The Office Walk and Job Fair

There were holes in the side walk from years of damage so I decided to fix them. Haha!

The Job Fair was at Lawrence Institute of Technology in Southfield MI

Since we were an hour early we found the workout room and had fun but of course did not over do it.

Previous Job Fairs have had much bigger crowds so maybe the smaller crowd this year is a good sign. There was a still quite a crowd who needed help. The biggest lineup and long wait was for help with resumes. From 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM Doug, Susan and Elder Hoopes never got up once. That entire time they were showing job seekers how to refine their resumes. What a marvelous service was given by them.

My job was to help a student at the U of M with her thesis research on the level of disruption in families caused by under employment or unemployment. We sought out people who were married & willing to fill out the survey. It was fun visiting with so many people. After a couple of hours the only people we could approach were in the line waiting for resumes, so then I went to the resume table and the student took care of her surveys and she ended up getting 30 surveys filled out. She was so happy.

It was enjoyable to meet so many people who were highly skilled and employable but really needed to focus on a resume that would be easy for the employer to read and to see how the job seeker could improve their business. We had some students who were still in school but were already networking, doing internships or part time jobs preparing for the job search after graduation.

There is a lot of emotion about the best way to write a resume. We know there is not just one way. We explain where to put things on the resume to guide the reviewers eyes to what he wants to see first for a good impression. The one thing most people put first on the resume is their objective. We point out that the employer is not really looking for their desires but really needs a SUMMERY OF QUALIFICATIONS first to match his desires. The resume needs to be tailored so the potential employer can quickly SEE (in a few seconds!) what qualifications and skills they have for the particular job they are applying for. They need to show by the accomplishments they list, how they can make or save a company money, solve their problems, take on more responsibility and fit in. Everyone left our table, feeling lifted and helped and so did we, by getting to know and understand their situations and help them. We continually gain greater understanding, compassion and ways to help.