Success Story: Lisa

Industry: State Government
Current Position: Procurement Assistant

It was January 1999. I had just moved from Alaska back to Oregon, a newly single mom with absolutely no job experience, no computer experience, and I needed a job. My mom said “Sign up for benefits until you get a permanent job.” I said, “Nah, I think I’ll just get a job.”

I was told about DPI by a friend and I went there to see about getting signed up and getting temp jobs until I could get something permanent. I lacked many job skills but I had the drive to work. I had to take care of my two-year old.

Day after day I would call in to DPI, optimistic about getting a job and day after day they didn’t let me down. Sometimes it was for a day, sometimes for a couple of weeks but they kept me in work. While I worked, I would go in and practice my typing and computer skills.

Mother and daughter smiling in restaurant

One day I applied for a permanent State job and was granted an interview. I didn’t get the job. I applied for another. Didn’t get it. I wouldn’t let myself get frustrated. I kept applying and getting interviewed. Meanwhile, I was working a summer job for the County Assessor’s Department that DPI had gotten me. I was so grateful to have 3 months straight of work, knowing I could provide for my daughter.

Then I got the call. I got a permanent job for the State as an Office Specialist 1 at Oregon Department of Education. I was so excited! I felt bad that I was leaving DPI because I had come to know and love the staff who worked there, but they did their job-they helped get ME get the experience I needed to get the job I wanted.

Exactly 6 months later I applied and got an Office Specialist 2 position. I was moving up in the world. A few years later I applied for a lateral transfer to Procurement and got the position. A couple of years after that, they wrote a position for a Procurement Assistant that I applied for and got.

I have worked for the State now for 23 years this coming June. I know for a fact I would not have gotten my job if it weren’t for DPI believing in me and giving me job after job until I got my permanent job with the State. In all honesty, DPI had truly saved my life.

Then my daughter had grown up, turned 20, and needed a good job and I told her about DPI. She too lacked experience and skills. She was able to get jobs from DPI while applying to work for the State. Time after time she was rejected for a State job and once, one of her coworkers even told her she would never get an Administrative Specialist 1 job unless she had some college experience. My daughter proved her wrong at the age of 25. She is currently an Administrative Specialist 1 for DEQ in Portland and just passed her 6-month trial period. I’ve never been prouder.

Where would I be without DPI? I honestly don’t know. I know that they helped me when I was at the lowest point of my life. And they did it so fast. So thank you DPI,

Sincerely,

A multi-generational household of DPI workers

Temporary Positions Lead to Successful Career

Industry: State Government Current Position: Procurement Assistant

Industry: State Government
Current Position: Procurement Assistant