About me.
My name is Sophie and I had just left residential college and was living at home with my mum and Nan. I was excited to find my first paid job!
Before the supported employment service…
I was at residential college where I did work experience in catering and hospitality so wanted to find a job in these areas. After college I moved back home and was living with my mum and nan. I was excited to find my first paid job.
Where my journey started.
My social worker told me about the supported employment service. They arranged for me to meet with Sarah, the Employment Pathway Coordinator. Sarah met me at home. I felt shy at first, but Sarah took her time with me, and I told her I wanted to get a paid job in catering or hospitality. Sarah arranged for me to meet Jen (job coach at HFT).
The support I received.
When I first started to work with my job coach, I really wanted to get a job in catering or hospitality. I applied for lots of jobs but did not get any interviews. Working with my job coach, she helped me see that my skills and experience might be better suited to the retail sector. It took me awhile to make up my mind, but my job coach was very patient and explained this in a way that I could easily understand.
I felt supported and not rushed in the process of looking for work. Once I decided to look for work in retail, I started to feel excited again about looking for work!
Finding the right job for me.
With my new job goal, my job coach and I started to visit local stores to ask about vacancies in person. One of the shops offered me an interview. They were happy for my job coach to come with me. She helped to make the questions easier to understand and prompted me to talk about my skills and experience. I was offered the job, and my dream has come true.
When I first started my job, my job coach helped me learn my duties and how to manage my time. I now travel to work on my own and work across two shops. My job coach still pops in to see how I am doing.
How getting a job has made me feel.
Getting a job as a shopkeeper is really important to me, I want to feel like a real adult and work like my mum does, now I have a job, my dream has come true, I am so happy and proud of myself.
This programme has really helped me, and I have loved it, it’s been epic. I have told all my friends about my job and my great job coach, I have been given choices and listened to all the way, when I haven’t understood, my job coach has been patient with me and explained things in a different way.
If someone is thinking about getting help to find work, I would say…
I feel it is important to share that even if you don’t get your first job, keep going and it will happen.
Be open to trying to roles, you just never know it might be your perfect job.