By Lee Ann Sides Garrett
news@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS ó Greg Kesterson has a long resume. Three pages. As a technical project manager in the IT Department at Philip Morris, Kesterson gained a lot of experience. Recently laid off, he hopes that experience will help him find him a new job.
Kesterson says he moved back and forth three times between Cabarrus County and Richmond, Va., to stay with the same company.
“I’m done with that,” he says. “I could relocate to Richmond again. But if I do, how long before something happens there?”
Kesterson says his life is here and this is where he wants to stay. So he brought his resume to Rowan Cabarrus Community College’s R3 Center in Kannapolis. He heard about the center through Leadership Cabarrus.
The R3 Center is an adult career development center established through Rowan-Cabarrus Community College (RCCC). The center provides services to clients who are unemployed or underemployed and are registered with the Employment Security Commission. The three Rs in the name of the center stand for Refocus, Retrain and Re-employ. The center partners with the JobLink Career Centers in Rowan and Cabarrus counties.
RCCC Vice President of Continuing Education Jeannie Moore says the center utilizes many nationally recognized processes to identify a worker’s needs and strengths. Work Keys, a job profile service, pinpoints skills needed for specific jobs. Attaining a gold, silver or bronze certification from the center can give a worker an edge in a job interview, Moore says.
The center also provides rapid response and works directly with local businesses in the event of a layoff. Workers from the center hold assessments at the closing business to let laid-off workers know what services they offer.
“The school has taken an innovative role,” says Keri Allman-Young, R3 Center director. “Because we help identify, where do you want to go?”
The Center’s career counselors not only help identify a worker’s needs but also a worker’s likes and dislikes to find a new career that is a good fit.
Kesterson and the center’s Career Counselor Laura Herrick worked together to better organize his resume and eliminate some redundancy. They also set up him up for some online classes “to help boost my marketable skills” says Kesterson.
The center also offers courses in job hunting that cover topics such as interview techniques, how to stand out from the competition, layoff survival, looking for work at age 50-plus, looking for work with a criminal record, online job hunting and careers in customer service.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a questionnaire that looks at psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. It helps identify jobs in which a worker will be most comfortable and effective. The center also refers workers to classes at RCCC or other local colleges so they can receive training for a new career.
“The ABCs of Computers is full every time we teach it,” says Herrick, the career counselor. “The class teaches workers who have never touched a computer how to be comfortable with one. It helps ease tensions and helps them understand they won’t break it.”
Moore, RCCC’s vice president of continuing education, says the center has seen about 3,000 clients since opening in January 2007. Those clients have had access to 8,000 services, she says. The center has evolved to meet workers’ needs.
“Displaced Pillowtex workers didn’t know how to apply, interview, dress for a job interview or operate a computer,” says Moore. “They didn’t have to do those things.”
Unemployed worker Nora Welch came to the center when she wasn’t satisfied with how her job search was going on her own. After working 32 years at a VA Medical Center in Virginia, Welch took early retirement to care for her father. She moved to Charlotte to be near her niece after her father died.
She saw information about the center in the newspaper and brought in her resume. A representative from the Employment Security Commission visits the center every Thursday. The representative helped Welch resolve an issue with her Employment Security Commission registration, and Welch left with an application and hope.
“This is the best resource for people,” says Welch. “Best resource I’ve found.”
“We put them to work,” says Kerry Motley, career specialist for the center. “We have people driving from South Carolina. Sometimes it’s just a matter of figuring things out. Where to start, that’s the hardest part.”
Welch agrees.
“That was the hardest part for me, too,” she says, smiling. “I accomplished something in three days that I’ve been trying for months and months to do.”
“The center gives workers a safe place to come and ask questions. We fill a gap that ESS can’t do,” says Moore. “They don’t have time to do all this stuff.”
Kesterson sees the center as a conduit for the N.C. Research Campus. The center offers a course on Research Campus careers. Moore says many clients comment that all they see on the Research Campus job Web site are doctorate-level jobs.
“People need to think bigger and plan longer,” says Moore.
The campus will continue to grow and need workers in fields such as customer service, dry cleaning, caterers and providing assistance to the people who already work there, says Moore. Skills attained now will allow workers to be ready when those jobs come available.
“I love the center and what I do,” Motley says, “seeing people go from the depressed state that comes with unemployment to being happy and having hope.”