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Helping teens, adults, and the elderly find a job isn’t easy. Sometimes people need help.
Many people in the United States of America have lost their job due to the economy. This is
usually when a person tries to go find help. There are very few agencies that will help people in
their time of need. That’s when a person can go see an employment advisor or a career manager.
An employment advisor is a person who an individual goes to in search of employment and gain
career guidance. The life of an employment advisor is never an easy job. It has its advantages
and disadvantages that make this job interesting. It also makes this field so important state to
state and city to city.
The description of an employment advisor is a person that assists an individual find a job,
gives career advice and also helps people define who they are and what they could do with their
life. Employment advisors assist with finding out what barriers prevent a person from achieving
life accomplishments. You see I have learned it’s hard for people to find meaningful
employment if they have not obtained a high school diploma or General Equivalency Diploma
and sometimes even a college degree, it is going to be hard for them to get a high paying job. An
Employment advisor can also act as a counselor, or guidance to improve that person in value of
life. Many people in the United States have lost their job due to the society and tax altercations.
Unemployment is usually when a person tries to go find assistance for a job. There are
very few agencies that will help people in their time of need. When help is needed for a job that’s
when a person can go see employment advisors or career managers. One agency that will help
the community in these tough times is Joblink. This is located at Johnston Community College.
This agency helps by helping provide jobs for the community.

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Employment advisors work in a professional setting. Now depending on where you work
and what population you serve you could wear Business or Business Casual Attire. Therefore,
this means they are required to wear professional attire. For females this consists of suits, button-
up shirts, dress pants (slacks), with a pair of black or brown or brown shoes. For males they
should wear a dark blue, grey, black, or charcoal suit, along with a pair high of quality black or
brown dress shoes. Information gathered from (google.com). Piercings and tattoos are not to be
visible because in this particular field people are very judgmental. I feel like that is true. Even
when people don’t mean to be judgmental they can be. Many people see a person and
automatically judge them, based on appearance.
http://www.humanresoruces.about.com/od/workrelationships/a/dress_code.htm
In order to become an employment advisor you need to graduate high school and
college, obtaining at least a bachelor’s degree in human services. After obtaining a degree you
will have to go through training on how to work with people. After training you may gain
employment with an agency like Joblink. (http://lgcareers.com/careers.com/career-
az/employment-advisor/). I feel that without educational requirements some of the services that
employment advisors render wouldn’t be sufficient. With the economy being in this recession,
there is a prediction that” the biggest hurdle the region economy will face in 2012 is avoiding a
fall back into recession.”(3) Since the economy is not doing so well, employment advisors have
been working extra- hard to help citizens of America. Ex: While shadowing in the joblink center
and assisting one of the customer I was told that “she was looking for a job and needed
assistance completing an online application she had been seeking employment for well over 1
year and still was unable to find anything, she also said that she was thinking about relocating in
hope to find employment in another state. However she was asking her case worker/career

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advisor where are the jobs? “She asked because she had recently relocated from Ohio due to the
same reason”. There are some success stories because you do have many people finding
employment what I have seen such individual must fall into two categories One category is how
someone who is able to assist you landing a specific position or gaining a Degree from college.
Most companies are mandating that people seeking certain opportunities have the basic
Associates of Arts.
Theopia Pelzer is an employment advisor at Johnston Community College. She says that
the unemployment rates are dropping daily. Other employees interviewed came to one
conclusion. The best part of being an employment advisor is seeing a person reach their full
potential. “Helping someone reaches their goals,” says Ms. Teresa Watson. “Seeing people in
their time of highest need has a huge toll on the way case managers react to situations”. Many
customers that come in have almost exhausted their unemployment benefits still unable to find
employment they come in to see what training that might help them in landing that job there in
need of. Say Mrs. Teresa Watson WIA Case Manager Ms. Monica Davis (Finances) says “The
proper funding just is not available. Which makes helping the community that much harder.”
Joblink wants to help a lot of people but due to the economy it’s not possible. The
economy is bringing a lot of agencies like Joblink down. Mostly, every agency needs funding to
help the communities in need. Agencies need help from government agencies. They can help the
most financially wise. Ms. Theopia Pelzer, who is a Case Manager/Employment Advisor in
Joblink, is very passionate about her work. During her interview she said “As an employment
advisor I have the privilege of assisting youth, teens, young adults, adults, and the elderly
population. Sometimes people are at their lowest point in their life and their tired of being
spoken at they are seeking help.” Since most people have other underlined issues or barriers that

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prevent them from gaining/maintaining stable employment they are losing hope in themselves.
And for this reason an employment advisor’s job is always in demand. This is one of the many
advantages of being an Employment Advisor. Another advantage is helping the community. The
economy is a huge parts everything that goes on in the world today. With that being said an
employment advisor must do whatever he/she can to help get a person in the community a job.
This means more people working and lowers unemployment rates.
An average day for an employment advisor is very busy. Hours consist of 8am-5pm. This
can mean working overtime to 6pm at times. While work employment advisors answer telephone
calls, write resumes, network, go to workshops, meetings, paperwork, help individuals use the
computers, and much more. “Sometimes people can be really appreciative while others are rather
not that appreciative. But always remember the good people always outweighs the bad.” says
Ms. Teresa Watson. When dealing with the community you have to learn that some people can
be very discouraged. One of the many advantages of being an employment advisor is being able
to help the ones in need. People may not have enough faith in themselves. They may not be able
to see what another person see in them, and they need someone to tell them that. It’s just like
when a person has low self-esteem. They may have never had a person to tell them that they are
beautiful inside and out. With an employment advisors job there are many people that come into
centers with low self-esteem. If a person has is dealing with low self-esteem than odds are they
won’t want to work. It is like a sign of depression. They are calling out for help in a way. An
employment advisor can be that persons shoulder to lean on in their time of need. This is similar
to a counselor.
Unfortunately there is always some type of disadvantage to every job. One of the
disadvantages of being an employment advisor is trying to help people with records. This can be

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very hard to do. Many jobsites may hold discrimination to people that have a criminal record.
They can be judgmental. It can sometimes depend on what exactly your crime was. If a person
has a rather offensive criminal record, and shows no signs of changing then a person may not be
able to find a high paying job. Which can be very discouraging, especially to young adults.
When being told “sorry we don’t need your help” so many times, a person just reverts back to
what he/she knows. In some cases this can mean doing illegal things. Another disadvantage is
there aren’t that many employment opportunities. Many people need jobs but cannot find them
on their own. http://www.indiacareerblog.com and http://www.swales.com/coperate/
In conclusion, it was a privilege to have experience and gain first-hand knowledge on
what an Employment advisor does. I have learned how imperative it is to gain my education in
hope that I will not have to ever visit one of these centers as I reach adulthood. However if I
should have to I know that the services delivered by each and every staff member will be
sufficient enough to get me on the right path. Whereas things do always look tough in the eyes of
a person seeking meaningful employment, but there are people that are willing to help at the
Joblink Center.