Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Let’s Talk! About the Winter 2023 Sylvania Job Fair with Katy Gorevin

Student Advocates | Start the discussion

Hosted and produced by Carrie Cantrell. Produced and edited by Carrie Cantrell. Transcriptions authored by Mars Allen. Carrie interviews Katy on her experience at the Winter 2023 Sylvania Campus Job Fair.

You can also listen to this episode on Spotify.

Transcript

Katy Gorevin: Man, there were a lot of employers.

Carrie Cantrell: We are sitting here and we’re talking with a Student Accessibility advocate. Katy Gorevin is that did I pronounce your name correctly?

Katy Gorevin: Perfect. I always say Al Gore with the vin.

Carrie Cantrell: Al Gore with the vin, I love it. I’ll have a glass of wine please with my climate disruption. Tell me about how you got there. How did you get there from your place because you are in Southwest Portland, near our campus and Sylvania. And the job fair was all the way out at Willow Creek, right?

Katy Gorevin: It was and I’ve never been to Willow Creek, nor am I wanting to go down the road of figuring out all the different transfers, how to get there as it is always for me. So I drove. And there was a pretty big parking lot. It’s funny, because it’s bringing it back. There’s a parking lot. And it was pretty close to the entrance of the building. So it wasn’t terrible or anything like that. But man, did that building have a lot of, like, fake doors. And so.

Carrie Cantrell: What do you mean fake doors?

Katy Gorevin: So I started following this lady in the parking lot. And she kind of, like, gets out of the parking lot and goes left. So I’m following her and she goes to her door, and I go to follow her. She’s like, Oh, no, this is a staff only. And I’m like, you could you know, I didn’t want to throw her off and be like, I’m kind of staff, can I just get in the building?

Oh, it’s raining too.

Carrie Cantrell: And it’s raining. Okay.

Katy Gorevin: Oregonians don’t bring rain jackets. So I just wanted to get in the building and she would not let me in. And so then I start walking. She’s kind of like pointing me to the right. And there’s no less than, like, four non entrance doors all the way to that one. And I just remember there’s like a sign that says “not an entrance.” And then there’s another double door, you know, like, and it kind of looks like there’s construction going on or whatever. But yeah, I finally got around.

Carrie Cantrell: Okay, so it was the main entrance. It was not easily it was not easily visible from where the parking lot was?

Katy Gorevin: Umm, I’m gonna go with no.

Carrie Cantrell: ahaha

Katy Gorevin: But I’m the smartest person to ever figure that stuff out. But heck no on my part.

Carrie Cantrell: So Katy, Al Gore with the vin gives the experience of walking from the parking lot to the front door to stars, one and a half. One and a half stars.

Katy Gorevin: A lot of doors that didn’t work.

Carrie Cantrell: I wasn’t even caffeinated. Hehehe

Katy Gorevin: And then it was funny too ’cause like, four minutes later, the lady showed up with food. Like I get it and I’m standing there behind the desk and she knew she didn’t let me in. But whatever, whatever. It was fun. She didn’t let a stranger into PCC. That’s good. Okay, so.

Carrie Cantrell: I guess that is good. What was the welcoming experience, like when you first got in, when you finally found the entrance? You were able to get out of the rain. Was there a greeting table? Was there a signup list because this was something you had registered for, right?

Katy Gorevin: So I will say that the greeting like once I finally got in the doors, it was pretty muted, to say the least. So it was like one kind of sandwich board that had sort of like an informational arrow going this way for the job fair, which was right there. And there was a welcome table and Patricia was there. You know, they had nice tablecloths. So it was clearly something different going on. But like if I was a student walking in, you know, like that would not have necessarily been something that I would have been drawn towards. It was pretty muted the whole way. And then another thing, just putting it out of thoughtfulness, was when they were doing all the introductions for the employers, which no joke lasted about an hour and a half. The doors of the room that we were in were closed, which I understood from hearing perspective, but I was also thinking, like, if there’s anyone who hasn’t already shown up and isn’t here right now this is a very uninviting presence, so.

Carrie Cantrell: Yeah, like if they showed up late how would they know where to go and be able to join the audience without making a huge interruption and like being that person who opens the door of the auditorium. Hahaha.

Katy Gorevin: Would have been like opening up the doors at the wedding…

Carrie Cantrell: (laughing) Don’t do it, I love you!!

Katy Gorevin: …and you’re already kind of shy about the whole job fair anyway. Like, you know what I mean? I do understand the whole quietness but I definitely think there should have been a little bit more pomp and circumstance and a little bit more, like, at least doors open for the event.

Carrie Cantrell: Right, yeah.

Katy Gorevin: But I got this low stops feel.

Carrie Cantrell: Okay. Yeah. Maybe something in the future, that’s something that AEDR staff can do, you know, or not AEDR staff, but you know, access ambassadors for the student population and student community. That would be cool. And then tell me about the presentation of the employers, like you said, that took a while there must have been a lot of employers and what was the purpose of the introduction, like?

Katy Gorevin: Well, I have to say that it’s kind of a juxtaposition, because the introductions in May, when we did the Job Fair last year, were like, the highlight of the whole thing. Like everyone just said, that was the best, you know, you basically got to, like, learn and tour these businesses in a quick synopsis? And then, you know, is there any, like disability specific jobs that they’re offering. And in person, it was like murder, it was awful. There’s like a couple of different solutions that I kind of conceived between me and different employers of what would work out. But the idea of just going straight through and just listening to all of them was for one just so hard on like, attention span, to my body, you know, because you can only stand for like, 45 minutes, and then you’re sitting on the floor. And then another one is to like, I heard some ones that I liked. And by the time, you know, I got out, I completely forgot about who that even was, you know what I mean? Like..

Carrie Cantrell: Yeah.

Katy Gorevin: Well, it was just, it was, it was really kind of painful. And some solutions that were sort of brought up, one that I thought of personally, was just doing like four introductions, and then breaking, you know, and so you have like, more of a circulatory thing happening, you know, you can kind of, you know, not forget who was just presenting, you know, and then it just also isn’t so long. And then one that I think that was Janus Youth suggested was that, you know, everyone likes the idea of the introductions, but instead of sitting there and having to listen to everybody, if you could do it in this kind of hybrid model that we were already aiming for. If you could do it in a way that was like online, beforehand, knowing this is our half an hour to go do it. That way you can maybe be moving as you’re doing it or you know, whatever, just less of a stationary forced thing. And then maybe move on to something like that in-person. I don’t know, it definitely needed some tweaking though, because that was just really painful to get through. And I can’t remember who any of the people were.

Carrie Cantrell: So maybe looking at some alternative formats of the presentation, like having a digital introduction prepared beforehand, for the business, and especially, you know, especially something if you’re looking for job seekers, something that is attractive and memorable about that company, and not just an endless person behind the podium. Now it’s your turn to talk. (laughing)

Katy Gorevin: It’s funny, because you weren’t even there. That’s exactly what it was: everyone got in the flow of saying the same thing as the person did before, which made them lose their uniqueness. And you’re kind of just going up with this, like, song that just sounds the same between all of them. It was terrible.

Carrie Cantrell: But it was mostly it was such a quite a long list of employers it sounds like and then you said, eventually, they all kind of sounded like the same thing.

Katy Gorevin: Yeah, I think it was upwards of 30. And I think one of the employers even said they were not wrong, it was like an hour and a half to two hours of introduction.

Carrie Cantrell: And they all had how long to speak?

Katy Gorevin: That was kind of the thing. And that’s why I think it would be a good idea to like, pre-recorded, because it wasn’t like they spoke for a long time. It’s like they were all maybe five to seven minutes long. But then when you get 30, 5 to 7 minute talks together, you know? I feel like if you could do like a quick 2 minute synopsis, then I don’t know, you know what I mean?

Carrie Cantrell: Yeah. Well, speaking of attention span and neurodivergence, how would you approach categorizing your first kind of introduction to this group? Like, would you like to see them as categorized by field or by industry? Like what would make the most sense to for first introduction, because even if you were going to have the chance to watch an hour and a half of introductory videos before you got there to be prepared, you know, that’s a lot of backgrounding that not many interviewees or job seekers would take, they most likely would go through and say like, Okay, I kind of know about this company, or I’m interested in working in this field. What would be your first sort of bread crumb to follow?

Katy Gorevin: Great question! And I would say in that instance, I would rank people according to the accessible jobs that they have to offer. Because I feel like that wasn’t really even at the forefront of this. And I, I think that it was really glazed over, in general, like, you are blind let’s hire you because we got this system that’s like all about making it more accessible for you or, you know, whatever it is, Neurodivergent. I think for me, being at the accessibility fair, I would want to maybe pay attention to which places had maybe the most and better paying jobs, the most living wage jobs that were directed towards people with disabilities, and then and then everything else was kind of like a normal job fair after that.

Carrie Cantrell: Sure. And were you there as a job seeker? Were you looking for a new position? Curious? Like, what was the approach that you took to sort of place yourself in there?

Katy Gorevin: I did not originally go as a job seeker. But because there were, like I said, maybe five job seekers max, between the 4 hours, yeah, I was in desperate need of bodies to engage with. I was also in charge of getting swag for Patricia and I. So that was like a fun reason to like, go and get everything and meet people. But I did, in my engagement, come across two or three businesses, where I really found some good opportunities. And I’ve already finished the application process and have an interview ready to go for that?

Carrie Cantrell: Oh, that’s great. Tell us about those highlights. Tell us about your interview.

Katy Gorevin: Yeah, it was nice, because it also really correlated with like, you know, early in the morning, I have physical therapy and I always have coffee with the homeless person. And this was a job that kind of helped integrate people with medical issues and homelessness. The one thing that he was saying was that he was struggling to find people who want this job and why it’s still available is because there’s kind of this disconnect of reality. Like maybe people just have more of an attitude, like, I’m gonna come and help you and make your life so much better. And I guess, you know, my habit of just kind of trying to chill with people. For around the last decade, classes kind of made me pretty apt at it. So it was nice, it was one of those like, you do, fly your freak flag and then there’s this job. It’s kind of available to you.

Carrie Cantrell: What was the job position?

Katy Gorevin: It’s technically an employment specialist. And it’s a qualified mental health professional. So QMHP, which I haven’t applied for my QMHP yet, but I graduated in psychology and so it’s not something you can just get the ball going. And that can just be part of your employment process. And so it’s a little bit it’s a little bit, it’s hard to define with the employment specialists. But it was kind of this idea of helping people integrate back into the employment world from post like, penitentiary or medical/disability issues.

Carrie Cantrell: I got you. What sort of challenges are you facing, as or are folks facing as they try and come back into a job field?

Katy Gorevin: Whatever’s clever.

Carrie Cantrell: Is that topic something that you would feel comfortable bringing up during the interview process?

Katy Gorevin: No…

Carrie Cantrell: Yeah.

Katy Gorevin: Forever, ever, ever, ever. I mean, if it came down to the part where they’re like, let’s make you an offer, and they made me an offer.

Carrie Cantrell: Yeah.

Katy Gorevin: And I was like, on my way to go get the job, then I might bring it up then. And just be like, fine. There’s this thing.

Carrie Cantrell: Yeah.

Katy Gorevin: But I think it’s the idea, like you’re wanting to, but do you really want to disclose disabilities? Nope.

Carrie Cantrell: Wow. Wow.

Katy Gorevin: Like, I just don’t want to shoot myself in the foot. Prematurely.

Carrie Cantrell: Yeah.

Katy Gorevin: You know? Because you might, I might shoot myself in the foot really good.

Carrie Cantrell: Well, treatments and disclosure, like supposedly, I think that should be a part of a culture that is inclusive of disabled people and disabled folk. And I feel like it’s still something that we still find stigma about. You know, the use of certain medicines and the practices and like the acceptance of behaviors, that that keep us in equilibrium. I won’t even I won’t even say that, but it’s like, that’s the way it is. Were there any jobs out there that you feel like maybe stood out with their commitment, I’d say, to inclusive culture?

Katy Gorevin: No.

Carrie Cantrell: Wow!

Katy Gorevin: And I’m not gonna lie. I do remember one employer, I was kinda just asking, I was like what would be better with next year? They said one of the things they struggled the most with was, I think, there was a point where a student was able to ask a question or something during a presentation and the student wanted to know what jobs they had specifically for disabled people. And that was not something that she was prepared to answer, nor was in the mentality and mental frame answer, I was so glad the employer shut up, I did feel like there was a disconnect of what they were offering. And I will say…

Carrie Cantrell: That was a student asking an employer or was this during a question and answer of all the employers?

Katy Gorevin: I think it was a student asking the employer specifically. That was how the employer remembered the story, the employer said their thing, and then a student was like, oh, what are some disabled specific details, it was like maybe for Clackamas County, and then the person didn’t know what the student was talking about. Like,it was a bad thing. But I just feel like that would be a better emphasis to have maybe at the forefront of this, what are some jobs that you’re offering that are super accommodating?

Carrie Cantrell: Well, that’s an interesting question. So who told you they were there when that student said it?

Katy Gorevin: What they said was that, I asked what could be better about it? And they said, that was the part that was the hardest for them. When a student asked us about accessibility, they didn’t know how to respond.

Carrie Cantrell: What do you think about that question? Do you think that there should be specific roles and job descriptions tied to being disabled?

Katy Gorevin: I think that was kind of the hard part. Yeah. When I answered that question previously, it was like, it’d be great to rank the people on like, oh, this person has a management position job, that’s like, we’ll accommodate the crap out of you. Part of me wonders if that didn’t transpire at this job fair, because it doesn’t exist. You know, like, I’m glad these employers are there. But maybe the idea of having this specific accessible job available, where the job seeker may need assistance and we have this specific job title that will offer this to them. I don’t, I don’t know if that maybe exists yet.

Carrie Cantrell: I would look at that question, as is there a progressive culture of including, you know, disabled, disabled workers in your environment? And like, so you go back to a question that somebody who’s relatively able bodied, I mean, I am able bodied and I have like mental health disabilities, there’s a different sense of accommodations. But like, one thing, I think that would be appropriate for all disabled culture efforts is to have somebody in positions to create infrastructure around disabled culture. And so that would be maybe one answer to like, how many positions do you have? Could be like, do you have dedicated recruitment with accommodation in mind? And, you know, job satisfaction and employee check-ins and stuff like that? Yeah, I think that’s something we should see in all workplaces. To that degree, and it should be first, I think, for a lot of different levels of inclusivity.

Katy Gorevin: I think you’re onto something when it comes to a kind of culture of accessibility, you know what I mean? Like, does this company, like, would they be willing? You know what I mean? I definitely see how some are like, No. I feel like that deserves more provocation, though. One of the questions students have asked us before, even at the last one, is specifically what are some jobs that I can do or what is PCC offering that are disabled jobs? I feel like people want a database. But then they also don’t want… you know what I mean? Like, you also don’t want to be like less to be in a wheelchair. So yeah, how do you? Yeah, I don’t have an answer.

Carrie Cantrell: What were some businesses? Names some big businesses that we would recognize who were there.

Katy Gorevin: So there was the FBI, there was Reed College. There was Janus Youth, there was Clackamas County, there was, ugh! Two staffing agencies, I cannot remember, there was INCIGHT, there was, ooh, there’s like a big one. And then there were some other obscure ones even, like two that I was going to apply for but I cannot remember the names of the businesses because they’re just random and obscure.

Carrie Cantrell: Sounds like there are a lot of big hospitals. Did you see anything else? Like what sort of you know any other industries besides like, maybe it sounds like health was a big industry, and health and government? What were some of the periphery experiences of being at the job fair? Besides like the straight up interaction, you know, with potential employers? What was Willow Creek like? You know, what were the facilities like? Were there snacks? Give us some judgmental comments on the snacks.

Katy Gorevin: Let me circle back to snacks because I just thought of this and I find it hilarious as a student. Like, again, I feel like I have been going to college since like freaking 2007. You’d think that printing something at a college would be easy. It’s not, it still isn’t easy. So I got everything good to go. But I didn’t print out my resume. So I totally brought my laptop with me and was going to print it out with the front desk like no biggie. And we had to like, log out of things, only certain computers were attached to certain printers. And there wasn’t any room that disability services had for me to be able to print something because all the printers were like, it was complicated. Anyway, so.

Carrie Cantrell: Okay. No, that’s important! You know, if you’re gonna show up at a job fair, there might be some ancillary services you could use.

Katy Gorevin: Like, just as a student, noted and I just wish that that would be something that would be more easily available. The snack game was pretty good. They had these apple doughnuts that were vegan that were absolutely amazing. They had coffee and water. I’m not gonna lie. I feel like a lot of the snacks are more afternoon snacks. And since we started at 10, it would have been nicer to have more. You know, again, the doughnuts are great. But I wasn’t ready for Doritos at like, 11am.

Carrie Cantrell: Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. Cool, good to know, good to know.

Katy Gorevin: I feel like the whole fair kind of felt like, all of these job fair presenters were just presenting to each other, you know, and they work with each other often, they probably see each other, you know, once a month, if not more. And so the whole time kind of felt like even in the presentation, they were just presenting to a room full of other employers, you know. And so there was kind of this disconnect of student engagement with that whole thing. And I felt like that was kind of this weird cloud, you know, of just kind of energy and success. And just, it felt like in general, the overall tone was that it was a raging waste of time for all of the job seekers, not the job seekers, but the employers, and I will probably concur that it was probably a raging waste of time for them.

Carrie Cantrell: (sadly) Oh.

Katy Gorevin: So I would like to just maybe explore more how, maybe better time of year, you know what I mean?

Carrie Cantrell: Yeah.

Katy Gorevin: Like, how student engagement can become something of a priority, like I was part of planning it so I was involved. The hybrid thing really needed some kinks, being there for four hours, completely in-person, and having this backdrop of hybrid. I’d say maybe almost a quarter of the tables had a laptop going that had a Zoom Room. And the other time you’re like, well, even if a student showed up, how were they going to get to the FBI, because they were only in-person, there wasn’t really a virtual room for them to be able to engage in. And so there was a solid disconnect there. And, you know, like I said, four hours was a long time. And a lot of us thought of the idea of breaking it up and having an earlier morning session in-person, and then picking it up an hour or two later, and having that be virtual, and just being able to kind of focus on one or the other would just be so much more convenient and productive. And then if someone doesn’t show up for two hours, you’re not stuck in the room, you know what I mean? Like with no students around? I don’t know.

Carrie Cantrell: Right? What other industries would you like to see represented in the future?

Katy Gorevin: I think it would be better to see more smaller businesses. And I think that’s hard. I think that’s why it’s really hard. Because I think smaller businesses care about people more and I think that smaller businesses are more apt to make you want to become a family with them. So I think I can only recall one small or business that was there and it just would have been nice. You know, I will say, lastly, there were some issues with door prizes and stuff. And so when the slides came in between introductions there were supposed to have moments for door prizes and stopping. But the slides were up for like 2 seconds and then they were gone. And so I think just in general, to break up the monotony, I think it’s really important to have that goal of breaking it up, whether it be like an online presence, like the spinning of the wheel or an actual physical thing. I just feel like foregoing that made it suck for everyone, and that was the one thing people said that they like, we’re kind of looking forward to that didn’t end up happening. So.

Carrie Cantrell: Ohhhh, bummer! Anyway, so for the podcast, we say what is the degree track you’re following at PCC? And you’re doing it in conjunction with another college too right?

Katy Gorevin: So with PCC I’m mainly using it as supplementary for my pre-med classes. So I am doing anthropology right now, consciousness of race and some Native American stuff at Oregon State, and then PCC has been my like, chemistry, anatomy and physiology and microbiology. That’s where I’ve been using PCC.

Carrie Cantrell: Cool.

Katy Gorevin: My name is Katy Gorevin. I am a student at PCC and dual-enrolled at Oregon State and I am working as an accessibility advocate with Disability Services.

Carrie Cantrell: Thank you so much for joining us, Katy. Katy with our eyes in the field for our recent PCC disability job fair, and here’s what she had to say.