2013-10-22-Insights on Employment 2
Seminars@Hadley
Insights on Employment: Part Two
Presented by
David DeNotaris – National Council of State Agencies for the Blind
Moderated by
Larry Muffet
October 22, 2013
Larry Muffet
Welcome to Seminars at Hadley, my name is Larry Muffet, I’m a member of Hadley seminars team and I also work in curricular affairs. In recognition of national disability awareness month today’s seminar topic is Insights on Employment part two. Our presenter again today is David DeNotaris. David is president of the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind and director of the Pennsylvania office of Vocational Rehabilitations Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services. Today David will be talking with some employment success stories and these individuals will share their insights on how they got hired and promoted, the challenges they had to overcome, and they’ll also share some strategies for success. Without any further due let me welcome David and turn the microphone over to him, David, good evening.
David DeNotaris
Good evening Larry it is absolutely a privilege and a pleasure to be back with you and I would like to thank everyone, Chuck Young, and everyone at Hadley and Colleen for coming on the call tonight and making this possible. I’m just really grateful and I wanted to say thank you Larry.
Larry Muffet
You’re most welcome and thank you so much for being a part of this and putting it all together. This has been an awesome series and I’m looking forward to what we’re talking about tonight.
David DeNotaris
Absolutely. We’re very excited about tonight and our guests. Tonight we have Joe Strechay, and Joe is the program manager at AFB’s career connect and when I think of Joe I think of the quote, “Nothing great was ever accomplished without enthusiasm.” The energy and the enthusiasm that Joe brings to his job and the customers he works with and the trainings he delivers are truly inspiring. Joe, I am just so glad that you’re able to join us.
Joe Strechay
David, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
David DeNotaris
So Joe you’re the program manager for career connect, what is career connect?
Joe Strechay
Career Connect is a career exploration, job seeking skills, navigating the employment process, and e-mentoring website. It’s a part of the American Foundation for the Blind’s family of websites. It provides information that will help guide people through the process. It’s aimed at teens and adults who are blind or visually impaired and the professionals who work with them. We’re very enthusiastic about all the tools and resources within the website. Just check it out, it’s something great to review and it can provide insight that most people don’t think about.
David DeNotaris
Wow Joe so your job, is it, it’s all over the country right? It’s a national job or do you just work in one area?
Joe Strechay
It’s national and even international, 10% of our users are outside the United States. I’m actually here in San Francisco today, I’m actually in San Francisco University’s library doing this webinar. I guess two days ago I was in New York and yesterday I was in North Carolina. I’m bouncing around the country tying to provide resources and tools and training to professionals, teens, and adults.
David DeNotaris
Wow Joe, so you do a lot of traveling. Joe let’s back up a little bit. Tell the listeners just about Joe Strechay and where Joe’s come from.
Joe
I’m a person who is blind or visually impaired. I have no vision in my left eye, my right eye has very little. I can make out some shapes and light and depending on the contrast maybe a little more but not much. I’m originally from New Jersey, I grew up there, got services through the State of New Jersey. I went through my undergraduate at East Carolina University in North Carolina and my graduate work at Florida State University in Tallahassee Florida. I’ve worked in different areas of our field through the years. I really enjoyed getting to know different areas and meeting a lot of people. I’ve had a lot of mentors, I would say I’m a product of mentoring, that’s why I’m so passionate about the work I do. Two of my jobs over the past years have been offered through mentors who worked with me, including the one at the American Foundation for the Blind.
David DeNotaris
Wow that’s really interesting. Tell me about the first job you ever had.
Joe
That’s an interesting question. The first job I ever had was working in a video store where basically it was where I learned about the work ethic. I probably learned it a little earlier but my work in the video store was cleaning, shelves, we had frames and pictures and stuff, it was also a photo lab so I also had to bring things back and forth. I had to clean machines, stock shelves to a point, and also do whatever the owners asked of. I worked there about four years part time while in high school. Prior to that I actually had started my own business, truthfully, when I was in 7th grade I had started off by selling candy and gum. Legally I had registered my business and bought through a distributor and then also sports cards were…as I made more money I moved on to the sports cards.
David DeNotaris
Wow so it sounds to me Joe that you turned a hobby into a job in which I think is super cool to do what you love and the money will come. Joe, you worked for somebody else and you talked about a work ethic. What does that mean to you?
Joe
That’s something that I think most of us learn over the years. We learn the whole relationship of working for someone, the efforts that…there’s a difference between paid employment and volunteer work. Both are excellent opportunities and we learn a lot from both but the relationship, when you’re paid an hourly wage or a salary, is totally different. I learned the idea that during those hours I had to be working hard. If I wasn’t, if it got slow I had to have a number of activities that I had to step into and complete. I made sure I was always working and moving and I think you mentioned enthusiasm. I think that’s a big part of it. I think no matter what job I’ve ever been in, I’ve been enthusiastic about the work I’ve done.
David DeNotaris
It shows, the last four letters of the word enthusiasm, I, A, S, M. I am sold myself, I am sold myself that I can do the job, I am sold myself that I’m a hard worker. I am sold myself on my self-discipline. Tell me though, did you ever encounter any resistance because you had a visual impairment? Did you have to explain yourself? Tell me about that.
Joe
That’s a great question, I definitely have. On multiple occasions I have experienced challenges and explaining about my disability and my visual impairment. I know an employer out of college came up, I started out in public relations, sports marketing and PR. The organization did not pay attention that I was blind or visually impaired, although their employees really knew. They asked me to go out and drive and go get coffee in an area without great public transportation. I said, “Is it possible I could find a cab or maybe I can get assistance from one of the other employees to go get it? You remember…” I guess he didn’t truly realize the amount of my vision loss at that point. I didn’t do a great job at that point of explaining it obviously. I made others aware but obviously the message didn’t get to the top. In other situations, my whole life is based around being able to explain and talk about my disability. I think that’s one of the most important things that youth or persons who are blind or visually impaired can learn is that self-awareness, being able to talk about their visual impairment but also include their accomplishments and the things they have done and can do.
David DeNotaris
Absolutely. So working with Career Connect, you must have the good pleasure of meeting all kinds of people who are doing all kinds of different cool jobs, can you tell us about some of the different jobs and some of the interesting fields that people are working in?
Joe
Yeah I can. There are all kinds of people working and all kinds of jobs. I’ve met people that repair buses in Los Angeles. I’ve met people who are, I know a professional body builder who is visually impaired. I know an amazing carpenter and a person who remodels homes who is totally blind in the state of Maine. There are people all over the country doing all kinds of jobs, mechanics in Florida, people that are lawyers, judges, CEOs, people that are working maintenance in hospitals, pretty much if you can think of a job besides airline pilot or taxi driver I can help you find that person who’s blind or visually impaired doing that job.
David DeNotaris
Joe I want to ask you, when you were talking I was thinking, what’s the word…I’m going to share a word with you and I wonder what definition you’d give to this word or meaning you’d give to this word. The word is expectations.
Joe
I think we have to have higher expectations of ourselves. We have to push ourselves past our competition. We have to be better than others and be able to explain how we will do the job better than others. You explain the strategies we’re going to use to do a job. HR and the gatekeepers, human resources persons still have the same questions they had years ago. Can a person who is blind or visually impaired do the job and also how are they going to get there and get around that place? They have to explain how they navigate the workplace environment, how they’re going to get to work. These questions aren’t asked of most other persons applying for jobs. We have to exceed the expectations of people and explain any generalizations that are made should be dismissed.
David DeNotaris
Joe tell us about your family supports, tell us about that as you were growing up and currently.
Joe
I’ve had an amazing…I’ve been really lucky and blessed with a great family. My mom is a blind and she was visually impaired, lost her vision later in life, later than me. I was legally blind at 19, she was legally blind in her 40s. She went back to school during her vision loss to be a paralegal and retired as a paralegal a few years ago in the state of New Jersey. I’ve had amazing parents and brothers who have supported me and continue to support me. We support each other truthfully, as a family. We’re all interdependent. I don’t believe people are independent. I believe they’re interdependent pretty much unless they’re living out in the woods by themselves.
David DeNotaris
Tell us about the technology you use to get the job done.
Joe
I use a whole slew of different types of technology. I use a screen reading software to access information presented on a screen, I use an Apple IPhone with the built in accessibility. I’m extremely grateful to that tool, I use a number of the apps. Within my iPhone I use a money identifier app, I use Tap Tap C which is an app that helps me figure out what simple things are like when I’m staying in a hotel like shampoo, conditioner, I take a picture of the label and it reads back to me or the voice over the synthesized speech from the app allows me to know what that product is. I use a scanner back in our office to scan documents and stuff and to put it into my preferred format of text. I use all kinds of other little techniques and strategies that I was taught from professionals, working for vocational rehabilitation and also for community rehab providers.
David DeNotaris
You spoke before about a topic I really love, you talked about mentors. Tell me about some of the advice that your mentors gave you that really helped you.
Joe
I’ve had some amazing mentors. I have mentors who are blind or visually impaired and mentors who are not blind or visually impaired. I have mentors who have mentored me specific to employment and mentors related to my living independently or interdependently as a person who is blind or visually impaired. They provided advice, all kinds of advice. Advice regarding technology, employment, how to address employers, how to build your career. I have a slew of mentors that I utilize around the country, some of the advice is always to dress the part. Perception is reality. What people perceive of you is their reality of who you are. You have to present the right image obviously.
David DeNotaris
Yes, very cool. I used to know a minister and he would say, “Dave you dress like a million bucks and people will treat you right.” I like that advice. Just dress for success, dress to impress. Joe, can you tell me some career advice? Listening in or individuals who are interested in finding a job or maybe they’re between jobs or maybe they’ve never had a job. What advice would you give to the job seekers out there right now?
Joe
I love that. I’m quite passionate about it. I think there is a number of things I would tell them. Self-awareness, knowing who you are, knowing your strengths and weaknesses. We all have weaknesses, having action plan, goals and objectives, objectives, how they’re going to improve those weaknesses and enhance their strengths. Also never giving up. Reaching out to the community, utilizing community, volunteering, spreading their network. Giving themselves in the community, you build contacts that way. Look for opportunities to volunteer and relate the volunteer work around your career interests. Also, reach out and do occupational interviews, reach out to people in professional networks specific to that field or job and you’ll build tremendous contacts that will open up doors. Always be positive. People hit a lot of rough times at different points in their life and they have to overcome that, they have to stay positive. People who are positive have a higher tendency of succeeding. I was reading a study that related to a program out of Washington D.C. that was talking about positive attitude goes a long way.
David DeNotaris
I couldn’t agree with you more Joe. It’s our attitude not our aptitude that will determine our altitude. Having a positive attitude, believing in yourself is so crucial. Joe, when you were talking before, we were talking about your mentors, you were also talking about volunteering. I wrote that down. I love to take notes; you can’t just think you have to ink it. Leonardo di Vinci said, “A bunch of drops of ink will really help me think.” I like the thought that a bunch of little dots helps me remember lots, I like to take a lot of notes. One of the things I wrote down was the word volunteer. You can’t spell volunteer without “u” in it. I know that when I was 21 years old I had graduated college, I was not working for probably six months and I didn’t know I was discouraged. My sister said, “You know I think maybe you should help and start volunteering with some blindness groups.” I started volunteering with the National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey. They said, “Hey we’re putting on an employment seminar.” I said, “I’m not employed myself so I’m really not the right guy to help set it up.” “Well why don’t you help work to set it up, work with the commission for the blind who will work with other blind people who will work with some employers, get to know employers.” That’s where I learned how to write a press release. You have to write a press release for the event, how do you write a press release? This was before Google so you better go to the library and have your reader lookup how to write a press release and sample press releases. I wrote a press release and I started sending it out and I started talking to employers and I got a phone call from the press release from this gentleman, his name is Jerry Gannon. He said, “I’m attending the event and I’m looking for someone to do some job placement for us. Do you think you’d be interested in that?” I never would have met Jerry, I never would have gotten my first job if I didn’t just start volunteering. It’s all under the theory leap and the net will appear. Joe, back to volunteering, can you speak to volunteering and the importance of volunteering as part of a career and job search?
Joe
I can definitely, that was a great story David. Volunteer work experience is the #2 predictor to work, #1 is paid employment or prior work experience. #2 is volunteer work experience or volunteering. It’s tremendous, it opens your contacts, it helps you create a network, you’re giving back, you’re also portraying yourself in a different manner to the community. Often the portrayal of persons with disabilities is not linked to working or even volunteering, the face that you’re out in the community volunteering it gets people thinking differently. It gives you the opportunity to prove yourself, your work ethic. It gives you so many different opportunities. It really is an amazing thing even after employment, people should continue to make an effort to volunteer in their community. I make a strong effort in my community to volunteer as well. I can’t tell you enough that we all have a responsibility to give back.