Module 1: Getting to Know the Job Seeker
Introduction
The position of coach is very rewarding. If you enjoy serving other people and making a real difference in someone’s life, then this is the right job for you! As a job coach you will meet many extraordinary individuals and get to know them on a personal and professional level. The goal of the job coach is to serve individuals with disabilities by assisting them in choosing a job to apply for, help prepare them for the interview and help them maintain employment. You will be training the individual through the entire employment process from learning what kind of job they want, to professionalism in the workplace. Prior to placing an individual in a job, you will want to take time to get to know the job seeker first. To set the job seeker up for success, it is necessary to learn the individual’s strengths, their interests and what is important to the individual in their new role as an employee. With this information you can search for a job that is the best match for the individual.
First, it is important to get to know the individual’s strengths, interests and passions.
To be successful in any job, the employee should enjoy the work he/she is doing. The first step to employment is for the job seeker to ask themselves essential questions about the job they are seeking. As the job coach you can assist in this process by asking questions about the interests, values, strengths, and possible challenges of the job seeker.
- Does the individual prefer a quiet atmosphere or someplace with a lot of activity?
- Does the individual spend time with family and friends?
- What challenges has the individual faced in the past?
As you are learning more about the individual, you can share information about yourself too. This creates a casual atmosphere, in which the individual can relax and discuss their answers while building a spirit of collaboration, which will be very helpful once the individual is placed in a job. The answers to questions such as those above can give you a clear picture of what jobs might be a good fit for the job seeker.
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Then, discover what tasks/skills the individual enjoys doing. Once you have learned more about the job seeker on a personal level, then you can steer the conversation into learning more about the professional interests of the individual. For example, what kind of work do they enjoy doing; something that involves clerical duties in an office, or do they like to work with their hands in a garden? You will also need to learn what skills or previous experience the individual possesses. Has the job seeker volunteered anywhere, if so, what duties did they perform? Last, it is a good idea to get to know about the individual’s career goals. What vision do they have for their future job? What does a day at work look like to them? This information will guide which jobs will be of interest to the job seeker and which jobs can be avoided.
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What do you want to accomplish?
- Understand the individual's preferences and get feedback from them about what they want in a job or career. As you put your talents and instincts into finding a great opportunity for employment for the job seeker, keep in mind that the individual knows more about themselves than anyone else. Make sure you clearly understand the individual’s preferences for where they want to work and what kinds of tasks they want to perform. Find out what the individual wants in a job, and why they want to be employed.
- Identify employment themes. What are the tasks or skills that the individual will complete in the job? What type of company culture would the individual thrive in? The frustration of being mismatched to a job may cause feelings of failure. Ultimately, your goal is to help the job seeker find the right job for them, the first time.
What are effective strategies?
- Conduct an informational interview with the person—just a conversation to develop a relationship. It can be intimidating trying to get to know a new person; this is true for both the job seeker and the job coach. Keeping the conversation light and casual will help to reduce anxiety and calm nerves for each of you.
- Spend time in the individual's community and talk to their support system. Talk to parents, guardians, and teachers to learn more about the individual, like how they learn best, what accommodations are successful for them, and what the individual's personal passions and motivations are.
- Have the individual complete situational assessments. Three, three-hour assessments is best practice. You can observe the individual across multiple settings to determine what tasks the individual excels in as well as identify the areas the individual will need support. Each assessment should be observed in a variety of settings. You may need to identify multiple business partners in the community to allow the job seeker to complete pre-determined tasks under the observation of the job coach for a few hours.
TIP: The “Getting to Know the Job Seeker” portion of the pre-employment process is going to take time. The time you spend with a job seeker will vary depending on the unique needs of each individual. Plan on spending a total of 40-60 hours over the course of approximately 2 months with the individual, support team and business partners to gather all the facts you need. This may sound like a lot of time, but if you use this time wisely to build a solid foundation of understanding and mutual respect, it will save you a considerable amount of time down the road.
Examples of packaging and conveying information
As you are doing research and gathering information on the job seeker, it may be helpful to organize your findings. Building a profile on the job seeker can help you store all the information in one place while keeping you on track.
One great way to visualize the information about the job seeker is to create a vision board. Imagine Pinterest that is geared only towards the individual’s career goals. There are many free vision boards online or you and the job seeker can get creative with poster boards and magazine pictures. Not only is the vision board a helpful tool, but creating one together gives you and the job seeker time to bond.
You will be spending a considerable amount of time recording information about the job seeker. You can save yourself some time by utilizing a resume template to input some of the information you will eventually be sharing with prospective employers. This is another activity to complete with the job seeker. Filling out a resume template together ensures that you age recording the information you need while the job seeker is learning a new skill. Learning to write a resume is a skill the individual will be able to use again in the future.
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An informational interview is a question-and-answer conversation between the job seeker and a professional currently holding a position in the job seeker’s career interest. For example, if the job seeker said he/she was interested in learning about careers in animation, the informational interview would allow the job seeker to speak to an animator to learn about careers in the industry. The information should include median income level, education requirements, typical hours, and essential job duties. The job seeker may not know enough about the career to know what questions to ask. Therefore, the job coach can help prepare a list of questions. The aim of the informational interview is to obtain enough information about the job so the job seeker can determine if it is a career worth pursuing. |
The situational assessment form found on Forging New Careers: Ready. Set. Go! is an observation tool to help the job coach identify how an individual completes a task or set of tasks. The job coach will take note of the areas that went well, areas that will need support and how an individual behaves on the job.
Once an individual completes a set of tasks on location at a worksite, the individual can complete a self-assessment known as the Job Observation Assessment Form. The individual can reflect on the worksite, the job duties and the people (co-workers). The job seeker completes this form with their own opinions.
Conclusion
As you can see, the “Getting to Know the Job Seeker” phase of the pre-employment process is a collaboration between the job seeker, job coach, families, and other support team members. It should be an exciting and engaging process for everyone involved. There are many tools to help you support the individual as they learn more about themselves and the job they will ultimately decide upon. Keep your notes organized and build a profile on the job seeker. If you put in the time and effort during this phase of the process, you and the job seeker will reap the benefits of a smooth transition to employment.