Oh joy of joys - last week I got to attend a seminar/workshop at the Career Center of Lowell regarding the (EUC) Emergency Unemployment Compensation Orientation / Review.
Actually this was not really an option. I received a notice in the mail that I had to attend one of these sessions by July 6th or risk losing my UI benefits.
It is always an interesting experience sitting in a room at any State or Federal Agency office. It is just such a .... unique ... mix of people. It is also a rather sobering experience since all of us in this session were there because we had exhausted the initial six month State funded unemployment and were now being funded through the special program the Federal Government passed to help the long term unemployed.
There was a lot of things that they covered which, for me at least, seemed incredibly simplistic. Not just because of my prior working with the professional counselors at Transitions Solutions, but also my previous experience working in Human Resources.
I did appreciate getting the listing of Labor Market Research sites where I can see a better, or more current, range of information on not only what salary ranges are currently being offered - but whether specific job titles are in decline - and where my skills may be transferable.
One of the things they "recommend" is that you sign up to attend several of the other topic seminars offered. Actually, they pre-complete this part of the form with topics such as "Introduction to LinkedIn" and "How to Write a Resume". There is also a listed requirement that you need to have certain documents in place as well as a Career Action Plan.
The documentation they were looking for included:
* A resume - CHECK. Actually I have two versions both developed during my sessions with Transition Solutions.
* Copies of the weekly logs you have submitted in the last 6-8 weeks showing at least three job search activities per week.
When the workshop leader came around to review my documents I mentioned that I had not been printing off the weekly online submissions. HOWEVER - what I did have to show her was my complete job listing spreadsheet of all the positions I had applied to since November 2011 along with separate spreadsheets showing each agency contact and websites that I have registered with.
So no big surprise - they signed off my paperwork and gave me a "pass" on needing to attend the resume, LinkedIn or Microsoft Suite seminars.
Too bad I can't get paid for tracking job search activities. Seems as though that is something I could actually be good at.
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