Working After Transplant (Were at 6 months) :)

[krismimo]

Hey everyone I hope you all are doing great in your recovery and if not you are in my prayers. We are about 8 months post transplant and hubby got clearance to work at least part time.
In the mean time he is going through a program called ticket to work program. Things are looking up and it's weird. So I was wondering is there anyone else going to look up employment as soon as they are able?
And if you are what are your experiences. Any suggestions or programs are more than welcomed (We live in Los Angeles, CA). Again I wish you all speedy recovery!

[jbeany]

I'm on ticket to work as well.  I just got a job, and am currently beating my head against the wall trying to get someone at the local SS office to actually listen to my messages before replying.
 
(I need to report the paychecks to them as well as my EN.  All I keep getting back is "Look at our website to find out how to sign up for an EN."  Duh.  I got that part figured out.) 

Other than that, it's gone pretty well.  I haven't used the Employment Network for much besides reporting my checks to get my incentive bonuses so far.  I had better connections through my university and my volunteer work than anyone several states away could give me.  I'm in Michigan, and there aren't any local networks to help transplant patients, so I'm with some place in Iowa.  I'd suggest using all your local job hunt options if there isn't a local EN to use, but do make sure you get all the information about the Opportunity to Work Tax Credit.  If your hubby finds a job with a private employer, they can get a substantial tax break for hiring him.  It's a nice bonus to mention at an interview if you are the type to be open about your transplant.

[krismimo]

Thank you for the useful information. But I also wonder have you or anyone else had to train for a whole new job post transplant? And if so what did you do?

[jbeany]

I did start over in a new career.  I had been both a restaurant manager and an architectural CAD draftsman.  Both were done with informal, on the job training, so I didn't have any degrees to back them up.  Getting hired to do drafting again was a long shot, since I was a decade out of date on CAD software updates, as well as looking for work at the bottom of the housing market crash.  Plus, the restaurant manager position was clearly going to be too physically stressful if I did end up back on dialysis again, so I wanted office work.

I started with an online version of the Meyer-Briggs personality tests.  I got some great suggestions for careers based on my personality, and winnowed those down based on practicality.  The top two choices for my personality were librarian and lawyer.  Getting a job in a library during a recession is pretty much impossible.  Law school tuition was insane. 

Paralegals and other trained legal assistants, though, were one of the few careers that actually grew in number over the recession.  I found a post-bach paralegal program that I could do at a business college in just over a year.   I'm working part time as a court clerk now.

Your Ticket to Work network should be able to offer you some career counseling as well as some help with low-interest student loans and scholarships available only to people with disabilities.  Oddly, they won't help if you just want some additional training - you need to do a full degree to get an loan help.  (I asked if they could help me take Spanish classes so I would have another marketable skill - the answer was only if I wanted a degree in it.)

http://www.humanmetrics.com/index.htm#intro  Here's a link to a basic personality test - it's a bit time consuming and odd, but the tips about best jobs can be useful.  I never even thought about being a lawyer or working in the legal field until I took this - and I really, really love what I do.