By Amy White
The Texas Catholic
Looking for a new job can be difficult and confusing, not to mention demoralizing; but the helpful guidance of informed mentors can make all the difference in the process, St. Jude parishioner Richard Panko said.
“It helps to have someone who is honest and objective that you can go to and talk to about the job search,” he shared, “because it is a very stressful timeframe.”
Panko is a volunteer for the St. Jude Career Alliance, a faith-based program hosted quarterly at St. Jude Catholic Church in Allen to empower job seekers with the tools to succeed. The program was founded in 2009 under the recommendation of the late Father Timothy Church, who noted the need for employment support in the wake of a devastating economic downturn.
At its genesis, SJCA hosted weekly meetings to provide networking and education opportunities for job seekers. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the program transitioned to a more formal job search workshop held once a quarter. In January of this year, the program underwent change once again, this time with the presentation of a new curriculum — an update overseen by volunteers Devina Valent and Kevin Almeida. This revamped curriculum is designed to more closely align with the reality of the current job market, Valent said, and includes additional information on building a strong LinkedIn profile and utilizing artificial intelligence in the job search process.
The current program focuses on four key areas.
“It starts with the foundation, which is really understanding your strengths, both your hard skills and your soft skills, so that you can communicate clearly about them and also increase your confidence,” Greg Mechler, an Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church parishioner who volunteers with the group, said. The other areas of focus are resume building, networking, and interviewing. The workshop spends about an hour and a half with each of the major sections, Mechler said, and includes presentations, demonstrations, and hands-on exercises.
Last year, SJCA also developed the St. Jude Career Alliance Job Search Support Group as a follow-on program to the workshop. The support group — conceptualized and led by Panko — is designed to offer workshop attendees continued support and encouragement once the workshop is over. On a weekly basis, Panko assists former workshop attendees as they build resumes, polish LinkedIn profiles, develop job search strategies, and discover their STAR (Situation, Task, Action, and Results) stories to tell during interviews. His goal is to help job seekers “keep pace” during their search, despite the at times exhausting process of pursuing employment.
“You’re responsible for your own momentum in a job search, which is not a very ego-friendly environment, because there are many more ‘nos’ and closed doors than there are ‘attaboys’ or ‘come on in’ kind of things,” Panko said. “I try to be a person that is challenging them every week to make sure that their activity level is high. If they run into a stumbling block, they can always reach out to me.”
As someone who experienced his own run-in with the job seeking process after a layoff about 20 years ago, Panko can empathize with the difficulty of being thrust into the employment search environment.
“You are thrown out of your normal life cycle when something like this happens,” he said; but despite the stress of unemployment, job seekers should remember that “you do have purpose; you do have strengths; and you do have some value to provide.”
Valent echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the inherent value of each person, regardless of employment status.
“You are not your job,” she said. “God has a plan… All you have to do is your part, do the work that you can control to get there. Let Him do the rest.”
Next Gen Wealth Academy
Like the St. Jude Career Alliance, Catholic Charities Dallas is hard at work to support those in the community pursuing employment. More often than not, these job seekers simply do not know where to start in their search, Catholic Charities Dallas’ employment coach Norma Escalera said; they need the help of an advisor who can give some practical guidance and friendly support. That is what CCD offers through its Next Gen Wealth Academy employment coaching.
Next Gen Wealth Academy is a program meant to provide education to clients on topics such as credit, debt management, savings, housing, and employment so that they can maintain financial stability. The program has three financial coaches, one housing counselor, one intake specialist, and one employment coach.
As CCD’s employment coach, Escalera helps job seekers discover the steps they can take to make their career goals a reality, “whether that is getting a higher paying job,” she explained, “or they realize that they could get certifications, or they can go back to school to earn a better pay and continue with their careers and their goals.”
Many clients that Escalera assists have unique circumstances that make the ins-and-outs of the current job search process seem rather baffling and remote: Some hail from foreign countries and are unsure how the process works in America. Others have been stay-at-home mothers for decades; and upon attempting to reenter the workforce, they find that much has changed since their last employment.
“They have a lot of aspirations and goals, but sometimes they have to be a little more creative on how they can continue those hopes and dreams that they have,” Escalera said. With employment coaching, “you have a partner; you have someone that can give you guidance, who is willing to explore with you, to hear you out.”
CCD’s employment coaching involves one-on-one meetings with clients, typically every two weeks or once a month. During sessions, clients share their career goals, and together coach and client discern the next steps to reach that goal.
“We all want to serve in one way or another,” Escalera said. “Sometimes you just need a little bit of assistance to get to the next step.”
To learn more about Catholic Charities Dallas’ employment resources, visit ccdallas.org/services/next-gen-wealth-academy. To learn more about the St. Jude Career Alliance, contact [email protected] or 972-727-1177.
Cutline for featured image: Through its First Gen Wealth Academy, Catholic Charities Dallas provides employment and career support to members of the local community, including one-on-one employment coaching. CCD is one of multiple Catholic organizations within the Diocese of Dallas to offer programs empowering job seekers. (Courtesy photo)
