Student Achievement Spotlight: Alice Pfeiffenberger
By Margot Latici, Career Development Coordinator CLE Denver
Ugh. We all know that looking for a job is a fulltime job that no one is paying you to do. At CLE Denver, we support our students with intentional programming designed to help students bulk up their resumes with work experience and learn the tricks of the trade when it comes to job searching, applications and interviewing. With that said, there are no guarantees for when our students will land that first job, and the process can be long, intense and sometimes daunting. Above all else, the students who we see succeed are the ones with the most perseverance. It’s not to say you won’t hit a wall halfway through the process of looking for a job, but the students who stick it out, application after application and interview after interview, will eventually find employment that works.
Ms. Alice Pfeiffenberger is one such student who we would like to give a little shout out to! Alice first started working with the career development team in October 2016, after completing a professional culinary course with Emily Griffith Technical College. Alice has a passion for baking and she is darn good at it too. If you should ever find yourself passing through a room with a plate of her chocolate peanut butter cup cookies, I challenge you to try avoiding putting one in your mouth. It won’t happen, but the recipe is included at the end of this article just so you can try it out.
Alice’s love for baking and her classroom kitchen experience made it seem obvious that Alice would pursue a job in culinary confections. She was committed to the idea and exhausted all of her local bakeshop, sweetshop, and confectionary options in a reasonable radius of public transportation. At first Alice did not hear back regarding the applications she was submitting. That was frustrating. Then Alice started to speak with hiring managers and went on a few interviews and ultimately realized that she did not want the lifestyle of a baker, getting up at 4:30 a.m. to be at work by 5/5:30 a.m., especially on the weekends. That was really frustrating. Now she had to switch gears with her job search and start all over. Around the holidays there were an abundance of seasonal jobs, but Alice was going to be traveling and her availability did not fit the needs of the employers. After the holidays, when Alice was back in Denver the job market had slowed down a bit and employers were not calling back about entry level positions. At one point Alice expressed, “this is really hard, I just want someone to give me a job.”
It was a roller coaster of ups and downs and self-exploration and Alice stuck it out. She got herself into a rhythm with the career programming and used job groups and 1-1 advising sessions to apply for jobs and prepare for interviews. Alice submitted well over 30 applications before she was called in for an interview at Bed Bath & Beyond. Alice prepared for and completed two interviews before she was offered the job. This was great news, but also a big responsibility and Alice had to jump into action again in order to figure out her transportation route, new hire paperwork, orientation, learning a new job and working with new co-workers. All of these experiences were out of her comfort zone and a bit anxiety provoking, but yet again Alice rose to the occasion and took ownership over her new position. Within a week, after a little transportation training and a little job coaching,
Alice was on her own and getting rave reviews. Staff at CLE noticed a new confidence in the way Alice carried herself and offered advice to other students looking for a job. She communicated a sense of pride over her new job to her parents and her manager enthusiastically commented on her work performance and confidence with the customers.
Now Alice knows what she is doing at work and what is expected of her and she is eager for new learning opportunities to continue to grow with the company. Alice’s advice to students looking for a job is: “It’s hard work and it can be stressful, but keep after it. Set up specific times of day to look for and apply for jobs. It is also helpful to keep a long list of jobs that you are interested in to cut down on the amount of time you have to do research.” And when times get tough, go ahead and have a cookie!
