This May, droves of national nonprofit execs decamped from the country鈥檚 coastal cities to descend on the gorgeous hardwood and exposed brick Lacuna Artist Lofts in Chicago鈥檚 Pilsen neighborhood.
Their mission: find for-profit work. Not for themselves, but for the dozens of young men and women who shrugged off the chilly showers of late spring for a chance at the American dream.
Upstairs, the job seekers convened around a breakfast buffet before taking seats in front of television monitors projecting the opaque but inspiring slogan, 鈥淭he Dream Is Free But The Hustle Is Sold Separately.鈥 As they ate, one man nourished their hunger for accomplishment with a pep talk.
鈥淓veryone in here is necessary for this city to thrive,鈥 says Jeffrey Wallace, president and CEO of , a nonprofit that works to build a pipeline between employers and vulnerable communities in need. 鈥淭here is something in you that no one else can contribute.鈥
Downstairs, other leaders at the Career 360 event are prepping to process the attendees after they鈥檝e finished breakfast. One station near the main entrance of the gallery is set up to guide people through mock interviews. Another area, overseen by local nonprofit Skills Scout, will walk candidates through simulated on-the-job tasks. Toward the back, employers with a large presence in Chicago鈥擴nited Airlines, FedEx, C.H. Robinson鈥攈ave set up career fair booths to pitch their companies to would-be applicants.
In the middle of the room is a massive black backdrop that reads 鈥淩eal 7-Second R茅sum茅s.鈥 It鈥檚 outfitted with flat-screen TVs and flanked by computer terminals and two-person high-top pub tables. It鈥檚 a mysterious offering that is being billed as the main draw at today鈥檚 event, and it鈥檚 the brainchild of yet another nonprofit at the space today, , and its new agency, .
Launched in 2014, Grads of Life seeks to convince employers to look for talent outside of the traditional academic pipeline. 鈥淭here are 6 million young adults across the country that fit the opportunity youth categories, and these are young people 16 to 24 who aren鈥檛 in school and aren鈥檛 in work and who have not yet obtained a post-secondary credential,鈥 says , principal at Grads of Life. 鈥淭he mission of Grads of Life is to create a functioning talent marketplace that connects employers with opportunity youth as a new source of talent.鈥
The organization may only be three years old, but Rosenblum has promoted this particular cause for years. 鈥淭he work really built on about five years of work that came before the launch of the campaign where we were working with employers to identify what was working for them in expanding their talent pipeline to include opportunity youth.鈥
The phrase 鈥渙pportunity youth鈥 is used repeatedly by Rosenblum and others at the event. It鈥檚 a respectful but coded term. In plain English, it refers to those young adults who entered the workforce right out of high school. Rosenblum has been doing this so long she can remember when such people were called disconnected youth. Whereas in the past, these workers would look forward to the promise of a good-paying blue-collar job lifting them into middle-class comfort, profound shifts in the U.S. economy have eroded the lion鈥檚 share of these opportunities.
Rosenblum also knows better than most the challenges of lobbying companies to place opportunity youth. In a previous role, she brought together employers for the Kellogg Foundation to get their perspectives on this group of young people.
鈥淭he responses pretty much across the board for all the employers, many of whom were service sector employers, were like, 鈥淲hat? No, we don鈥檛 hire those kids,鈥 she says. 鈥淩eally no interest, no awareness.鈥
Since then, however, there鈥檚 been significant movement around the employment outlook for working-class, or non-degree adults, as well as conversations about the true value of college and whether higher education is for everyone. This, Rosenblum says, is no accident.
鈥淚t鈥檚 now in the common conversation,鈥 she says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 been a lot of work by us and others to raise this issue.鈥
Rosenblum scored an early major win for the cause when, shortly after launching the organization (the name Grads of Life was developed by its first agency, ), she was able to lean on an old connection to land a pitch meeting with the , the nonprofit media company that secures access to creative channels for public service organizations.
鈥淲hen we heard about the issue of the opportunity gap and about how many jobs were going unfilled because employers weren鈥檛 aware of and hiring opportunity youth, we knew we wanted to be a part of the solution,鈥 says Michelle Hillman, Ad Council鈥檚 head of campaign development. 鈥淲e were so happy to find a partner who had a leadership position in the national dialogue around the issue of opportunity youth and who was such a respected voice.鈥
Ad Council responded by securing donated media in several spaces to advertise the Grads of Life cause. Developed by Arnold Worldwide, the creative included traditional outdoor spots appearing in Times Square and along bus routes and train lines operated by the Chicago Transit Authority showing well-dressed young men and women confronting the tendency of HR professionals to overlook diamond-in-the-rough employees. 鈥淭o Find A Great Candidate, Give Traditional Hiring Practices the Day Off,鈥 reads one, while another chastises, 鈥淚n Looking For The Ideal R茅sum茅, You鈥檝e Ignored The Ideal Candidate.鈥
These static advertisements were also put to use in print media in Sunday editions of The New York Times and The Boston Globe. They were accompanied by TV ads played on the Bloomberg Network and the CNN Airport Network. The campaign also established a strong online presence through .
鈥淸Forbes] just turned out to be a phenomenal donation to the campaign,鈥 Rosenblum says. 鈥淲e use that space to showcase important issues around the skills gap, the opportunity divide, talent strategy and we engage thought leaders all across the country to contribute and be guest bloggers on the site. We鈥檝e had tremendous traction.鈥
The outlets are not the places where the people they serve would congregate, and that鈥檚 by design, Rosenblum says. Early on in the partnership with the Ad Council, she pushed to make sure the campaign focused not on reaching out to opportunity youth, but rather on raising awareness and buy-in from prospective employers.
鈥淚nitially [the Ad Council] said, 鈥榊es we want to do something on the issue of opportunity.鈥 But the first thought was a campaign focused on the young people to get them to see a world of opportunity out there,鈥 Rosenblum says. 鈥淲e pushed back and said 鈥 if employers aren鈥檛 open to opportunity youth, then getting these young people all jazzed up doesn鈥檛 really make sense.鈥
鈥淚t was a new thing for the Ad Council,鈥 she adds. 鈥淭hey had not really done a B-to-B campaign before. Most of their campaigns are entirely public-facing. It was a stretch for the Ad Council, [and] it was certainly a stretch for us.鈥
There are signs it鈥檚 worked. Grads of Life鈥檚 most recent 鈥淚mpact Update鈥 from May shows that the Forbes blog has been visited more than 4.7 million times. All told, there has been $76 million in donated media given to the organization since its inception. Rosenblum calls this figure, 鈥渨ildly successful鈥 beyond her greatest aspirations, which were about $20 million, she says.
All this exposure has helped Grads of Life realize its altruistic mission. According to Grads of Life, general awareness of hiring opportunity youth has increased from 17% in 2014 to 29% in 2017. The number of employers that are planning to fill positions with these workers has grown by 8% in the same period.
A third-party survey of 600 recruiters and hiring managers found that a quarter had seen the Grads of Life campaign, and nearly 75% believed that hiring opportunity youth is 鈥済ood for business.鈥
Grads of Life also had significant success convincing specific employers to come aboard.
鈥淲e work with employers from all different sectors,鈥 Rosenblum says. 鈥淲e have a partnership right now with the National Network for Business and Industry, which sits at the Business Roundtable, and we鈥檙e working with industry associations and their employers. We鈥檙e working closely with the American Hospitality and Lodging Association and a number of big companies, such as Hilton Intercontinental Hotel. We鈥檙e just about to start working with Marriott.鈥
It鈥檚 important to note that through all this, Grads of Life does not actually work directly with opportunity youth. Rather, it is focused entirely on convincing businesses to recognize these workers and tweak their hiring practices so more of them can find worthwhile career opportunities. It鈥檚 important that Grads of Life collaborate with other nonprofits working directly with this group and attend events like Career 360 in Chicago, especially because its next campaign, Real 7-Second R茅sum茅s, leans heavily on nonprofits.
鈥淥n average, hiring managers are only looking at r茅sum茅s for seven seconds, which is kind of nuts when you think about it,鈥 says , executive creative director of 22squared. 鈥淭hey have a stack of paper on their desk, and they鈥檙e flipping through it. Opportunity youth don鈥檛 necessarily have the r茅sum茅s that everybody else does. They have different circumstances,鈥 he says. The seven-second r茅sum茅s exercise aims to create an opportunity to tell their stories and highlight their life skills鈥攖hings like work ethic, tenacity, dedication鈥攖hat don鈥檛 show up on a traditional CV. At Career 360, job seekers are given the opportunity to create a seven-second r茅sum茅. First, they fill out their information at one of the computer terminals. Then, they stand in line to work with one of a handful of job experts who will quiz them on their work history and unique job experiences, looking for marketable facets to make candidates stand out during the very brief video clips.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had some amazingly interesting stories,鈥 Botfeld says. 鈥淕rads that were going to the program who were homeless. Grads who were working two to three jobs. Grads that had to care for their younger siblings while they were trying to go through the program. We鈥檙e trying to draw out those stories and those experiences because those are ones employers are looking for.鈥
After they finish their scripts, grads wait to be called into a room where a two-person film crew will shoot the videos. Then, they will be edited on site and uploaded to each subject鈥檚 LinkedIn profile. Those who don鈥檛 have a LinkedIn profile will be assisted in creating one before they leave.
鈥淟inkedIn has also been a great partner for the campaign and has donated both digital space as well as a number of InMail offerings, where we鈥檝e had high-profile employers talk about what they鈥檙e doing to build opportunity youth talent pipelines,鈥 Rosenblum says.
All grads will also receive an e-mail link to all the assets they have created today. The seven-second r茅sum茅s are also the primary creative concept behind Grads of Life鈥檚 next big advertising push, set to kick off this month. But, the video r茅sum茅s will help youth on an immediate personal level by landing them a job offer.
鈥淎nything I can do to get in the door and build a career out of right now,鈥 says Juan Rubio, a 23-year-old grad at the event. Rubio only learned about LeadersUp, the recruitment organization working directly with opportunity youth, a few days prior.
鈥淚t was just about a couple days ago, I was sitting at home scrolling though Facebook, and they were advertising,鈥 he says. The advertising struck him as suspect, in the same vein as those spam messages touting the ability to make thousands of dollars a month online while working from home. But he decided to give it a shot and entered in his contact information.
鈥淭he next day I got e-mails and text messages. I followed through and showed up here and it turned out to be legit,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a good opportunity. There are not a lot of opportunities for us here in Chicago. If you go to a staffing agency, they just send a bunch of people to work for a couple of days. Here you get to meet the people who get you in the door and get you a job.鈥
Rubio has come prepared with a 鈥渨hole stack of r茅sum茅s鈥 and seems particularly hopeful that he convinced a United employee to accept one. 鈥淗e wrote some information on the back. I鈥檓 not sure what he wrote, but I鈥檓 keeping my fingers crossed.鈥
Right now he makes a living driving for Uber, but in his life he鈥檚 been a lifeguard, an office assistant at a dental practice and a construction worker. He also spent three years in landscaping, where he rose to the rank of a foreman, overseeing a crew of workers, some twice his age.
Its facts like these that seven-second r茅sum茅s are designed to elicit and highlight. Rubio鈥檚 front-line supervisor experience commands a premium in the job market right now, according to Rosenblum.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been doing research over the last year with Harvard Business School鈥檚 Competitiveness Project and Accenture, looking at talent strategies in the private sector, and one of the things we鈥檝e uncovered is that there鈥檚 this really significant pain point for employers in terms of talent around first-line supervisor,鈥 she says. 鈥淚f you can get employers thinking about bringing opportunity youth in and moving them up and into those first-line supervisor roles, it鈥檚 a win-win.鈥
It certainly would be a win for Rubio, who鈥檚 now spent hours hearing from others how much they want him to have a good job. He鈥檚 not sure about the seven-second r茅sum茅, but he鈥檚 willing to do what it takes to get a job.
鈥淎t this point, it鈥檚 OK to try anything. The only place is up,鈥 he says.
Zach Brooke is a former 萝莉社官网 staff writer turned freelance journalist. His work has been featured in Chicago magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, A.V. Club and VICE, among others. Follow him on Twitter @Zach_Brooke.