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ColorsNW Careers Helps Job Seekers Succeed

by Sierra Smith

Over the years, various ethnic communities have expressed the need for a resource to help qualified professionals of color find employment with the Northwest’s top companies. At the same time, businesses and organizations expressed growing frustration at not being able to find quality candidates of color.

To address this need, in March 2006, ColorsNW, Inc. launched the Northwest’s first diversity-based job portal ColorsNWCareers.com. This portal was specifically designed to bring quality professional and managerial candidates of color together with companies looking to select top candidates from a candidate pool that reflects the diversity of the marketplace.

Recently, ColorsNWCareers.com successfully helped place a qualified candidate of color in a position relative to his field of choice. Douglas Leek, a graduate from Western Washington University with a degree in English Literature as well as a Masters degree in Education and Student Development, placed his resume on ColorsNWCareers.com and was hired by Lakeside School as the Assistant Director of Admissions and Financial Aid.

In this position, Leek works to admit middle and high school students along with assisting the evaluation and administration of financial aid. He also advises a group of eighth grade students.

Before taking the position with Lakeside School, Leek was a College Financial Aid Counselor at Seattle Pacific University, Undergraduate Admissions Counselor at Seattle University and most recently, the Recruitment Manager at the Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington.

With a strong resume and background, Leek, who was employed at the time placed his resume on the site, still found himself actively looking for a new job.

“Although I was gainfully employed,” Leek begins, “I was casually looking for other opportunities for about six months. I looked on other search engines and websites, but nothing really caught my eye.”

The search engines that applied to Leek’s area of expertise were hireedjobs.com, The Chronicles of Higher Education and Monster, all of which failed to execute his job-search desires.

Having heard about ColorsNWCareers.com through a colleague in his field, it was Leek’s wife who found the job for him.

“While assisting me in the process, she (my wife) came across my current job (at Lakeside) on the ColorsNWCareers.com website,” Leek says. “The job description intrigued me and I looked at it for about three days and finally decided to submit my resume and cover letter.”

Although Leek was unsuccessful with other online job portals, ColorsNWCareers.com had jobs in his field that were of interest to him and was easily maneuverable.

“The website is easy to navigate and locate positions that are within my field,” Leek says. “It’s also nice to see things like Ask the Recruiter and Resume Writing because it allows you to polish your skills and present your best self.”

ColorsNWCareers.com offers several helpful articles for job-seekers to utilize while promoting their strengths and strategically placing themselves in the job market. In addition, weekly email newsletters are sent to job-seekers on the site to inform them of new positions, helpful job search hints and strategies for success.

ColorsNWCareers.com aims to deliver qualified candidates of color to growing businesses and organizations that value diversity and the opportunities that are associated with diversifying their staff. Compared with Monster.com, Jobdango, Careerbuilder.com, and HotJobs.com, ColorsNWCareers is the only Northwest job portal which focuses on the importance of diversity in the workplace.