Program Brings Job Hunters Training, Community
Joanne Marcotte had spent nearly 24 years climbing the career ladder through highly technical jobs, finally reaching a position at UnitedHealth Group where she was managing 20 employees. So when the recession hit and she was laid off, it was a shock. And when her job search didn’t get results, it was dispiriting.
“Being unemployed for over a year, I was feeling pretty removed from the workforce and questioning whether my career had come to an end,” she said.
Then Marcotte heard about STEMPower, a program run out of Worcester’s Workforce Central Career Center that aims to channel students and workers into fields that fall under the STEM rubric: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Community Connections
The program was created in 2009 by a partnership of local schools and colleges, employers and workforce development groups, and it serves people throughout Western and Central Massachusetts. It’s funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor that runs through the start of 2012.
What Marcotte says she found at STEMPower was not training for a technical field — she already has plenty of that. And it wasn’t so much tips on job hunting — she knew how to find openings and network, and how to handle interviews. Instead, the program gave her a group of fellow job-seekers to commiserate with, plan with and be accountable to. And it gave her a chance to put her skills to work helping others.
Marcotte helped set up a group for STEMPower participants on the online networking site LinkedIn, posted articles and job listings to the STEMPower website and helped other unemployed workers overcome their fears about computers.
“It was really interesting to see them move from feeling overwhelmed… to move from that feeling of stuck-ness to being proud of themselves because they created an online profile,” she said.
STEMPower offers different things to different people. According to Amy Mosher, the lead coach for the Central Massachusetts part of the program, participants get information about the STEM jobs that are available, training on both basic and job-specific skills and help with soft skills and job search techniques. They also get some perspective on the difficulty of finding jobs in a rough economy.
Mosher said when she works with people who’ve become dispirited after being out of work for a long time, she likes to point to global industry trends to help them “recognize that it’s not personal. It may not have anything to do with the ability of that person to do the job.”
As of the end of September, STEMPower reported that it had enrolled 278 job seekers and helped 206 of them find training opportunities. Of the 174 who had completed their training, 150 found jobs, with an average wage of $19.26 per hour.
The organization also targets students with career fairs and other STEM awareness efforts.
New Beginning
Lawrence Boutillette is a former STEMPower participant who looked at the economic trends Mosher points to and turned his career in a new direction. Before the recession, the former construction worker ran his own mortgage brokerage in Worcester, but the credit crunch forced him to close the business down. Looking at the growing prominence of energy issues, he said, he “really came to the conclusion that the next boom is going to be in energy-efficient housing.”
So Boutillette said he started “greening up” his credentials, taking courses in energy auditing, LEED building certification and health and safety instruction.
After adding his new certifications to his resume, he snagged a job as an OSHA instructor with Safety Trainers in Auburn. He also started his own energy and safety consulting firm, GreenThink Advisors.
Another former STEMPower participant, Raymond Augustine, said he took part in the program only briefly, but it helped him polish the stills he needed to handle an interview and win a new job as a support service technician in Cambridge.
“It’s not just a program where you go there and get a couple slides and a printout,” Augustine said. “It’s an actual community, so it’s very valuable in that way.”
As for Marcotte, she said STEMPower encouraged her to keep working at her job hunt, setting out specific goals and timetables for action. And finally she succeeded, getting a job as an IT program manager at Hopkinton-based EMC Corp.
She said the job title is less prestigious than the one she left at UnitedHealth. But the pay is about the same. And instead of spending her time on the paperwork, she gets to work at “building something new and interesting.”
“For me, it’s a good role,” she said.
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