Today’s most widely used job search and re-entry resource for transforming the lives of ex-offenders. This user-friendly book serves as a personal re-entry counselor/coach for ex-offenders. It helps America’s huge red flag population quickly find employment – 77,000,000 citizens with arrest records; 11,000,000 people cycling through prisons, jails, and detention centers each year; and 650,000 prisoners annually released into communities where they struggle to jump-start their lives and overcome many barriers to employment.
Make no mistake – life can be hard for offenders living in a caged command and control environment punctuated with gangs, sociopaths, and troubled souls. Re-entry is especially hard for those who have lost everything, including precious hope and optimism, and who lack job search skills and digital smarts. Without a decent job and support network to help meet immediate food, housing, transportation, and health care needs, and often saddled with onerous financial obligations (fines, restitution, child support payments, accumulated debts), many ex-offenders fall back on old dysfunctional habits, relationships, and temptations that lead them back to depressing correctional institutions.
What ex-offenders most need is a good paying job with a promising future. While many employers may not want to hire someone with a criminal record, others are willing to give them a second chance. Knowing this, what should ex-offenders do to land a good job? Where can they best find a job they do well and enjoy doing? What job search strategies work best for them?
This ground-breaking book provides important answers to many re-entry employment questions. Beginning with a job search self-assessment, users address such critical issues as asking questions, taking responsibility, telling the truth, and becoming trustworthy before examining 10 sequential steps to job and re-entry success. These steps include changing attitudes, seeking assistance, assessing skills, writing resumes, networking, interviewing for the job, and more. The book also includes two special chapters on (1) developing an action plan for re-entry success and (2) navigating today’s challenging digital world.
Rich in insights and filled with practical examples, exercises, self-tests, and resources from one of America's leading career experts and correctional educators, here's the book that can make a big difference in the lives of ex-offenders. It shows them how to effectively communicate their qualifications to employers who will want to hire them because of their unique talents, positive attitudes, and strong employer-centered motivations!
