When searching for ways to move around your town or city, not only do you need to look at the mode of transportation (walking, driving, riding a bus,etc) but you also need to look at the access to those ways of travel including getting to them as well as getting on and off of them. You also need to look the environment such as noise, heat/cold and smells of the transportation itself as well as the costs.

The path of travel is the route  that one has to take to get from one place to another. This route may be from the house to the car, from work to the bus, the sidewalks to the store, the bicycle path and any other route between two places. Evaluating the path of travel is the most important piece of going somewhere and, for most people, this evaluation is done automatically. For people with access difficulties or mobility issues, this evaluation becomes an important piece of the planning -sometimes even for as seemingly simple trip to the  neighborhood grocery store.

Walking is wonderful exercise and might be an excellent way to get somewhere.  For those who have balance problems or other walking problems, walking on sidewalks that are broken up or where there are no sidewalks, the path to be traveled may not be safe. Alternative means of transportation may need to be looked at such as car or bus.

Taking a car is convenient and easy but when you have back problems or leg problems, getting to the car is the first step and then getting into the car can be an adventure by itself. Traveling by car-especially an old one-may mean poor shocks for buffering those speed bumps.For those in rural areas, going to the store may be close to an off-road experience of bumping down gravel roads with potholes.

Riding a bus in the city can also be an adventure. For those with mobility devices such as walkers and wheelchairs, getting to a bus stop can be very difficult. For someone who is blind, ditches along the road or potholes can result in injury. Some elders and people with disabilities can take advantage of paratransit but for those who do not qualify or live outside of the covered area, taking the bus means walking to the bus stop, boarding the city bus, knowing where/when to ring the bell to get off. The next step is to actually get up and get off and go to the destination. Buses are often crowded, noisy and sometimes smell-all of which may be hard to cope with.

Transportation often seems simple but when there are mobility issues, planning the trip must come first. Getting to the transportation, getting on and off the transportation and getting to the destination can all be difficult steps. These difficulties are multiplied in inclement weather. The next time we will talk more about each of these modes of transportation.

Let us know the difficulties you have with modes of transportation!

WRITING A RESUME
By Amy Spiegel, CTO

Developing Your Work  History-Part 2: Paid Employment

When searching for a job, the first step is to list all of those jobs which you can do and have done. Even if you are a high school student who has just graduated, a homemaker who is looking to work outside the home or a retired executive thinking about being a consultant, you have a work history which may include both volunteer work and paid employment. This week’s blog will focus on paid employment.

What does your paid employment say about you?

First and foremost, your paid employment tells potential employers what your professional expertise might be. Just as in sports where amateurs-like volunteers- are not paid, professional athletes are paid but they can capture their professional skills on camera. You have to show your professional skills –those skills for which you have been paid- on paper and a potential employer has to be able to see them as clearly as watching them on video.

Your paid employment also tells a potential employer about how the skills you have developed have been applied to various jobs. There are two different types of skills called hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills are those technical skills which you have developed on the job or went to training to learn. Soft skills are those skills which cannot be learned as easily: having a work ethic, always being on time to work, having good hygiene and more. We will be discussing those skills more in depth on another blog in this resume series. The paid employment in the work history section of your resume can tell the employer at a very quick glance what your hard skills are and a little bit about your soft skills.

What your paid employment does not say about you…

Your paid employment in your work history does not say how hard you work, how you take direction or work with others and it does not tell always tell your employer how much you like the field you are in. Volunteer history can fill those gaps and give the employer a better understanding of your soft skills as a leader or a hard-working team member or a person who likes to work independently.

What information about my paid employment is the most important?

There are different styles of resumes and many, many books on how to write a resume complete with resume templates. A standard resume usually includes the dates you were employed, the job title, the company and its location and your job duties. Depending on the industry, a resume may also include what your wage was for a job, the name of your supervisor and other specific pieces of information. What information you choose to include in your work history should reflect the best things about you.

Knowing about the industry or the job ahead of time will also help you decide which pieces to emphasize. If you have worked for a long time at one job- and that is important to your industry- then including the dates in a format that clearly and quickly shows that is very important. If-in your industry- the job title is far more important than how long you have been at the job than that is the part that you want the employer to see first. If –in your industry- the most important piece is what your duties were or the skills you used then the “duties” or “responsibilities” should stand out the most.

Let me know which piece of the paid employment work history is the most important for you industry!

Having transportation in the United States is usually taken for granted whether that transportation is a car or mass transit options. For rural people, seniors who can no longer drive and some people with disabilities, having a car or using mass transit may not be affordable or accessible options.

With the price of the car being but the first cost, owning a car has become very expensive. The sales tax (in applicable states), registration, mandatory insurance, basic maintenance and, of course, gas. If the car is an older used car then the maintenance costs may be higher, the resale value lower and the cost of a break down can be beyond the owner’s means to fix it, so the car becomes side-lined and the owner stranded.

Social service agencies, senior services and transition and/or workfare agencies often make appointments or referrals. Yet, the transportation to get to the new offices is not considered until the day before the appointment. For those who don’t drive and have difficulty walking distances, even using public transportation to get to an appointment can be difficult-providing that appointment is even close to a route.

Some argue that as long as one has two functional legs, that person has transportation. Walking with groceries,though, or laundry any great distance is difficult even for a young person with strong legs . For a senior or a person with a disability who has poor leg muscles or problems with the summer heat, carrying even light groceries can be so difficult that the person would rather not leave the house.

For those who do not have access to transportation-especially seniors who live alone with no family members nearby-isolation is very a real dilemma. Isolation can occur in urban as well as rural areas. Working in your community to prevent isolation of community members by increasing transportation options helps everyone in that community.

Let us know what you are doing to increase transportation options in your community!

When searching for a job, the first step is to list all of those jobs which you can do and have done. Even if you are a high school student who has just graduated, a homemaker who is looking to work outside the home or a retired executive thinking about being a consultant, you have a work history which may include both volunteer work and paid employment. This week’s blog will focus on volunteer work.

Developing Your Work  History-Part 1: Volunteerism

Volunteerism

Volunteer work is very important for your resume or the longer curriculum vitae (c.v.). Volunteerism provides work experience in a specific field and also shows community spirit and leadership-both very important to employers. Volunteering can teach you the skills needed for many jobs as well such as general clerical or budgeting and accounting (if you volunteer to manage a major fundraiser or are a homemaker volunteering to help a local Girl Scout troop to sell Girl Scout cookies at the local store) as well as creating a network of people who can assist you with information about available jobs.

Summer internships are a way for students to earn credit for school as well as build their resumes. A summer internship is generally volunteer work at a site specific to a topic being studied or a degree being taught at school. Summer internships allow anthropology students to work at museums, political science students to work at a legislative office, journalism students to work at a newspaper and more. Employers specifically look for summer internships for those students who do not have much experience in the field.

Volunteerism can also assist you with finding employment at a specific site. If there is a particular place which interests you and you wish to find out what it is like to work at that site, then volunteer for a job there! True, volunteering does not pay anything and there are no benefits such as health insurance but an employer who sees a hard-working volunteer may be more willing to create a place for that volunteer in that business or to refer that volunteer to a business which is hiring. A hard-working volunteer can ask supervisors to write letters of recommendation for applications or be used as a reference-both necessary for employment at the paid level.

What volunteer jobs have you done? Post a reply and let me know what you have volunteered to do and I can help you understand what skills you can use on your resume!