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From
The Times-Georgian:
Carrollton, Ga., resident Justin Wilson (pictured) has been looking for a job in this tough business climate for six months and decided it was time to do something a little off the wall to get prospective employers to notice him.
At the top of his resume is a promissory note to pay half his first paychecks to his future employer’s favorite charity up to $2,000 if they hire him.
“My mom thinks I’m going to go to jail,” Wilson said with a laugh. “But all my friends think it’s awesome, and I even let the ladies over at Career Services look at it – at West Georgia – and they thought it was an awesome trick.”
A new graduate with a degree in political science from the University of West Georgia, Wilson was looking for a job in the public sector, but expanded his search to anything and everything, including minimum wage jobs, just to build up some experience. He has passed out more than 200 resumes, made countless calls and trips to businesses and agencies in the county as well as in Atlanta. He has been told the same thing over and over — “you need experience,” “you need a master’s degree” or “we’re not hiring.”
The fact that he’s confined to a wheelchair, a complication of Muscular Dystrophy, he thinks just adds to the problem.
“The wheelchair scares the mess out of employers when they see it,” Wilson said. “I’m not sure what the fears are. Maybe it’s limited abilities, or it’s just the extra struggles somebody in a wheelchair would have to face just to perform job duties, when in actuality a person in a wheelchair or anybody with a disability is going to work harder to try to prove themselves.”
He understands the economy is in recession and jobs are scarce. It’s an issue that has effected other members of his family as well. His mother, Susan Wilson, a bus driver for Carroll County Schools, was laid off in May. His twin brother, Jason, also in a wheelchair because of muscular dystrophy, has moved back home to help his parents’ finances. Wilson will also be moving home early next month as his money runs out and he will no longer be able to pay the rent on his apartment.
“I would pay someone, I would give them my first five paychecks, I just need a job,” Wilson told his friends one day over lunch. “One of my friends went, ‘That’s illegal. You can’t pay for a job.’”
But the idea grew from there. While Wilson, 25, hopes that it will make a potential employer take a second look at his resume, he says the note isn’t a stunt. He’s serious. He will give the $2,000 to the charity of his new employer’s choice if he gets a job.
“It’s just something to make my resume stand out among the thousands,” Wilson said.
Wilson is not just waiting for a job to fall in his lap. Over the summer, while he continued his job hunt, he also volunteered at a camp for children with Tourette syndrome in Winder.
“The camp was called ‘Twitch and Shout,’ was funny,” Wilson said. “That was fun. I was a camper my whole life with Muscular Dystrophy Association and that I can go back and be a counselor for another group was pretty awesome.”
The job hunt can be depressing. In his trips to the Department of Labor, he meets so many people looking for jobs and not just people who don’t have a high school diploma. People with degrees are just as likely to be there, looking.
Wilson is still holding out hope that he’ll find a job somewhere. He knows God will take care of him. He also keeps thinking about a quote he saw from Mother Teresa.
“I know God’s not going to give me anything I can’t handle, but I wish he didn’t trust me so much,” Wilson said.
From The Times-Georgian:
