Networking Forum: January 2006 Archives

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January 30, 2006

How Do We Enroll People We Know in Our Job Search?

By and large, over the past several decades, the unemployment rate among people with disabilities has remained at a general constant (roughly at the level of 70 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor).

This is true in spite of:

Passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 being on the books for decades.
Continual rise in activism among members of the disability community who organize to speak for themselves.
Enhanced policies that encourage employment through work incentives that enable folks to decrease dependence on long-term government assistance.
Broad-based efforts to change attitudes about people with disabilities both through internal efforts to empower fellow people with disabilities to raise expectations of themselves and through public education campaigns that increase meaningful awareness among the overall population at large.

Given this state of affairs, it may be fair to ask: Do the true solutions to lowering the unemployment rate lie in changing the paradigms that govern how we (individually and collectively) view the world?

The old assertions are all too familiar and, for some (but by no means all), may serve as a justification for an absence of career initiation or advancement.

"I can't get a job because I'm discriminated against," I have heard.

"I would work but, if I do, I will lose my SSI, and it's just not worth it," is another comment I hear frequently.

"I would apply for different positions, but I just don't like the descriptions of the jobs that are out there, and I don't know where to start," is also a common thought.

To me, the most tragic way of thinking I once heard was, "Yes, I was offered the job that I applied for, but I changed my mind, because I don't want to fail at the job, so it's better that I just don't take it right now."

It is important for job-seekers to realize that, in addition to working diligently to identify opportunities for which one is qualified, equally important is the need to work consistently and on a daily basis to persist. Hours per day must be devoted to prospecting for various career possibilities, and it must be done in an organized and disciplined way and without simply giving up after a few tries or resigning oneself to thinking that there is no hope.

For any of us, we will ultimately get what we expect. If we expect much, we will achieve much. If we expect little or nothing, little or nothing is exactly what we will receive.

I have yet to find someone with a passionate and intense go-getter attitude who does not, in the final analysis, prove to be a success. That is because, in spite of any obstacles that may be faced on a short-term basis, success-minded individuals keep at it and strive to make changes for the better, consequently attracting to themselves success-oriented individuals and identifying real ways to move ahead in a concrete and substantive way that enables achievement to become a true, living, ongoing and ever-increasing reality.

I hope our discussion yields several things:

What you believe to have been the barriers to your success in the past and, more importantly, what specifically you have done either to tear those barriers down or otherwise move around them, over them, under them, or through them.
Some specific examples of when you practically gave up all hope but yet ended up attaining success simply because you persisted even when you did not think you could.
Key lessons you have learned based on your own life's experiences within your efforts to forge your own career path.
Key things you now want to know in order to take your proactive job-hunting to a whole new level.

Whatever we come up with on this forum, of utmost importance and priceless value is a fundamentally positive philosophy about blindness and/or visual impairment. We have nothing to be ashamed of simply because our visual acuity is less than those who are legally sighted. We need not think of our abilities as being less than others simply due to the degree to which we are able physically to see.

Whether we acquired our visual disability at birth or at some point later in life, we need not let this bar us from doing great things with our lives and, more particularly, from becoming employed in our chosen areas of interest.

During February, please use this opportunity to share with us your greatest insights with the goal of focusing on solutions to existing situations rather than simply to posing a question without any potential answers as you strive to think through specific situations.

Together, we, as a team, can come up with suggestions that may be of help to you at a real-world level.

Within this forum, we have individuals with the kind of dedication, knowledge, skill, know-how, and insight that can lead the way for empowering ourselves to do better, to endeavor more creatively, and to achieve feats beyond our wildest imagination!

Within this framework of taking personal responsibility for gaining meaningful employment, please consider this discussion question:

What information about your job search do you need to give people you know so they can help you uncover the job that's right for you?

Olegario "Ollie" D. Cantos VII, Esq.
Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General
Civil Rights Division
U.S. Department of Justice

See my biography.

Disclaimer: My role at the Department of Justice is that of enforcement of existing law -- not changing existing laws or policies. I neither advocate nor oppose specific policies or practices.

Posted by Ollie at 11:29 AM | Comments (8)

January 24, 2006

Ready to Reach Out

Last week, during our final discussion on eSight's "Swimming in the Mainstream" blog you had the opportunity to reply to this question:

As a job seeker, how can you best help prospective employers to appreciate your abilities, understand your potential and recognize you as the problem solver they want to hire?

Thanks for all of your replies. You basically said, "Be ready to reach out."

Here are three comments which echoed that theme.

Liz recommended:

"…Build a network of all kinds of friends and colleagues; get out in the world. Meet all kinds of different people, not just stick to the same type of friends and neighbors you've always had. No one says you have to like all of them or they have to like you, but you'll 'get people smart.' That will help you with your self-esteem and self-confidence. If you're at ease in most situations, you will exude that to your employer, other colleagues, people you come in contact with…"

Barney wrote:

"…We are looking for allies and, if we look long enough, we will find them. They are the ones who will benefit from our talents, skills and abilities…"

Kerry admitted:

"…I was given the opportunity to develop my own braille transcription business. It has taught me a lot about myself and my own abilities. It has taught me to step outside of myself to deal with customers and business people and find creative ways to get paid for a job well done…"

Those comments remind me of a poem by Robert Muller, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations. In "Decide to Network," he explains how networking can lead to a richer life.

His poem reads, in part:

Notice that, to be ready to reach out, you need to know what you can offer others.

"When you are aware of your top values, you have a foundation from which to relate to yourself and others," write Donna Fisher and Sandy Vilas in their book, "Power Networking: 59 Secrets for Personal and Professional Success."

After a long struggle, I've discovered what I value: An opportunity to help us see how much we are alike so we can appreciate our differences.

eSight operates on the philosophy that, as people who are visually impaired or otherwise disabled forge relationships with one another in their quest for meaningful work and economic independence, they will find the solutions they seek in each other.

That's why I feel lucky to be a part of eSight. We have the same focus. We value networking. eSight's newest opportunity for interactivity among its members stems from that networking value.

Please take this opportunity to help us launch the new eSight Networking Forum: Your Link to Meaningful Work. Just post your reply to this question:

What strength do you believe you offer others in a networking situation?

Your reply will help set the stage for next week's inaugural of the eSight Networking Forum by guest blogger Olegario "Ollie" D. Cantos VII, Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Posted by Jim Hasse at 03:45 PM | Comments (10)