A job seeker’s luck improves after finding help at the library

Ronnie Littlejohn spent the last 25 years of his life helping people navigate through the trials of bankruptcy. Thanks to the Gillis Branch Job Career Center’s One-on-One Job Coaching program, he’s successfully steering clear of those waters himself.

Littlejohn, until recently a case manager at the United States Bankruptcy Court in Fresno, was laid off from the job he held since transferring to the valley in 1988. A victim of the souring economy, he began fishing for a job like so many others. And he spent a year getting skunked.

“I didn’t hear anything from any of the resumes I sent out, not a thing,” he said. “It was frustrating.”

But the 47-year-old didn’t give up. Instead, he thought of the one place where he knew he could find tremendous resources and help, a place where he’d taken his now-grown daughters when they were young – the library.

“The way I had it, I wasn’t getting any calls back, but when I met with Bernice (Kao), I started getting thank you’s for every resume. I even had two interviews,” he said. Kao, a Career Coach at the Gillis Branch Job Center, worked with him to reshape his resume to work with today’s job market, a skill that Littlejohn hadn’t had to use in decades. “Back when I was first looking for a job, they didn’t have the internet and everything.

It’s changed a lot since then. I found out I had to change with it.”

The Career Center’s services, available free through the library, help job seekers to polish their resumes to meet today’s standards, and assist with developing interview skills and show job seekers where to look for available positions. “They taught me that you have seven seconds to get the attention of the Human Resource person, and how to set up a resume using bullets. There was so much that has changed,” he said.

One thing that has changed is his luck. Since implementing what he learned from the program, Littlejohn has not only had two interviews, with another progressing to a higher level, he has also had a job offer, although declining the position when it wasn’t what the company had advertised they were seeking. “(Kao) got me a job,” he said. “She got me to the point that I got a job offer. It wasn’t her fault the company was offering a position other than what they had advertised they were looking for.”

In the interim, with a renewed outlook thanks to the training, Littlejohn has started a business, using his keep understanding of the bankruptcy and the court system to assist people who can’t afford the legal help of an attorney to steer through maze they face in the legal system. Ron’s Document Service assists with legal filings including bankruptcy, evictions, and small claims complaints, in addition to providing renters service and process serving. He even offers help with showing where to go within the courthouse, providing the otherwise lost with directions and leading them to the correct department.

Nonetheless, he is still in the hunt for a new job, with an air of confidence that typically precedes a coming job offer. “ The library is a good source of info, if you’re looking for a job, internet access, almost anything you need. You can meet a lot of people there, find books to prepare for tests, they have almost everything you need to succeed in life,” he said.

And while he can’t say enough about how much the library has helped him, he also can’t imagine the possible impact if the upcoming Measure B doesn’t receive voter approval. “Where will people go? You see kids there playing games, on the internet, interacting with other people. I’ve met lots of people at the library, and where will they go? That would be a tragedy. I hope (the voters) extend Measure B so they can keep the library like it is.”