Job Coaching

Location: Open Door Shelter

Date: Monday, September 30, 2013; 6:45-8:30 pm

Claire has asked if I would be willing to lead a few sessions of this project since she had other commitments.  I had agreed but had to go on a business trip at the end of August, meaning I had to drop out then.  But I was determined to fulfill my commitment this month and was in fact looking forward to it.  However, leading this project means that one has to come prepared and so I spent a few hours on Saturday designing an agenda for the session.  The first thing would be to meet with the volunteers in the lobby, answer any questions regarding the Open Door Shelter and Chicago Cares Mission, and then assign Roles & Responsibilities for the evening.  For the icebreaker, I thought of a game where small groups would get together and discuss what their “Dream Job” and their “Nightmare Job” would be.  The idea was to choose a nightmare job based on perceived lack of fit due to skill sets or something that one dislikes.  After discussion, each group would introduce each other’s Dream and Nightmare job.  This would mean that they had collaborated and also built each other’s confidence by stating why they would be a fit for their dream job.  For the actual session, I wanted to split the volunteers into groups of two, where each duo would represent one “Company” and interview candidates as the ‘Hiring Manager’ and ‘HR Manager’.  I then wrote down some sample questions for either scenario, such as behavioral questions for the HR person and some technical questions for the Hiring manager, wherein I considered a few jobs such as a sales person in an electronics store, a server in a restaurant, a personal shopping assistant, a Barista etc. Then I was going to ask the volunteer duo to rate the candidates on a scale of 1 to 5, with the higher score being “Excellent” and the reward the top 3 “candidates”.  I had a solid two pages of notes with more than 2 days to go for the project.  No one could accuse me of not being prepared.

What is your dream job?

I sent my notes to Claire and Connie, the Chicago Cares coordinator, and they both approved of the agenda.  I then sent it to the volunteers on Monday morning and promptly received notification that one of the volunteers had taken themselves off the list.  I hope it wasn’t something that I said!  When Wilson heard that I would be leading this evening, he decided to come and picked me up from my office way in advance.  We arrived at the ODS with plenty of time to spare and waited.  Soon the rest of my team arrived and it included Dave, who is a Chicago Cares leader at Young Elementary School and was returning back to this program after 2 years; Erica from Lidia Pucinska; Sonya, a HR recruiter; Fahad, who is a regular; and Dreama, who said that she was a past resident at the Night Ministry.  That was an uplifting and encouraging sign that someone who had been at the receiving end had now returned to give back.  Erica had recently come back from Pittsburgh, and brought cookies for me from one of my favorite places over there.  I went over the agenda with everyone and to compliment the material that I had already sent them, also showed them the 6 job descriptions that I had printed out – Sales person at ‘Best Buy’; Barista at ‘Starbucks’; Cashier at ‘Whole Foods’; Server at ‘Maggiano’s’; Bookseller at ‘Barnes & Nobel’; and Sales Assistant at ‘Macy’s’.  Then I formed the teams of two with Fahad and Erica, Dreama and Sonya and Wilson and Dave. 

We went upstairs and as is usually the case, all of the residents were lounging around and very reluctantly joined us at the table when I invited them.  One of the girls, Bianca, was adamant that we were wasting time and I insisted that she come anyways.  I told her that we would make this a fun session and have a game as well as some prizes at the end.  Another girl did not want to leave the couch and I said that once the introductions were over, she could return back to the couch for the interview session.  We started with everyone introducing themselves and saying what their current status was in terms of a job.  I then explained the Dream and Nightmare job game and once again Bianca said that she did not want to participate.  I asked her what she wanted to do and she said that rather than interviewing, we should coach them on things such as how to dress in a professional setting as well as about personal hygiene.  I thought that it was a great idea, and something that I would pass on to Chicago Cares.  Dreama told me that she would work with Bianca, perhaps having recognized something in her.  I paired everyone for the game and we were ready to go.  I was paired with a young man Emmanuel, and a young woman Rosie.  I said that my nightmare job was being a surgeon and a dream job would be as a writer.  Rosie said that her dream job was also to be a writer, since she is a poet.  Her nightmare job would be working in a fast food restaurant.  Emmanuel said that his dream job was to be an actor whereas nightmare job was working at an airport.  I found that strange and asked him about it.  He said he was afraid of getting hit by a plane.  I told him those things are big and one usually sees them coming.  I then learned that Emmanuel works in a fast food restaurant whereas Rosie works at the airport, and hence they had picked each other’s jobs as nightmare scenarios.  Aah well.  When time came to introduce each other’s jobs to the wider group, I talked about Rosie whereas Emmanuel introduced me.  Many in the other groups said that their nightmare job was working in a fast food restaurant.  I wonder what so many have against fast food!  Some said that their nightmare was being an Accountant, whereas Wilson said that his nightmare job was none since he liked working.  For his dream job he picked flipping burgers, since he did that at ‘Soldier Field’ for a project.  But I guess he also wanted to show everyone who did not want to work at fast food that it wasn’t beneath him to do that job. 

Next, we split into the three groups as per the volunteer pairings that we had created.  Wilson and Dave were meeting with everyone in their group together and seemed quite engaged, as were Sonya and Dreama, who had Bianca in their group.  Fahad and Erica preferred meeting one-on-one, meaning someone had to wait.  While Erica interviewed a girl, Deanna, I chatted with Thomas, who was waiting for his turn.  He told me that he had just been hired as a wheelchair pusher at the airport and could care less about this session.  Then when Erica switched to him, I went over to chat with Deanna, who seemed more engaged.  She works as a cashier in ‘Limited’ and ‘Sam’s Club’, but wants to be a pediatric nurse.  I asked her why, and she said it was so that her 16-month old son could have a better future.  Her face lit up as she spoke about him and it was evident that she at least knew what this was all about.  I later went to Fahad’s group and chatted with the two people who were with him, Benjamin and Rosie.  Benjamin and I discussed how to prepare a resume and I told him the same thing that I have repeated several times over here; the attributes of a successful resume – quantify everything, make it job specific, not lie and most importantly, pay attention to formatting. Benjamin listened attentively and said that he would implement.  Thomas on the other hand had now moved to Fahad’s group and was giving him a hard time.  Fahad to his credit did not give up on him.  Thomas said that he wanted to go outside and play basketball.  We said that this activity was just one hour of his week, even if he had NBA ambitions! He said that he already had a job and we challenged him to grow out of it, into something more challenging.  I told him about some of my interview mistakes from the past and how they may have even cost me a chance at a job.  That was because nobody had done with me what we were doing right now – Coaching. 

Time was almost up and so all of the volunteers and the residents came together for debriefing. Each of the groups gave their reflections on how the session had gone and the lessons learned.  I had told the residents that the top performers would get a prize, which was candy.  But I was intending for everyone to get some of it and so had brought enough. We distributed the candy and the volunteers went downstairs. I got everyone together for our reflection and asked for feedback. Everyone was on board with Bianca’s suggestion of having a ‘Dress For Success’ session and Erica even offered to get some clothes for the women.  I told the volunteers that they had been fantastic. what this place needs in order to be successful is a little more structure, and regular volunteers to build that trust with the residents. I know that we needed variations in the sessions, but if a typical cycle of a resident is 6-8 weeks, we could have 4 lessons and then repeat the topics for the next batch.  I was pleased with my first effort at a leader for this program and the time spent in preparation had been worth it.  I felt that even though we get a Bianca or a Thomas who resist participation, some amount of information has to have filtered through.  Plus, at some stage of their career they will look back at these sessions and appreciate it.  For every small gesture, every infinitesimally small random act of kindness matters.  Erica and I have met only 3 or 4 times through these projects.  But when she heard that I liked cookies from this bakery in Pittsburgh, she remembered to get a couple for me.  Of all presents that I have received this year, this may be one of the most precious gifts ever. I hope some day, the residents of this place feel the same way about us.

*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy