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How OKC Job Seekers Can Skip the Resume Black Hole · The 405 Payroll

• 0:13
  If you submitted a resume online this week, there is a very high chance no human
• 0:20
  being ever looked at it.
• 0:22
  Oh, absolutely.
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  It went straight into the algorithms where applications go to sleep forever.
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  Right!
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  But right now across Oklahoma City, the state employment security commission...
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  the OESC...
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  is running direct hire events specifically to bypass that black hole.
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  They put you face to face with hiring managers who are filling roles paying
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  seventeen fifty to nineteen twenty five an hour, on the spot.
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  Wait, nineteen twenty five?
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  For entry level?
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  For entry level, yeah.
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  We are seeing regional distribution hubs, warehouse operations,
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  logistics facilities...
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  places like Walmart logistics and local supply centers...
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  walking people in, interviewing them right there, and handing out start dates.
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  No three week waiting period.
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  Man, that...
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  that hits home.
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  Back when I was doing early morning radio, I had this absurd schedule.
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  I was working crazy irregular gig hours, split shifts, waking up before sunrise...
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  and trying to get a stable, predictable job felt impossible because every online app
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  felt like throwing paper into a canyon.
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  Yeah.
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  If I could have walked into a room, talked to a real person for ten minutes,
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  and walked out with a scheduled shift paying eighteen bucks an hour?
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  That would have completely changed my momentum overnight.
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  And that is exactly what is happening in the metro area this September.
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  According to the OESC events calendar, job seekers can check out an upcoming hiring
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  event or career fair near you to learn about career opportunities and meet directly
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  with employers that are hiring.
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  Employers are burned out on online job boards too.
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  They get hundreds of AI generated resumes, half of them do not show up for phone
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  screens...
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  so companies are moving back to local, in person hiring events because if you show
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  up, you are already ahead of ninety percent of applicants.
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  Showing up physically is the new secret weapon!
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  It really is!
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  Fifteen minutes face to face beats three weeks of refresh, refresh,
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  check email, repeat.
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  Okay, so getting to eighteen dollars an hour gets the bills paid today,
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  but...
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  er, what about six months from now?
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  How do you climb from eighteen to twenty five plus without taking on massive student
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  debt?
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  That is where local technical training comes in.
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  Look at Metro Tech here in Oklahoma City.
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  They offer quality career training designed to help you achieve your goals and
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  succeed in your chosen field.
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  Programs like their short term certifications and the EMPOWER initiative are
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  explicitly structured for working adults.
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  So you can move from a general warehouse role into something like precision
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  technical work or specialized healthcare?
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  Exactly.
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  Surgical technology, aircraft maintenance, advanced manufacturing...
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  these pathways shift your earning potential from eighteen an hour up to twenty four
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  fifty or even thirty an hour.
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  And because of state workforce grants and tuition assistance programs,
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  many students finish with zero debt.
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  Wait, but how do people handle the transition?
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  Like, if you are working full time to cover rent, how do you drop hours to attend
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  class?
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  That is the real puzzle, right?
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  What a lot of folks in OKC are doing is combining short term night or evening
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  classes with low friction weekend side income.
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  Picking up a Saturday or Sunday gig in the metro can yield a hundred twenty to a
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  hundred eighty dollars per weekend.
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  That quick cash bridges the small income gap while you spend a few months
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  upskilling.
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  Right, right.
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  It protects your immediate cash flow so you do not freeze up.
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  Precisely.
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  And you anchor that wage bump using local stabilization resources.
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  Programs like the Community Action Agency offer utility assistance,
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  and local non profits offer free financial coaching.
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  So when your pay increases by six or seven dollars an hour,
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  that extra money actually builds a household emergency fund instead of just leaking
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  out into temporary lifestyle creep.
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  Hmm.
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  You know, there is that metric...
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  if a family can preserve even one hundred fifty dollars a month from a wage raise,
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  their probability of staying financially stable over two years skyrockets.
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  It changes everything.
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  So if someone is listening to this right now during lunch...
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  what is the one single move they should make before five o clock today?
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  Pull up the OESC calendar online, pick one direct hire event in OKC this month,
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  and mark it on your phone calendar.
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  That single fifteen minute conversation could be the start of the whole chain
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  reaction.
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  Simple enough.
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  Go make it happen.