fiber optics network

U.S. job growth last month came in at 253,000 – significantly higher than the Wall Street estimate of 180,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Additionally, the April unemployment rate was 3.4%.

Every week, WorkingNation seeks out job pathways in various industries. Our most recent findings come from Alabama, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, and Utah.

Take a look.

From Alabama: The Cullman Tribune reports residents can learn how to install and maintain fiber optic networks with free, short-term training through the Alabama Community College System.

From Illinois: Variety reports a Chicago program is training people to work in the film industry with the hope it will lure more productions to the state.

From Pennsylvania: Public News Service reports a training program has the goal to increase the number of Black workers in skilled trade apprenticeships.

From Puerto Rico: Pasquines reports the federal government is recommending more than $34 million for projects to make communities and the economy more climate change-resilient “while creating jobs and economic opportunities for Puerto Ricans.”

From Utah: The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources shares requirements to become a conservation officer for the state.

Did you miss our previous Back to Work stories from around the country? Catch up here.

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.