<p>I am a 25 year old female who graduated from a top LAC (albeit by the skin of her teeth) and is having an unusually difficult time finding employment. It seems that all the jobs I apply to are above my head which shows on interviews and I don't get hired. (I apply to administrative jobs) So far a direct placement program where the job developer just sends out my resume and cover letter in response to ads posted on job boards is not working. Therefore, my voc. rehab. counselor wants to put me in supported employment. What do you think about it? What would it be like?</p>
<p>As far as my background, I have cerebral palsy and a learning disability secondary to that. My cognitive profile is Verbal IQ 135, Performance IQ 73 and an average Full Scale IQ. My SAT in high school was 1350 (680V 670M) without accommodations as I was not tested for LD at this point. Obviously, I have difficulties in a number of areas: acquiring new information, reading comprehension, sustaining interest on task, synthesizing. So just wondering what you guys think about my situation.</p>
<p>If your mobility is impaired by the cerebral palsy, that of itself might call for adapted or supported employment. Since you have had a great deal of difficulty in finding work, and you do indeed WANT to work, I say take the job the counselor has recommended for you. There is every chance that you will be able to advance in that environment once your supervisors/employers figure out how best to use your individual talents.</p>
<p>There is no shame in taking a job, any job, that is honest work. I know two seven-sister graduates who are currently working in retail. Neither is in management. They are out there on the floor at their establishments helping everyday customers, running cash registers, and taking home an honest paycheck every two weeks.</p>
<p>After you have built up some work experience, you will be in a better position to look for a different job when you want one.</p>
<p>I don’t know very much about supported employment, but I agree with happymom that racking up some job experience could be a very good thing. Especially in this economy, you would certainly not be alone if this job were not the job you hope to be doing five years from today. Have you talked with your counselor about the kind of job you would ideally like to do, whether home based work or in an office? You are clearly very intelligent and an excellent writer, and I wonder if some sort of writing job, such as writing content and editing for a website or company newsletters or reports, would be doable for you? It would be great if the supported work that the counselor finds could be something that would help you move toward your ultimate goal of doing the kind of work you’d like and believe you could do. (If you’re not sure of what you would like to be doing and where your strengths lie in terms of a job, maybe the supported environment will allow you to explore.)</p>
<p>Another thing I’m wondering about: Is there an advocacy organization for adults with CP, probably Washington D.C. based, that has an expert in employment you could talk to? Such a person could probably give you a lot of great info that would be tailored to your specific situation. I also think it might be good for you to contact the Center for Independent Living in Berkeley, which may be able to direct you to a local branch, or to an organization with relevant employment expertise. They are a very, very helpful group. It would probably be very helpful for you to have more of a sense of what other very bright adults with challenges similar to yours are doing employment-wise, and what their experiences have been with supported employment.</p>
<p>Sorry, I left off the web address for the Center for Independent Living. It’s at [Center</a> for Independent Living - CIL - Berkeley,CA](<a href=“http://www.cilberkeley.org%5DCenter”>http://www.cilberkeley.org).</p>
<p>Also, I googled “cerebral palsy employment” and a number of organizations popped up. If you could connect with a very knowledgable person at the right organization, you might be able to find a lot of information. It might take some trial and error to find the right organization/helpful person, but my experience in getting info/help for people who needed it through the CIL, and finding info through advocacy groups, has been extremely positive.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your genuinely well-meaning and helpful replies.</p>
<p>If you are wondering about my mobility, I walk on my own two feet without any aids, however, I limp and have a characteristic gait. I also tire quickly from walking and standing.</p>
<p>What does “supported employment” mean in your case? I know a person who is in some kind of supported job, but he is much lower-functioning than you are. Any job is a good job in this economy, but it would be a shame to relegate yourself to a life of menial employment (if that’s what this job is) just because your profile is so uneven.</p>
<p>I would assume that a supported job would be some kind of a low-level clerical job (putting on stickers, perhaps, hope something slightly higher though), but I really don’t know. It would be difficult to justify refusing supported employment since the jobs posted on regular job boards (Craig’s List, Idealist) were clearly not right for me and thus I did not get hired for them.</p>
<p>I took a clerk-typist (“keyboard specialist”) exam with the New York State on May 30th which consisted of grammar, spelling, clerical checking and usage but I won’t find out my result for 2-3 months. I am hoping something would come out of that, but passing an exam only makes me eligible to apply for such jobs and doesn’t guarantee me a job. That means I would still need to find such positions, apply, and compete on interviews. We’ll see what happens.</p>
<p>I’m registered at GoodTemps, a temp. agency for people with disabilities. The only job that they had me interview for was a Customer Service position with the Board of Ed. This was clearly not the right job for me as it is high stress which obviously showed on the interview and I did not get hired.</p>
<p>Do you know of a good temp. agency for someone like me?</p>
<p>OP, check out your local Center of Independent Living (CIL) as well. As for youre job search, as you know, finding a job when you have a disability really, really sucks, especially in this economy, but in any economy in general. How are you find your fine motor skills? What was your degree in? Any internships? What do you want to do?</p>
<p>My fine motor skills are OK; I write sloppily but more-or-less legibly and I type 47 words per minute. I have a bachelor’s degree from a top liberal arts college (which again I got by the skin of my teeth) and my major was Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences. However, it was a totally wrong major for me due to the reading loads and the abstract nature of the subject and I did not learn anything in it. The only reason I did not change it was because I started taking classes for a major only after my sophomore year and I would not have graduated on time had I decided to change it. I basically stuck it out just to get my credential (degree). </p>
<p>I did not do any internships during college. After college, I volunteered at the central office of an agency which services people with mental retardation and cerebral palsy for 6 months. It was again clearly a wrong place for me. They just had me do the menial tasks of filing, data entry and operating copy and fax machine because they sensed I can’t do anything more demanding. Eventually, they just told me not to come anymore.</p>
<p>I don’t really know what I want to do, obviously something at which I am good and feel a sense of achievement. I have good vocabulary, spelling, verbal reasoning and deficits in analysis-synthesis, short-term memory/learning, reading comprehension and it takes me longer in general to think. I posted my WAIS III profile in another thread, if you are interested, and so would not write it here again and bore everyone.</p>
<p>Do you think your fine motor skills could have affected your Performance score? Just a thought, but I, too, have CP (with no LD/MR issues, at least not that anyone knows of), and I know that there was an <em>incredibly huge</em> difference between my Verbal and Performance scores due simply to the manipulative tasks in the Performance section.</p>
<p>Take the job; you’ve got nothing to lose. Either it will be a good thing, or the experience will lead to a good thing, or you will eventually quit and try something else. For what it’s worth, boring clerical tasks beat flipping burgers and many other things people do to make ends meet. Even if you don’t end up loving the job you may develop your capabilities, discover the type of work you find fulfilling, identify the intermediate jobs you have to do to get the fulfilling jobs, and develop your self-confidence. The experience can’t harm you, so go for it.</p>
<p>No, it wasn’t the fine motor skills that lowered my Performance IQ; it were the genuine cognitive difficulties in these areas. I am pretty sure that if I were to retake the WAIS, my Performance score would go up (because I am no longer taking it cold and had a chance to think and develop strategies to these subtests), however, it would always be significantly lower than my Verbal IQ score; I think the highest I can get on the Performance IQ is a 90.</p>
<p>Psych, what kind of CP do you have? I have spastic diplegia caused by complications of premature birth (or perhaps cerebral palsy precipitated premature birth; doctors still don’t know the answer to that question). Are you a psychologist or a psychology grad. student?</p>
<p>FWIW, IQ tests such as the WAIS <em>should</em> be tests you can’t prepare for–they are explicitly <em>not</em> aptitude tests. Of the course, the degree to which this is actual truly is highly debatable.</p>
<p>I’m an undergrad currently, looking to apply to school psych programs (most PhD/PsyD programs and a handful of EdS programs) for the next admissions cycle. My CP is mixed qudraplegia (symptoms from all three CP types), most likely acquired prenatally, though I am a premie.</p>
<p>I agree with AnonyMom’s suggestion to check out any CP advocacy organizations. There are some tax breaks companies can receive for hiring individuals with disabilities - a CP advocacy group could possibly steer you to some compaines that are interested in hiring qualified people with disabilities.</p>