Before Shaterica Asberry woke up Thursday morning, she had already planned her outfit: a red pantsuit, a black blouse, red and white high-top Vans, and a gold necklace that matched her sunflower yellow nails.
She had a goal to accomplish: land a job.
The State Fair of Texas held its first virtual job fair, which wrapped up Friday afternoon. To accommodate people without internet access, the State Fair and other partners set up tables with laptops outside the T.R. Hoover Center in South Dallas.
Last week, when Asberry saw a sign outside the center advertising the two-day event, she pulled over to see what it was about. After she registered for the fair, she took a flier home and looked through the list of employers, flagging jobs she liked.
On Thursday morning, she prayed and headed to Bexar Street to use the center’s Wi-Fi.
Asberry, 31, loaded trucks for UPS drivers until two months ago, when seven of her coworkers tested positive for the coronavirus. She didn’t feel comfortable returning and risking exposure. But she had been ready for a change for a while — after working in warehouses for six years, she was tired of the heavy lifting.
That’s why an opening for a counselor at the Boys and Girls Club excited her so much.
“If I get this job, I can get my daughters to be Girl Scouts," said Asberry, who grew up in Oak Cliff and has a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old. “I love camping, and we don’t normally get to do that type of stuff around here.”
Asberry reminisced about her days as a Girl Scout while she created a username and password for the career website created by Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas, a networking and employment platform. As a little girl, she loved camping and swimming with her grandfather, who was a Boy Scouts troop leader.
When she landed on the work experience page, she had to type out her resume because she didn’t have one to upload. But sitting in a metal folding chair under a tent in the Hoover Center’s parking lot, she patiently listed her job history.
“I’m confident,” she said with a smile.
That wasn’t always the case.
Four years ago, Asberry regularly sang in the Dallas Street Choir with The Stewpot, a resource center for individuals who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. In exchange for singing, she said, she received bus passes and other necessities.
“I’m more established,” Asberry said of her life now. “I’m not as depressed and stressed.”
Asberry submitted her resume, and the laptop screen went white. A blue revolving circle at the top left of the internet browser indicated that the page was processing, but it was taking longer than anything else she’d done so far.
She called one of the Workforce Solutions staffers over for help, and he suggested waiting so she wouldn’t lose all the work she entered.
“OK,” she said, opening a new tab to browse other jobs.
Asberry wasn’t fazed.
“These are machines, you know,” she said. “They only work when they want to.”
As she clicked on logos for the other 50 some employers, she kept seeing the same message. A dialogue box popped up that read, “You’ve already expressed interest.” But the Boys and Girls Club opening was the only position she had applied for that morning.
Then she realized Workforce Solutions had her information from other applications she’d completed in the past couple of months.
Now she just had to wait for the Boys and Girls Club page to load. After 10 more minutes passed, she decided to go home. But she had a game plan.
“Workforce is very beneficial,” Asberry said. “What I need to do is go [online] and completely update my resume. Then I’ll probably start getting calls.”
As for the Boys and Girls Club, her spirits were still high.
“I’m just going to go on their site and apply myself," she said. “That’s still an opportunity for me ... working with little girls, that’s perfect for me.”
