Mission Statement

This is a blog about reentry into society for persons released from prison and the many difficulties and barriers they face. The writings contained in this blog come from personal experience and they are intended to put out information from the real life adventures I have come up against with navigating my reentry into society. The blog welcomes submissions from anyone who is or has gone through reentry after prison as well as from any authorities, organizations, etc. with information that would be help for prisoners with their reentry to society after incarceration.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Job interviews

By Steve Gordon

I have not updated much lately being involved in many things as winter and the holiday season approaches. I have had two job interviews in the past week which is a break through of sorts because getting to talk to a real person about a job is not commonplace these days. Companies prefer to screen applicants using email and Internet applications.

It must be a massive job to go through hundreds...thousands of applications and resumes. I really do understand that from a HR point of view. On the other hand from the job seekers perspective, it takes the human touch and the ability to sell ones self away such that the best qualified person may not be the person getting the job. How wonderful it is to shake hands with a computer key board and say hello and how are you and then sit down and talk? The one with the prettiest or most impressive resume could get the tap on the shoulder, but they may not be the best person for the job.

Here is where the Pennsylvania Career Link comes into play, for me anyway. They have a 3-day resume writing program with the Bucks County Opportunity Council. At first I thought what can be so interesting about three 1 1/2 hour sessions taking about writing a resume. I was surprised and having done it I recommend it even to persons who do not have a long job history.

My new resume? I love it. I can't say that it got me the two interviews, but I can't say that it didn't. I believe it did however. Even as it includes my extensive work history as the old resume did, it is all about presentation. You actually can sell a piece of yourself on paper (or electronically if you will) with a resume. I am ready to take on a new program now, Ace the Interview.

About my interviews now. One was with Bottom Dollar Food, a new grocery chain moving into the SE Pennsylvania area. To be honest I can't remember how I made initial contact. It was either online or by a newspaper classified listing. It doesn't matter really because I got an interview.

HR people from BDF set up shop in a conference room at a local hotel and conducted generic interviews for all positions for a new store expected to open soon. After filling out some paperwork the interview was a series of questions read from a paper. I suppose they were in someones mind relevant, but it was very mechanical if you get my drift.

Yes, I get that it was a screening process, but while there was human contact it was still very sterile. To be honest I am not sure I put my best foot forward in that situation. That is not to say I tanked the interview, I just think it could have gone better, or differently. I am waiting for a call back telephone call but my mindset is to hope for the best and expect less. It would be a job I have the ability to perform so I hope the interviewer saw that through the interrogation.

The second interview was at an Old Country Buffet by their management company. While the interviewer quipped, "Welcome to the table of hell" as we walked to the interview booth, it was far from that. Rick was personable and friendly and very real. It was late afternoon and I think I was his last interview of a long day. It turned out I was only the second qualified person he spoke to with another day of interview to follow. The unfortunate part for me was that the other person was much more qualified in one important area of experience.

Not to lose hope however, because there are various OCB locations in the area and the interviewer spoke of one opportunity that was potentially only months from opening up. Even with that one hole in my work experience, there is a chance I could eventually land a good position and get back to work. Remember, hope for the best.

I have not mentioned the ex-offender and age issues. With BDF the interviewer did not know if the company had an ex-offender barrier or policy. You would think a properly trained HR person would be aware. As I explained how my experience would translate into retail grocery sales the age issue did not surface. In the interview with OCB we talked about both and neither seemed to be a major barrier.

It is good to know that some companies in corporate America are not so paranoid as to exclude qualified individuals based on such things. I have been quick to jump on corporate America and all the proposed job plans the politicians espoused about during the recent elections. I am still waiting to see where all these jobs are going to come from to put people back to work, so I have not let corporate America off the hook. I just want to say that the management company for OCB seems to be more open minded than some. There is a huge valuable resource of work experience in ex-offenders and at some point somebody is going to have to recognize that and tap into it.

May the best person get the job is all I ask.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

The ultimate insult

By Steve Gordon

In the newspaper there was an announcement for a job fair at the Career Link office in Bucks County. An unnamed sanitation company was hiring 40 people. I called my counselor and veterans representative about this and the reply was short and simple just as this post will be. As an ex-offender I am not qualified to ride the back of a garbage truck and dump trash cans. I am a bit surprised the Career Link, who some have said is trying to work with ex-offenders, permitted this in their own offices. If I knew anything about the law I think maybe legal action would be appropriate, but that would be falling into the litigious society mentality we live in.

The positive news of the day was I got a phone call to set up an interview with Bottom Dollar and a local bakery I applied to also phoned today. Could this be the result of my revamped resume courtesy of the Resume Writing program at the Career Link?

The interview is Dec. 11th so stay in touch for the outcome on that. I returned the phone call to the bakery but did not get a call back. I will call them tomorrow. Could I go from no job to two job offers to choose from? Now that would be a trip?