Tuesday night, May 19, at 5:30 p.m. (I always start exactly on time) we began our journey. Almost 50 people showed up, which for Lubbock, TX, if you’re not serving free barbecue, is just south of terrific.
Lubbock Phoenix Employment Project, or LPEP, is a job club where unemployed, underemployed, or folks who are just looking around can come and meet the gatekeepers of the hiring process, human resources professionals, and ask any questions they want. (We meet at WorkForce Center, the third Tuesday of each month [June 16 is the next meeting] from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.)
This first night made me nervous. The excellent staff at WorkForce Solutions, a few others and I had worked mightily to insure we had more than a few show up. We asked people to call to “sign up,” so we’d have a headcount. A week before our kickoff event the count stood at 7 (I got a bit more nervous); the day of the event the count stood at 20 (nervousness abated slightly, but I figured we might only get 15% of the 20, which would be 3 people).
The night of the event, by 5:30, we were scrambling to bring in more chairs. By 5:45 we were scrambling to bring in more chairs. We had people of every walk of life, every religion, every hue, every occupation (or former occupation) and every age. My last official count was 46, but that was before we scrambled at 5:45 again for chairs.
Three human resources professionals sat in front of the room. I had three pages of questions, but my desire was to have a discussion. I wanted the audience to drive our direction. I had my questions not to ask, but just in case. I asked my first question.
“What do you see on an application or resume that really gets you going or really turns you off?”
I’m not sure I asked another question. I don’t remember. Somewhere in the course of the next couple of hours I sat my notes on a table and listened and chimed in every now and then.
I thought of the questions as hard and tough; I thought our answers were excellent and honest.
The comments afterwards, the body language, the engagement all said we had hit our mark, but the proverbial proof is in the proverbial pudding and only time will tell, but we had begun.
Lubbock Phoenix Employment Project, or LPEP, is a job club where unemployed, underemployed, or folks who are just looking around can come and meet the gatekeepers of the hiring process, human resources professionals, and ask any questions they want. (We meet at WorkForce Center, the third Tuesday of each month [June 16 is the next meeting] from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.)
This first night made me nervous. The excellent staff at WorkForce Solutions, a few others and I had worked mightily to insure we had more than a few show up. We asked people to call to “sign up,” so we’d have a headcount. A week before our kickoff event the count stood at 7 (I got a bit more nervous); the day of the event the count stood at 20 (nervousness abated slightly, but I figured we might only get 15% of the 20, which would be 3 people).
The night of the event, by 5:30, we were scrambling to bring in more chairs. By 5:45 we were scrambling to bring in more chairs. We had people of every walk of life, every religion, every hue, every occupation (or former occupation) and every age. My last official count was 46, but that was before we scrambled at 5:45 again for chairs.
Three human resources professionals sat in front of the room. I had three pages of questions, but my desire was to have a discussion. I wanted the audience to drive our direction. I had my questions not to ask, but just in case. I asked my first question.
“What do you see on an application or resume that really gets you going or really turns you off?”
I’m not sure I asked another question. I don’t remember. Somewhere in the course of the next couple of hours I sat my notes on a table and listened and chimed in every now and then.
I thought of the questions as hard and tough; I thought our answers were excellent and honest.
The comments afterwards, the body language, the engagement all said we had hit our mark, but the proverbial proof is in the proverbial pudding and only time will tell, but we had begun.
No comments:
Post a Comment