When 18-year-old Alex Zettel’s parents told him their family was moving out of the area, Alex had two choices: move with his parents and build a new life in another town, or move out and start living on his own.

Alex chose to live on his own and was confronted with another challenge — he wasn’t earning enough money as a musician to sustain himself. Not sure where to go from there, Alex happened to see a public service announcement for CONNECT2Careers (C2C) on TV. He registered for the program and was paired with Naomi Moore as his peer job coach. Using C2C’s text message system, Naomi took time to learn about Alex’s career interests, educational background and experiences, then added a number of jobs to the To Do List on Alex’s C2C account.

When participants express interest in a job with C2C, all of the steps necessary to apply for that job — from revising a résumé to completing an online application and scheduling an interview — are added to an online To Do List shared by participants and job coaches. These To Do Lists help young people stay organized as they apply for dozens of jobs at once, and help job coaches identify participants most in need of assistance.

“The To Do List CONNECT2Careers made was really helpful. It kept me organized during my job search,” says Alex.

Naomi encouraged Alex to apply for a retail sales associate position at . Initially, Alex was hesitant to apply for the opportunity. “When I heard about the job at Living Spaces, I didn’t think I was qualified,” said Alex. “I wasn’t going to apply at first, but Naomi seemed to think I was qualified, so I took the chance.”

Alex completed his application for Living Spaces Furniture on a Monday, was scheduled for an interview on Thursday morning, and had a job offer by Thursday afternoon! Alex expressed his gratitude for C2C, and especially for his peer job coach who, as Alex puts it, “is the bomb.”

At C2C, we’re proud to work with smart, determined young people like Alex. Right now, there are over 2,500 young people just like him looking for employment opportunities. If you are interested in hiring a young adult, fill out to get involved. Young people looking for employment can register for a C2C account to be connected with a peer job coach of their own.