07 May Long-time volunteer shares unique inspiration for job-search success
Charlotte Works continues to chip away at the local unemployment rate by helping clients get back to work.
We celebrate Phil Corbett, a long-time volunteer who landed a new position in March.
He served as a job search team facilitator since Charlotte Works was called ProNet, as a co-facilitator for “Think Tank for LinkedIn” and as a workshop instructor for various software programs.
“I’ve also reviewed dozens of resumes and shared more than 100 cups of coffee with anyone needing help,” he says. He became unemployed in February 2012. “I immediately contacted Julie [Paul, volunteer manager] at Charlotte Works, who didn’t waste a minute asking if I would facilitate a job team,” says Corbett.
In addition to his volunteer service, he participated in multiple workshops, including the interview and resume basic courses and workshops on using social media in the job search. “Each class presented some unique nuggets of information that I used as part of my marketing and job search strategy,” he says. In a prime example of things coming full-circle, Corbett began a position as a customer service representative on March 18 (“It was exactly 13 months and six days, but who’s counting?” he says.) with Regus Management Company – the company from which he was laid off last year.
“I’ll be assisting them in opening their newest center, slated for June, in the Ballantyne area,” says Corbett. “My responsibility will have both a customer service and financial component to it.”
His story of job-search triumph includes a very personal component. In his own words, Corbett shares his source of inspiration:
The past year has been an incredible journey. My wife, Jacque, was diagnosed with cancer this past September. I can’t begin to convey to you how devastated my family and I were when we heard the news, but my wife was determined not to let her illness define her; instead it would empower her and therefore our family. It was at that moment I realized that placing my job search on hold during that time was a mistake. I needed to succeed in finding employment and my wife needed to win her battle. And within only 30 days of one another, we succeeded in doing both. I tell you this not because my situation is unique: quite the contrary, it’s because I have come to learn of many job-seekers facing similar challenges in their lives. Yet despite these challenges, they continue to move forward. They are a unique breed of people.