Fear of not get the Job Co-op enables you to cope with these fears. It enables you to create job contacts wherever you want them-so you are much less dependent on relatives. It gives you training in job interview strategies, help in knowing your best skills and how to present them in a Job Power Report. It helps you to know what kind of job to look for, and where. It enables you to know in advance the kinds of opportunities that exist in a variety of fields of work.
Research studies in 1965 and 1973 one in urban New Jersey, the other in a California rural area have proven that group and peer counseling cuts job finding time by more than half for the great majority of participants. When you are with a group you have a better chance to check with others on how to develop your Job Power Report, better opportunity to practice the R&R Interview, more likelihood that you will spot contacts and job openings for each other, and be more available to help each other surmount depression when progress seems to be slow or even negative. You can also help each other to correct mistakes you'll find that the more progress you make the more opportunity there is to make some mistakes.
In addition to cutting job-finding time by more than 50 percent, which effectively deals with the fear of running out of money, the Job Co-op helps you to overcome job finding problems that occur from time to time; it provides boosts to your morale much needed when job interviews come slowly; it helps to expand your potential as a person; and it gives you guidelines for getting promotions, pay increases and changing jobs again when the need may arise.
The companionship in trial, and believe us job hunting is a trial of your identity, plus the excitement of knowing that what you say may help another member get that wanted job all these and more are value components of the Co-op which are usually missing when you work on the job hunt by yourself. Of course you CAN do it on your own; no question on that. But the Job Cooperative gives an added dimension, to your victories and growth.
A Job Co-op is ideally a group often young adult associated with high school, a local service club, a Junior College, an area block or blocks. It can be any number of multiples of eight-to-ten persons; it should not be less than four. Each member should be concerned with finding a job quickly, and with helping each other to do that. Each member should be looking for work in a different field.
In summary, here is what happens: Each member completes the self-study program detailed in s One and Two, and helps the others to identify their skills, talents, strengths. Then they check with each other on the Reality Test details which prove those strengths or motivated skills. Next they help each other to develop their Job Power Reports and in the practice which enables them to be effective when using those reports. After that they plan a strategy to study how people become successful, how to be effective at interviews, how to get job leads for each other and themselves even where it seems that there are none. And, finally, they help each other overcome or cope with difficulties and depression when things progress slowly.
Here is what happened at one Job Cooperative. Bill was skeptical about trading his time for what he felt was a rap session about jobs. He didn't see much benefit in it for himself, but was willing to look in for a half-hour to see what goes on. He joined four participants, who were expecting others.
BUI: What goes with this Job Co-op thing?
Mary: We're practicing job interviews right now, but come on in, Bill.
Bill: I'm not staying, just curious on what you do. How can talking about jobs help me get one? Go on, show me.
John: We can show you, Bill. And it won't take long for you to see. We had to do a lot of things before being able to do what we'll show you. What we'll demonstrate is just one part how to use a Job Power Report to get someone to interview you and not turn you down.
BUI: I've had a lot of interviews, and got turned down every time. It's not real, man. I'm splitting. I got no time for this crap!
Jane: Billy, don't you go running off without listening. All you do is shoot your mouth off, and run. How you going to find out what we do if you don't stay. We're with you about wasting time. And we're not wasting time being in this Job Co-op. That's true, isn't it?
Mary/John/Alex:
Jane's right, Bill.
Alex: Listen, and make up your mind when you know what we're about.
Mary: You've had a lot of interviews, Bill. Then you know what questions interviewers ask. You take the part of a boss, and interviewer. And 111 be interviewed by you. Okay?
BID: Okay, I'll give you a hard time.
Mary: I just would like you to look at this and ask me some questions, Mr. Bill, (gives him Job Power Report)
BID: We're not hiring now.
Mary: I don't expect you to have a job for me, but I would like ten minutes of advice on if you think my Job Power Report will help me to get a job. Will you take a minute to read it, then ask me some questions, please?
BUI: (reads it) I told you we got no jobs.
Mary: And I told you I don't expect you to have a job. But you could tell me if you think my Report could help me, or not.
BOl: You're not out of high school yet, you never worked. So how can you say you can prove you're good in writing, research, finishing jobs you are given.
Mary: Those are some of my beginning skills, Mr. Bill. I've been reporter and editor of my school paper for two years, and one article I researched was picked up and printed by the Washington Post. My teacher says I'm an "A" student because I finish every job I take on. I've turned in every class assignment on time for at least two years. Most of them required some library or field research. Do these experiences prove I have some skills in writing, research, and finishing jobs, Mr. Bill?
BID: You said that real good, Mary. Sure it proves you have those skills. But how come you didn't lose your cool when I was so rough with you? You really got me interested in what you were saying.
Mary: Mr. Bill, do you think this Job Power Report will help me get a job?
Bill: Sure it will, if you can do what you did with me when you're at an interview. But then, everybody says they don't have any jobs. How do you get around that?
John: You can't get everything in five minutes, Bill. She got you interested in her skills, even though you were very rough with her. There's a lot more to it. You tried to throw her out of your office, but she stayed right in there and got you interested. Isn't that enough to show we're not wasting our time? You want to join our Co-op?
BID: Once she said she didn't expect me to have a job for her, even after I told her twice I had no jobs, I started to look at her as an unusual person.
Mary: That's it Employers think that every kid coming to them is trying to get on a payroll, that all kids are the same. Only what I did made you think I must be different. So you were willing to give me extra attention. Well, that's part of the game of getting a job, getting yourself seen as different and special. But that's only one of the things we learn and practice in this Job Co-op.
BID: Okay, okay! I'm joining. Maybe there's more to this Job Co-operative than I thought.
Alex: It's like running a race, or playing football. It takes a lot of practice to learn how to say what Mary did, to keep her cool when she was faced with an employer trying to get rid of her. And she had to do a lot of studying of herself before she knew what she could say about her skills. But we all helped her, and she helped us, too.
Jane: What we're doing next is about getting interviews, and re-searching how people get started in the kinds of jobs we want.
Let's examine two very different situations that show the type of help a Job Co-op can provide. One involves a high school dropout of 17, who often was in trouble with the police. The other involves a bright 18 year-old, the son of upper-middle-class parents who each have two or more college degrees. The dropout speaks poorly, a listener can hardly understand him. He is small, his back is arched. He says he wants to be an electrical worker on houses. We'll call him Joe.
Joe was in an experimental Job Co-op six years ago. The Job Power Report he wrote in semi-legible writing read like this:
Job Cooperative activities are more effective when conducted with the assistance of a trained facilitator, teacher, or businessperson.
I work good installing all kinds of electric wiring in house construction. Any kind of electric in-stalling I can do. When you ask me about it I don't talk too good, but I can show you how I do it.
In our Job Co-op he was not able to talk about his skills; he just mumbled "I know it" when asked questions about various kinds of electrical wiring work. Another member of the group, a young woman, asked him to show us how he'd go about installing some new wiring. He instantly became alive, went to the wall, and showed what he would do while he talked about how he would cut the wall, the kinds of wiring, pipe and tools he would use to make that installation. It was convincingly clear that he knew what he was doing and talking about.
But because his writing, his speech and his appearance were not good he had been unable to get a job for many months. He really was scared at job interviews. Others in the Co-op helped him practice giving his Job Power Report to a construction foreman, asking him to read it, then responding to his questions along these lines: * 'Mister, I don't expect you to have no job for me. I just know how to install electric wiring so it meets the code. I don't speak well. I don't write well. I can show you how I go about installing any kind of wiring. I want to be an electrician helper, and later to be an electrician when I get experience enough. Will you test me, and then advise me how I could get some more work experience?"
When he could see how the others were helping him, he gave them some of his street wisdom and was very helpful. And with their help Joe had a job in two weeks, a job he found on his own.
The other young man, Walter, had been in business for himself since age fourteen, collecting and selling stamps. He kept detailed records of his stamps, kept the household records, and later while still in high school-kept financial records for small businesses under the supervision of an accountant. Because he was legally too young to be involved in accounting, he kept these activities to himself until high school peers in a Job Co-op gave him freedom to talk about his achievements and write his skills in a Job Power Report like this:
I am accurate and dependable in keeping detailed financial records, including double-entry book-keeping, monthly and quarterly statements and yearly balance sheets. I have worked with an accountant for over three years, and he has often audited my work without finding errors. I work fast and learn quickly. I know something about keeping records for tax forms. And I get along with people very well.
Walter went to college, became the first freshman to audit the scholarship endowment fund, was treasurer of the bookshop, and in similar ways got jobs and gained a reputation for dependability in financial matters. He sent his Job Power Report to alumni near his home, and they helped him get a summer job that used his skills.
The interesting thing about these two very different people is that Walter, when joining the Co-op, was con-fused about what kind of work he wanted partly because he believed he could do many things, and partly because he had feelings of guilt about doing work which he couldn't legally do because of his age. On the other hand, Joe was confused because he couldn't get people to believe he knew what he did and was a valuable worker. Walter had opportunity in college, and in his part-time jobs, to broaden the application of his skills, and also to strengthen them but he was aware of what skills he was strengthening because his best skills were clarified while in the Job Cooperative.
Working World Research
Let's look at the way members of the Job Co-op explore the different fields of work. At this point each member of the Co-op has gone through the stages leading to completion of the Job Power Report, and each has about a hundred clear copies of it.
Each member gives the others one copy of his or her Job Power Report. Each binds them into a file folder, in alphabetical order by name, with your own on top inside your file. Reading the reports will show that you are each looking for jobs in different areas of work. Let's say one person is in the field of figures, and others are in such areas as personnel, sales, electronics, practical nursing, hospital orderly, automobile repair, typing, butchering and receptionist-type work. You now are ready to do some research on how people start and become successful in these different work areas, and also to explore a new way to create job contacts and leads for yourself and your Co-op members.
You will need to be acquainted with the skills and general aims of other members of your team, and then decide among you which work area to research because you must not research the area of your own interest. However, the organization to be researched should be selected by the person with the interest in that area of work. For instance, if John wants to be in the personnel field, and Mary wants to be in the auto mechanic area, John says he'd like to know how the personnel manager of Hotspur (the local big private employer) made it into that job, and Mary says she wants to know how the maintenance boss of the Chevrolet dealership got to his position. The other eight also select where they would want jobs researched.
Then you have to do that research in a special way which makes sure that you'll get the information you want which is how a person gets started in your area of work interest, and how he gets ahead. The basic steps you take are these:
- Get the name of the person in that position, telephone and arrange an appointment.
- Keep the appointment; interview him or her to get the information you want.
- At the same time, stir up interest in the Job Co-operative and the members of your group.
- Report back to the group, first the information you went for, and then additional information on what else happened at the interview.
Let's assume you are students at the John Xavier High School. To get the name of the person in that job, the person you want to see, call the main telephone number of the organization and ask the operator for his name, proper title, and the correct spelling of both. It could go something like this, if we assume that Mary's going to interview the Personnel Manager and John's to interview the Chevy maintenance boss. Mary calls the number and says, "Could you give me the full name of your Personnel Manager please? I'm a member of the John Xavier High School Job Cooperative, and I need to know his name."
The chances are that you'll get it, in which case you ask (and write it down) "How does he spell that?" Or, you'll be referred to his secretary. If the second thing happens, be sure to get her name, wait while you are being transferred, and then speak along these lines:
"Miss Jones, I'm Mary Brown. I'm a member of the John Xavier High School Job Cooperative. We're researching the working world, and I have to interview your Personnel Manager to find out how he became successful and how he got started. I must report that back to our Job Co-op. would you please tell me his full name, and spell it out for me, and also arrange a half-hour appointment for me with him."
Now there is a chance that you'll be put right through to the person, and then you have to say something like Mary said to his secretary except that now you'll be asking him directly for the appointment.
You won't have to worry about what to say on the tale-phone if you write it out clearly so you can read it when you're on the phone. Just be sure to mention the Job Cooperative, your school or sponsoring organization, and that you want to be able to report back to the Co-op how that Personnel Manager became successful and got started.
When you go to the appointment, take along your file of Job Power Reports and a large notebook for writing down what the Manager, Maintenance Boss or other executive says. You won't have to write down everything, but you will have to make some notes.
Here is what happens at a good Working World research interview. You arrive at the appointed time. You may have to wait a few minutes but usually you'll get in promptly. The person asks what you want to know, and you say with a smile if you can manage it "The members of my John Xavier High School Job Co-op want to know how a person in your position becomes successful, and how you got started. We're exploring the working world and its beginning opportunities." Then you listen carefully and make some notes on what is said.
If you are asked questions about yourself, give your file of Job Power Reports to the person and say, "The top one tells you about me" or, "The top one's mine."
If the person asks about the Job Co-op, say something like this: "The purpose of the Job Co-op is to help each member become aware of his or her best skills and talents, develop honest proof of them, summarize them in a Job Power Report, practice how to talk about them at inter-views, research the working world and help each other to know what it is, then help each other to get job contacts and land a job. Right now, with you, my task is to research the working world." You can write down and read a statement about what the Job Cooperative is, but you should not give what you have written to the person to read for himself.
If the person asks you about others in the Co-op, refer him to the other Job Power Reports in your file, saying that they're in alphabetical order. The chances are that he'll want to look at several Reports, and may even ask permission to make copies of them. When or if that happens, let the copies be made. But be sure you get to the point of your interview how did he become successful, and how did he get started.
And at the end of the interview, do ask if he or she might be interested in meeting one or more of the Co-op members, in which case you'll be glad to have that person telephone. If you don't ask, you're not likely to receive. There's a lot to be gained by asking, and nothing to be lost.
KEEP IN MIND THAT YOU ARE INTERVIEWING THE EXECUTIVE OR BOSS FOR THE JOB CO-OP. YOUR BUSINESS IS TO GET THAT INTER-VIEW, and report back to the Co-op members. If you gain something on the side, such as contacts for other Co-op members or for yourself, that's a bonus and for free. Accept graciously what is offered but you MUST NOT accept a job offer research.
If you are asked questions about yourself, give your file of Job Power Reports to the person and say, "The top one tells you about me" or, "The top one's mine."
If the person asks about the Job Co-op, say something like this: "The purpose of the Job Co-op is to help each member become aware of his or her best skills and talents, develop honest proof of them, summarize them in a Job Power Report, practice how to talk about them at interviews, research the working world and help each other to know what it is, then help each other to get job contacts and land a job. Right now, with you, my task is to research the working world." You can write down and read a statement about what the Job Cooperative is, but you should not give what you have written to the person to read for himself.
If the person asks you about others in the Co-op, refer him to the other Job Power Reports in your file, saying that they're in alphabetical order. The chances are that he'll want to look at several Reports, and may even ask permission to make copies of them. When or if that happens, let the copies be made. But be sure you get to the point of your interview how did he become successful, and how did he get started.
And at the end of the interview, do ask if he or she might be interested in meeting one or more of the Co-op members, in which case you'll be glad to have that person telephone. If you don't ask, you're not likely to receive. There's a lot to be gained by asking, and nothing to be lost.
KEEP IN MIND THAT YOU ARE INTERVIEWING THE EXECUTIVE OR BOSS FOR THE JOB CO-OP. YOUR BUSINESS IS TO GET THAT INTERVIEW, and report back to the Co-op members. If you gain something on the side, such as contacts for other Co-op members or for yourself, that's a bonus and for tree. Accept graciously what is offered but you MUST NOT accept a job offer while you are on your Working World research.
If you should be offered another interview, and then a job, be careful. It doesn't happen often, but if it does you should say something like this: "One of the rules of this Working World research is that we cannot accept a job offer until after we report back to the Co-op. We'll be meeting next week to give our reports to each other, and (if you want the job) Till be glad to start working right after that. Is that OK with you?
But if you don't want the job, you may need to say something like this: "Our rules for this Working World research require me to report your job offer to the Co-op. Is it OK with you if I call you right after our report meeting next week? Then I'll be free to talk about working with your fine organization."
A lot of employers want to hire even create jobs for young men and women who really have studied their lifetime or motivated skills and talents. It is no harder to go after the job that will bring you fulfillment than it is to go after one that brings you only a paycheck. As a matter of fact, the one which brings you fulfillment and growth opportunities is also likely to bring you a fatter paycheck. The majority of our clients, over a thirty-year period, have told us that. And tests of programs using the job finding techniques given in this book demonstrate that pay differences at the start will usually be ten percent higher.
Report what happened at the interview to your next Job Co-op meeting. Members of the Co-op should be allowed just one week for their interviews with employers. If you have a group often, perhaps one or two will have run into a problem such as sickness of the Co-op member or the employer, or a sudden demand that takes the employer out of town. Perhaps someone else will contact an employer and find him unwilling to be interviewed; it's not very likely, but it does sometimes happen. In a case like that, ask him to suggest the name of someone in another organization, a person who has the same type of position, whom you might call. Tell him that you won't use his name, but that you need to get an interview so you require his help. With that very reasonable approach, the chances are that you'll be able to get a substitute interview within the week.
At your Working World report meeting of the Job Co-op, listen to all the interview reports. Just as you will have some unexpected experiences to report, so will the others. Perhaps one of them will have been asked, on the basis of giving his or her Job Power Reports file to the employer, to suggest that you call for a job interview. You will also hear about different ways many people got started in their jobs, and how they moved ahead. You won't want to copy any of those ways because you are a different person, but knowing about their ways will help you to make choices of your own.
Equally important will be the understanding you develop of how to get in to see employers, and some of the best ways to respond to their questions without becoming too anxious. Some of you will have job leads; most of you will have helped open doors for the others to make contacts with possible employers in the organizations. And all of you will have built respect in those organizations for young men and women who take the trouble to study their motivated skills through the Job Cooperative. Nearly all of those employers will talk to their friends about your interview and the Job Co-op, and some of their friends are certain to want to meet one or more of the Co-op members.
All this work makes sense, doesn't it? And it really doesn't take very much time. The Working World research report meeting should last at least two hours, because in addition to listening to each other you will have lots of names and stories to ex-change. After that, you should begin arranging your interviews as described in four. Give yourselves enough time to have about four R&R interviews three days if you are a full-time job seeker—then meet again to discuss what happened at those interviews.
You need to meet twice a week, or at least once a week, while you are seriously job hunting. At those follow-through meetings you should take turns telling about your experiences at interviews. Do not give your own contacts to the other members, but you should pass along contacts that don't interest you. When you are doing R&R interviews you will find that employers and friends often ask if you know someone with skills other than your own. They also occasionally reveal knowledge of other kinds of jobs that are open, and people who are looking for certain kinds of skills. Well, the Co-op is the place to share the information you don't want for yourself.
But there's another special benefit to frequent follow-through meetings. Your fellow members can help you to overcome problems and cope with disappointments, and you can help others in the same way. You see, every interview, even the friendliest one, contains some stress. And where there is stress you have the possibility of forget-fullness, of saying the wrong things, of overlooking the procedures you have trained yourself to use. When you talk about them at the Job Co-op, others will be able to notice what happened and suggest ideas that will help you to recover lost ground, or otherwise cope with the situation.
For example, one young woman reported accepting a job, but she had forgotten to ask about the starting pay. After a lot of laughter, some of it embarrassed, the collective wisdom was that she should immediately go to the store where she was due to start the next day and discuss pay along these lines: "In my excitement about starting this job, which I just love, we didn't get into the matter of pay. I take it that because I have proven skills you do not consider me a beginner, and so my pay will be above the usual starting one. Can you tell me what it will be?" The employer was kind and smiling as she said it would be 25 cents an hour ($10.00 per week) above the regular starting pay rate. They smiled at each other, the Co-op member said, "See you tomorrow morning," and that was that. Nobody will ever know if she would have been given the regular beginners pay rate, but we do know she is getting more than other starters would.
Now let's go more deeply into the ways that Co-op membership can help you with finding your best lifetime skills, your motivated skills, aid you in Reality Testing them, enable you to practice interview strategies, and counsel you on your Job
Power Report.
When you first started remembering and studying your achievements, in one, we said you could do it yourself but that it would be helpful to do it as a member of a small group or Job Cooperative. There is a great advantage to doing something with a group of peers, fellow-students, and friends. Part of this value comes in knowing that others are doing the same kind of thing at the same time. Another is in knowing that others present are willing to help you if you have difficulty.
Because there should be no criticism or judgment of what anyone says, but freedom to disagree, or even feel badly about the way it affects you, there will be affirmation of the best skills in each person. There will surely be some misunderstandings but you are all mature enough to survive those, especially when you accept the basic rule which is: Each person has some kinds of excellence, and the purpose of the Co-op is to help each become aware of the skills and talents that combine to make that excellence a reality, with potential for improvement.
Yet another value of working with a group is the fact that sharing your self-knowledge, especially your achievements, not only increases your own awareness of their hidden meanings but also their reality, and also earns you the respect of the others for what you've got. Other benefits include the opportunity to practice what to say at inter-views, and the suggestions from others who each make their own kinds of mistakes—on how to overcome and cope with the variety of problems that arise when life goes eerily on.
Motivated Skills Identification
In the first Co-op meeting share the earliest achievement you can remember. If there are ten of you, consider sitting in a circle and (going around the circle) talk one-by-one for a minute or less about the earliest achievement you can remember, preferably something you did before age ten. Then, in pairs with the partner next to you, share two achievements of the past five years, allowing a maximum of five minutes for each of you. Then working alone, you write out and organize your achievements. Even though you're working alone on this part, it is helpful to know that others are doing the same kind of task. In addition, if you get weary of writing and trying to remember, you'll find someone else in the group with whom to take a short break before getting back to the task.
These two sharings may seem unimportant, but you'll find they contribute substantially to a break with the traditions that hold back nearly everyone. They also help each person to bridge his way into the new process.
You will be moving along according to the instructions in one, identifying and numbering your seven greatest achievements. In that it gives instructions both for taking the next step on your own and also for doing it with the help of a small group; but it is worthwhile to repeat the group, or Job Co-op, instructions here.
Get large sheets of paper, about double the size of pages in a large notebook, for each member of the Job Co-op; butcher paper from your local meat market, cut in sheets about eighteen inches long, will do. You also need dark crayons or markers, for writing larger than usual so others can look at it and read.
On that sheet, using your crayon or marker, list your five greatest achievements (five of the seven, so you can replace one if you feel you would rather not talk about that). No. 1 should be the achievement you feel is your greatest of all time to date.
For this task work in groups of four or five. Each of you will take turns at reading his or her greatest achievements, then describing in detail what you did to make it happen. If there are five of you, number yourselves one to five and follow this process:
- Hold up your list of five greatest achievements so the others can see it.
- Read out your No. 1 Achievement, and describe what you did to make it happen. (You need to be detailed enough so that the others can identify most of the skills you used.)
- Ask if the others have questions that will help them to be clear about the skills you must have used. (NOTE: Nobody is allowed to ask a "why" or a similar "curiosity" question that tries to "psych-out" the person upfront. If such a question is asked, the Upfronter can and should refuse to answer it.) The Upfronter should try to keep descriptions and answers short.
- Repeat the process with Achievements Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5.
When the Upfronter has finished the listeners read out in turn the skills they wrote down for all five, then pass their lists to the Upfronter.
Then each of the others, in turn, take the Upfronter position and the process is repeated. It usually takes about 15 minutes to complete an Upfronter experience.
WARNING! It is sure that some of the skills listed by the listeners are not accurate. The listeners could only guess at those skills, since they are not specially trained in identifying them. Also, the listeners will have overlooked some skills the Upfronter feels should have been obvious. They are also likely to have mentioned some the Upfronter did not think of as skills, a "normal" situation which shows we take some of our best skills for granted. The special helpfulness of the listeners is that their lists and comments stimulate the Upfronter to do a more thorough job of examining his Achievements and identifying the skills they show. Two gives the steps you should take to complete on your own that skills identification.
But members of the Job Co-op can help you to re-examine the skills you finally identify, and also practice talking about these motivated skills. They also help you to develop your Job Power Report—as described in detail in three. Here is an outline of how the Co-op works first on your Job Power Report and then on interview practice.
The Job Power Report is your key tool for creating good interviews. It lists your motivated skills, and may offer some proof of their level of development. Because you were an Upfronter, three or four others deeply appreciate what you have to offer, and they can help you improve your report if anyone can. So have a session with your team of four or five after each of you has written your Job Power Reports. Take turns in discussing your different Reports, and in giving proof of the skills you mention. Almost always someone will come up with suggestions, maybe criticism that puts new light on what you have written; occasionally you'll say things differently, rewrite, or add or subtract items.
To take an extreme example, suppose your Report refers to outdoor skills and physical endurance. They could be stated these ways:
- All the newspapers headlined and printed pictures of me as "Athlete Of The Year." OR the Report could say:
- My outdoor skills and physical endurance are very good.
But whatever suggestions your Co-op team members give, you must take final responsibility yourself for what is in your Job Power Report. For instance, here's an example of how their advice could be harmful.
A woman artist broke her arm, her drawing arm. It wasn't set right, so after two months it had to be set again, and it was slow in healing. She was out of practice for six months, and she knew she was slower than she should be. She protected herself in her Job Power Report by stating: "I sketch very well, and learn fast; but I'll be faster when I fully recover from a recent accident."
Her Co-op team told her she shouldn't be apologetic in her Report. But the way she thought about it was this: "If I get a job where they expect me to work very fast, which I ordinarily can do, I might not meet my employer's expectations. It would be better if I could be faster than they expect, and have a little extra time to do better quality work. Besides, if they ask me about the accident as well as for samples of my drawings, they'll be both sympathetic and understanding of my situation. They'll be more on my side when it comes to getting out a lot of work in a short amount of time." She checked her thoughts with a specially trained leader of Job Co-operatives, and made up her mind to keep the report the way she wrote it and it worked.
In any case, all suggestions given during the Co-op meetings are intended to be helpful to each person, to recognize and affirm the best in each member, to help him overcome obstacles and reach his goal. So each meeting has as its central guide a spirit of helpfulness. That's a good, comforting and encouraging climate to be in. Once in a while we all need a supporting environment like that.
You'll find a list of frequently-asked interview questions at the end of Four, Interviews, More Interviews. You should use these and other questions you can think of in the practice sessions of your Co-op.
At your follow-through meetings, when you tell what happened at your interviews, be prepared to be told that you forgot some of what you learned at earlier practices. At that point, the thing to do is practice, or role play, some more. When you act-out what happened at an interview you usually can see more clearly the things you did right, some of the things you missed doing, and some things you might do to recover lost ground or to do better the next time.
Summary
The Job Cooperative is a means by which each member gets personal and group help in remembering, writing down and studying those experiences that reveal the pattern of skills and talents which combine to make up his unique excellence. It also helps each member to develop his Job Power Report, and practice what to say in order to create interviews and be effective at them. It is especially useful in researching the working world, helping all members to know how successful men and women got their starts, and in creating opportunities for Co-op members.
The next , The Job Campaign, reveals another area where Co-op membership is worthwhile.
