Author: 
Jessiemarie Voigt, MPH
Former LEND Trainee, University of Arizona
Supported Employment Specialist
I spend
my days traveling all corners of Louisville to meet clients in day programs and
employers in busy offices and warehouses. I help people with disabilities find and keep
employment or in other words, I help
quality employers find qualified employees, with disabilities. I am a supported employment
specialist. Employment does not include
job readiness programs, sheltered workshops, day program contracted work,
enclave work or any setting in which only people with disabilities work. It is designed to be in the community and matched
to interests and skills. Clients of my
colleagues and I are employed at UPS WorldPort Hub, Best Buy Warehouse, Geek
Squad City Headquarters, YMCA, Kentucky Science Center, Jefferson County Public
Schools and many more small and mid-size businesses across the state of
Kentucky.
Working
has opened endless doors for you and me, and it can do just that for our
family, friends, clients, consumers and patients with disabilities. Income, money management, spouses,
friendships, fulfillment, challenge, stress, conflict, resolution, independence
and respect can be tied to and gained from employment. My goal is for employment to be attainable for
my clients and for your clients. I want
employers to look for value in spite of recognizing a disability, and I want
disability recognized as diversity in the workplace.
It will
not be easy to shift the paradigm. Being
an employment specialist is not easy. I
would guess that your job is not easy either, and that you too have big goals
to tackle. In my 3 1/2 month tenure as
an employment specialist, I found that I need help to take on my goals.
Today I
share the advice that was offered to me from a later career professional as I
began to tackle my professional goals:
1) Mentors (a.k.a. Late Career
Professionals) DO make a difference:
This can be an informal relationship. I attended a training generously offered by one
of our organization’s board members, Dr. Karl Gretz. On a break, I voiced that I needed help in
making contacts in Louisville. He has since passed along articles, invited me
to a networking event, and offered advice to my concerns. Although it was never called a mentor-mentee
relationship, I thank and credit Dr. Karl Gretz of Gretz Consulting group as a
mentor and the source of much of the wisdom I pass along today. He provided tools to meet other professionals
and emphasized the importance of doing just that.
2)
Rock
the 30 second introduction:
In graduate school, my eyes opened
wide, incredulous, at the suggestion of sharing my elevator speech with a room of strangers. I pondered the enjoyment my professor received
in torturing me to do this and contemplated how to pinpoint myself in one
minute. Now, I finally have a
solution. I created a short and sweet,
1-3 sentence message map on my own terms, before it felt like torture. My mentor recommended Carmine Gallo’s YouTube
instruction on creating a message map and it is awesome!
Carmine Gallo’s Elevator Speech
Instruction in less than 5 minutes:
Find
the link HERE
(Note:
If you do end up making a message map/elevator speech, I would love to hear
about it and share mine with you!)
3)
Visit
places where you might meet other professionals
Your home city, town or suburb
likely has networking groups that can easily be found over the Internet. Louisville has more free networking groups
than I can reasonably attend. Find one,
and GO. If you hate it, find
another. Bumping into people and sharing
your professional message with others will allow you to glean new ideas for
your own work, and also give you the opportunity to share your input into
others’ ideas. You will build a
professional foundation that can act as resources when needed or lead to future
opportunity.
4)
You
do not need the gift of gab to
network.
It is not about talking; it is
about asking questions and getting to know others. As a more introverted person, I found, and
still often find networking a terrifying experience. Dr. Gretz advised me to: a) Ask questions, b) Listen
MORE than you talk, and c) “Act like you’re getting to know
someone as you would on a date.”
If you are still sure your mind
will go blank, or alternatively that you will monopolize the room, pre write
several questions and make it your mission to get some answers.
5)
Share
your new elevator speech in these settings
Now that you have made it to the
event, SHARE! When I was able to
articulate my job in 1-3 sentences, people understood my job and observed my
passion. This interested them enough to
ask questions and offer ideas about ways to help me in my career! Free help from experts! I was floored at how easy it was to get to
this point.
6)
Go
to training opportunities:
Attend training opportunities when
you can, and even if the material is dull or very familiar, find at least ONE
TAKEAWAY.
-Is there a content expert you
could talk to that would help a client you work with?
-Is there a tool you could take
home and use?
-Is there a contact you should
make to advance your career into a future field?
-Can you meet someone to carpool
with (and get to know) the next day of the conference?
-Can you share ideas with a
‘neighbor’ in the same field or research interest you had not met before?
7)
Network within your own field:
This is so
important, and something I took for granted in the LEND program. Although it is an interdisciplinary group, we
all have a shared passion. In 3.5 months
as an employment specialist, I have gained so much by getting to know
employment specialists serving at different agencies. They have shared their strategies with me,
recommended free resources, introduced colleagues, offered advice on tricky
cases, and recommended fundraising sources and leads for employers. I
also developed a relationship with Kentucky’s supported employment guru, whom
is an invaluable support in every challenge I encounter.
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