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My first ever workshop series at the computer lab ends this week with mock interviews. As I prepare for this week, I put my thoughts about the process and outcomes out into cyberspace.

We started at the beginning of February, signing participants up with professional Gmail accounts (which was a complete hassle, by the way, and I’ve already got a draft of very. pointed. suggestions. waiting to be emailed to the team). The following week we looked at ways to use the safely use the Internet as a local job search tool. Last week, we had a local resume expert help everyone complete a basic resume (seriously, this woman was amazing – so patient and helpful, highly recommended).

Some of the challenges were personal – being able to stand up and talk for a long time is a very different format from what I’m used to. Other challenges were structural – the meat of the series was in the second week, but only a couple of people showed up. I was able to provide one on one assistance, but I really wanted to go over much more about the power of the Internet, searching, and safe online practices.

Still other challenges showed up in outreach, which I did very little of, and the capacity of the participants. At the first workshop, I had everyone answer the question, “What is your dream job?” Half of them said they didn’t really know. As I told my supervisor, many of the people who showed up were in survival mode. They weren’t attending my workshop to have cozy discussions about how the system worked to offer them challenges or how there were multiple pathways to higher education or better jobs. No, they were there to get a job now. To pay bills, now. To have food and shelter, now.

These are things that mere resume workshops can’t really fulfill. And, as my dad told me when I was talking about the workshop, in this kind of economy, a resume isn’t really that much of a deal breaker. You need to know someone, or someone who knows someone, at the least. From C-level jobs to bagging at Food 4 Less – it’s who you know that’ll get you in the door.

The problem-solver in me wants to do an asset-mapping of the entire neighborhood, find all the jobs that are and are not online, get them online in an accessible, searchable and detailed database, and offer that exclusive database to the lab’s constituents. Thankfully, there are other people who are on the ball in that department.

However, in preparation for the next workshop series, I’ll have to do a bit of people-knowing myself. Asking questions (asking for help more often, really), being a little less afraid to use my halting Spanish (heh), and bring the goals of the workshop into a more tangible realm.

For what it’s worth, the resume workshop was empowering. Two young women who walked out of their with their resumes in hands left with promises to come back the next day and participate in the online job search they’d missed out on. They didn’t, unfortunately, but that’s another thing I have to work on: the follow up.