I discovered that I was going to be losing my job; they were going to be doing away with the position I currently held. After being there 13 years, I thought, ‘What am I going to do?’ I had not been to school in 20 years, but I knew I needed to do something. When I left I was making almost $15 an hour. Now you can’t go anywhere, especially where we live, and make $15 an hour.
I decided that I was going to try and go to school. I had heard about a program with Goodwill Industries of KYOWVA Area. I had really wanted to take a Microsoft class, something in Excel. I was inquiring about the business classes, but they were also telling me about the medical class they offered.
They had medical office training, and you still got to do all of the Microsoft and all of the computer classes. I thought I might as well take that too in case I ever wanted to go into medical administration.
There was about a month between my job ending and the start of the training, and that was a down point for me. I wasn’t used to not working. But I started school, and I loved it. I hadn’t been in school in 20 years, but I loved it and everyone at Goodwill. I felt good and got straight As. We also were taught how to look for another job.
I ended up applying for a position in the city of Huntington, the city where we live. At the time, I didn’t realize it was through a temporary service, but they called me and I went and applied. I ended up doing really well on the testing and eventually got hired full-time to work for the Huntington Fire Department, which is a great place to work.
Goodwill was great about it; they would have me come in the evening so I could finish and graduate with my class, and I really appreciated that. It’s a great program; it’s really good for people who need to get back into the workforce. I wasn’t unemployed for long, but while I went to school I learned a lot.
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