MUST Helps ‘Step Up Your Game’ in the Job Hunt
The one-day seminar hosted by Cobb nonprofits emphasizes interview skills, making a good first impression, meetings with hiring professionals and maintaining a job.
Almost 50 people arrived at MUST Ministries on Sept. 13 to learn skills that will help them get a job. MUST hosted the “Step Up Your Game” event in conjunction with other non-profits in the area, including Nobis Works, Goodwill, Center for Family Resources and Cobb Works. The collaborative event was the second conference this group has coordinated.
The one-day seminar emphasizes interview skills, making a good first impression, meetings with hiring professionals and maintaining a job. In addition, some participants were selected for makeovers complete with hair, make-up and interview outfits.
“This conference has had a high impact on the participants,” according to Beth Ray, Director of Employment Services at MUST. She cited several examples of participants giving the program rave reviews and former attendees who went out and obtained jobs quickly.
“We coached everyone from former stock brokers to customer service representatives to consultants,” she said of the group. With so many people unemployed, everyone is looking for an edge, she said, and “Step Up Your Game” gives participants many creative ways to set themselves apart from the crowd of job seekers.
Everyone attending was given an opportunity to shop free for an interview outfit from Spirit of Success and shoes from 40 Girls and Some Shoes. Sometimes simply having the appropriate interview attire can help a potential candidate emotionally and in making a good first impression, Ray said.
Twice a year, the area non-profits host “Step Up Your Game” and are already are planning the 2013 sessions. MUST has helped put 1,400 people back to work since the recession began.
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Pam J
3:06 pm on Monday, September 24, 2012
First, I would be interested to know if any of these people got interviews, much less jobs. In the 2-1/2 years I have been unemployed, I've had one interview (for a part-time minimum wage job). I dressed up for it, and even though I was the best-dressed person there, the call I got back from them said that they went with someone who at least had some experience in the field I was applying for. Gone are the days when a company would be willing to hire the "right" person and train them. They probably hired the person in blue jeans and a t-shirt simply because they had experience in the field and never made much money anyway because she had worked retail her whole life (she was 25 years old). I know this because she told me.