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Goodwill Program: Banking & Customer Service Occupational Skills Training Class
“The instructors are invested in every person in the class. They want to place everybody in a job.”
Bernice knew her decision to leave the corporate world after 14 years could have repercussions if she ever wanted to go back to work fulltime.
At the time though, the most important thing was being home to raise her second child.
“I never thought I would get a good job again in a corporate atmosphere,” the 42-year-old Charlotte single mother of two recalls.
Six years went by doing nanny and foster care jobs without a consistent paycheck and “no peace of mind.”
She remembers times when nanny jobs would fall through because a family decided to take a last-minute vacation or wanted to spend more time with their kids – leaving her without a paycheck with little warning.
Bernice tried everything to start over. She sent out resume after resume. Just like she feared, her phone calls went unanswered and getting an interview was impossible.
Driving by Goodwill’s corporate office on Freedom Drive in Charlotte almost every day, Bernice always wondered why “professionals and a big diversity of people” went in and out of the building. Goodwill offered classes. That’s all Bernice knew about Goodwill.
“Being nosy, I stopped by one day,” she recalls. “That one day changed my life.”
Bernice enrolled in Goodwill’s nine-week Banking & Customer Service skills training class. Shortly after graduation, she landed a job at Wachovia as a purchasing assistant in Corporate Finance – earning a competitive salary.
Her biggest compliment came only a month into the job when she received the “Shared Success Award” after being nominated by one of her colleagues.
“It felt wonderful. I thought I was just doing my job,” Bernice says. “All I want to do is make a difference. I feel like it’s worth going above and beyond – even it’s not monetarily. It’s just a good, warm feeling.”
The journey to employment
The job market changed drastically in the six years Bernice was away from the insurance business, and she says, Goodwill gave her the confidence she needed in a competitive job market.
The skills I learned at Goodwill such as banking basics, 10-key, typing, basic computer skills and professionalism prepared me for the fast-paced work environment,” Bernice says. “At Goodwill, I also learned how to create a resume in a professional manner, the professional way to dress, speak and conduct myself in an interview.
“The instructors are invested in every person in the class. They want to place everybody in a job.”
Instead of Bernice’s previous rejections, things quickly changed after “polishing up” her skills at Goodwill.
There was one employer she aggressively went after – Wachovia. And she scored the job! Bernice found the job through her connection to Goodwill.
Bernice said hearing guest speakers in class from the corporate world who had overcome similar barriers inspired her.
“If they could do it, so can I,” Bernice recalls. “A lot of them had similar stories like mine.”
Today, Bernice is looking forward to what she hopes is a long-term career with Wachovia. She plans on volunteering with Goodwill “because it’s part of my family.”
“Now I can really plan for the future as far as finances,” Bernice says. “I feel like this was the job for me."
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