People in Transition 105. Ed Hidalgo - Careers Leader
Ed Hidalgo is an advisor, speaker, and trainer for school districts seeking to embed career-related teaching and learning within school culture.
Ed's journey in career education began in 2016 at the University of San Diego, where he worked as the Director of the World of Work initiative with researchers, K12 leaders, and business partners to develop the theory of change for integrating career-related learning across K12 systems. He was hired by the Cajon Valley Union School District, a public school district of 28 schools and 18,000 students, as the Chief Innovation and Engagement Officer. Here, Ed led the deployment of the career development model with teachers, counselors, parents, and classified staff.
Before his career in education, he devoted nearly two decades to corporate human resources and talent acquisition. These years were pivotal, during which he oversaw the recruitment of a substantial number of contingent employees, initiated a corporate career counseling initiative benefiting a significant portion of permanent staff, and established the Thinkabit STEM Maker Space, catering to a very large number of middle school students. These experiences served as the catalyst for his transition into K12 career development.
Today, his work with the team at Educators Cooperative connects him to clients and partners across a wide range of schools, nonprofit organizations, workforce boards, education technology companies, and students and families.
Topics we discussed during the recording included:
• The improved perception of temp or contingent workforce and how they can be a part of the staffing plans made by companies.
• The same skills/characteristics are needed to be hired as a contingent worker as a regular FT worker. Can you do the job? This is the question the candidate must be able to answer.
• Finding a job – contingent or FT – is hard work. One of the keys to success in the process is consistency in your efforts.
• Ed had a great story of a candidate who came in late on a Friday to find work – the guy was not "ready" that day – Ed gave some coaching to him, and when he returned, he was hired and after some time promoted into a supervisor role – you have to listen to this – I think it says there is a spot for everyone.
• You need to be specific on what you want to do – no such position as "I can do anything."
For more information on Ed, go to 1. Ed-Hidalgo.com 2. Connectthework.com