Lecture # 515:
Assistance to Find Work

copyright 2008 Cheryl K. Hosken, BSN, MS Psych.

Using the Client Assessment
How do we know what jobs our clients can do? We look at the assessment that we have of his work history, education, and the limitations he has now. For example, if a young man has lost a hand, he probably will not return to work as a carpenter. It is possible, but not likely. Therefore, we need to look for a job for him within the background that he has. Perhaps he could be a salesman of building supplies. If he chooses this job, we need to find out what the requirements of that job are and if they match the experience and work of our client. If not, we need to help him choose other alternatives.

One alternative may be education in a different type of work. (We will discuss this option later.) If education is an alternative, we need to be sure that he has the ability to go to technical college or university and that his choice is in accordance with his interests. If he likes building, perhaps he could attend schooling in architectural planning. If he does not have an interest in architecture, he may have other interests and can learn a new profession. If more education is not an option for him, that is, he does not like studying, please do not try to force him into getting more education. He will not agree with YOUR PLAN and likely fail. If he does agree to further schooling, he must choose the course. You cannot force him to be someone he does not want to be.

How will you know what to do with this person? You must ask God for wisdom. If he will not go to school, then he needs to find work that suits him. Maybe the job you help him find is not what he wants to do for the rest of his life, but the job will help him to earn money and when he is ready, he can find other work. People's lives are not static; people grow and learn new skills even when they are adults. Therefore, even though a job may not be perfect, it may be the one job your client can do until he learns new skills.

Meditate Word By Word On These Verses:
Eccl. 5:18-20.

Since society in the modern world is changing rapidly, a person may have two or three jobs or more in his lifetime. The average person in the U.S. will have five to six different jobs in his lifetime. They may all be related to one main vocation, but life is changeable and with changes, come different jobs. As you serach for a job or education for someone, it is important to note the job trends in your country.

Look in the newspaper and think about the advertisements for jobs that you see. Are they for professional work? If so, what type? What education or experience is necessary? What is the salary? What non-professional jobs are advertised? What types are they and what preparation is needed to do the job? At the present time, it seems that managers of sales are needed as well as lawyers and bookkeepers. These are professional jobs. The non-professional jobs are those associated with distribution of goods - drivers, factory workers that produce goods, delivery personnel, and salesmen.

How do you know the duties of the job? You must talk with the employer and ask enough detailed questions about the job. For example, if your client is going to drive a truck to deliver goods, it is also wise to find out if he needs to remove the goods from the truck when he delivers them. If he can lift only 10 pounds, he may not be able to do that job. He may work at the job for a while and may re-injure himself. If your client searches for a job by himself, be sure that he asks the detailed questions.

1. Where do you find out information about jobs available in your region or city?
(One or more of the following answers may be correct.)
a) newspapers,
b) radio news reports,
c) friends and relatives.

Job Finding Assistance
We can encourage our clients to use traditional job finding methods - looking in the papers, watching television ads, or contacting many employers. However, these methods are usually not the most effective way to find a job. Often, a person's social contacts are one of the best ways to find a job. How often have you heard the story of a person who found work through a friend? It happens often. It is important for the disabled person who wants to work to maintain his contacts with friends and relatives who are employed because these contacts help him in finding work. The rehabilitation worker also needs social contacts to obtain information about job vacancies.

Churches
Churches often help with the rehabilitation of their own members. The injured person should find comfort and acceptance in the church. He needs to also find work when he is healed. Perhaps one of the church members can hire him or other church members offer information about work through their contacts.

Organizations
There are several organizations in Moscow that help handicapped persons. For example, there is a factory for blind people. This organization not only helps the blind, but has provided work for other handicapped people to deliver goods or do errands. These jobs are not often what a person wants to do for a lifetime, but they offer him experience and a job reference when he seeks other work. He can tell a new employer that he has work experience after his injury and the new employer can call the organization for information about the work habits of this potential new employee.

Radio, Television, and Newspapers
Certain stations on radio and television give time to announce job opportunities. The announcements should provide details about the qualifications of the worker needed and how to find the work place. A newspaper may also write a short story about a person who needs work so that businesses in the community can get information about him his need for work.

Local Offices of the Government
In Moscow, each region has an office where a person can obtain information about himself and the jobs that might be available to him. As with most government offices, the information may be old or the job already taken, but the client needs to make himself known to the office. There may be a chance that work is available.

Friends and Family
The individual who uses a variety of job searching methods has a better chance of finding a job. When friends and family help, a person who is seeking a non-professional job, has the most success. It is also effective for business and management positions. There is an informal job information network in almost every business or work situation. Persons in this network often have early knowledge of job openings and can pass this information to their unemployed acquaintances. Once a person is employed in this way, he can give the person who gave him the job information some reward. If a disabled person is cut off from these contacts, he has a more difficult time finding a job. Therefore, the disabled person needs his friends and family!

Former Employers
Perhaps our disabled person cannot return to his old job. However, if his former employer liked him, that employer may give him contacts in related businesses where the disabled can work. If his former employer has the ability to hire the disabled person back in his company, there is a higher rate of satisfaction in his work and pay. Sometimes a former employer is concerned for the client's well-being and will hire him back - especially if the client was injured at his company.

Volunteer Position
Volunteer work can be used as a way of finding job leads. A person volunteers his time for a period of months to find out if he likes the job. He gains experience, makes contacts with in the organization or company, and if a job opening occurs, he usually is the first one considered for a full-time position. Often, new graduates of universities try this approach, especially in Moscow where there are many international companies and large Russian companies.

The person who takes time to develop contacts has a better chance of finding work than a person who sits at home, becoming despondent about not having a job.

2. What is one of the most effective ways to look for jobs?
(Only one of the following answers is correct.)
a) ask your local office of employment for work,
b) maintain contacts with family and friends who are working,
c) read the newspapers.

Community Job Information
The role of the rehabilitation counselor who helps a person search for work is to help the client know where to look for a job. Sources of job information are varied. The counselor must be aware of reliable sources and encourage the client to use them.

Business Reports
Information on business, new industrial locations, expansion of existing compnaies, and trends that indicate the probability of jobs can be found in industrial reports, newspapers, and surveys. Construction of new factories, stores, gas stations, and building renovations are indications of potential job openings. Employers should be contacted about possible jobs before construction is completed.

Training Organizations
Colleges, universities, technical trade schools and vocational schools have employee contact and placement programs. They are a source of information about who may be hiring workers. Sometimes it is difficult to contact the person who organizes employment in these facilities, however, you may call the proper person and make an appointment to see him/her to explain what you are dong and why you are doing it. During the first interview, it is not wise to have a specific client in mind; you are trying to establish a relationship that might be helpful in the future.

Public Employment Service
These offices usually provide special testing, counseling, and placement services for handicapped people as the law demands. However, often the jobs they have listed are part-time, for limited time, or the type of work where people cannot tolerate for a long period of time. If there are part-time jobs available, one of them may be good for the person who is gradually returning to work. If he is able to cope with a part-time job for a number of months, he may be ready to work full time.

Government Service
It may be possible that a handicapped person can work for a government office. As mandated by law, a person, even if handicapped, cannot be denied a position if he has the qualifications for the job opening.

Newspaper Advertisements
Local newspaper ads are not usually good sources for most employment opportunities, but they should not be disregarded. One has to be careful of misleading advertisements. The rule is that if the job sounds too good to be true - it is probably a false ad and should not be pursued.

3. Why is a part-time job sometimes good for a handicapped person?
(Only one of the following answers is correct.)
a) it gives him time to gradually adjust to a work schedule,
b) it satisfies the requirements of the law for handicapped persons,
c) it is not as boring as a full time job.

Employer Selection
To find a job vacancy is an important step, but for our clients to get chosen for a job is more important. The process and formality of choosing an employee varies with employers and the type of job that is being offered. Large companies usually have personnel managers, interviewers, and industrial physicians who help with choosing an employee. In small companies, a manager may choose a new employee and an office clerk fills out the necessary paperwork. Medical examinations, contact with former employers, and other references may not be needed for temporary or low-level jobs. The particular method of selection of a person is affected by many factors - the size of the company, community attitudes, kind of work, and the demand for work.

Training for Interviews
Most employers decide whether or not to hire a person in the first 5 minutes of a 15-minute interview. If a negative impression is gained, this impression remains 90% of the time and the applicant is not hired. If the first impression is positive, the applicant is hired 75% of the time. Job applicants must appear ready to work, have confidence in their abilities, and present their skills and knowledge in the very first part of an interview. The problem of a disability needs to be mentioned early in the interview as well.

Good preparation for job interviews can eliminate problems. A client who thoroughly knows what he can do can answer with confidence. There maybe problem questions, that the client needs to prepare for answering. Using good information and doing some practice helps them answer well. Therefore, when you help some one, you will need to practice roles with him - you are the interviewer and he is the job applicant.

4. What helps a person answer interview questions well?
(Only one of the following answers is correct.)
a) knowing the type of job he is applying for,
b) not giving a negative impression,
c) knowing his skills and answering with confidence.

Appearance and Mannerisms
Appropriate appearance and mannerisms often help the client feel more comfortable during a job interview. The type of dress for an interview depends on the type of job and expectations of the interviewer. An applicant should wear clothing that is similar to the type of job he wants. For example, a machinist (sets up and repairs factory machinery) should dress like other machinists in the company where he wants to work. This helps the interviewer visualize the applicant working at the job.

Neatness and cleanness are essential. Employers often regard the overall appearance of applicants as an indication of their competency. If a person has problems with looking neat and clean, you may want to use a mirror to reflect the changes he has made in his appearance. For example, he may come to you with uncombed hair. You can show him his image in the mirror, then have him comb the hair and again show him the difference in appearance. Oftentimes, a positive reinforcement, statement such as, "You certainly look nice today", will help the person maintain his good appearance. Good grooming is a daily effort.

5. Why is a neat appearance important in an interview?
(Only one of the following answers is correct.)
a) neatness means orderliness,
b) neatness means attention to detail,
c) neatness means competency.

A Model Interview
This is a role-playing technique that illustrates interview behavior. It may be actually two people talking in an interview situation or a video film. One plays the perspective employer and the other is the perspective worker. The client/clients can ask questions after the interview is over in a group discussion. The counselor can ask the clients questions about the appearance of the applicant, his ability to answer questions, and his poise. Eventually, the whole group begins to participate in the discussion and the term "interview" can lose some of its frightening connotations.

A Mock (Pretend) Interview for the Person Seeking a Job
Usually in this interview, the counselor pays the role of the employer and asks the client questions. There are some fundamental questions that are asked:

1. What job are you applying for?
2. How did you hear about this job?
3. Why did you leave your last job?
4. How did you do in school?
5. What makes you think you can do this job?
6. Do you like working with other people?
7. Why should I hire you?
8. How much money do you expect to make while working on this job?
9. Tell me about yourself.
10. Have you ever been unemployed?

This interview lasts for about 5 minutes and focuses on the job the person applies for. The "clients" may have trouble answering questions, but this interviewing is to help them. If they answer inadequately, the interviewer can pause after an inadequate question. This will mean that the client needs to expand his answer.

Through such an interview, the client becomes aware of the problems he might have in an interview situation. They will feel uncomfortable because they made some mistakes in the interview. However, the counselor needs to point out the positive behaviors of the client to give him confidence about himself and his skills.

When clients explain their skills, it is the most important task of the interview. Past work experience, related experience, training, aptitudes, and hobbies are areas of information the client needs to use. All of the assets he has should be written down.

After the asset information has been gathered, the client thinks about his skills and you write sentences with him that explain his assets. These statements should be learned so that he can say them in an interview. Clients must be able to answer the question, "Why should we hire you?" by referring to their own assets and skills that are relevant to the job. In describing work skills, the machines and technical terms for a certain job need to be used.

A counselor can help a person remember a skill by saying, "That is a skill you should mention in an interview. Now can you say something about this skill in a sentence form? Say it as if I am the employer." As each asset is identified, it needs to be written down in a sentence. Now the counselor can role-play as an employer and the person can answer using his asset sentences.

Match the word with its definition below:
A. Model Interview,   B. Assets,   C. Mock Interview,   D. Interview.

6. The sum of the client's work experience, aptitudes, training and other information such as hobbies.
A, B, C, D.

7. An interview that shows a client the standard practice of an interview. It is a role-play.
A, B, C, D.

8. A meeting with an employer regarding a job and if the requirements of the job can be filled by the interviewee.
A, B, C, D.

9. A practice interview for the client who is searching for a job. It is a role-play between the client and the counselor.
A, B, C, D.