Meet Johnathan.

Sep 29, 2022
Client Story

For a long while, Johnathan found lots of joy at work until a difficult work situation forced him to walk away from his job. When trying to find a new job, he quickly found himself hitting a wall. Many of the jobs he found required applicants to have post-secondary degrees, and many other employers were just unresponsive to his applications. For Johnathan, coming to Causeway for help with job searching was a natural choice. He had been through the Job Quest program before and found it to be a great resource, especially in overcoming barriers to employment and getting support to expand his job search.

This is Johnathan’s story:

“After leaving my previous job, I was left with a great feeling of disappointment. The time I spent working there was something I truly enjoyed, and it had been over a year since I felt that same joy in relation to my work. I walked away from one of the best teams I’d ever worked with. Leaving was a difficult decision and walking away made me feel very forlorn. In fact, for nearly a whole month from the end of March 2022, when I left, until almost the end of April 2022, I did not take any action related to finding new employment.

Aside from feeling so regretful of the choice I had to make, I had no idea what I wanted to do next. Would I stay with stock handling or return to grocery? Maybe I would branch out to something new. After some time, I turned to Causeway whose team of specialists offered the strongest employment support that I knew of. They had helped me so much in the past and it was only natural for me to ask for help again. After my intake for the Job Quest program, the day came when I got the call from Lisa. She would be my Employment Support Specialist providing me with support and guidance.

One of the first things Lisa did was enable me to see that I was a strong candidate for a number of positions, when I had only previously considered myself as “decent”. I knew I could do the job, but I didn’t have that sense that I could tell people in interviews why I should be the one. Lisa helped me regain my self-confidence through her honest and constant encouragement. My very first interview after that was less than ideal, but once again Lisa was there to support me.

Lisa kept her encouragement and support up even during a very difficult time in my search, when I found out that I wasn’t eligible for Employment Insurance (EI). Without EI to keep me going through my job search, and with my money almost all gone, I came very close to losing the communication and Internet services provided to me by my smartphone. Losing that would have left me completely cut off and unable to search for work, let alone even be contacted for an interview. Lisa worked hard to come up with contingencies in the event that I did indeed lose my phone service. I got very lucky that I was able to maintain communication but, even so, I was very grateful for Lisa going so above and beyond in what very well could have been a dire situation.

After some less than stellar interviews coupled with a lack of even hearing from employers at all, Lisa ramped up her support even more. She started to personally call or communicate with people in the companies that I would apply to. I received an interview that went well simply from Lisa’s stellar recommendation; that’s how much she believed in me. She even called the owner of a store I had already interviewed with since I was still awaiting their decision. They chose to hire me, and I know without Lisa’s support this next step in my career journey wouldn’t be taking place.

I would like to thank Lisa and extend that thanks to everyone at Causeway. Anyone who chooses Causeway for support will be in the best hands they could be in.”

Johnathan

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