Michael is 27 years old. He has been coming to Hants County CAN for about 4 years now for assistance with job searching. Michael has struggled with ADHD and anger issues for most of his life.

When we first met Michael in December 2008, to begin working with him under the new job coaching pilot project, he was a different person from the Michael we know now. He would not look people in the eye when they spoke to him; he lacked self-confidence, and seemed very unhappy. We worked with Michael on several issues including, job interview skills, confidence, anger management, social skills, responsibility, and focusing on the positive things in his life.

When we felt Michael had some of his issues under control, we set him up for an interview with the new Hart Store that was going into the mall. Five of our clients were interviewed and two of them were hired. Michael was one of them! The Manager who interviewed Michael, told us that Michael had such good eye contact that he felt that he had to look away from Michael! The Manager also said that he was very impressed with Michael and how he answered the questions.

Michael was hired for four weeks to assist with the initial set up of the store. He set up shelves, unloaded trucks, and unpacked and displayed the merchandise. He has had some ups and downs. However, with the support of his Supervisor and checking in on him on a regular basis, Michael settled in nicely. He even began to work on becoming more social with his co-workers and genuinely seemed to like his job.

Michael has come a long way. When this process first began, he was very negative and he never smiled or looked people in the eye. He would also tell us that there was nothing good in his life and he had nothing to look forward to. Now he even cracks a few jokes on occasion.

Now that Michael is done working at Harts, he is continuing to job search for other opportunities and has decided to venture out and move to Bridgewater.

Michael’s confident is a blessing to see and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.