Kayla Banda moved to Portland from Reno, Nevada during the COVID pandemic. Having worked at the Small Business Development Center in Reno, she reached out to inquire about assisting small businesses in Portland and was immediately welcomed to the PCC SBDC team.

The real estate market offers many career opportunities, whether you're a broker, a realtor, or manage the properties yourself. You don't need to own properties to benefit from this industry, especially in a thriving market like Portland's. There is always a need for people who can effectively communicate between owners and renters while managing their day-to-day needs.

So, what kind of person enjoys property management as a career, and what can you do as a property manager if you choose to make it your long-term role? The answer may surprise you - it's a vibrant, flexible career with a low barrier to entry, allowing you to get started quickly.

After 22 years at the PCC SBDC, Jackie Babicky Peterson still has enthusiasm! Sean Harry sat down with Jackie in March 2022 to catch up on what she is up to these days. 

Becca Schultz started developing her piano pedagogy while still a student at Portland State University. Since then she has helped hundreds of students learn to play and enjoy music, while simultaneously employing multiple musicians as teachers. Her business has grown so much in the past couple of years that they have recently had to move to a newly renovated location with the help of the PCC Small Business Development Center team.  This is her story...

Mathilde Wilson owns Mathilde's Kitchen beverage company using fresh and locally sourced ingredients that showcase the vibrant Haitian/Caribbean flavors. Mathilde is a graduate of the PCC Small Business Development Center's "Getting Your Recipe to Market" program and proud recipient of the 2022 Good Food Award. This is her story...

Bruce works on the OSBDC Network Capital Access Team and teaches segments on lending for every program. With a wide variety of background in a broad swath of industries (from journalism, to energy efficiency companies), Bruce brings insight, knowledge, and experience to Oregon businesses looking for capital to grow.

Every term, thousands of students benefit from the valuable in-person and online coursework at Portland Community College. While some coursework results in long-term enrollment for multiple years, shorter programs quickly move students from their first course into their first job in a new industry.  

Angela and David Anderson spent years helping Oregon’s wine industry grow by providing Web and consulting services for restaurants and wineries. In 2019 they stepped onto the front line of the industry and opened Syndicate Wine Bar in downtown Beaverton. Syndicate is “a community wine bar, bringing in all facet of wine culture,” they wrote. "A place where all people could sip, sample, buy bottles and snack on appetizers."

Finding a new job or finding your first job is an exercise in patience, resilience, and persistence because no one likes to find out that they didn't get an interview or are just not the top choice for an employer. It can feel like you have sent a million applications even if you are still relatively early in your process of applying. There are ways you can keep things in perspective and make sure you have the staying power to get ready for a job hunt. If you're lucky, you won't need these strategies, but recognize that great workers sometimes have long job hunts, especially in specialized industries or times of economic shift. Here are some tips for how to stay sane while job hunting. We wanted to include some of the more gentle job search tips 2021 has to offer. 

This month we interviewed Jeff Stell with Business Oregon who, after 26 years working at the Oregon Department of Human Services, decided to try something new. He enrolled at Portland State University in the Master of Public Administration program and simultaneously took a new position at Business Oregon as the Business Projects Incentives Coordinator where his job was to implement incentive programs that would strengthen the development of businesses, communities, and economies in Oregon. With that shift Jeff says he “encountered three career changing opportunities" that helped him discover that a great amount of import/export activity happening across the state, and exporting wasn’t getting the attention it needed at the state and local levels.