After the death of her husband and putting her career on hiatus for three years, Verda Smith credits the guidance and comfort provided by the team at CareerSource NEFL in resuming a new career.
Smith spent 20 years working as a physician assistant – but all that changed when her husband Johannes passed away in July of 2020.
“Before that happened, I was one of those who went into work early, starting my days at 4 a.m., and after Johannes passed away I continued to work until February of 2021,” she said. “I felt like I needed to take care of everyone else, but I asked my colleagues to let me know if they noticed anything different in the way I worked. Over time, I realized I wasn’t going in early anymore…and it got to be too hard…so I took a leave of absence.”
Smith said she gave herself “time to grieve” for the next two years.
But when a plant that she had named after her husband bloomed one day, she says, “all my friends told me ‘he’s talking to you,’” she said. “When he was alive, he loved that I was really committed to my job, so I took that as a sign that I should go back to work.”
When she decided to look for a new job, Smith took her curriculum vitae (also called CV: a resume form most professionals use that is Latin for ‘course of life’) to the CareerSource NEFL Career Center on Beach Boulevard.
“My CV was five pages long, and the first workforce representative I met with, Susan Worzel, suggested that I shorten it to make it ‘post-pandemic friendly’ and list all my skills up front so the hiring manager could see all my qualifications within 90 seconds when it was reviewed,” Smith said.
Other workforce representatives helped Smith navigate the Employ Florida website, where she drilled down to the jobs she was interested in.
“I just started coming in and pretty soon everybody there knew me,” she said. “I was going by there so often I felt like they were family. They were always helping and encouraging me to apply for positions.”
She discovered her new opportunity through the Employ Florida website and Hire Heroes USA Job Board. This July, Smith landed a full-time position as a Virtual Narrative Summary Writer with the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, where she now supports injured and ill service members as they transition to civilian life.
Smith said she enjoys her new job, and adds that she preferred finding the position through CareerSource NEFL rather than through a recruitment firm.
“I felt more comfortable with the people at the career center,” she said. “They gave me insights into using all the job websites, my resume and everything else. Whenever I felt bad during that time, I’d go into the center and look for work. Honestly, they helped me find a great job and get through my grief.”