What does a Job developer do?

Job developers are employment specialists who assist people with disabilities in becoming gainfully employed

What are job developers?

Job developers are employment specialists who assist people with disabilities in becoming gainfully employed. Successful job developers possess a set of traits and beliefs that help them accomplish this goal. They are "go-getters" and not afraid to do whatever it takes to help their client obtain meaningful employment. The field of job development is really a combination of skills related to sales, in which the job developer must work through leads (companies that have job openings that can hire their client) sell ( advocating and describing the strengths and skills that their client can bring to the target company) and closing deals ( When the employer hires their client). It is also a combination of skills related to recruiting, in which the job developer has to carefully match the values and needs of the company with the values and needs of the client, and bring them together.

Job developers may not be the masters of the "hard skills" of your field, but they should be the masters of the "soft skills". They understand employer expectations, effective time management, effective communication, how to sell yourself (your background, skills, strengths, etc) and how to work with leadership and co-workers. This mastery is what helps the wonderful people that they work with obtain opportunities for employment in the community.

So what are the actual duties of a job developer?

If the ultimate goal is employment, then by reverse engineering what it takes to achieve this will uncover what a job developer does. Duties include:

-Resume and cover letter writing

-Local labor market analysis

-Assisting in completing job applications

-Assisting and teaching their client about employer outreach (email, phone, internet, or in-person

-Interview skills practice

-How to understand key sections of job postings more effectively, such as required skills and qualifications.

-Teaching their client what accommodations are and how to request them

-Helping their client gain self-awareness of their own strengths and skills

-Helping their client gain self awareness of limitations and ways to overcome these limitations

-Helping their client develop critical communication skills ( patience in following-up, voice tone, written messaging, etc)

-How to effectively use artificial intelligence (AI) in their job search

-When the client does recieve an offer for employment, the job developer can assist that person with the completion of onboarding ( I-9 verification, W-4 forms, and any required trainings, etc)

What does Job Development look like in real life?

There are essentially two ways to go about job development in vocational rehabilitation. The first way is what I like to called recruiter-style. This means your client gives you permission to reach out to targeted small businesses and companies that have may have job openings now or in the future, and finding out more about their company and hiring needs. You explain to them that you are a career development company that connects companies/businesses like themselves with great candidates that can bring immediate value to them. The ultimate goal would be to advocate the client's skills, education, and strengths to the business/company effectively, in which the company agrees to meet with the person for an interview. I call this recruiter style because this is the standard practice in the independent recruiting world, where independent recruiter's reach out to companies and connect candidates with them in the goal of getting these candidates hired with the company. Recruiter style is you being the "middle-man".

Example: Job Developer finds out that a local pet business is hiring doggie daycare specialists. Job Developer finds out the telephone number of this pet business and asks if they can speak to the manager/owner to find out if they are still hiring for this role. Owner speaks with Job Developer and confirms the role is open. Job Developer informs owner that they are a job developer of a career development company and know someone who would fit this role nicely. They explain (very short and concisely) some key skills and strengths on why they would be a fit. Job Developer asks if they can send over this person's resume to see if they would also be a fit. Pet owner reviews resume and asks to interview the person. Job Developer then connects their client with the owner.

The other way to go about job development is client-style. In this way you act as the ultimate coach, trainer, and teacher in helping the person identify companies, and helping the learn the skills of reaching out all on their own. The Job Developer will guide the client on how to effectively read job postings, proper ways to apply for a role, and how to reach out to employers. In this style, I would help create cold call scripts and cold email outreach messages with my clients, so that they can perform the outreach themselves and obtain interviews on their own.

The style the job developer chooses will depend on the client's needs, confidence, communication ability and so on. The style should also be fluid, meaning that at any point based on labor market feedback the job developer may try different styles, or a combination of the two styles.