Feature Writer Steven Famiglietti – Post-College Job Search
I graduated from college in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications. About four months before graduation, I visited the career center on campus to get some assistance in figuring out what I wanted to do upon graduation. The only idea that I had at the time was that I wanted to work with people.
The career center taught me how to complete a resume’ and cover letter. They also invited me to a career fair. During the fair, I met many people who represented various companies and organizations in the area. I gave out many copies of my resume’ and had my first experience networking for myself. I am quite sure that most of those people did not know that I had a vision problem because I didn’t use a guide dog and I refused to use a white cane. I figured those items were only meant for people that had no vision at all.
I ended up having an interview at Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, MA. Perkins was looking to hire people for summer program aid positions for their Summer Outreach Program. Since I had been a Resident Assistant in my college dorm, I figured this would be a good possibility for me. Perkins inevitably hired me at the conclusion of the interview.
The Program Aid position at Perkins was to last three weeks, which was the duration of the program. There were twelve students enrolled into the program who were from all different parts of New England. These students had varying degrees of vision loss and ranged in age from ten to sixteen years old. There were several other staff members who worked in this program. Some were sighted and some also had varying degrees of vision loss. For me, this was my first time being around groups of people with vision loss and it was my first time working with coworkers with vision loss.
After this program ended, I returned home with my parents and I did not attempt to perform a job search because I figured that Perkins would hire me for the school year since I had worked there for the summer program. I didn’t give any thought at all about what I would do if Perkins did not decide to provide me with employment. I also figured that I deserved some time off since I had been in school for twenty years. This was absolutely the wrong attitude!
The fall came and I was not hired at Perkins School for the Blind. This meant it was time to give some very serious thought to what I would be doing for employment. My first big decision would be to go out and buy a brand new computer so that I would have all the tools necessary to perform a job search, complete my resume’, complete cover letters and perform internet searches. The new computer did help me to accomplish these tasks.
I simply had no idea what to do and I had less of an idea about how to effectively communicate and carry myself professionally as a person who is legally blind. I went on several interviews and explained myself to the best of my ability but had no luck. I would locate a potentially exciting job, get excited for the interview, have the interview and never hear back from most employers.
I recall one interview where I walked in the entrance and tripped down a step. I walked a few more steps and tripped down another step. Finally, I got to the reception desk and as I introduced myself, everyone around the room was laughing because I tripped down the steps. This was not the way to begin an interview and it was not the way it would have happened if I had walked into the place with a white cane or guide dog. I did not get that job after all of my tripping.
Transportation to and from a job was also a huge issue. I did not live near any public transportation and also was not near any major highways. At the same time, I could not afford to move away from home since I was not employed. Sometimes, I justified staying at home because I was collecting Social Security Disability and I figured this was enough to keep myself supported so why bother putting myself through the stress of job searches and interviews. After all, it seemed like it was all too hard to try to convince people that I had plenty of ability to do a job. It was not fair to me that people were afraid to hire me because of my vision loss. I figured it was everyone else’s fault that I couldn’t find a job.
My other frustration involved professional counselors that would visit and advise me to go bag groceries at the grocery store. They said that I would have to get my foot in the door somehow and that people had to start out somewhere. I hated this advice because I figured it then was a waste of my time and money to have gone to college, obtain my degree and then bag groceries. Obviously, I resisted that advice and did not take any of those jobs. I began to feel useless and I figured I was not capable of doing anything at all. It was a lot easier to just stay home, watch TV and eat whatever I wanted. At the same time, I knew this was the wrong attitude, so I was constantly struggling with myself.
Finally after a year and a half, I found a job at a small insurance company. This was my first full time job and I was hired as the Office Manager for the company. This gave me a chance to learn some professional skills and work in a good environment. Some of my responsibilities included taking phone messages, completing computer tasks, keeping the office organized and helping others in the office. The job lasted a few months because the company was bought out by a larger insurance company and all of my job responsibilities changed. I did not have the necessary background to continue at the company. I could have gone to school and received all the necessary training, but I didn’t want to spend my time selling life insurance policies to people. I left the job at the end of the year and began a new job for the new year.
I found this new job as a telemarketer for a commercial collections company. At first, this seemed like a very exciting position. I figured that since I liked talking on the phone, this would be a natural decision for me to do phone and customer service work. Unfortunately, I quickly began to hate the job. I had to make calls to small businesses to convince them to use our collections services. Typically, 85 to 90 percent of the calls I made didn’t get me any responses. I hated this job so much that I would think up excuses on Sunday afternoon so that I didn’t have to go into work on Monday mornings.
Finally, I decided to leave the job. I handed my boss my letter of resignation and was surprised to hear his response. He said, “I will pay you to come in each day and find a new job for as long as I can afford to have you here. You can’t just go home with no job. Someday, someone else out there will be smart enough to realize that you have an education, which means you have the ability to think and make important decisions. This person will look beyond your eye condition and hire you. I believe in you and I won’t let you leave this company without another job lined up.” I will never forget when he said this to me. For the first time, I knew I had found an employer who was fair and honest.
A few weeks later, he came to me and told me about a new business that had opened in the area. The company was being run by a gentleman and his father. The owner of the company, he explained, was legally blind. The company sold products to people who were legally blind, just like me. I called the company and spoke to this gentleman. A few days later, I met that gentleman and had an interview with him. I began to work there at Vision Dynamics two days before Thanksgiving and stayed employed there until the end of 2005.
While at Vision Dynamics, I met many people who experienced blindness and low vision who were just like me. I was their store manager. My responsibilities included waiting on customers, helping them find products and solutions for their daily struggles, keeping a clean, neat environment, teaching people to use computers with adaptive software and running a Summer Camp program for children.
After so many years of thinking that I was different from everyone else, I saw firsthand at my job how so many other people were losing their vision and looking for answers to questions like, “How will I read my daily mail, how will I pay my bills, how will I prepare meals, how can I keep my independence?” I began to realize that I was not alone, I had the same issues and there were products and services out there that could help me and them alike. This was a huge turning point in my life.
I began to take the bus to and from work each day. Even though my father was happy and willing to drive me to work, I decided to take a step towards doing things on my own. The bus worked out well. After about a year of this, I found my first apartment and moved in with a roommate. By observing other people I met at work, I would learn to do things on my own. I learned to cook by using the kitchen products I had sold to other customers. I bought a cane and used it to help myself each day. I began to teach other people how to use computers running screen magnification or screen reading software programs, just like the ones I used to ring up every day. I learned that my life was not any different than anyone else’s. I could do everything that everyone else was doing, with the only difference being that I would do things using different equipment or different methods while still getting the job done.