1. Dear Sir,
I would like to pass on my gratitude for employing Mentors such as Akren Garkos. I have
been very fortunate to have had him allocated to me whilst I am a student at MCI.
Firstly Akren is very consistent with maintaining contact with me firstly by telephoning
and then with a follow up email if he has not been able to make contact on the telephone.
Since the middle of January this year, my studies have been extremely interrupted with
moving from Melbourne to a small rural community in Gippsland. I have also had to look
for work locally as the computing back and forth to Melbourne each day has not been a
viable long term option. To compensate I have been doing locum case management daily
in the outer south eastern suburbs of Melbourne until I could find suitable employment
closer to my new home. Small rural communities sometimes do not provide much hope in
securing employment and without Akren helping, it would have been even more difficult.
Akren suggested that I link myself in with a local employment agency as a volunteer
prospective job seeker. He also explained the necessary steps to have several types of
resumes to coincide with the roles I was applying for. I had been informed that my
resume, the way it was, would present me as being over highly qualified for many of the
positions I was applying for and that the attitude of country folk is that they value their
jobs and feel threatened if someone comes along with more qualifications than them.
Akren offered to look at my resume and break it down so that it was shorter than the
eight pages that it stood at.
Akren was very supportive through this whole process both emotionally and mentally as
he picked up that I was finding it hard with the house move and the job hunting and that I
was becoming extremely stressed about getting behind in my studies.
I have since been able to get a part time job on Phillip Island as a Welfare Coordinator at
the RSL Club looking after the Veterans and coordinating/training and inducting
Volunteers. I can see from the job descriptions and duties list that my course through MCI
will be highly beneficial.
I feel that Akren has been a God send to me over the last three months and without his
support and guidance I did come close to dropping out of my course.
Kindest regards
Annie Brookes ( Student at MCI)