The JobUp
The On-Ramp for Immigrant Job-Seekers That Educates, Uplifts and Builds Community
A year ago I booked a Lyft ride because I didn’t want to be late for an appointment in Midtown Manhattan. The polished 32-year-old man who picked me up was a bio-medical engineer from Turkey who couldn’t find a better job in New York, despite his Ph.D. and fairly good English.
At the time, I had begun the social journalism program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and I was starting to reach out to malemployed immigrants — newcomers like the Turkish ride-hail driver. I wanted to help them through my new studies in engaged journalism and by leveraging years of personal socio-professional experiences in the U.S.
I was familiar with how difficult and confusing it can be for foreign-educated immigrants to find adequate career support, but it wasn’t until Steps to Success, published by IMPRINT-WES in 2015 and Untapped Talent, released by the Migration Policy Institute in 2016, that I became aware of groundbreaking research on the subject.
The reports revealed the systemic nature of immigrant malemployment (a.k.a. brain-waste) in the United States, estimating that more than 1 in 4 newcomers educated abroad — 2 million people nationwide — cannot find employment that matches their professional abilities. The research also documented the structural barriers that are to blame. Among them are a lack of specialized English-language courses and career-relaunch programs, as well as a need for social networks that people can turn to for guidance and job referrals. It’s also hard for American employers to assess the value of a foreign education, a problem that contributes to the underutilization of the immigrant talent pool.
When I met Muhammed, the Turkish engineer, he was living through that hardship. His disappointment made him willing to talk about his brain-waste and help me recruit malemployed immigrants for my graduate project. Many don’t feel comfortable sharing their stories for fear of judgement, but Muhammed didn’t think that way.
Our collaboration led me to members of his community. My conversations with them convinced me that the best way to sustain engagement and dig deeper into their needs was to address their occupational woes. Working together would let us get to know one another and build trust. I could imagine it as the groundwork to produce relevant news coverage.
That’s how The JobUp came about. While it doesn’t engage employers, the program functions as a professional-relaunch accelerator that teaches malemployed immigrants how to navigate the U.S. job market.
My Current Value Proposition
The JobUp is a free career-relaunch educational program that delivers in-person English-language classes and guidance to help foreign-educated immigrants succeed in the U.S. job market.
I intentionally chose a dual-track design to seamlessly combine second language learning with knowledge of career resources. Both are crucial to immigrants who need to learn not only how to prepare for a job search in the United States, but also how to acquire the necessary vocabulary. The program also teaches the basics of workplace culture and refers participants to local organizations that specialize in connecting newcomers with professional backgrounds to employers.
I rolled out The JobUp at the Turkish Cultural Center in Brooklyn this summer. It helped me test the efficacy of its content, the dual-track structure and, by and large, its community-building vision. The six workshops (the length of the course) were very successful!
Both the participants and my collaborators at the cultural center gave consistently positive feedback. Some examples:
“Thank you so much for everything.”
“We will miss you!”
“This was so very helpful.”
“It was a wonderful opportunity for the community.”
Participants reported speaking English more often and feeling more confident about approaching the job market. They also felt seen. By that I mean, acknowledged in their hesitations, but supported in their potential.
And that’s what I wanted them to experience, above all: that they have power. The power of information, the power of choice and the power to recast themselves professionally in the U.S.
The validation motivated me to stay with the JobUp prototype and produce another cycle of it, this time as my full-fledged social-journalism practicum at the graduate school in Midtown Manhattan. But the location was far for the Turks who live in South Brooklyn. So the challenge became how to duplicate the success with another group of malemployed immigrants, and where to recruit them. After reaching out to nearly 20 organizations, including faith and community-based groups, without recruiting anyone, it was clear that I had to try something else.
That’s when I decided to post news of The JobUp on a Facebook page for Italian women in New York, of which I’m a member. To my pleasant surprise, applications began rolling in immediately. I had to close registration early to avoid recruiting too many people since I had only one volunteer ESL teacher. I settled on a group of 15, of whom 9 attended the workshops.
The lesson was clear: direct recruitment was successful if done by outreach to a familiar community. Otherwise, it needed to be done in partnership with an organization trusted by its members, as in the case of the Turkish Cultural Center in Brooklyn.
The next challenge was to redesign the curriculum to deliver English-language classes that would fit the higher proficiency level of the Italian women. To diversify content and bring some integration resources right into our classroom, I also decided to add a guest-speaker series. The workload quickly snowballed from redesigning the curriculum, to booking, producing and interviewing eight speakers, as well as dealing with the more complex homework assignments I gave my practicum students. In the end, it was well worth it!
The second cycle of The JobUp was even more successful than the first. Participants could absorb more instruction in English, interact with guest speakers and because of that come away with a deeper sense of agency. That was the feedback they consistently shared.
Here are some of their comments:
“The classes were fun, informative, curated in every detail and very professional.”
“I will never forget this experience.”
“It is so important to have someone here with whom we can talk and support each other.”
“The JobUp helped me better understand what steps to take to start a new career in the U.S. This experience was so inspiring!”
That is why, after six weeks together, The JobUp is emerging as a community committed to deepening the relationships launched at the workshops.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Th prototype has strengths and weaknesses. On the positive side, its dual-track structure is original and engaging. The method inspires confidence, while the curriculum is comprehensive and interactive. It also offers a roster of accomplished guest speakers. Its main weaknesses are identifying revenue streams in a landscape where similar programs are free; the people-intense character of The JobUp (the program needs ESL teachers, human resources experts and administrative support), and the lack of employers’ engagement.
Main Takeaways
- I learned that to recruit within an immigrant community I needed either to be part of the community or partner with an organization trusted by the newcomers’ group I wanted to reach.
- It pays to create an environment where course participants feel accepted unconditionally, especially when they make mistakes in English. The idea is to learn from those mistakes.
- Design specific lessons. Understand the needs of your community and create a curriculum that addresses them. Immigrants need practical knowledge. It will equip them with a sense of agency.
- Give regular and clear feedback. If course participants ask questions, and especially if they are encouraged to do so, they should always get helpful answers.
- Be prepared to invest a great deal of time serving your community. Make sure that you build what you value.
Key Engagement and Marketing Steps
Here are the steps I am considering to advance the prototype. They also represent an initial roadmap to address questions I have:
- Strengthening our identity by continuing the work we began at The JobUp: connect with, support and provide constructive feedback to participants. Also host occasional produced events such as guest speakers. (Will it help hone both message and content?)
- Deciding how to recruit and onboard potential new members. (Should I think about it now?)
- Creating volunteer roles to organize more get-togethers; streamlining and dividing the workload. (How to make it work?)
- Considering how to develop the following revenue streams: crowdfunding, grant-seeking, membership, donations, tuition and/or coaching fees and partnering with an organization committed to the socio-professional integration of foreign-educated immigrants. (I am curious what the community would suggest about revenue options.)
- Considering how to broaden The JobUp’s reach. Options could include online programming in the form of downloadable lesson modules, and producing podcasts, webinars and streaming interviews. (What budget would that entail?)
In the end, The JobUp fills a crucial programming gap for both malemployed immigrants and more recent newcomers with professional backgrounds. Nearly 45 percent of all immigrants who have arrived since 2010 have college degrees or higher, versus 30 percent or less in previous decades, according to the Brookings Institution, which analyzed census data. Moreover, the U.S. has an aging population and a declining nativity rate, which means it will require more immigrants to fill crucial skill gaps. Helping them shorten the road to successful economic integration makes good sense for everyone.
