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April 26, 2005

Summary for April: Creating a Level Recruiting Field

We have all received some outstanding observations through the comments of participants on eSight’s "Swimming in the Mainstream" (SiM) blog during April.

The topic: dealing with disadvantages in employment opportunities due to disability.

I've selected some snippets from that conversation to illustrate four issues job candidates with a disability often face in seeking employment in the mainstream job market.

"‘Swimming in the Mainstream’ Insight: Creating a Level Recruiting Field" details those four issues.

In that article, you’ll see that those four issues, although formidable, are not insurmountable.

This new article in eSight’s Employer Resources section illustrates these three benefits you gain by joining the discussion on eSight’s SiM blog:

You grow personally and help other eSight members find meaningful work.

You generate insights which can be transformed into employer resources, such as this week’s featured article.

You fully tap the Internet for showcasing your career accomplishments in a rapidly growing network.

We will e-mail this week’s new Employer Resources article to our extensive outreach e-mail list, which includes a wide range of employers.

Note that this week’s featured article includes links to the offering statements of the eSight SiM blog participants it quotes.

You can also gain immediate visibility for yourself under this ongoing eSight networking initiative by submitting a two-sentence "offering statement" which describes what you can do for a potential employer.

Also read the offering statements others have posted.

If you have further thoughts to add to the discussion capped by "‘Swimming in the Mainstream’ Insight: Creating a Level Recruiting Field," please do so here.

Posted by Jim Hasse at 03:22 PM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2005

Managing a Job Interview

On this blog last week, our discussion generated at least four ways to help shift the attention of a hiring manager away from our disability to how we can contribute to a company’s success. Those "attention shifters" include:

Let me show where these four tactics are mentioned here on the SiM blog.

Barney, for instance, says:

"The disability has simply created additional issues to be resolved to prove my capability. There are several ways to provide the hiring manager with knowledge of my competency and skills:

"It is about what I can do, not what I cannot do. No one is hired for what they cannot do; the focus must be on how I can contribute, which means the hiring manager must focus on me, as a person -- not my disability."

Peter, on the other hand, takes a different slant:

Each of these tactics is not easy but may be well worth cultivating. They have one thing in common: They put us in the driver’s seat because we’re managing the job interview instead of dodging the real questions the hiring manager probably has – but is not asking – about our disability.

Your personal experience may have generated additional ways of managing a job interview. So, our discussion question this week is this:

What measures have you used to help a job interviewer focus on how you can contribute to a company’s success instead of just your disability?

Posted by Jim Hasse at 06:26 PM | Comments (3)

April 12, 2005

Competing in the Mainstream Job Market

"Although perhaps unfair, I also feel strongly that a disabled applicant has to be a topnotch applicant to be considered at all. You need to be able to provide specific examples that show you can do the job despite your disability."

Those are the words of a hiring manager who has recently completed a series of job interviews for two open jobs in his company.

eSight’s Nan Hawthorne interviewed him for this week’s new article in Career Management resources.

See Nan Hawthorne’s "eSight Interview: What a Hiring Manager Says He Seeks in a Job Candidate."

Then reply to this week’s discussion topic:

How would you show a hiring manager that you have the skills required to do the job despite your disability?

Posted by Jim Hasse at 05:27 PM | Comments (7)

April 05, 2005

Breaking Away From an Employment Disadvantage

Cindy, an eSight member, writes:

"No one will give me a chance.

"I have been blind for 10 years. During that time, I have gone to community college and was on the Dean's list the entire time.

"After graduation, I was self-employed as a medical transcriptionist (MT) until modern technology took over. The doctors now use templates.

"I have been trying to find employment for a number of months (18 months) with no avail. I live in a small town in Virginia. I have great deal of knowledge in the medical field because I worked (sighted) in a hospital for 21 years.

"All the jobs I have applied for at a hospital need vision -- even those as a MT. They say, with budget cuts, there is no one who can read for me or even put a chart away for me.

"If I could find something to do at home, I would be happy. I even applied to an organization (international technology) as a customer service representative, and they said my software (JAWS) was not compatible with their software. I am at a loss.

"If people would realize blind people can work, too, it would be a miracle. This would help with the current problems we’re having with Social Security.

"I want to work, but what do I do about my situation?"

I invite you to post your advice for Cindy in eSight's Member Net.

Also read what advice Cindy has received from others.

I may know a bit about how Cindy is probably feeling. I graduated from college in the mid 60s. The job market was good, and my classmates were getting good jobs in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. But, after long months of sending out resumes and taking civil service exams to qualify for state government jobs, I was becoming discouraged –- and aware, for the first time, of how difficult it was to break into mainstream employment as a job seeker with cerebral palsy.

Finally, through a referral from my uncle, I got a "let’s-see-how-you-work-out" job in rural Wisconsin at about half the salary my college classmates were receiving as they entered the job market. My employer: a new but soon-to-be-growing dairy company from which I desperately tried to escape during the first five years but where I became a vice president, through luck and hard work, 20 years later.

For a peek at my first day of employment as a green college grad, take a look at a true story from my book, "Break Out: Finding Freedom When You Don't Quite Fit the Mold."

Cindy’s predicament and my naivete bring us to our discussion question for this week on eSight’s "Swimming in the Mainstream" blog:

When have you felt at a disadvantage in terms of employment due to your disability? What were the circumstances? What did you do about it?


Posted by Jim Hasse at 06:05 PM | Comments (6)