AimBig Employment Success Story – Joshua

With over 20 years of experience working to find employment for individuals living with mental health issues, musculoskeletal disabilities, and injuries, we understand the unique challenges that job seekers face. We see people from all corners of life, helping them overcome challenges and successfully work their way to meaningful employment.

Our participants are the motivation behind what we do, and we love to share interesting stories of our clients and their road to success through selecting AimBig as their DES provider. One that we would love to share is the story of Joshua.

Joshua came to AimBig after being diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). At first, Joshua was quite guarded and played his cards close to his chest, where he did not want to be recognised as having a disability and didn’t want any help. However, after several meetings with his Job Coach, Toni, Joshua decided to give AimBig a chance. Joshua engaged in meaningful chats with Toni and learnt about the AimBig process and the tailored service offering that AimBig provides. This motivated Joshua to continue progressing with Toni in order to improve his mental health and find employment. Toni then directly registered Joshua and arranged an ESAT, and he was on her caseload within the fortnight.

Toni and Joshua then had regular meetings over coffee at McDonald’s to discuss career opportunities he would be interested in pursuing. They wrote down a list of local businesses that Toni could engage with on his behalf.

Toni then secured Joshua a job interview, where she prepared him and even took him shopping for clothing to ensure he was ready and looked the part. A tactical strategy Toni used to prepare Joshua was holding “mock interviews”, where he would arrive at the AimBig office in his interview clothes and asked interview questions. The preparation Toni and Joshua did was successful in helping Joshua secure a job at a local community business, and commenced employment the very next week.

Toni and Joshua catch up every Tuesday to ensure he is in good mental health and that work is going well. As Joshua works both day and night shifts, he sometimes struggles with his mental health and the medication he is on, so the regular catch-ups are great to check in and keep Joshua on track.

Joshua’s story highlights the hard work, perseverance, and dedication of our job coaches can make a unique difference in our participant’s lives. We are proud to have job coaches such as Toni on the AimBig team.

We asked Toni more about her role as an Employment Consultant at AimBig, and what part of her job is the most rewarding.

“My passion for the job that I do drives me every day, where being able to help people like Joshua even in the smallest ways to change their lives for the better is why I do it. It’s the satisfaction of being able to help others and make a real difference is what gets me out of bed and off to work each and every day.

I assist people in connecting to vital services in their time of need, going above and beyond for my job seekers which gives me great job satisfaction in my role. I have been in this role for many years, and when I first started as Employment Consultant, the job was unlike anything I thought it would be. It’s been a great surprise and the most rewarding job I have ever done!”