Retraining plus targeted job search lands veteran a job in journalism
It’s Workforce Wednesday! This week’s Power Of A Job story comes from Seth Maier, a Disabled Veterans Outreach Program representative at WorkSource Spokane. Having worked with many veterans exiting a retraining program, Seth understood what customer Natasha needed. They both worked hard to present her skills effectively and translate her journalism degree into a job. Along the way, Seth also helped Natasha realize her wish to purchase a home.
The hardworking folks at WorkSource help dreams of all kinds come true!
Here is Seth’s story:
So I wanted to share a story today about a veteran who was referred to me through the federal Veterans Affairs (VA) vocational rehabilitation program.
Her name is Natasha. She graduated from the University of Montana with a degree in journalism. Just like most VA vocational rehabilitation customers referred to me, they’re recent graduates, just finishing some kind of degree or training program.
Often times, those training programs will offer some guidance on what participants can do to prepare for employment after their training. But when I see these students, often the plan they created is inadequate. With vocational rehab customers, some of the ideas I have to help get them employed are difficult to sell. They’re all very eager to start a job, but everything they’ve been taught and told is a little bit different than what I’m sharing with them and how I can help them get a job.
Natasha’s story is that she moved to Spokane and she really wanted to work with a local production company here but wasn’t getting any opportunities. Her military job skills were in the food service industry so she found herself as a server working at Red Lobster, where she was making really good tip money at night.
It was really hard to compete with that nightly cash income because she was pursuing an occupation that she had no experience in other than her education. It was very difficult to sell the idea that she could do better than serving at a restaurant, and it took some time to get her resume turned around. She created a website that highlighted her skills, and it was very difficult to describe to her why the resume was still an important tool for her. These are some of the struggles that often times I face with many of my customers. Sometimes they just don’t understand the process that we’re doing to help them reach their employment goals.
Natasha eventually discovered that her job as a server, which was bringing her instant income, was a distraction for her from pursuing her dream job. But, she wanted to make sure there was a good return on investment for the education that the U.S. taxpayer helped pay for. So, she quit her serving job to focus specifically on the job search process.
It took us almost three to four months to get a resume put together. But, in less than two months from the time that we buckled down and started seriously looking for opportunities, she got a job offer with the local news agency as a director. So, her first job with the degree in journalism is as a director for our local news station! And, I’m looking forward to seeing what she’s able to produce in her programming.
The other thing that I really love about Natasha’s story is that she had a secondary goal when she started here. Even more important than pursuing her dream job was that she wanted to be a homeowner.
So, I helped her with find places to get her taxes done at no cost and referred her to some home buying programs. She ended up putting an offer on a house and she bought it. She basically earned it off of her server wages. So she’s a homeowner now, and she’s been putting in sweat equity; she showed me before and after pictures of the painting of the house.
It’s really cool to see that this honorably served veteran, who was injured in the line of duty, was retrained by the VA system to get into an occupation she can do and that her injury can accommodate. And she’s a homeowner and that’s always good in the community. I am really proud of Natasha. All of the VA vocational rehabilitation customers that we see in the future are going to get the same level service and I look forward to working with all of them.
As a partner in Washington’s WorkSource system and the American Job Center Network, the Employment Security Department helps people — unemployed or not — find new jobs and learn new skills. We help them experience the life-changing Power of a Job. We also work with businesses, which are Powered by Jobs, to help them find employees.
