Less than six months after she graduated from New Women New Yorkers’ LEAD training series, Jiar Fong received a job offer.
New Women New Yorkers has been serving immigrant women in New York City since 2015. LEAD, our flagship, free workforce development program, begins with a series of eight job readiness workshops, providing our participants with critical knowledge and skills about the U.S. job search process and workplace culture. Participants also join regular group practice and networking sessions, including mock interviews, field visits of company offices, and panel discussions. During the program and upon graduation, participants receive individual support in the form of resume review, phone mock interviews, LinkedIn coaching, and career counseling.
Our workforce development programs empower immigrant women to secure their first paying, meaningful job in NYC or pursue higher education, and to attain eventual self-sufficiency and independence.
The story of one of our Spring 2018 LEAD graduates is a perfect illustration of how our workforce development programs empower our participants to advance their career in their field of interest in New York City. Jiar Fong immigrated to the United States in 2017 from Malaysia with an associate degree in advertising and marketing. She completed our LEAD job readiness training series in May 2018. Upon graduation, she received individual support from one of our volunteer career counselors to practice her job interview skills. Over the next few months, she also took part in a mock interview session at Guardian Life, and in field visits to the New York City offices of Google and LinkedIn.
Less than six months after she graduated from our LEAD training series, a job opening from one of our partner organizations featured in our alumni newsletter attracted her attention: It was a marketing coordinator position corresponding perfectly to her background and interests. Arielle Kandel, our founder and CEO, submitted an application and recommendation for the position on her behalf to our partner organization, and after completing the interview process, Jiar received a job offer!
We are extremely proud of Jiar’s success, she has been a strong candidate and was able to impress her new team with her skills and stamina. We are also happy to see that our strategy of capitalizing on our existing partnerships has shown positive results.
Working in a small organization pushes us to be ever more thoughtful in the allocation of our limited resources. Every time that we have a new idea or rethink our existing services, we ask ourselves if there is a possibility for us to close the loop and build on our existing assets, be it relationships, ideas or processes. I find this approach very stimulating and liberating, it helps us to continuously improve ourselves and our organization, but also allows us to test new things without endangering our day-to-day operations.
For more information on LEAD and other great programs that help immigrant professionals, see the IMPRINT coalition’s program map.
Gyuzel Zaripova is a program associate at New Women New Yorkers
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