Brian and I presented a workshop this morning in the Inwood 2 Ward, a Spanish speaking ward. The Bishop asked us to talk about resumes and job search skills. The bishop arranged for a translator AND he also attended the workshop. He also invited the English-speaking ward that shares his building. We had seven job seekers in attendance–all Spanish speakers. Elder Vasquez, a young missionary from Woodbridge, VA (just 30 minutes away from us) did an excellent job of translating. We introduced the job seekers to all of the wonderful resources on employment.churchofjesuschrist.org. One tip that we shared, was to have a professional email address on your resume. (Don’t use prettyprincess@gmail.com.) It was a nice meeting and so nice to make some new friends. The spirit was very strong.
One interesting note: While preparing slides and talking points the night before, I (Brian) felt impressed to spend some time putting together some real life examples of resumes for a variety of professions, including an HR training professional (I did not include any other positions that required a college degree, knowing that most of our audience would not have a U.S.-transferable college degree), a nanny, and a security guard (Home help and security guards are common entry level jobs in New York).
At the end of our workshop, we discovered that two of the seven were looking for home help, particularly nannying, and one was an HR training professional with a lot of experience and a bachelor’s equivalent from South America. She stayed an extra 30 minutes for some one-on-one coaching. We didn’t find out what the other job seekers were seeking. We continue to be impressed with the number of “divine coincidences” we see each day–God cares about His children and everything is spiritual to Him.
But what if someone is applying for a job to be a princess?
Hahahaha