Humans of JVS
“It's always in the back of your mind when you watch the news seeing people getting laid off, that potentially you could be one of those persons. Working for a big company, those things happen frequently so I knew it was possible, but didn't expect to have it happen to me so quickly. Being out of work is tough. You had a routine and knew what you were doing, where you were supposed to be. And here you are – boom – it’s 8 o’clock in the morning and you have nothing to do.
So here I was, after 30 years of working, without a job. Selling myself in the job market wasn’t a skill that I had honed over the course of time. I never had to look for a job in my entire life, so it was a new set of skills that I had to develop. I think when you’re off work for a period of time, it gets even more difficult. You become isolated, just beating the same drum every day. You drop your resume into a black hole, and nothing happens.”
Chris Stonehouse is a success story from JVS’s New Experience program, which places individuals over 50 and struggling with long-term unemployment in internships to obtain experience and refresh their skills or gain new skills. Chris found a new opportunity within the Engineering and Advanced Technology Program at Macomb Community College and earned our JVS Employee of the Year Award. See more of his story in this short video.
