Maine State Department of Labor Career Center

This is the new location of the Career Center that was previously located on Lancaster St. in Portland. The new building, located by the jetport, is now the home to Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services as well as the Career Center for the unemployed.
My review is of the career center and limited to my brief workshop days.
The unemployment system has undergone some changes in the last few years. The Career Center is not run by state unemployment, however, it is a contracted entity that you are required to now use in conjunction with an online job bank that you must be registered with and active online with.
After approximately 5 weeks of being unemployed (for me it was 9 weeks), you will get a letter directing you to attend a mandatory workshop. When you attend, they point out that they have computers, fax machines, copy machines and even folks to help you with resume’ writing and interviewing skills. You will be shown how to use the job bank more efficiently in your searches for work. Also, some features of the career center’s website are pointed out. They hold networking meetings every Tuesday morning and hold at least one career fair every month in addition to other days where one employer may come in to talk to candidates. You will review your job searches with the counselor and that person will give you homework that you will have to report back on. For instance, in my case, I was told to contact Goodwill Workforce in hopes of being approved for paid certifications in my field.
Then there is a second meeting approximately 5 more weeks later. Again, you will go over your search log and where things stand with your search. You will be given another action item at that time and additional tools will be demonstrated and more resources given to you.
I think these are helpful and have had some good insight. After being in the same industry for almost 20 years, it has been quite a long time since I have had to interview or resume’ build. I think a key thing I discovered is that a lot of companies are just inundated with applicants these days due to the high unemployment rates, that they are using «keyword guardians». It is a program that scans your online application for keywords and if you don’t hit enough of them, you never make it to the HR department. So while you may have «proficient at MS Office», the company may be looking for «proficient at Outlook, Excel and MS Word» you would not have hit the keywords. It is almost important to regurgitate the job description just to get someone to see your application.
The resources are paid for by you when you are working, so don’t be shy, go in and use them!