Transcript - Episode 37 the Blind Sport Podcast

Transcript - Episode 37 – The Blind Sport Podcast Can sport influence my employment opportunities with Karen Wolffe

Published: 1 May 2015 at www.theblindsportpodcast.com where you can download or listen to the audio podcast version.

Introduction

This is episode 37 of The Blind Sport Podcast, entitled Can sport influence my employment opportunities with Karen Wolffe.

Hi I’m Mike and this is The Blind Sport Podcast. The sport show for the blind, the partially sighted and the supportive sighty.

Thanks for joining me for Episode 37. Recorded in May 2015.

On the show we'll be talking with Karen Wolffe from Austin Texas as we try to answer the question “Can sport have an influence on my employment opportunities”.

I will also be letting you know about a new free blind sport resource that you just may find useful, so stick around.

Hi there, I hope this episode finds you in good health and fighting fit. Before we chat with Karen, I would like to thank you for the feedback received re episode 36 where we spoke to Gary Steeves from Courage Canada about blind ice hockey.

Some of the comments that I received included: Oh man, Ice hockey sounds like something more countries need to get in to. The idea of letting a blindy loose on skates and with a purpose to use a stick sounds crazy. Bring it on.

All comments welcome. Email me your thoughts.

Contact Jingle - To contact Mike or comment on The Blind Sport Podcast, submit a feedback form from the website www.theblindsportpodcast.com, email [email protected], send us a tweet @BlindSportMike or follow us on Twitter @blindsportmike, or visit The Blind Sport Podcast page on Facebook.

Interview

I am honoured to be speaking to Doctor Karen Wolffe from Austin Texas. Karen is a leading world authority on the subject of employment for the blind and vision impaired as an author, consultant and career counsellor.

Welcome to the show Karen and thank you for joining us.

Karen – Thanks, my pleasure. I’m excited about being here Mike. Mike - Now as a leading world authority on all things to do with employment and the blindness community, can you just start off by telling us a little bit about your history and background in this area?

Karen - Certainly. I am residing presently in Austin, Texas and I have lived here for many years and this is really where I got my start in the field of disability engagement. I started my career back in the late seventies with work at the rehabilitation centre here in Austin for people who are blind or who have low vision. And from there I evolved and did a stint at the University of Texas on faculty. I worked with the Hadley School for the Blind when I finished up my sojourn at the University of Texas and then segwayed in to a position with the American Foundation for the Blind as their Director of Professional Development. And I did that work until about 2010 at which point I came back in to private practice and work now primarily as a consultant and practitioner training up teachers, councillors to work with individuals who are vision impaired. Also work, whenever I have the opportunity, with parents, particularly of youth in transition into work and with adult consumers of rehabilitation and education services who are blind or visually impaired.

Mike - So the topic for this episode is a little bit different to normal in that we are looking at how sport can have an influence on your job opportunities. Have you got any initial thoughts on that?

Karen - Yes, my initial thoughts Mike are that sport and rec have tremendous impact when you think about preparation for going to work. Particularly I think with regard to the fact that participating in any kind of fitness programme whether it’s through formal sport engagement or whether it’s informal through recreational sport, I think has a really positive effect on people’s attitudes. They tend to be more fit. They tend to be more enthusiastic and have more energy than individuals who don’t participate in sport. And I think that that positive energy is definitely needed when people are preparing to go to work. Certainly in terms of the activity when you are looking for work. It is very energy draining to look for work. It takes a lot of commitment on the part of the job seeker. And having good help being fit is going to be a very positive thing for a job seeker. So I think that’s the first thing I’d think about.

The second thing that I was always think about when I think about sport and recreation with regard to finding work and finding out about career opportunities is just the whole social networking that goes on when you participate, particularly in team sport but in truth, in any kind of physical activity.

If you are a runner, if you’re a swimmer, if you’re a hiker, chances are you do those activities sometimes on your own but many times with other people and those other people form that personal network that will take people along way in terms of finding out about jobs, learning more about careers that they may be interested in and ultimately figuring out where the jobs are.

We know as career counsellors that the most likely way for people to get the job of their dreams so to speak, the best job that they can get, is through a network and so to me sport and recreation are a natural in terms of forming networks. Mike - How can being involved with team sports be an advantage?

Karen - Well I think being involved in teams sports in particular puts you in a situation where you absolutely have to get along with the other people on the team or the team will lose. And as we know athletics, particularly sport, is a competitive adventure and the goal for a team is to win the game or to win a round or to win the relay. Whatever the case may be, it’s all about competition, it’s all about learning that you’ve got to work collaboratively with other people being on a team in order to win and I think that transfers over in large part to the way things work on worksites.

Employers expect incoming employees to join the team, the work team and that joining up of the team requires that people use good social skills to network and get along with other people. Find out what other peoples goals are, share their own goals and most critically again it’s the team spirit thing but most critically achieve the company’s goals or the corporations goals in terms of outcomes and that’s all about competing together to achieve those goals. I think that’s the big transfer that I see Mike.

Mike- How can my sports history be used positively during the interview process?

Karen - Well certainly during the interview process, the most critical thing you have to do in an interview is establish a friendly rapport with the employer and I think for many individuals who are vision impaired that that’s a difficult thing to do because sighted people tend to expect that blind people are very different from themselves. And most employers are going to be sighted people. So the beauty of having a sports background is that it gives you an entrée right away to talk about something that very likely is known to the interviewer. That may in fact be something that the interviewer shares in terms of previous participation on a sports team or in a sport activity and I think that it helps many interviewees establish rapport with the interviewer. So to me that’s a huge leap forward in terms of establishing rapport with the perspective interviewer.

Mike- How do you believe that keeping fit or being involved with sports can help me manage the stresses of work and being employed?

Karen -Well I’m glad you asked Mike because I really think that in terms of staying fit and being active on a team or doing individual sport is critical to job maintenance or staying on the job, being successful on the job. I have two or three thoughts about that.

My first thought is that always it’s to your advantage as a worker if you can find some activity to participate in outside of work with your work colleagues and many times that will involve some kind of sport or fitness activity. The company may have a gymnasium for example where workers go to stay fit. They may have a volleyball team or a baseball team here in the United States. Maybe a cricket team over on the other side of the ocean.

Mike –Yeah. We still interested in cricket even though we lost. Karen - I know, I know. I’m not going to go there.

Mike - Wise move.

Karen - But the important thing to bring up here is that active participation in these kinds of extracurricular activities outside of work with co-workers really helps a worker to stay connected, stay socially active and be perceived as again a team player. Someone who wants to be involved with the company beyond just that sort of 8 to 5 work commitment. So I think that’s number one, that opportunity to be engaged with your co-workers in some sort of extracurricular activity whether it’s a formal team sport activity or whether it’s some kind of individual fitness program - running, walking, swimming with a co-worker.

I think the second piece that I always try to remember to mention is that sport and physical fitness are again topics that you can use as a new worker to connect with current co-workers or current workers who will become co-workers in a meaningful way and build those social networks that are so important for maintaining employment.

And the third thing I wanted to mention is that it really is important to understand and underscore the importance of staying fit for over all general health and wellbeing and to be able to cope with the stress of work, to be able to be there every day to do the job that’s expected of you, to be prepared to go the extra mile if you need to, all takes energy and good health. And the best way I know to stay fit and be healthy is to participate actively in sport.

Mike - Now you’ve been exposed to quite a few people in different facets of employment and different types of careers. What are the more interesting ones you can recall that have been people that have been actively involved directly in the sports industry?

Karen - I think one of the most exciting jobs that I ever came across that one of our colleagues who is totally blind was doing, was as a sports reporter for one of the big national newspapers here in the United States. And he was very active and a really good reporter and that was one of the most interesting ones that I ever came across.

Certainly I have seen lots of other interesting careers. There’s a young man that I know of who is working currently as a personal trainer. Actually helping individuals with sight and without sight in their personal fitness programs. I think that’s a different kind of job that I hadn’t seen where someone has capitalised on their fitness.

I’ve seen a number of people who have worked as either coaches or trainers of individuals particularly individuals with disabilities who’ve capitalised on their own vision impairment as a springboard to help them help other people who are challenged by vision impairment or other kinds of disabilities. I’ve seen a number of people working as trainers.

And then, I think there are of course those super accelerated kinds of examples if you will, of individuals that most of your listeners will have heard of or know of. The Paralympic Athletes. People like Marly Runyan. Others around the world who compete and who run, who swim, who cycle. Many of the competitive cyclists in the Paralympics have been visually impaired. Yourself Mike, as a runner, you know there have been lots of strong competitors in the running competitions in the Paralympics. And then I always think about folks like Erik Weihenmayer. I think there are lots of examples of people out there in the larger community who are blind or who have low vision and have excelled in sport and they’ve capitalised on that to move in to paid employment frankly.

Mike - What advice would you give to anybody who is maybe considering a career in the sports industry? Or sports related career?

Karen - Well to be honest with you Mike, it’s the same advice that I would give anyone chasing any kind of career. And that is to first do a very critical analysis of yourself. What are your true skills? What are your true interests? What are your true values? What’s your work personality? And to get that down on paper whether it’s in print or braille but to capture a self portrait, if you will. What you would have offer up to an employer. And then to take those ideas that you might have, the three or four or five jobs that you might be considering in sport, and really do the research. Not just assume that you know what those jobs entail but actually do the research both nationally within your own country and then locally in terms of your state or province, your community, to really look at where you want to live and what the possibilities are within that community and analyse those jobs from that perspective.

Once you have analysed the three to five jobs you might be considering, I would encourage you to compare those jobs to your self portrait and look for similarities and differences. If there are differences, you’ll need to analyse those differences critically with an idea in mind of how you will either remediate if you need additional skills or restructure if the job needs some restructuring in order for you to be able to do it as a person without sight. That might be an environmental restructure, it might be looking at assistive technology or access tools that would enable you to do that job. Or re-evaluate if you feel that you can’t overcome those discrepancies and look for something that’s related, if the job that you first thought you might like to do is unavailable to you or inaccessible to you.

And then once you’ve decided to chase those jobs, in a planful, meaningful way which means that you would build a resume that’s tailored to the jobs that you’re interested in based on job descriptions that you have access to. And then practice your interviewing skills with someone knowledgeable in that field. And then go after it. Actually start putting in your applications, start doing your interviews. Again in a very planful way. I would set a deadline for myself. How long I was going to look for job one and that might be six months, a year, whatever the individual decides. If you haven’t found that job within that window of opportunity that you structured for yourself, then I would go to job two and I would search for that one. Maybe six months to a year. It depends on what you’ve got in the way of time. And likewise, moving on, if you don’t capture that one.

The key is to do the research and then to make a commitment and go after it. And tell yourself how long you’re going to look so that you don’t spend a lifetime looking for just a reasonable amount of time based on your own life needs and wants. Mike - So it sounds like the dedication and structure that you’ve got to put in to a sport in order to succeed and get that goal is directly related to getting a job?

Karen - Absolutely. I don’t know of any athlete that doesn’t set goals. You set a goal for a personal achievement, you set a goal as a team player to reach your team goals and that’s the same thing you do with looking for a job. You set your goals and then you make a commitment to go after those goals and you set benchmarks all along the way to see how close you’re getting. And you constantly re-evaluate if the technique that you’re using in sport isn’t getting you to your goal, you adjust your technique. If you’re technique isn’t working for you in terms of getting a job, you adjust your technique. I think they are parallel universes frankly.

Mike - So in other words, if you’re not fired up about your sport, you’re not fired up about getting a job or keeping it.

Karen - Well if you’re not fired up about your sport, you’re certainly not going to excel and if you’re not fired about getting the job you are trying to get, you absolutely won’t get it. That’s a given. You have to be fired up to get the job because it’s going to take a lot of energy just like reaching a goal in sport.

Mike - Now one of the things that I ask of every guest that I speak to Karen, is do you have a favourite personal quotation that you hold close to your heart?

Karen - I guess mine has to be that if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again. I don’t believe in giving up Mike, I think that’s the bottom line here.

Mike - There’s no such thing as give up.

Karen - Yeah, it’s not in my vocabulary so I think that would have to be my favourite quote, frankly. Although, I will say that I have a pin in my collection. You know one of these lapel pins that you sometimes wear. That someone gave me one time that comes right out of sport. And I often think about it in terms of sport and looking for work. And that’s “No pain, no gain”.

Mike - For sure.

Karen - And that’s true in both sport and in job seeking I think.

Mike - This has been awesome. Karen Wolffe, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your knowledge and experience.

Karen - My pleasure. I wish you well both in your running and in your work.

Mike - Thank you very much.

Karen - Take good care.

Mike - Here’s a new Blind Sport resource for you. I have created a webpage listing a directory of Blind Sport online resources. You will find this resources page at theblindsportpodcast.com or by punching in the address of theblindsportpodcast.com/resources.

These resources include Blind Sport product suppliers and service providers, websites from Blind Sport organisations from various countries, many websites that have been mentioned in previous episodes of the Blind Sport Podcast and various other online resources that I’ve just found over time.

This page is very much still in its infancy but will be grown and developed over time so if you have a website that you would like to have included in this directory for a service, product supplier or organisation that is Blind Sport related, then please do email me with the web address and a brief one line description of what it is and what it does and I will be more than happy to include it. Please do share this page with people that you believe may find it useful.

Hopefully this can be yet another way of spreading awareness, building connections and getting more people involved with Blind Sport.

Yeah, very cool so get in to it.

Quotations

Attitude quotes

Thomas Jefferson. Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal. Nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

Winston Churchill. Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

Venus Williams. Some people say I have attitude. Maybe I do, but I think you have to. You have to believe in yourself when no one else does. That makes you a winner right there.

Albert Einstein. Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

Michael Jordan. My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.

Zig Ziglar. You cannot tailor-make the situations in life, but you can tailor make the attitudes to fit those situations.

Closing

I hope you enjoyed our conversation with Karen Wolffe. I think we worked out that, clearly, sport can definitely, have a positive influence on your employment opportunities. A big thank you to Karen for sharing her knowledge and experiences.

In the next episode, episode 38, of the blind sport podcast I will be speaking to Julie Woods from New Zealand about being a blind referee at the nude rugby. Hahaha, yes you did hear correctly. Join me again in two weeks time for that. That will be so cool.

Contact Jingle - To contact Mike or comment on The Blind Sport Podcast, submit a feedback form from the website http://www.theblindsportpodcast.com, email mailto:[email protected], send us a tweet or follow us on Twitter @blindsportmike, or visit The Blind Sport Podcast page on Facebook.

Mike – To assist me with the growth of The Blind Sport Podcast, I need your help.

If you know of others who may get value from listening to this show, then please do tell them about it.

Tell your friends, your family, your club members, your work colleagues, whether it be face-to-face or via social networks, let’s get the word out there.

If we do this together, we can promote the awareness of Blind Sports and make a difference.

Ok, that’s us for another episode, so train hard, play fair, give it your all and most importantly, enjoy your sport.

Thanks for listening. Take care. See ya.

Closing Announcer – Thank you for listening to another edition of The Blind Sport Podcast. The sports show that’s dedicated to blind sport. With Mike Lloyd. Visit theblindsportpodcast.com

End of transcript