You're Not Looking For A Job, You're Looking For A Person

The digit is not your friend.

“Not a job, a person…” is a core concept of my reentry approach. Simply put, background-challenged job seekers need to connect with other people – actual living, breathing human beings. Success depends on it, in the short run and particularly in the long run. Connecting with people is so important because it will be people who help mitigate the inevitable roadblocks reentering people always face. But connecting takes effort and often a mindset flush because meeting new people is something many challenged seekers don’t want to do.

Let’s be honest, society is becoming more digitized daily, which is not good news for someone getting back on track. More digits mean more ways to get knocked out early in the game. It means getting through to someone who might be able to help is increasingly problematic. There is no doubt about this, but it doesn’t change the fact that for most reentering job seekers, people, not digits, not an app or platform, will make it all happen.

What do I mean? What kind of people? In short, people in the work world. But here’s the thing, reentering people come from alternative worlds – the prison world, rehab world, homeless world. Worlds filled with people either caught up in them or working in them. These are not the people I’m referring to, even those helping with transitioning out.

To be sure, helpers such as counselors, job developers, or case managers play important if not critical, roles in reentry success. Still, they don’t represent the types of people that reentering folks NEED to meet; why? because they work from within the transition world, not in the heartless old marketplace world.

Many reentering people have trouble making the move outward. They stall and linger. Being around others with similar challenges creates peer groups and community, where challenges are shared, and there’s a sense of belonging. So, they hang on because the leap is scary, and contemplating it is uncomfortable with so many bad memories, disappointments, and failures “out there.”

To get moving, those reentering need a step-by-step plan that breaks down the mountain into ready-to-shovel piles of gravel, which they can take on with purpose and intentionality. This last point, intentionality, is important. As the job search moves into gear, the heads-up job seeker also looks for these work-related contacts who could become key contacts. Most people they encounter at this point will not become individuals who will take the time to understand and allow the job seeker to show what they can do and who they are.

I’ll have much more to say about connecting with people in forthcoming posts. For now, know that the digit is no friend to the reentering person, but people will be. That said, looking for work requires interacting with the digit – the internet – there’s no choice. However, there is a choice to be made about HOW it’s done. Submitting apps online without a plan that includes job search and people search strategies is a Class-A counterproductive move and, maybe worse.

Look, the background issue will come up, it always does. That’s why there’s a plan with built-in deliberate strategies and tactics to facilitate getting the job and connecting with people who can help achieve milestones and objectives. And let me be clear on this: forging ahead without a plan is where most reentering folks go wrong. It’s like hitting the gas with no map, GPS, or clue.

Onward.