One Misspelled Word. A Lifetime of Career Lessons.

Inside Duke's Foundational Skills Program, employees are gaining the tools, confidence and support to grow their careers at Duke

Jemma Boler speaks during a training session
Jemma Boler, Education and Training Practitioner for Duke’s the Professional Development Institute, speaks during a Foundational Skills Program training session. Photo by Travis Stanley

Jemma Boler had just guided a Duke cohort in a professional development program on how to structure a résumé, how intentional formatting can transform a document and how highlighting accomplishments make a long page of dense words easier to read.

Then Boler, an Education and Training Practitioner for Duke Human Resources, asked one of the Duke employees in the Foundational Skills Program to read aloud a sentence on a PowerPoint slide:

 “The Application Tracking System will not recognize misspelled words, but the hiring manger might.”

“What’s wrong with that statement?” Boler asked the 10 Duke employees gathered in the JB Duke Hotel for a session on résumés, interviewing and transferring roles within Duke.

Thomas Hamilton, a Security Ambassador at the Nasher Museum of Art, takes notes during a training session. Photo by Travis Stanley

When no one replied, Boler asked them to take a closer look at the sentence.  

“That’s why you need a second eye to look at your résumé because ‘manager’ is misspelled,” she said.

The group groaned as Boler pointed out that manger is not the same as manager.  

The training session was part of the Foundational Skills Program, an eight-month learning experience organized by Duke Learning & Organization Development, a unit within Duke Human Resources. As part of Duke’s Professional Development Academy, it offers tailored training to Duke University and Duke University Health System staff in non-administrative roles.

With training, coaching, mentoring and strengths assessments, the program provides a holistic approach to professional development, helping participants strengthen their skills, expand their confidence and grow personally and professionally within their careers at Duke. This year’s class is the program’s largest cohort to date.

For Thomas Hamilton, a Security Ambassador at the Nasher Museum of Art, the Foundational Skills Program has helped him revamp his résumé with the help of his program mentor.

“This is actually the best résumé of mine that I’ve ever seen,” he said, pointing to his revised document. “I’ve learned so much.”

Hamilton’s goal to learn and grow through the program has helped him understand one of Boler’s key points in the session: “We can teach you to make it look pretty, but the content has to be there.”

“The résumé is the first impression,” Boler said. “You want to impress that recruiter with those actual skills and qualifications you have listed so they can get it to the hiring manager.”

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