led her to not take action. She explains how our brain makes decisions and discusses some narratives or biases that can promote the decision loop that might lead to inaction. Finally, she shares a framework that can support your decision-making process to avoid getting stuck. Resources: Thinking, fast and slow by David Kahneman Maria's CARE to Apply Decision Tree
This episode is a how-to guide for tailoring your job application. Maria provides an overview of why it is important to tailor your application and how to overcome barriers getting in the way of creating a relevant and concise application. She demonstrates the process she would follow to tailor an application by using a real job posting as an example. The episode discusses Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools that can make the process more efficient and how you can use them. Resources: The job posting used in the example was retrieved on November 13, 2024 from Indeed. This post includes the keywords results from Copilot, Teal, and JobScan.
This is the last episode in the series dedicated to healthy job search mindsets. In this episode, Maria discusses the importance of developing your story, the narrative that describes your uniqueness and the value you add to a job. This episode focuses on an important component of your story: your strengths. Reconnecting with your strenghts will not only allow you to stand out but will also increase your resilliency. Maria shares an excercise to identify your strengths and shares an example from her career to show how it works. Other resources you can use to develop your story: The Simple, Powerful Method to Find your "Why" Values Excercise Why work in evaluation: Excercises and Resources
Welcome to the second episode in our series dedicated to job searching and maintaining a healthy mindset throughout the process. In this episode, Maria provides several practical actions you can take to embrace failure as part of the job search process and increase your grit and resilience to overcome job rejections. Resources: Angela Lee Duckworth on Grit Hidden Potential by Adam Grant
Welcome to the first episode in our series dedicated to job searching and maintaining a healthy mindset throughout the process. In this episode, Maria explores the external factors that can impact your job search outcomes. By understanding these factors and gaining insight into the inner workings of the organizations you’re applying to, you can shift your perspective and protect your self-esteem during your job search process. Maria shares practical strategies to navigate this reality. Resources: Job Rejections Are Causing Gen-Zers To Seek Mental Health Treatment – Career Design Lab | Columbia University – School of Professional Studies Resources to learn about discrimination in the workplace: Human Rights in British Columbia: Protection in Employment fact sheet (Canada) If you've been discriminated against at work - Acas (UK)
In this episode Maria shares her strategy for leveraging conference to grow your career. This episode includes actionable steps you can take before, during, and after conferences to move closer towards your career goals.
In this episode, Maria explores why some people take action while others don't. This episode discusses the process of stepping outside our comfort zone and navigating our fear zone to reach our growth zone. She shares how she experienced and overcame the fear zone when she launched The Evaluation Couch. She then shares tips you can try out to navigate your own fear zones and her reflections on all she has gained since launching this podcast. Resources: The comfort zone - growth zone model Maria talks about is derived Learning Zone Model developed by Tom Senninger and is described in more detail here This article describes the research that suggests that excitement and anxiety are physiologically the same and the power of reframing our emotions Watch Brene Brown's TedTalk: The power of vulnerability
In this episode Christine Wise and David J. Hanson join Maria to share about Eval and Ink. Eval and Ink aims to unveil the identities and elevate the voices of evaluators by exploring the narratives behind their tattoos. Christine and David share the story behind this project and reflect on the powerful experience of connecting with others who are sharing the stories of their tatoos with them. This episode discusses how our identities show up in our evaluation work, the need for celebrating the cultural diversity in our field, the importance of considering the humanity involved in evaluation, and the value of self-reflection in our work. Learn more abotu Eval and Ink and get involved here. David's definition of Culturally Responsive and Equity-Focused Evaluation is from The Eval Matrix. David also shares about the Leaders in Equitable Evaluation and Diversity (LEEAD) program from Expanding the Bench.
Chris Lysy, from Fresh Spectrum, sits in the couch to share how he built a special career by leaning into his interests and diversifying his skills. Chris shares how he became the artist behind thousands of evaluation cartoons and shares valuable tips related to exploring our interests, finding opportunities, starting a consulting business, and creating content. Visit Chris' website for free resources, cartoons, and more. Watch Chris' and Maria's Q&A mentioned in the episode and see the cartoons here.
In this episode, Maria highlights the value that younger generations bring to workplaces and the importance of understanding generational differences to build better working conditions for all. This episode provides an overview of the historical and contextual factors that influence the motivations and expectations of different generations. It also provides suggestions of how we can transform workplaces to make them more inclusive of younger generations. Resources and references: Generation Why: How Boomers Can Lead and Learn from Millennials and Gen Z by Karl Moore Delloite's Gen Z and Millenial Survey LinkedIn Research Gen Z In The Workplace: How Should Companies Adapt? by John Hopking University How Gen Z will Change Company Culture by Ethan McCarty Defining generations: Where Millennials end and Generation Z begins Making generational differences work: What empirical research reveals about leading millennials
Diego 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
In this episode, Maria reflects on the role that a bad job experience can have in shaping our careers. She shares her own learnings from a bad job and how reframing her experience has helped her learn how to navigate future challenges. The episode also includes tips to help you reframe challenging job experiences to turn them into learning opportunities.
In this episode, Maria discusses her experience with scarcity mindset around the earning potential of a career in evaluation. She introduces the concept of scarcity mindset and how it can impact your decisions, stress, and well-being. This episode discusses the importance of talking about money and having compensation information to make career decisions. Maria shares a few steps you can take if you are experiencing scarcity mindset around your earning potential.
In this episode, Maria interviews the incoming Canadian Evaluation Society (CES) President, Michelle Anderson-Draper. Michelle reflects on her journey in evaluation, the role of planned happenstance in her career and her hopes for her presidency term. Throughout the conversation, Michelle shares her own careeer goals, highlights the value of lifelong learning and provides valuable tips to help evaluators grow in their careers. Visit the Canadian Evaluation Society to learn more about the CES Fellows, Designation program, and Provincial Chapters: Canadian Evaluation Society (evaluationcanada.ca) For more information on the Student and Emerging Evaluator representative to the Board position, visit: Latest News (evaluationcanada.ca)
In this episode, Maria honours her friend and colleague Carol Wilson, celebrating her retirement by emphasizing the importance of using plain language in evaluation. The episode offers a brief introduction to Plain Language and provides seven practical tips to improve your communication by using words that are appropriate for your audience. This episode was informed by Maria's experiences as well as resources from Plain Canada Clair and the Plain Language: Clear and Simple - Trainer's Guide.
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