[JoeS21]

What is an initial meeting with an employment network like? Do they ask you anything? What topics do they discuss?

Do you think an EN would be against my goals of being a tutor, paralegal, wanting to eventually go to law school or medical school? What if I don't just want any low paying menial job?

(My general experience is that meetings are more useful for me when I can think about things in advance. If I don't think about them in advance, I leave realizing I left out important things, miscommunicated, and unintentionally said misleading things. Everyone's different, but I need to plan and prepare or things don't go as well.)

[Perna]

Did you read the Social Security publication on their employee networks? http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10065.pdf

Basically they are those who want to help in some way by offering jobs or other support so what is available in your area would be what they would be offering. Their goals are to help you get a job/work, not specific jobs/work but they are limited to what those offering have available. For example, one of the guys I worked with is quadriplegic and the program helped him train in computer aided drafting (CAD), he only has partial use of his hands so he had to train with a particular tool which was provided and instruction on drafting was provided, etc. and then he was gotten a job with the engineering firm I worked with who were also part of the program. So, they will take into account what your interests and goals are and what background and education you have and want but will also see what jobs are available in your area, who is part of the network. If there are no law firms, for example, it might be hard to become a paralegal (or you might start lower, as a legal secretary or receptionist, work in the law library of a large firm, something like that). The primary job of the employment network is the actual getting of a job/work. You then take it from there and put yourself through school, etc., whatever you want, and they will help with what resources they have, if any. I am sure the first meeting will just be a "get acquainted" sort of thing where they will learn about you some and you about them and what they have to offer.

[JoeS21]

Originally Posted by Perna

Did you read the Social Security publication on their employee networks? http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10065.pdf

Basically they are those who want to help in some way by offering jobs or other support so what is available in your area would be what they would be offering. Their goals are to help you get a job/work, not specific jobs/work but they are limited to what those offering have available. For example, one of the guys I worked with is quadriplegic and the program helped him train in computer aided drafting (CAD), he only has partial use of his hands so he had to train with a particular tool which was provided and instruction on drafting was provided, etc. and then he was gotten a job with the engineering firm I worked with who were also part of the program. So, they will take into account what your interests and goals are and what background and education you have and want but will also see what jobs are available in your area, who is part of the network. If there are no law firms, for example, it might be hard to become a paralegal (or you might start lower, as a legal secretary or receptionist, work in the law library of a large firm, something like that). The primary job of the employment network is the actual getting of a job/work. You then take it from there and put yourself through school, etc., whatever you want, and they will help with what resources they have, if any. I am sure the first meeting will just be a "get acquainted" sort of thing where they will learn about you some and you about them and what they have to offer.

Yes, I read that.

Is this your personal experience or based on something you read?

I'm looking for personal or second hand experience. I admit I should have said so originally, and it looks like it's too late to edit my original post so I'm going to try to make this very visible to future readers below:

Future readers, I'm looking for:

PERSONAL OR SECOND HAND EXPERIENCE PLEASE, do not respond to repeat something you read.

Ideally, I would like a personal account like, "I showed up, filled out a form, waited, was called into a room, then I was asked (blah blah) and was told "blah blah."