Jesus's Success Story | Hood River, OR
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Jesus first came to the United States legally in the year 2006. When he first arrived it was hard for him to get a job, so he decided to do farm work. Jesus worked at a small family farm. He had worked on the farm each season for several years. When the family decided to sell the farm to someone else they notified Jesus that he would not be called back after the harvest was over. Jesus then had to make a decision on how to support his family.
On the farm he drove tractors and forklifts and he liked driving that kind of machinery, therefore he decided to upgrade his skills. He applied at various places where they were hiring for forklift drivers and tractor drivers but he had no luck because his English skills were not good enough. He felt miserable and felt like he couldn’t do any other work, other than working in the fields. So, he went back to work in the orchards, he went from farm to farm during harvest season. Jesus was already tired of working in the orchards, he saw no progress and felt like he was getting behind. Jesus then started looking for other jobs even though, he knew it was going to be hard to find a job because of the language barrier but he still went for it. |
During that time he heard about our program at OHDC, we explained what our program did, but he was still indecisive of coming to us because he thought no one could help him. One day he finally decided to reach us, he came on May of 2013, he talked to us about what he wanted to do and what things he would like to do. We quickly enrolled him in our program and started him in English classes at the community college and did a couple more training like Job readiness, Customer service, and team building. After finishing all his training, he felt confident and ready to look for jobs. Now that he had learned more English skills, he told us he wanted to work for green home construction, we referred him there, and he got hired with an On The Job Training contract which made him very happy. He was very excited to work there, but two days after being hired, he came back to us and told us that he couldn’t work there anymore because he had an unknown allergic reaction to the insulation used there. He didn’t want us to look bad and we told him not to go there anymore, but he went back and that the following week he was hospitalized for the allergic reaction, we had to void the On The Job Training. After his recovery he came into our office and he told us about an opening at River Edge Towing for the position of tow driver.
We decided to talk to the owner of that towing business and the owner stated that Jesus needed some experience driving a tow truck. We had some budget under Work Experiences so we offered to the owner and he accepted, we made a 4 weeks contract Work experience. Jesus was super happy. After his contract ended the employer was going to hire someone else because he wanted someone with more experience than what Jesus had, so we decided to do a short On the Job Training with the budget we had left by voiding the other one; the employer agreed to it. When he was done with the On The Job Training, the employer was really happy and satisfied with Jesus job there and hired him all year round.
After 3 months of working there he got a raise and is earning $15.00 an hour, he is now well satisfied and loves what he does and how his way of living changed his whole life in many ways. Now he is where he wants to be. He says that the key to success is to start before you are ready not everything is going to be perfect but success comes through hard work, determination and sacrifice.
We decided to talk to the owner of that towing business and the owner stated that Jesus needed some experience driving a tow truck. We had some budget under Work Experiences so we offered to the owner and he accepted, we made a 4 weeks contract Work experience. Jesus was super happy. After his contract ended the employer was going to hire someone else because he wanted someone with more experience than what Jesus had, so we decided to do a short On the Job Training with the budget we had left by voiding the other one; the employer agreed to it. When he was done with the On The Job Training, the employer was really happy and satisfied with Jesus job there and hired him all year round.
After 3 months of working there he got a raise and is earning $15.00 an hour, he is now well satisfied and loves what he does and how his way of living changed his whole life in many ways. Now he is where he wants to be. He says that the key to success is to start before you are ready not everything is going to be perfect but success comes through hard work, determination and sacrifice.
