Job Coaching

Location: Open Door Shelter

Date: Monday, November 25, 2013; 6:45-8:30 pm

Slippery road to ODS

We had our first real snow of the season; meaning winter was on its way.  As I walked to the ODS, the sidewalks were slick and I had to watch my footing.  Despite my slow pace, I arrived before anyone else and was soon joined by Wilson, there because his One Brick project had been cancelled. With him was Mark, a Red Cross volunteer.  It was Mark’s first time here and so I told him about the place and the program.  In the meanwhile Claire arrived, followed by 3 other volunteers.  Since most of the volunteers were new, she told everyone about what we would be doing.  I chipped in by saying that sometimes the youth can be a bit challenging to work with and we should not give up on the session because of that.  I said that most are probably applying for a job in retail or fast-food places and fail to see the value of our coaching, which is designed more for a career oriented role.  I always tell them that what we were doing is helping them with an eye on the future.  As we discussed this, one resident walked in and seeing the group asked if we had missed her.  I countered asking, “If we say yes, would you come for our session?”  She laughed and went upstairs.  Well, if the others had a similar sense of humor, we wouldn’t have many problems this evening, 

We went upstairs and gathered around the table.  It appeared to be a new batch of residents since I did not recognize anyone who was there.  There were a lot of toddlers running about and one of them was excited to see us.  I chatted with him for a bit till Claire started the evening’s proceedings.  We went around the table introducing ourselves and my job as a “Product Manager at an Energy Company” did not sound as exciting as another volunteer who worked for ‘Pandora’.  For an icebreaker Claire wanted to play the “birthday game”, where everyone was to line up in order of his or her birthday from January to December.  This gets everyone talking as they try to find their place in the line.  I said that I would stand in the center and others could line up on either side of me.  There were couple of other folks with June birthdays and we managed to get everyone in order.

For our main activity Claire was going to show us some online video’s on interviewing – the do’s and the don’ts.  She also paired the volunteers and youth so that we could have a focused discussion on what we had seen in the videos.  I was with a girl Roxanne and a boy Danny.   There were some technical challenges in getting the computer connected to the Internet and while Wilson worked on that, I asked the two youth what they did.  Roxanne said that she wants to work in shipping, packaging and logistics at a warehouse.  This was a very specific goal and I told her that it was pleasing to hear that someone had thought about want to do and with such detail.  She said that she had already applied to 4 places and was hoping to hear back soon.  Danny said that he wants to become a chef and had in fact registered to take classes.  I asked what kind of food would he like to work with and he said at present it would be flipping burgers.  I said that one has to start somewhere and it may as well be this.  I asked if he liked Italian cuisine and he said that he did.  I asked about his knife skills and he said that he was working on it. 

Perhaps not!

We had finally got the computer set up and started to watch the first video.  It was an example of a bad interview, with one girl coming in for her interview and then mailing it in.  It was obviously a bit extreme, but drove home the point of what not to do.  Next, another guy came in and did a very good job.  Claire had provided us handouts to discuss these scenarios and asked us to confer with our group.  I told both; Roxanne and Danny to write down their thoughts and Roxanne did a good job of capturing some of the key takeaways.  She said that the girl in the film had bad posture, was nervous, took a personal phone call in the middle of the interview, made no eye contact, was laid back, and in general was unprofessional and disrespectful towards the interviewer.  The guy on the other hand looked professional, had nice body language, good manners, confident and was an ideal candidate.  I asked Roxanne a couple of questions that the interviewer had asked the candidates such as, “Tell me about a time when you had to work as a team” and “Tell me about a project that you did from start to finish”.  She gave an example from her pet logistics field, where everyone had to organize shipment in a timely manner.  Danny gave a novel answer to this question on the time his family had decided to paint their house and how he was responsible for his room.  I asked if there was any common area where they had to work together and he said that they did so on the hallway.  I said that it was a good example of teamwork; since every member had to be consistent in the way they applied the paint.  He also talked about playing basketball on a team. 

Claire took Roxanne to another group and while she had looked disinterested, I sense a lot of potential in her.  Danny on the other hand admitted to me that 5 minutes after we left, all the material that we had distributed would be in the garbage and he failed to see a point to anything that we were doing.  I told him that what we were trying to accomplish here was not to prepare him for a job tomorrow or even next year, but a career 5 years from now.  So while he may not see the value of this immediately, he would do so sometime in the future.  Another girl had joined us and she appeared to be his friend.  She said that she wanted to be a criminal justice lawyer and was already in year 2 of her studies.  I told Danny that I didn’t want for him to have a lowly job while she became a successful lawyer.  The skills he would learn with us would take time to payoff, but payoff they most definitely would. 

It was time for another video and this was of a guy who goes in for an interview and then tells his friend how he blew it.  The video was of him giving a bad interview, and then a scenario of how he should have done it.  Claire paused after each interview question to make a point and asked us to discuss.  Danny was not interested and so we just talked about his family.  I learned that he is the youngest amongst 6 siblings and his mom ran a day care in Calumet City.  Danny used to work in the daycare when he was younger and they are a very close family.  He was going home for Thanksgiving, where the entire family would be together.  He said that whenever that happens, they all play some card game for hours.  His face lit up as he talked about his family and he really is a nice kid.  We just need to win his trust and that was the point of this conversation…building rapport.

The video was at an end and Claire gathered us for some final thoughts.  One girl said that she felt as if the interviewer was treating the interviewee with disrespect and what were we to do if we went into someone’s office for an interview and they were on the phone.  Many said that we should wait while some said that we should interrupt.  I said that this was perhaps a part of the interview and the interviewer was evaluating our response to this situation.  I said that we should always be on our guard and after the interview, it was totally up to us if we wanted to work for this person or not.  This led to a brief discussion on “bad managers” and I told everyone about the lesson my dad had told me on the first day of my previous job – “You cannot change your boss.  You can only change your job”.  It was time for us to leave and it had been a novel session with the videos.  I had some trouble with Danny but as with other things, it is about being patient, for it will take some time for him to get comfortable with us.  Hopefully we had done enough for him to not throw away all of our material in  the garbage as he had originally intended.  That would be a great shame and a disservice to himself. 

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