My first job interview was when I was 17 years old. My sister and I decided that one day we wanted to get a job, so we walked to the biggest employer of our city to see if they had any openings. Back in my day (I’m just kidding, I’m not that old), you could just walk over and ask for a job. We lived close to a theme park and we thought working there might be fun.
I remember thinking to myself that I had no idea what I was doing. No one ever walked me through what an interview is like or what I should expect. Somehow, even though I did not dress in business professional attire, I still got the job after three hours of interviewing. Working as a food hostess was a great professional learning experience. Looking back, I made two big mistakes: I had no resume and I did not dress professionally. Granted, I was applying for a minimum wage job and wore jeans to the interview….but still, not the best idea.
In this regard, the youth in my community and I have that in common. I had little opportunities for mentors and career advice, and so do these youth. However, I did have a school counselor (who was an amazing human). Public schools in Georgia do not have school counselors. In fact, I’m not sure if Georgians are even aware that schools counselors are a thing. Therefore, learning how to write a resume and exploring career goals are not topics discussed in schools.
The previous cohort of the Gender Equality Committee did a mentoring project in one community. It was gender split and the beneficiaries were the IDP youth (Internally displaces persons, typically from either Abkhazia or South Ossetia). However, this year, my cohort (the G16s) wanted to expand this program to different regions within Georgia. We held workshops in three regions: Samgerlo, Imereti, and Guria. My friend Kelley was the mastermind behind the whole thing. I helped her run just one of the workshops: the Imereti Region Workshop.
For each workshop, we planned on recruiting 8 mentors (4 female and 4 male). We also wanted 16 youth (8 female and 8 male). The plan was to equally split up the youth with the respective mentor with the same gender. As I’m writing this, I’m giving a little chuckle. Why on earth did we think we could get the perfect number? Just because we wrote in our Let Girls Learn grant that we could 16 youth and 8 mentors, reality always has a different plan in Georgia!
I co-hosted and organized the Imereti Region Workshop along with my friend Ryan. You’ve should have heard his name by now, I’ve mentioned him in various posts. Ryan calls me five days before the workshop and tells me that we do not have any youth signed up. I nod my head and just sigh. My response was, “Ryan, it is Tuesday afternoon. Friday is a holiday. Do you think we can actually find 16 kids to show up within 2 business-days?”
Optimistically, he responds, “we can try!” I replied, “I guess it does not really matter. Even if we found a bunch of kids, they could just drop out any second. Let’s just try to get kids. If there aren’t many by Thursday afternoon, we will postpone the event.” Thursday rolls around and Ryan calls me back. “So, we actually have more than 16 kids now.” I laughed and said, “of course, we do. But I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them do not come.”
Sure enough, Saturday rolls around and we only had nine kids show up on time. We waited a while and then three more stroll in like being late is still the fashionable thing to do. Kelley, Ryan, and I look at Manana (Ryan’s counterpart) and ask her if more people are coming. Manana said she will be right back and walked out the room. Through the window, I see Manana walk to park in the center of town. I assumed she had a good reason and did not think anything of it. Minutes later, Manana comes back by gently telling a teenage boy she brought with her to sit down. I asked Ryan what happened. Apparently, Manana walked through the park, some a kid, and “invited” him to attend this workshop.
I have to hand it to the Georgians. If they want to make an event happen, it will happen. In America, I would not be so confident to just go to a park and grab a kid. Secondly, I would have been stressed out if days before the event I were to have to registered participants. But so life here….predictably unpredictable.
Other than the little participant count mishaps, the event went without a hitch. Kelley did a great job presenting the various job-related skills. I conducted a session on job interviewing. The kids were very engaged. In fact, I don’t remember seeing any kids trying to sneak in a little Facebook time on their mobile phones. I was pleasantly surprised at how active the youth and the mentors were in the sessions.
When the day was over, one of the mentors I invited came up to me and said, “Workshops like these are very important in Georgia. It is a shame that only these youth came. More should have come.” I had also invited Justin’s Georgian tutor and she echoed the sentiment. In fact, she even suggested that Kelley and I should hold the fourth workshop at her private school. Granted, we had only planned for three workshops, but Kelley and I loved the idea of hosting more workshops. In all honesty, I loved that the mentors and the mentees loved the workshop that they volunteered their opinions that more should be conducted.