[rehab] Job Seeker Seminar, Job Fair, and Employment Committee meeting

[Dick Davis]

Hi,



I’d like to thank everyone who participated in this year’s Job Seeker
Seminar and Job Fair at the NFB Convention.  Approximately 85 people
attended the Job Fair.  This was “back to basics” year, and we worked with
attendees no the fundamentals of career preparation and job seeking
skills.  Many thanks to Employment Committee member Robert Leslie Newman
for coordinating the Job Seeker Seminar.  I would also like to thank
Committee members Bethel Murphy, Brenda Mosby, Dave Hyde, David Tichhi,
Fatos Floyd, and volunteer Susan Clark for their work.  For the first time,
we had a breakout session, which seemed to go very well, so that will no
doubt be a feature of future seminars.  The breakout presenters and
attendees felt the time spent was worthwhile.  One of the attendees set up
a LinkedIn account for himself and discovered that there is a reference
letter feature on it, so he immediately asked me to do one for him.  To be
honest, I had not known about that feature.  Since a number of employers
check LinkedIn before hiring a person, having letters of reference on it
seems like a great idea.  The one hour walk through of the newly accessible
Monster.com by Ilya Shubik was also well received.



Well over 200 attended the Job Seeker Seminar, where 14 employers were
present.  The room was literally mobbed for the first two hours of the Job
Fair and one employer even ran out of business cards, brochures, and had to
borrow a pen because hers ran out of ink.  Every employer brought away
stacks of resumes.  We had fourteen employers present: Benetech, Cleveland
Sight Center Call Center, Hadley School for the Blind, Industries for the
Blind, Inc., Minnesota State Services for the Blind, National Statler
Center/Olmstead Center for Sight, New Mexico Commission for the Blind, all
three NFB training centers – BLIND, Inc., the Colorado Center for the
Blind, and the Louisiana Center for the Blind, Perkins School for the
Blind, the Piano Technology Group, SSB BART Group, the U.S. Coast Guard,
Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired, and World Services
for the Blind.  Many thanks to Suzanne Turner, committee member and Job
Fair coordinator, and the people from the Cleveland Sight Center who held
practice sessions for those needing to polish their interviewing skills.
Based on the huge response from job seekers and employers in this first
year, I think we will need to double the size of the room next year to
accommodate the crowd.



I am sorry to report that the file we created of job fair attendees became
corrupted and was unusable.  We intended to get feedback from all the
attendees through a followup survey, but that is now impossible, so I am
asking people who went to the Job Fair to give me some feedback by
e-mailing me at ddavis at blindinc.org.  We will still be able to send
feedback forms to the employers, as we have all their contact information.



The Employment Committee meeting had around 30 attendees.  This year it was
more loosely structured than in the past, but we had presentations from
Mississippi State University, the Cleveland Sight Center, Minnesota State
Services for the Blind, Robert Leslie Newman of the Writer’s Division on
Where The Blind Work, Clovernook, and other organizations and individuals.
There were also jobseekers who wanted to talk about what they could bring
to an employer.  I think I have mentioned everyone, but if I did not,
please accept my apologies.



All in all, it was a great convention for NFB jobseekers.  If anyone has
suggestions for  how we can  do things even better next year, please send
them to me at ddavis at blindinc.org.



Dick Davis, Chair

NFB Employment Committee