NAME: Christina Doty AGE: 57 JOB: Lead casework volunteer, American Red Cross of Hawaii Start: “My first experience with the Red Cross was in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1974 as a candy striper volunteering with elderly clients in a nursing home,” Doty says. “I…
Q: I’m one of the lucky ones. While so many of my friends came home after college with lots of debt and no job, I got through school with minimal debt and landed a sweet job with the company I’d…
The Wahine Forum is Hawaii’s largest leadership and career development conference for women. The conference is attended by Hawaii’s top female executives, entrepreneurs, up-and-coming leaders and others intent on advancing their careers. This year’s theme is WORK TOGETHER, RISE TOGETHER,…
Q: I run weekly team meetings with our field staff so we can stay abreast of everyone’s projects, deadlines and possible crossovers. It’s one hour, and I try to run a tight agenda that covers all the ground without bogging…
NAME: Randall Pang AGE: 51 JOB: Certified prosthetist, C.R. Newton Co. Ltd. START: Randall Pang was born in San Jose, California, but moved to Kaneohe with his family when he was 8. While at Mid-Pacific Institute’s high school, he…
They may be young, but the women graduating from business schools these days already know what they want and they're shooting for the stars. They're passionate, assertive, organized, ambitious, altruistic and well-trained – often with many sets of business skills.…
Firefighters train for two of their most important roles in an airplane fire: clearing a fire-free path for evacuating passengers and rescuing incapacitated victims. These Federal Fire Department recruits train using a mock large-body aircraft, whose fire is fed by…
NAME: Cari Ann Leong AGE: 32 JOB: Owner, Ice Cream Dreamz, an ice cream/gelato truck, and full-time hairstylist START: “It’s a family-run truck,” the Sacred Hearts graduate and Kaimuki resident explains. “We started it about three years ago. It was…
NAME: Charles Clark AGE: 57 JOB: Mortician, Oahu Mortuary START: When he was about 17, Clark attended a friend’s funeral service at Borthwick Mortuary. “The funeral director and I became friendly and chatted, and when I returned to the funeral…
Why are there so few women at the top? Just 5.8 percent of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies are women. Globally, women hold around 15 percent of corporate board seats; in the U.S., it’s just 11 to 12 percent. There…
Q: What’s with obligatory office gifts? I love my job, but it seems like I get a couple of emails every month “asking” me to donate money for the office gift for someone’s shower – bridal, baby or whatever. Often,…
Real estate agent’s other job is background actor for movies and TV shows. He's great at blending in. NAME: Jerald Pang AGE: 56 JOB: Nonunion background actor (extra) and full-time real estate agent START: In the summer of 2013, Pang…
NAME: Robin Fujiyama AGE: 53 JOB: Biohazard Technician, Bio-One Hawaii START: Fujiyama served in the Air Force Reserve for eight years, and has been a firefighter for 26. His cousin owns Bio-One Hawaii and, in 2014, contacted Fujiyama about doing…
Q: Help! I changed jobs recently and now I work from home three days a week. I thought it would be amazing, staying in my pajamas, working on my own schedule, tossing a load of laundry in occasionally. But the…
Sandra Ohara and Chris Cruthers Adams don’t miss a thing: The conversations in the outer office. Smiles. No smiles. Chaotic piles of desk papers. The easy way employees communicate. Or don’t. In short, they explore the culture of a workplace…
NAME: Paul Franco AGE: 40 JOB: Paragliding and tandem instructor, Proflyght Paragliding, based in Kula, Maui START: Franco was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, to an American mother and a Brazilian father. His father was an airline pilot and also…
Q: I’m a vegetarian in an office that worships food. Daily spreads of manapua, brownies (not the kind from college), casseroles with ingredients I don’t recognize, and slow cookers of kalua pork (with a rice cooker on the side) fill…
NAME: Celeste Indvik AGE: 25 PART-TIME JOB: Professional cuddler and co-owner of Aloha Cuddle Co. START: Indvik was born and raised in Orange County, California, received her B.S. in nursing from Hawaii Pacific University, and is now a full-time labor…
Q: I’ve been in middle management for 25 years, and I have a closet filled with aloha shirts, khaki pants and work shoes to prove it. I’m good at what I do, but I’m bored. And I worry, that as…
NAME: Dan Radford AGE: 37 JOB: Computer network operations manager, National Security Agency Hawaii START: While still a Marine, Dan Radford began his intelligence career as an electronics intelligence operator in 1996. “I broke into the computer network operations field…
“Oh, no!” was Reuben Chong’s street name – as in “Oh, no! Here he comes!” For a decade, the homeless ex-convict prowled Honolulu’s Chinatown in search of money to support his drug habit. Who could imagine that this 34-year-old, street-smart…
Q: I’m a freelance graphic arts designer who is completely baffled. One of my best clients has gone radio silent, ghosting me without even so much as a “I’m just not that into you.” I’ve done all the standard stuff…
NAME: Lealyn Poponi AGE: 39 JOB: Stilt walker START: Poponi, originally from Monroe, Michigan, dreamed of moving to the Islands since she visited Maui with her family when she was 18. “In 2013, I sold almost everything, quit my job…
Cristina Barbata runs the Young Professionals program at the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, which is aimed at those ages 21 to 39. She is also the chamber’s director of events. Here are five ways that she, as a young professional,…