Questions, Answers--An Open Book Test

Between the three human resources (HR) panelists and I we had almost 75 years of human resources experience sitting in the room. I’m going to say I was the oldest just to take the pressure off, but I wasn’t the one with the most experience. We had a major county hospital, UMC, the City of Lubbock and a major communications company, Suddenlink Communications, and my bank, First Bank & Trust, represented.

We were all there as volunteers. I had built the thing, so I thought I probably had to be there. The others showed up because I asked. They sacrificed a night to make a difference. I was watching the whole thing come to fruition and thought “now if this isn’t what America is about I’m not sure what is:” helping one another, talking with one another, hope.

I spoke to a man who was 69-years-old and caught in the disaster that represents many of our 401(k)s. I talked with a younger man who was an out of work welder, his company having shuttered its doors as their workers waited anxiously for “senior management” to arrive with what was rumored to be a “major contract.” A woman without her GED, but closing in on it fast, several folks with felony convictions who were struggling, people with disabilities or representing those with disabilities. African Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians, men, women. I thought “now if this isn’t what America looks like I don’t know what would.”

But this isn’t my America. An America where the average age of a homeless person is nine-and-one-half years old. Nine-and-one-half! This isn’t my America land of the free and home of the brave. For although this room was filled with people brave enough to show up, brave enough to face some pretty heavy odds, brave enough to stand up when they’d been knocked down, it was not a room filled with the land of the free. For, in many instances, we have replaced the yolk of iron shackles with one no less stringent, no less confining, economic peril.

But this isn’t my America and that is the reason I was here tonight. I have no delusions that we can save America, but I intend to help an American. This country was built brick by brick and block by block and it will be rebuilt job by job. Last night, LPEP, for me this is what all this energy is about.

And, what we talked about was not real complex issues that fill the halls of Harvard or Yale or some other bastion of higher learning. We talked about misspellings, bad grammar and sloppiness.

The general consensus of this 75 years of HR experience is that misspellings, bad grammar and sloppiness account for a significant percentage of people getting knocked out of the process. Then you add in some of the harder things: getting fired, terminated or asked to leave...multiple times...and a felony conviction and maybe age, or race, or disability, or gender—yes still in my America—not everywhere, but it should be nowhere.

So, our advice throughout the night was attack the low hanging fruit: clean up the application, write a pristine letter (or get some help), write a beautiful resume (or get some additional help). For crying out loud use whatever network is available. And, these 50 folks were able to network with four of the top HR people in the region (well, 3, but it was my idea). And, when going into a business to ask for an application, dress the part. Flip flops and shorts and a t-shirt are great, comfortable clothing and super to garden in. Walk into First Bank & Trust and the majority of other employers and ask for an application and there probably wasn’t any reason to walk in to begin with.
Cover up the tattoos if possible; if impossible, well, we really didn’t address that. Ear, eye, tongue, nose, cheek, any other body part that shows stud take it out. Remove it. It doesn’t belong at work. And, we can all afford to turn our cell phones off, leave our iPods in our purses or car and generally get rid of all that other stuff that distracts us from reaching not just this goal, but many others...hmm...like building a relationship.

Some of the things in our past can no longer be controlled. Very rarely, especially in Texas, can we get rid of a felony conviction—not arguing "right" or "wrong" here (although I have an opinion about the stupidity of all these resources wasted on a non-working "solution"), but simply reality. Okay, but we can’t afford to get another and we have to be deathly honest about our past regardless of consequence. Most employers won’t hire someone who they can tell, or they find out, is dishonest. And, when we blew up at our supervisor five years ago and that ended the best job we ever had, well, there’s another obstacle, but, again another thing we have to be deathly honest about. Now is the time to accept responsibility—absolute responsibility. There was never, ever a fight when only one person was throwing punches. The responsible person accepts the responsibility.

And, I know there are folks saying, “but I’ll never get a job with my history.” Well, remember that old adage grandma used to harp on “you reap what you sow?” Or remember when we wanted to strangle dad as he once again intoned “You made your bed, sleep in it?” Sometimes we still want to strangle someone, but sometimes those things are true. The next job someone with a felony, or someone who has one or more “I was fired” on their application does get he or she needs to hold on to it for dear life until at least something better, much better, comes along.

These were the sorts of things we talked about. We’re at WorkForce Center, 14th Street & Avenue L, in Lubbock, TX, every third Tuesday of every month through December, 2009 beginning promptly at 5:30 p.m. Each month we have a completely different HR panel. Each month we have three different employers. Each month is another opportunity to network. Each month we’ll answer a whole set of new questions. Each month you’re most welcome to join us.