Clare was working in a role that was effecting her physical and mental health, she reached out to Fair Start Scotland and is now helping people just like her.
Why Clare joined Fair Start Scotland?
Clare left her previous supervisor role in retail as it was becoming too physical demanding for her. Clare has Hypermobility and Crohn’s Disease and was expected to lift heavy items up and down stairs while working up to 50 hours a week. The manual labour and long hours started to impact Clare’s emotional and physical health.
Clare’s started to lack confidence and felt she could no longer work at the pace expected of her. She wanted to explore other options and was keen to look for an office-based role to allow her to help others who may be in a similar situation.
How Fair Start Scotland helped?
Clare and her personal adviser Katie worked together to create a new CV and cover letter. She had lots of transferable skills to capture on her CV that would benefit working in an office environment. To help with her confidence, Katie referred Clare to our in-house tutors Michael and Esther who invited her to attend the confidence building workshops.
Michael felt that Clare would also benefit from the applications and interview workshop giving her the skills to sell herself to potential employers. Attending these workshops helped with Clare’s confidence and her self-belief.
Katie saw a role working as a job coach for the Department of Work and Health and felt Clare would be well suited to the role as she matched so many of the requirements listed in the job specification. Clare was delighted and eager to apply, so Katie and Michael helped her to fill out the application form as well as identifying the relevant documentation needed to support her application.
Getting the job
Clare was ecstatic to be offered an interview. Michael and Esther helped her to prepare for the interview by going through commonly asked questions as well as conducting mock interviews so that she would be comfortable in an interview scenario.
The interview was success and Clare was offered the role. She is delighted with the outcome as the new job will not only improve her wellbeing but help her financially. She is now in a rewarding job where she can support people overcome their barriers.
Clare said: “I’m really appreciative of all the support I received on Fair Start Scotland. The coaching I received while on the service gave me the confidence to apply for the job coach role. I was given excellent support throughout the recruitment, in terms of both the application and recruitment sessions provided by Michael and Esther, and the individual support provided by my adviser Katie.
The service I have received from day one has been fantastic and has exceeded all my expectations, everyone here really wants to help people. Everyone took the time to understand my needs as an individual and found a job perfect for me.’’