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Career Launch: The Missing Piece in My Job Search Puzzle

April 7, 2022/in Anthony Melena, News

Career Launch alum Anthony Melena shares how the program helped him get his job search on track. Perkins School for the Blind is a grantee partner of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation, and this blog post was shared from Perkins with permission.

I used to think that getting a job was easy. Graduate high school, go to college and voilà, a job would be granted, simply because I’d sat through four-plus years of sleep-deprived lectures and never-ending assignments. Boy did I have a lot to learn.

In 2019, I graduated from UCLA with my BA in sociology. I didn’t know what to expect in terms of employment, but I was sorely disappointed when I still found myself unemployed nearly two years later. The job applications had become fruitless exercises that I forced myself to complete weekly, and the rare interview that I did manage to get seemed like nothing more than a tease by the time the Zoom call was ending.

Of course, the Covid pandemic was a huge reason that everything came to a standstill for part of that time, but as the country began to reopen, there was nothing more frustrating than to hear things like, “There are so many jobs, and nobody wants to work.” Well I did, and whatever I was doing to achieve that goal needed to change, because my stubborn determination was slowly but surely turning into a bitter disconnect in the process.

Ever heard the saying “It’s not what you know but who you know?” It’s quite true.

I had dismally failed when it came to tapping into the only thing that keeps us from ending up on these self-made islands of hopelessness: the people around us. It was the missing piece to this dreary puzzle.

On a whim, I began looking for opportunities to talk to anyone about my situation. And why not? I had wasted so much time trying it on my own that, at this point, I was willing to put messages in bottles just to have conversations with someone other than myself!

That’s when I came across Career Launch and the Perkins School for the Blind.

The Career Launch program promised to teach blind and visually impaired adults the skills and the training for employment in the spectrum of customer service. This included industries such as retail, human resources, health and technology, and even the medical field.

More important to me, however, was the notion that someone that answered my call, and was offering to walk with me through the process of finding the meaningful employment that I had been searching for since graduating from UCLA.

It was better than I could have ever imagined. During the intensive eight-week program, I learned everything from Google Suite and lessons on the fundamentals in business, to improv lessons and job simulations to help me be as prepared as humanly possible, and know how to proceed when the right opportunity came along.

It had been a long time since I had felt that kind of support outside of my home. Every step of the way, every lesson felt like music to my soul, and just what I needed to find the confidence that had been eluding me.

Now, I am happy to report that I have found a job that I love. I learned a lot about myself these last two years – undoubtedly the most important being that we can’t do everything alone.

Career Launch is offered through a residential program and a virtual program. The next session of the virtual program will begin this fall. There’s also a Business tech bootcamp. The next Business tech bootcamp takes place this summer. Learn more about all the Career Launch options by visiting the website or contacting Perkins.

Anthony Melina is a graduate of Perkins School for the Blind’s Career Launch.

Important Tips to Landing an Internship: How to Outshine the Competition

February 3, 2022/in Jennifer Fonseca, News

You know you are unique. You know you are qualified. And, you also know you need an internship! But how can you set yourself apart from the thousands of other college students who are also applying for summer and fall internships? Below are some tips to help you as you prepare for interviewing.

Know Thyself
The first thing I suggest students do is think about three things they want to make sure the interviewer knows about them before the interview concludes. These might be personal traits, or perhaps an accomplishment. This could be something like they ran a marathon. While not related to a professional internship, running demonstrates transferable skills like dedication, commitment, and perseverance—all qualities employers are looking for, and not something many candidates have probably ever done. Identifying in advance what you want the interviewer to know about you not only helps you feel more in control of the interview, it also allows you to showcase what makes you distinct from other candidates.

Know The Company, The Position, The Interviewers
This is something many students forget to do, but it is vital to outshining the competition. With what is widely available on the internet there is no reason why a student can’t find valuable information to demonstrate their knowledge of the company and industry. I strongly recommend students not only familiarize themselves with the organization’s website (mission, culture, clients), but also source news articles, both in favor and opposition of the company. Additionally, find reviews by employees or even potential interview questions on sites like Indeed or Glassdoor. Lastly, Linkedin is a great site to look up information about both the company and employees who have LI profiles. One recent candidate learned through LI that one of her interviewers enjoyed dancing as a hobby, so she made sure to mention that in her interview. That may just have been the thing that got her to the second round!

Practice, Practice, Practice
The research actually suggests a minimum of five mock interviews to sufficiently prepare a candidate. The STAR Interview Method is what we use in our mock interview sessions. STAR is an acronym for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Skilled interviewers ask behavioral based questions which ask a candidate about past experiences to determine future performance. These types of questions generally begin with “Tell me about a time when,” or “Describe a time that you. . . .” The STAR Method helps students to brainstorm in advance the answers to these types of questions, while allowing them to provide succinct and specific examples that show tangible results. Using the marathon example, one could identify several behavioral based questions that the marathon could be an answer to, such as: “Tell me about a time you overcame an obstacle?” “What would you say are some of your strengths?” Or “Describe a time when you had to manage your time well.” Once the questions are identified, writing out one’s STAR answers will help them shine like a star in the interview.

While many individuals are nervous before and during an interview, following these three tips will help one to feel more confident and prepared. You may not be the only star in the room, you just need to shine more brightly than the others; these tips will help you do just that!

Bonus tips: If interviewing over video, create a nice backdrop/background. If the video interview is recorded make sure to smile and respond enthusiastically. Watching monotone recorded videos is sure to put the reviewer to sleep, so display controlled enthusiasm.

Jennifer Fonseca, M.Ed., is Assistant Director of Career Development at Palm Beach Atlantic University, a core grantee partner of the Johnson Scholarship Foundation.

Looking Closer: Raising Expectations of People with Disabilities Helps Us All Move Forward

July 5, 2019/in Carol Glazer, News

This item originally appeared on the Campaign for Disability Employment’s blog.

It is not unusual for waiters and waitresses to look only briefly at my son Jacob before turning to ask me what he would like to eat. With a shrug, I almost always say the same thing: Ask him.

Jacob, 26, has apparent physical and cognitive disabilities. His arms sometimes hang awkwardly, and his eyes can wander. His speech isn’t always fluid. To many, it is the appearance of someone lacking agency—someone who needs help. It’s an appearance that belies a keen sense of observation, strong personal desires and a quick wit. Jacob knows what he wants. Ask, and he’ll tell you.

When meeting him, even people who interact regularly with people with disabilities tend to speak at enhanced volumes and reduced speeds. When this happens, Jacob will ask them why, and, ironically, check that they are okay (his emotional intelligence and sense of humor have always outpaced those of others his age). These exchanges are mostly innocuous and even funny, if not a bit awkward for the would-be do-gooders. But they reveal a worrisome truth about our society.

The term “stigma” is often used in the context of discrimination. And although stigma is certainly problematic, it is not always actively pernicious. Those waiters are not avoiding Jacob to be insulting. They are trying to spare him embarrassment — and perhaps themselves some discomfort. But in doing so, they rob him of his voice and his volition. For whom is that good?

Society has certain expectations of people: expectations of education, of employment, of contributions to the common good. But, for totally outdated and cynical reasons, those expectations do not typically extend to those with disabilities, especially when it comes to work. Rather, it’s seen as a miracle that they get out of bed in the morning.

Smart people — and smart businesses — do not subscribe to this tyranny of low expectations, however. Rather, they know that including people from all walks of life, with different perspectives and experiences, is the key to success. People with disabilities are above all problem solvers; in the workplace, this translates into innovative thinking. It’s no coincidence that businesses that excel at disability inclusion — for instance, those recognized as National Organization on Disability (NOD) Leading Disability Employers™ — are among the nation’s, and in fact world’s, most successful organizations.

As president of NOD, I have the privilege of working with these companies, as well as those at different points in their disability inclusion journeys. Those more towards the beginning often have the same question: What kinds of jobs can people with disabilities do?

There are more than 50 million Americans with disabilities in the United States today, constituting a remarkably diverse group that includes people with Autism, asthma and arthritis, as well as cancer, depression, dyslexia and myriad other conditions. They are black and white, young and old; they live in Brooklyn, San Francisco and Iowa City. No two people have the same talents or interests — regardless of disability status. So, what kind of jobs can people with disabilities do? Any jobs that people can do.

The frequency with which this question is asked was a significant driver for NOD in launching the Look Closer campaign, as well as joining the Campaign for Disability Employment. Through these initiatives, we are working to recast Americans with disabilities as a capable, untapped workforce, with new terminology and new archetypes. The key is sharing their stories. Some of the individuals featured in our Look Closer campaign are low-skilled, hourly workers. Others are senior managers and C-level leaders. In almost every case, the individual’s disability played either no role in their career whatsoever or created competitive advantages. It turns out, disability has very little to do with ability.

So, have people with disabilities failed to exceed the low bar set for them? Or has society failed to set the bar high enough? It’s time for us all to look closer at our beliefs, expectations, and yes, our stereotypes.

Carol Glazer is president of the National Organization on Disability. For more information about the Look Closer campaign and how individuals and employers can get involved, visit nod.org/lookcloser.

Creating Career Pathways at Mount Allison University

January 11, 2019/in Anne Comfort, News

Life had thrown him another curve ball! He had always bounced back, had worked through them and make it out the other side. This time it was different. The circumstances seemed to be beyond his control. He was tired and ready to give up. By the time he came to my office, he was not going to write his last exam that would qualify him for graduation. He had studied for five years, had contributed to university athletics, had given of his time to help first-year students. But he was done! This setback was more than he could imagine overcoming. He was ready to throw it all away. He didn’t care anymore and didn’t have the energy to go on.

Two women at a desk looking at a laptop screen

Then came along a professor who believed in him and she had an opportunity to help: a unique internship with an organization where she knew he could shine and be valued. But she needed funding to make it happen. When we dug into every pot of funding we had left, we came up short. The professor persevered; she wasn’t going to give up on him and neither were we.

Our fundraising office had an idea. Find a philanthropist who would be interested in funding an internship for a student with a disability. The philanthropist loved the idea and those few dollars were life-changing. The Johnson Scholarship Foundation (JSF) Pathways Program was developed to have three components: pre-orientation programing, pre-graduation programing, and professional development and experiential learning opportunities in between, in the form of internships designated for Meighen Centre students.

Teacher speaking with a student in an office

My student completed his degree requirements and was awarded his bachelor’s degree. He is now onto his second job and doing something he would never have imagined doing three or four years ago. His sights are set on graduate school where he can further his skills. That’s the power of philanthropy and the JSF Pathways Program at Mount Allison University.

Anne Comfort is the Director of Accessibility and Student Wellness at Mount Allison University. She is also the co-chair of the CACUSS (Canadian Association of College and University Student Services) Community of Practice on Inclusion and Accessibility.

Cracks in ‘Talent Pipeline’ Pose Risks for Employers, College Students With Disabilities

October 27, 2017/in Carol Glazer, News

The following previously appeared in the Huffington Post and has been reprinted with permission.

As the leader of a national organization focused on employment for people with disabilities, I routinely have the privilege of visiting places that are doing some remarkable work to advance the issue. My travels of late took me to two notable college campuses: Edinboro University, just outside of Erie, Pennsylvania, which has committed to excellence in accommodations for students with disabilities; and Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in upstate New York, which has dedicated itself to helping students with disabilities access jobs upon graduation, better ensuring their long-term economic security.

Frankly, America’s colleges and universities would do well to examine what RIT and other leaders in career services are doing right, because many, if not most, are getting it wrong. Nationally, students with disabilities take twice as long to secure a job after graduation. And of the 1.4 million college students with disabilities, about 60-percent of them can expect to not find a job when they graduate. Talk about a harsh dose of reality for young people who simply want to contribute.

When I talk with employers, which is just about every day, they tell me their inability to hire new graduates with disabilities is not due to a lack of qualified candidates, but rather a lack of access. We at the National Organization on Disability decided to take a closer look at this issue recently, which resulted in a white paper titled Bridging the Employment Gap for Students with Disabilities.

Our research, along with guidance from partners such as Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities and the National Association of Colleges and Employers, resulted in a series of recommendations that colleges and universities can take right now. Chief among them, and it’s one that RIT is executing quite well, is better coordination and communication between each school’s career services and disability offices, which respectively have access to “disability-friendly” employers and job seekers with disabilities. It may seem simple, yet so few schools get this right. At RIT, students engaged in this new model of information sharing report excellent results, with all early participants obtaining employment.

A closer look at this issue reveals that, while as a nation, we have become increasingly proficient at creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities in entry-level positions, employers have yet to build a robust talent pipeline for professional positions. This is a particularly pressing problem for employers looking for candidates with STEM backgrounds. One would think our institutions of higher education would be the ideal place to fill up that pipeline.

However, most professional-level jobs require not only a college degree, but frequently up to five years of work experience. This is a Catch 22 for the majority of all college-educated jobseekers, not just jobseekers with disabilities. But what we’re learning is that these experience requirements may be overly restrictive and are inadvertently screening out graduates with disabilities that could perform well in professional jobs with the right training.

This was underscored in a new study from the Association of American Colleges and Universities, in which employers evaluated students in skill areas such as being innovative, solving complex problems and working with others. Employers did not rank college grads highly in those key categories. Yet, talk with a person who has navigated the streets in a wheelchair for ten years or dealt with the medical establishment on a daily basis, and you’ll find a job candidate who excels in all three areas. Employers should reexamine requirements that might be unnecessarily restrictive – particularly federal contractors who must now seek to satisfy new federal disability employment targets – and potentially gain new sources of inventive and resourceful talent.

This summer, our nation will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the ADA. We have taken tremendous strides forward in improving access to employment for people with disabilities. But if we cannot solve the issue of how to connect talented young people with disabilities to meaningful employment, we will have not only wasted an historic opportunity to close this seemingly intractable employment gap, but we will yet again be wasting the talents of people who have much to contribute and deserve the opportunity to participate in the American Dream.