The MicroTrain Blog

Beginning in January of 2013, the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership made history by establishing a new Sector Center for Information Technology: Chicago TechWorks. This IT Sector Center is the first of its kind in the state and was formed as part of the collaboration between the City of Chicago and Cook County. MicroTrain, a leader in IT certification training and job placement, has joinined forces with The Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership to form Chicago TechWorks, the newest Sector Center for Cook County focused on information technology.

Using our experience and existing credibility in the IT industry, Chicago TechWorks is creating new pathways to good jobs and careers for workers new to the industry and aims to achieve systemic changes that benefit employers, workers and the community.

“We are honored to be chosen as the new IT Sector Center and intend to finally fill the gap between IT workers looking for jobs, employers seeking qualified workers, and public workforce resources for both”, said Matt Weis, Director of Workforce Development with MicroTrain Technologies.

In 2005, the City of Chicago, established two sector-based workforce centers: ManufacturingWorks (MW) and ServiceWorks (SW). After a report to the Chicago Workforce Investment Board and the Joyce Foundation in 2009 by the UIC Center for Urban Economic Development outlined how valuable these Sector Centers were, the city decided to consider proposals to start similar centers in other sectors.

MicroTrain has focused on one goal for over a decade: helping clients find their next job. Because of this focus, MicroTrain has helped thousands of people find better jobs in the most challenging employment market in generations; a task that includes providing critical career training, helping clients attain professional certifications, revising resumes, honing interview skills, and improving social media presence, while offering valuable networking opportunities and ultimately helping to secure new work through job placement services. Chicago TechWorks will leverage this expertise to offer market-driven, accessible and convenient services to both the employer and job seeker.

Chicago TechWorks operates on the premise that the employer is the primary customer. This demand-driven approach is based on two core values. First, that recruitment is only one element of an employer’s workforce needs. And second, that recruitment challenges often flow from other human resource and organizational needs within the company. Prudent stewardship of public funding means helping companies understand and deal with their short-term needs while helping them improve for the longer-term.

For this reason, Chicago TechWorks (like other Sector Centers) offers services that are explicitly tailored to employers, such as workshops and consulting services, to help them better understand their own needs and potential solutions. By drawing together a range of services from public and private-sector vendors, we offer our customers more than just recruitment. We offer a full suite of value-added services, including:

• “skills gap” assessments that often result in prescriptions for incumbent worker training
• providing information and access to training that employers may require
• providing or coordinating other business services to businesses such as marketing, strategic planning, and penetration of new markets
• coordinating large-scale recruitment events on employers’ behalf
• pre-screening candidates and referring the most qualified individuals on for further consideration by employers
• organizing “VIP hiring events” with targeted groups of employers and jobseekers

In our first 5 months we have:

• served a total of 174 unduplicated registered people in LWIA7
• helped 30 people gain employment.
• given a total of 3 workshops to WorkNet Center Staff
• attended a total of 4 job fairs
• attended a total of 7 meetings with WorkNet offices to talk about the IT Sector
• worked with 36 employers.

Thank you to the entire MicroTrain team for helping our team become so successful. We are right on track to meet our employment goal and we have already exceeded our service goals!

Right now we are looking for job postings from employers, job seekers who have IT experience, and partners who want to help employers increase their capacity to handle IT human resource challenges. Jobseekers and employers can connect with Chicago TechWorks by calling 312-628-9231 or emailing Andi Grabemeyer, IT Sector Center Manager, at agrabemeyer@chicagotechworks.com.

I recently started running again after months of not running. I don’t actually particularly like running but it’s relatively inexpensive, helps me stay fit, and my dog enjoys it. The most difficult part of starting again I found was just doing it: getting out of bed, putting on my shoes, leashing up the dog and going. Sometimes I dawdle a little getting my arm band to hold my mp3 player, filling my water bottle and stretching. Once I get out of the house and have a little momentum I feel healthy, productive, proud of myself, and generally happier. If I stop thinking and just move, I am amazed at how the whole day seems to go smoother.

The physics Law of Inertia says, “A body at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon; and a body in motion tends to stay in motion, unless acted upon.” In the world of job searching this means if you don’t take any positive action to propel your search forward; if you stay in bed and don’t put on your job seeking shoes, you’ll stay there. So, put your body in motion.

Positive actions in a job search fall into several categories: staying healthy, networking, keeping your skills sharp, and actually applying for jobs. Staying healthy means keeping a positive attitude exercise and eat right. Employers want to hire healthy happy people and taking care of yourself will help you stay marketable. Networking is now the way to get a job so its not just going to a Rotary meeting any more. Networking positively means connecting with friends and colleagues on social media like LinkedIn, writing thoughtful endorsements of them, adding them to projects, and seeking out groups to add to your network. Don’t just connect with them and hope they read your posts; pick up the phone, put your shoes on and meet up with these people in person. The point of meeting up with people and networking positively is to find out how you can become valuable to people. What are your strengths that you can use to help others? Who do you know that you can introduce a new acquaintance to? Ask not what you can do…you know the rest. Keeping your skills sharp can mean taking a class, it can mean joining an online forum to talk to other colleagues about your profession, it can mean volunteering your time using your expertise, it can mean producing helpful tutorials you post for others. Applying for jobs, of course, involves job searching, customizing your resume, and applying. But it also means doing your research on companies. Really find out what they do and think about why you would want to work there. Find out if anyone in your network has worked there and ask if you can ask them questions. Every little thing you can do to keep moving forward is a positive action.

All of these things take time and energy, but so does getting up in the morning and going for a run. What they do is create inertia to keep you moving forward in a positive way. They not only help paint you as a desirable person to hire; they build pro-active energy toward feeling like you are achieving something and that builds your self esteem allowing you to do more positive activities making you more desirable. Do something every day that is a positive move toward success in your job search and inertia will do the rest.