[Nfbv-announce] What You Missed at the 2015 Career/Employment Workshop

[Tracy Soforenko]

The Career/Employment Break Out at the 2015 NFB of Virginia Convention  was
a great success. Facilitated by Jeremy Grandstaff and guided by our team of
presenters and 12 facilitators, Jeremy has compiled information from all our
facilitators and prepared the following document as an output from this
session. 

 

Melody Roane and I want to thank everyone who participated in this session
and hope that everyone can benefit from the good work of this talented team.

 

Tracy Soforenko and Melody Roane


 


NFBV-Career Development W    workshop—Summary and Raw Outputs


Facilitated by: Jeremy Grandstaff <http://linkedin.com/in/jeremygrandstaff>
, Organization and collaboration Consultant, S  <http://www.sgendeavors.com>
& G Endeavors, Ltd.


 

Introduction: On October 31, over sixty people gathered at the National
Federation of the Blind of Virginia <http://www.nfb.org>  State Convention
to:

1.     Learn from others;

2.     share their stories; and,

3.       Together, create solutions and action that will position
participants for career success.

Their overall purpose: to provide participants with the confidence,
knowledge, skills, and techniques to achieve their career goals

The following document recaps the collaborative career development workshop
by highlighting what happened and capturing the raw outputs from the
discussion. Links to audio recordings of the panel, panel Q&A, and
report-outs from small group discussions will be available in December 2015.

 


Panel –Transforming your approach-Growing Your Career Potential


Activity Introduction: With the purpose of bringing a fresh perspective,
story, and wisdom to participants, four panelists shared tips that could
help participants rethink how they could transform their careers moving
forward. After the panel, the participants broke into small groups to
process their reactions to the knowledge shared by the panel and to identify
those questions of understanding that would help get the panelists to share
more wisdom. The panelists included:

·         Fredric Schroeder, Ph.D., First Vice President, World Blind Union
and Immediate Past President, NFB of Virginia 

·         Michael Kasey, President, NFB of Virginia

·         Althea Pittman, President, Eastern Shore Chapter and Executive
Director, Eastern Shore Center for Independent Living

·         Corbb O’Connor, Business Growth & Communications Consultant,
O'Consulting Group

 

The raw outputs from the break-out discussions are captured below.

 


What did we hear? (We will have all heard different things)


·         Blind skills are important,

·         Networking, social media.

·         Discrimination will occur 

·         Timing is everything.

·         And be able to deal with that.

·         Need a positive attitude.

·         Social media networking updating skills.

·         Very positive. Especially importance of good training; importance
of addressing one’s blindness

·         Really liked the presentations. 

·         Want even more on networking and how to tap the NFB

·         Dignity at work

·         Find People

·         Positive on personal and social media

·         People are told to be bold.  Use Social Networks to get the word
out about blind people.  People have experienced discrimination need to keep
trying.  

·         People need to have proper training.  

 


What are our reactions to what we heard? (Because we all heard different
things, our reactions may be different as well).


·         Inspiration.

·         Frustration with discrimination.

·         No matter what stage of life you are in you will experience some
of the same discrimination.

·         I have bad skills and need to go to a training center to improve
my skills. I need to get more involved with the National Federation of the
Blind here in Virginia. 

·         Important to network and reach out to others

·         Will face discrimination. What matters is how you react to that
discrimination.

·         The NFB believes in me when others might not. 

·         Grateful for others to work to overcome societies injustices, but
not sure of our role in that process

·         Only takes effort to communicate

·         Create  your message and presence on social media

·         Don’t portray the wrong message

·         Can tell the people who are blind. No picture in their profile.  

·         Don’t take no from someone who does not have the authority to say
yes.

·         One participant indicated that they did not have problems getting
a job. This person expressed surprise in hearing about discrimination.  

·         Anger at hearing about people being rejected.  

·         Networking is now a requirement.  Many jobs are not advertised. 

 


What questions of understanding do we have and for whom? Each group was able
to ask at least one question)


·         When you have multiple disabilities how do you advocate and move
forward?

·         What is the right time to decide what it is you want to do?

·         How much information do we share on social networking?

·         Give us good resources on how to create good profile

·         Social media with Corbb

·         did you have a mentor and how did you find this mentor?—Althea

·         Corbb – What are the significances of using LinkedIn, when one is
not looking for a job?

·         Corbb – What would be a good LinkedIn post versus a post on
Facebook or Twitter?

·         Althea – What else did you hear from the contacts you made in
addition to the encouragement they gave you to get you in?

·         Fred – How do you help someone who is 45ish and has had a lifetime
of low expectations and self-esteem get to a better point in life?

·         What tips can people come up with as to how to convince others
that we are good job candidates?  How can we sell ourselves?

 


Small group break-out Discussions—Digging Deeper and Taking It to the Next
Level


Activity Introduction: After the panel, the room was divided into small
group break-out discussions around a variety of predetermined topics.
Participants were encouraged to self-select the topic that was most
important to them, creating an opportunity for participants to explore
personal challenges, collaborate to build solutions, and identify strategies
for success in particular areas.

Each small group was encourage to dig deeper around their topic area,
specifically brainstorming the challenges faced, choosing two challenges to
discuss, and identifying solutions to the prioritized challenges. At the end
of this activity, each group shared the highlights of their discussion with
the whole group.

The following section recaps the raw outputs from each group’s discussion. 

 

 


Topic: Refreshing your blindness skills.


 


Brainstormed challenges


·         Have no idea how to cook.

·         Technology

·         Reading braille too slowly.

·         Dealing with quick changing of technology.

·         Just lost vision recently and needs help.

·         Learning mobility in new areas.

 


Challenge Discussed: Full blindness training.


·         Wherever you are in your blindness journey, getting training on
blindness skills is okay.

·         If you have specific skills you need to work on there are many
places to get that training.

·         Most importantly is to talk with your NFB family to find how to
get what training you need.

 


Topic: Deciding to go back to work


 


Brainstormed challenges


·         Blindness skills

·         Process of finding jobs

·         Where do I go to open Locational Rehabilitation Case?

·         What do I do about the age barrier?

 


Challenge Discussed: blindness skills


NFB training center to obtain the correct skills to be successful.

 


Challenged discussed: Process of finding skills


NFB training center to help with finding jobs.

 


Challenge discussed: Where do I go to open Locational Rehabilitation Case?


Open the case at your local Locational Rehabilitation Office. 

 


Challenge discussed: What do I do about the age barrier?


Join other groups dealing with age. 

 


Topic: How to not be the token blind person


 


Brainstormed challenges


·         Being treated as special. 

·         don't feel challenged

·         Employers and coworkers assume you are incapable.

·         you are a demographic

 


Challenged discussed: Finding a way out of the “token blind person” spot


We decided that because one of us was in a "token blind person" position in
his office, we would find a solution to that. As the person described his
situation, it sounded like a no win situation and we unanimously decided
that the best method of not being token in a situation where you are blocked
on all sides is to research other employment options. Having options
empowers us.

 

Other potential solutions that can be considered are:

·         open dialogue

·         find other employment

·         Make yourself unique to the employer.

·         build a relationship

 


Topic: Employers’ Expectations and How You Present Yourself


 


Brainstormed Challenges


·         One’s boss uninterested in challenges and techniques used by
employee—wondered if the boss should “walk in the blind employee’s
moccasins” to see how the job would be performed. The boss didn’t seem to
have any interest in how the job would be performed by a blind employee.
Just expected the job to be done. 

·         Boss loaded the employee with extra duties without promotion.
Since the employee didn’t have a degree and broader career options
elsewhere, the boss simply loaded on work with no career advancement.

 


Discussed Challenge: Uninterested Boss:


For the uninterested boss, get more personal.  Some ideas included:

·         Getting to know about his or her interests, family, or outside
activities in order to engage him in conversation.  

·         Maybe invite him or her out for lunch or some other social event.

·         Volunteer for opportunities at the office that show you can
contribute more than others expect. Ideas included holiday parties, the
combined federal campaign, special committees or other tasks that take you
out of just doing the day job. For example, volunteer to attend a
conference, travel to the conference, take notes, and present back to the
team after the conference.

 


Topic: Networking


 


Brainstormed Challenges


·         How to network

·         How to work a room

·         How to have confidence when you can’t read others body language

 


Discussed Challenge: How to network


·         Use all resources possible, Social media, friends, family, past
co-workers

·         Make sure you do all necessary research on company, job, and tasks

·         Have a good resume and personal references at hand

 


Discussed Challenge: How to work a room


·         If possible, have someone describe the layout of the room, where
tables, objects, and people are.

·         Walk around, don’t just stand there.  Listen to where people are
and head towards them.

·         Don’t be afraid to ask someone where the person you are looking
for is. 

·         Don’t just yell out a name

·         Learn to identify voices

 


Topic: Obstacles in the workplace


Highlights from the discussion


Employer is not willing to allow the instillation of Screen Enlarging
Software (Zoom text).  The individual has a copy of the software that can be
placed on a workstation at no cost to the employer, but employer has refused
to do this.  Solution:  Increased advocacy by the NFB.  (Dr.  Fred Schroeder
is working with this person, and I have shared with him this discussion with
the permission of the individual.)  There were no other challenges
identified.  

 


Topic: Overcoming the No Experience, No Job, Catch 22


 


Brainstormed Challenges


·         Lack of opportunity 

·         How to get employer to feel comfortable

·         Sometimes they will not let you volunteer either

·         Too low the bar

·         Sometimes age discrimination

·         Especially employment gaps

·         Cant demonstrate ability

·         Jobs are low level beneath abilities

·         Feeling of rejection

 


Challenges Discussed—Solutions include:


·         Bring recommendation letters from anyone who knows you well

·         Bring work samples 

·         May have samples of work on the phone or easily available

·         Do free volunteering

·         Prepare answers for questions

·         Be a mentor at the he workplace

·         Get a mentor at the work place

·         Network with everyone

·         When feeling rejected talk to other blind people

·         Relax 

·         Keep moving and trying

 


Topic: Interviewing with Confidence


 


Brainstormed Challenges


·         Interviewing information

·         When to bring up the pink elephant of blindness in the interview.

·         How do you get nerves under control so that you don't sound
nervous in an interview, but you convey confidence.  I get nervous about
what questions they'll ask.  How do you prepare for an interview and then
you get asked something you didn't expect.

·         Dealing with how uncomfortable blindness can make people feel;
they don't know how to direct you; they're nervous about how to help you.  

·         As an employer, my struggle is how to hire best fit not just the
most qualified because of hr. policies. 

·         Overcoming that I’m not just friendly person, but am also
qualified.

 


Challenge Discussed: Dealing with being nervous during an interview.


·         Get experience.  

·         Capability profile: where you list your capabilities not just your
experience which is on a resumé; don't show it to them beforehand; they'll
look at it and it has headings like administration.  Corbb will share an
example with us.

·         Everybody is different; some rehearse before interviews; don't
think everyone else is great about interviews and I'm not

·         ask what can I do to get that edge off

·         get friend to rehearse interviews.

 

Challenge discussed: Pink elephant

·         when to bring up blindness.

·         Bring it up at beginning.  

·         During questions, you can add in how you dealt with situation as a
blind person.  Use behavioral questions to segue into talking about
blindness. 

·         Go with the flow if it is a topic that people understand blind
people can do; if they will be astonished, then raise blindness.  If you are
applying for a job in same department, you might not bring up blindness.
>From a sighted person's perspective, should I ask people who will be
interviewing with us if they need accommodations? 

·         If blindness is not brought up in the interview, the sighted
person will be wondering about it; they won't ask.  If you don’t bring it
up, I'll be distracted about it.  

·         It's important that the blind person initiate the discussion about
blindness.  

·         The blind person needs to anticipate equipment they may need to
bring to an interview to do things that may be asked in the interview.  

·         If you are an employer you can put something on the application or
interview invite, (for instance, if writing on a whiteboard is part of the
interview and it presents a challenge, let us know and we can accommodate.) 

 

 

Tracy Soforenko

 

Tracy.soforenko at gmail.com

202 285-4595