My Story: Zachary Wilson

When I graduated from high school, I wanted to work to earn money. I didn’t want to go to college. I eventually came to Goodwill Industries of Central Iowa (Des Moines) to receive support in getting a job. I wanted someone to check up on me and see if I had any problems.

Beginning three to four years ago, I participated in a janitorial training program through Goodwill. My current job coach, Jordan, is a good guy. He’s very helpful. I got a job at Sears about two and a half years ago. It’s a good job for me and I like what I do. I like my boss. He’s really easy to work with and very supportive if I need a day off.

I help with merchandise pickup. We have to unload it and separate in into divisions and then we’ll start opening boxes and separate it all. We also have customer pickup and we bring the merchandise out to them. It’s pretty much full time.

I like to organize everything. I like to sort things into divisions. I like to work on cardboard. I put it in a compactor. I also have a forklift license, and I like to do that, too. I learned that at Sears.

People at Goodwill were very helpful. Right now my goal is to move out of my group home and become more independent.