|
Priming women for job hunt: Event lends help with applications, interviews, etiquette
(Arizona Daily Star, The (Tucson) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Oct. 23--One year removed from rock bottom, Michelle Richardson has a new apartment, is cancer free and ready to re-enter the work force for the first time in years.
And she points to one critical day in explaining how she turned her life around.
Richardson, a 36-year-old single mother of two, by chance joined a group of women from the Giving Tree Outreach Program headed to the annual Women Empowering Employment workshop last October.
"What this place offered for me was every avenue I needed to return to the work force," Richardson said, returning to the annual event last Thursday as a success story.
The annual event brings in hundreds of women looking for help finding jobs, pairing them with woman business owners who act as mentors, giving personal advice on building a resume, dressing for success, business etiquette, interviewing, networking, budgeting, the job search and marketing yourself.
Richardson hadn't worked since 1999 and was fighting cancer, struggling to stretch her disability income far enough to keep a roof over herself and her daughters. They went motel to motel for a while last year, but her situation took a turn for the worse when summer came.
Richardson sent her daughters, now 9 and 13, on vacation with their grandparents and spent a short time sleeping in parks, panhandling and washing in fast-food bathrooms. She contacted the Giving Tree and started volunteering. Then she joined Giving Tree Director Libby Wright and others for the workshop.
"She piled in all of us girls, with no self-esteem, some recovering from drugs and broken relationships, and brought us down here not knowing what to expect," she said.
"What Empowering Women did for me was give a pedestal or a foundation to stand on," she said. "It's perfect for people who are looking for a future. It gave me a light at the end of the tunnel."
Women Empowering Employment is the signature event for the local chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, said MJ Jensen, owner of IdeaMagic Marketing & Promotions and one of the workshop's organizers.
"This is NAWBO's commitment to our community and making a difference," Jensen said. "It's not about giving handouts, it's about people getting good skills and being able to do something with it."
This year's event drew more than 300 women -- and even a few men -- to Pima Community College's Downtown Campus. About 25 NAWBO members volunteered as coaches, helping to enhance women's skill for the job search.
"These are the people who've been through it and they can give them applicable skills," Jensen said.
Workshop participants included primarily referrals from social agencies and Pima students, covering a range of ages, from teens to women in their 80s. Also included are free clothing and makeovers.
"When you leave this place, you have an outfit and shoes that fit, a professional outfit, and you can present yourself and know you're worth something," said Richardson, who returned as a coach and advocate for the program.
With her acute lymphocytic leukemia in full remission for two months, Richardson has a doctor's release to return to work. She has an associate's degree but is shy of her bachelor's degree, with experience doing nails and day care, as well as past jobs in call centers and administrative work. She's interested in a job in social work, helping women with low self-esteem and domestic-violence survivors.
"I have a different aura about myself. I'm much more confident, much more determined," she said.
Michelle Pimentel, another participant in this year's workshop, went to the event looking for a boost in her job search. About to re-enter the work force after years as a homemaker, Pimentel, 49, is studying at Pima to be an accounting assistant. She'll finish school in December and is looking to start interviewing soon for jobs.
"Job hunting has changed so much," she said. "It used to be you could look in the paper, and it's a completely different game now with applications online and in different formats."
Coaches donated their time to show the women the extent of what's possible for them in the work force.
Jackie McGuire, a commercial loan officer with Canyon Community Bank, mentored participants in budgeting.
Nearly everyone she worked with Thursday thought their expenses exceeded their income, but McGuire was able to show in all cases but one it's the opposite.
"I've really done something with myself, and I felt I could share that with people," said McGuire, who went to Pima and the University of Arizona. "I've been in the same situation these girls have been in."
On the Web: www.nawbo tucson.org
--Contact reporter Eric Swedlund at 573-4115 or at eswedlund@azstarnet.com.
Copyright (c) 2006, The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
INDUSTRIES
Activate Email 
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
