The first people I want to offer a heartfelt wish for a suck-a$$ holiday and screw-you new year are the 3 organizations in Las Vegas that are SUPPOSED to be involved in the retraining of individuals using government grant money.
I’ve written about this before, but lets refresh quickly. In order to have any chance of working in IT (or any other decent paying job) I need training. In theory, as a displaced worker, I should qualify for these programs. The VA rep at the local job connect office told me about the 3 local organizations that handle these programs.
When I started calling them last year, they were all out of money, saying, “Maybe mid-June.” When I called in June, they told me July.
So when I called the first one back in July, they said they had money but only processed applications for those interested in the hospitality industry. The second organization only did HVAC! Now, should not the VA rep have known this? (He knew I was looking for IT training.) And if not, why didn’t the organizations have the common sense/decency to tell me their restrictive programs when I first called them?
OK, the third organization I called made an appointment for me to fill out some paperwork the next week. They are in a very inconvenient location, on a bus line that, at best, runs every 30 minutes and requiring a transfer. So I spent an hour or more each way to fill out a couple of forms.
A couple weeks later, they called with an appointment to see a counselor. Finally, I was getting someplace! After 10 years of trying one thing after another, there was hope of being something besides a phone monkey (or homeless.)
So I went in and talked to this guy. We went over my paperwork briefly, and he said they would try to get me some OJT instead of training, which was fine by me. But if that was the case, why does Nevada Job Connect tell you to have the programs, schools and costs of training identified before you contact these people for an appointment? That takes a lot of research, time that could have been spent looking for a job, or whatever.
Also, at the time I was thinking about getting an MS online in order to get back into the market; at least I’d be qualified to teach at the local colleges. When told this, the counselor told me I should put it off; I could always go back to school. (I didn’t bother to point out that at 57, it is debatable if I’d get any real payback from a master’s, much less if I waited any longer.) He very emphatically said that I should not go online if I were to pursue a program, because HE could never learn anything except in a classroom.
Anyone with any training as a counselor, much less someone with a graduate degree, should know better than to impose their own experiences in such a issue on someone else. Everyone learns differently. Most of my college credits were earned through non-traditional means. (Please see http://www.wolfclassifieds.com/degree.htm if you want more information.) Just because he has to be spoon-fed in a classroom setting in order to learn, does not mean we are all like that.
I did not have time to get into any of this because we only met for maybe 45 minutes. The bloom was off the rose a bit, but I still was looking forward to coming in again.
They said I’d be called in about a week; it actually was closer to a month. And it was not to meet with a counselor and get started in a program, but to take some tests and do paperwork.
The first thing the idiot wanted me to do was register for the draft! I told her that at 57, I was not required to register even if I had not already served 7 years in the Marines. Of course, she knew better and we wasted more time until I finally said fine. When I went to the web site to register, it had an age restriction – not sure now what it is – so I proceeded with the typing and other tests.
Then I spent at least an hour filling out paperwork, much of it repetitive, that was about as thick as the Civil War book I recently read. (That is not hyperbole.)
So I took their idiot tests and filled out a pound of paperwork, and was told I’d be called for my next appointment.
They never called, and by this point, I was of the opinion they were not interested in helping anyone, but only in sucking in as much government money as they could for themselves. So I did not call them.
So, for destroying what little hope I had left, for totally wasting hours and hours of my time, and acting like a bunch of arrogant jerks who actually knew nothing, a most special go screw yourself and AHOLE of the year award to you fine people over on Jones Avenue. If I ever get the chance to screw you, consider yourselves royally screwed!