50 Faces of SECC – Anne

Anne retired in 2019 from a 30+ year career as a Registered Nurse. She provided outstanding service to patients and accomplished many things over the course of her career. After a short period of enjoying her new retired lifestyle, she wanted to get busy again. Anne started working part-time for a cleaning company which kept her both busy and healthy. When the pandemic hit, Anne’s employment was put on hold along with many other things in her life. Because she was living on a fixed income, Anne made the hard decision to leave her home in Toronto and join her kids down south in Kingsville.

Anne came into the SECC Kingsville office after seeing information about employment services on the sandwich board outside.  She was intrigued.  Being new to the area, Anne wanted to get acquainted with her new home. She was excited to learn about SECC’s Career Hub because she was eager to start searching for employment.  The first hurdle she faced was putting together a resume. It had been over 30 years since Anne had last made a resume, so she needed some support. SECC helped Anne format her resume and include the necessary information, along with doing a final review before she sent it out. Anne was feeling discouraged because all of her experience was very specific and she didn’t want to give employers the impression she was overqualified based on her experience.

As expected, Anne started receiving employer interactions early in her job search. Anne had experienced barriers in her previous job search and expected this process to go much slower. We knew after meeting Anne that it wouldn’t be long before an employer scooped her up. SECC’s Job Developers were able to make an employer connection with a local business, which led to the perfect employment opportunity for Anne. She completed an interview with the employer and had the opportunity to complete a paid placement with IDA Pharmacy, where she could exercise her skills while building new ones. Throughout the placement, Anne worked closely with her Job Coach, who will continue to provide support to her over the next year.

Working part-time gives Anne the financial freedom to be able to afford her retired lifestyle and allows her enough free time to enjoy it with her family and friends.