Project Placed: Why Mindset and Community Matters for Job Seekers

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Social Enterprise would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of this land
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where this podcast will be recorded and pay respects to the elders past and present.
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We also want to celebrate the ongoing culture, connections and the storytelling
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practices that is very much part of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders tradition.
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Welcome to Social Enterprise.
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Music.
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Hello, listeners. Welcome to the episode and more importantly,
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the first episode for the new year.
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I hope you were able to enjoy some downtime with friends and family.
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Before I introduce today's episode, I wanted to thank everyone who has listened
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and supported Social Enterprise.
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As you may know, I launched the podcast mid-last year as a passion project and
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it's so great to get the feedback that people are finding it helpful,
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thought-provoking, when it comes to their career, general outlook,
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or even as further education and learning a topic that they didn't have much exposure to before.
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I pride myself in making this podcast accessible to everyone regardless of who
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you are, your background,
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where you're at in your career or life situation and the support with people
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downloading and listening to the episode means that I get to continue this service
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that I wholeheartedly love doing.
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To kick us off in 2025, I'm delighted to be joined by Ant Cohen who is the founder
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and CEO of Project Placed.
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Project Placed is an Australian-based charity which provides job seekers free
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access to expert career coaching and mental health support when they need it most.
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It's a service available to those who are over 18.
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Have the right to work in Australia, are unemployed looking to re-enter the
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job market or have recently been made redundant. Ant has first-hand experience
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where he's been made redundant three times in his corporate career and found
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that there was a gap in the support, especially during the pandemic.
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Project Placed and the service they provide has evolved over time in response
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to the external environment, but its aim remains to provide support by creating a sense of optimism,
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self-confidence and building a sense of community that we'll delve into a little
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bit more in our conversation.
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Without further delay, here's my discussion with Ant.
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Ant, can you tell us a little bit about Project Placed and how you came up with the concept?
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Project Placed essentially provides free career coaching and some mental health
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support for anybody in Australia who's out of work or who has been made redundant.
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And that's it in a nutshell. We've got an amazing team of career coaches and
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mental health specialists that
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all donate some time each month in order for us to be able to do that.
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And we service all of Australia seven days a week. It kind of started by accident.
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I often joke that it was an accident that I started at the beginning of the
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pandemic when so many people were being stood down. And we started off really as a job board.
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And then it grew really, really quickly because the people applying for jobs
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often needed help with their resumes.
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And there were a whole lot of career coaches and HR specialists available at
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the time. Like all of us, they had a lot of time on their hands.
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And so they wanted to step in and be able to help people. And so really quickly
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from March 2020 through to about July, we had around 120 coaches join us to
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be able to help people who are going through that.
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Now, obviously, the pandemic's almost a distant memory, not quite,
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but the need for our services is still there.
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So we've grown up a lot since then and really been able to, you know,
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improve the services that we offer people.
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It's so great to hear the evolution of Project Placed, as you mentioned,
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starting as a jobs board, but seeing there's a greater need,
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especially through the pandemic.
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And one of the things that you highlighted is unlike other, let's say,
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traditional career transition support services,
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you highlighted that you also support clients with mental health and mindset
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support through consultants that are mental health first aiders and qualified in this space.
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Why was that important to you and Project Placed?
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It's a really good question and I should point out we're not a crisis
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service but yes we absolutely have that component to
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the service and that's so critical because
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when you're out of work your confidence takes
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a hit and even if you've got a really strong support network at home we don't
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always want to bother them or concern them with what we're going through, I've
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been made redundant three times through my corporate career so i'm really attuned
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to how job seekers feel and getting ghosted, not hearing back,
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being rejected, all takes its toll.
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And when you're sitting at home Monday through Friday and you're doom scrolling
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through Seek and LinkedIn, it really starts to impact that mental state,
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your self-confidence, your feelings of self-worth.
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If you've taken a career break, for example, because we help a lot of women
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in particular who are coming back after having kids, they're lacking in a lot
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of that self-confidence.
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And that's really the part where we find that there's a lot of benefit,
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not only in the mental health first aid, but in what we call mindset coaching
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to really help people get that sense of confidence and worthiness that they're
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so desperately in need of.
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Because I know that I needed it when I was going through that.
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And we hear from all of the job seekers that we help that those are the services
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that really do help them not only cope, but thrive as well.
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So the team give them some tools around how they
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can structure their working week so to speak whilst
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you're looking for a job and actually turn that into a bit of a job, how
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to really align with your skills, your mission, your values and what to do in
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those moments when it all does seem a little bit too much and we just can't
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cope so it's a really really important part it goes it works hand in hand with
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reviewing your resume and looking at your networking strategy and your job search strategy.
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Fantastic. And I think, you know, you touched on it a little bit as well.
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Unfortunately, what I'm also observing is that people are out of employment longer
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than they would like with the current economic downturn and macro environment.
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I think it's absolutely fantastic that Project Place provides that support and
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not just the tactical support, as you mentioned, in terms of getting people
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job ready, in terms of resumes, for example,
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but really thinking through that mindset,
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thinking about what's important to them, their values.
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So I also echo how important it is as well.
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Yeah, it's so important. And I think you set yourself up for success because
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you not only cope in the here and now, and as you say,
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we are seeing that the market in its current state means that people are experiencing
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joblessness or that job search for a longer period of time.
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So it's not only how do I stay afloat and how do I keep myself mentally prepared
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and coping, but also so that you're presenting the best version of yourself
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when you do get to an interview.
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Because we often find that unless you're looking at and treating the mental
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side and the mindset and confidence side, you may get to an interview and you're
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not presenting your best self.
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And that reflects to the interviewers. So it's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy
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then that you don't do so great in the interview, that becomes a rejection.
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And then that knocks your confidence further because the interviewer is seeing
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that you're not presenting your best version of you.
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And you want to be able to do that because you want to go in and not only say
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how you can solve the problem that they're looking to solve,
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and how you're going to fit into their culture and their organisation,
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but that you're somebody that they'd like to work with.
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And by managing your mental state, managing your confidence and your self-belief
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really sets you up in the best possible position that you can be when you do
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get to that interview. Yeah, absolutely.
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So who typically uses your services and has the demographic trend changed over
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time since its inception five years ago?
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Yeah, absolutely. It definitely has. So, as I mentioned, we started off in COVID.
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So, at the time, we were helping a lot of frontline workers,
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lots of hospitality people, lots
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of people in the arts, who were naturally being stood down at the time.
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That's changed as the market has changed, and it probably continues to, to be honest.
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Because of our status as a charity, we can help anybody who's aged over 18 and
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has the right to work in Australia and who is out of work.
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Now, we do also help people who working perhaps casual jobs or part-time jobs
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and wanting to look for full-time work.
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That varies greatly. If you'd asked me this question a year ago,
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I would have said, look, we're probably seeing juniors, and fair,
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but junior to mid-career, mostly women, and coming from, say,
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marketing backgrounds.
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That's changed so much. We ran some workshops recently in person, and it's a real shift.
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We're seeing more men coming to find us and coming to have conversations with us.
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We're seeing more people coming from IT and more technical areas at the moment
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because we've been seeing a lot of redundancies and restructures happening in
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those industries, but it'll continue to change.
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I think that the positive for me is that more people are finding out about us.
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More people are finding out about our amazing coaches and the services that
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they provide and figuring out that, you know, there really is such a thing as
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free career coaching at the time that you need it most, which is what we do.
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And so we'll probably start to, or continue to see different people coming through.
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As I mentioned earlier, we're still seeing a lot of women who are returning
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to work who either needed to or wanted to look after the kids and took a career break.
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So we certainly see a lot of those women coming back and what they might have
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done before having kids is not necessarily what they want to do.
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Coming back afterwards, how to navigate, asking for flexible work arrangements,
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all of those types of things the coaches continue to have conversations with people about.
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Great. And you've touched on this a little bit already in terms of that mindset
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support as one example, but what do you see are the common areas that people need support in?
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That's a really interesting question. And the answer might be a little surprising
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because I was certainly surprised.
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I think that when we've met with our job seekers, when we've met with our clients,
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and particularly when we get them in a room with other clients,
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the thing that they really find so fascinating and walk out feeling more positive
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about is that they're not alone.
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Is that it's not, you know, it's not what's wrong with me. It's not what's wrong with my resume.
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Other people are experiencing this. There's almost a collegiate feeling,
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if I can kind of put it that way.
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Whilst nobody wants to be out of work and it can be distressing at times,
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there's community in connecting with other job seekers, or at least knowing
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that other job seekers are in exactly the same position.
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So when you meet with our coaches, you know that they're having the same or
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very similar conversations with other clients,
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that the themes of confidence, of feeling like there's something wrong with
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me and why am I seeing other people posting that they're getting new jobs but I'm not,
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all of those things are really common.
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And so whilst it can be challenging to deal with as an individual,
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the great news is that you're not actually alone and that we're finding that
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people do walk away, our clients are walking away with that sense of self-confidence
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and belief and knowing that they're doing the very best that they can do at
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this moment in time and how to manage that.
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Yeah, and I absolutely love the sense of community because I,
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you know, can imagine and I've been in this position myself when I was made
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redundant for my very first role.
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It can be very isolating and lonely.
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Some organisations, when they make roles redundant, they might have career transition
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services, but that's always a limited time.
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So to have this is fantastic, but it sounds like it goes beyond and creating
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that community, which is so important.
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Yeah, it really does make a really big difference. Outplacement services are important.
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Let's touch on it. You mentioned it there. If you're offered it,
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when you're made redundant, please use it.
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But not all outplacement services are alike. And as you say, they're time limited.
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We also do see a lot of people who are coming from small to medium businesses
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who can't afford the outplacement.
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They really want to help their people. They know they have to restructure.
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But sometimes those outplacement organisations charge a lot of money and that's
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not something that's within their reach.
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So that's kind of the gap that we fill as well and I'm really pleased that we
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do is that those people who can't get that type of support through their organisation
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can at least get it through us.
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Yeah and again love that you make the service free, which makes it inclusive
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and from what you were describing earlier about the demographic it's so far
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and wide and you're seeing a lot of different people coming to use the services
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at Project Place. So it's, yeah, it's fantastic.
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Based on what you've observed, do you have any tips for job seekers who may
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be out of employment longer than they would have liked?
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Yeah, look, it's a really interesting subject to look at. And I think that there's
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a couple of ways to look at it.
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One is obviously contact us at Project Placed if you haven't had a conversation with the coaches.
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It is free and there's a variety of different services.
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They'll help you to be able to navigate that market
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and to navigate that time. I'm a firm believer in
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stopping the doom scroll or limiting it at least and
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really defining when is your working week and your working week
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might be looking for a job that's the job that
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you need to do at this point in time but bookend it
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so that it might be you know between 10 a.m and
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3 p.m Monday through Thursday and then
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you're giving yourself a long weekend each weekend to spend more
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time with your kids and your or your partner or doing
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things that are really important to you. I think having that separation is
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really important I think being really conscious about
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how we're using our devices is critical because
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it's so easy to as I say doom scroll, but also to be unaware of the amount of
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time that we're spending on our phones comparing ourselves to you know Insta
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versus reality so to speak and that happens in LinkedIn as well and other professional
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communities So I think being really conscious and limiting that.
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Taking up things like a meditative practice or a hobby.
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A lot of people that we speak to, if the job search continues for a period of
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time, start to look at the gig economy.
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And there are a lot of opportunities available in that. And there's lots of
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great resources to have a look.
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And it doesn't always necessarily mean that you have to start delivering food for Uber.
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There's a variety of different things you can do using your skills to A,
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engage your mind and B, obviously to have some income coming through.
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So there are a variety of different things, but I think it's really important
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to try and manage your self-awareness, the time on your devices,
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and give yourself that space and that break because it can be all too consuming if you don't.
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Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's very wise in terms of creating that balance
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because I appreciate that people, because it is their priority to find employment,
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they put all their eggs in one basket in terms of their time and energy,
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but the balance is just as important. It's really good advice.
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So lastly, I might be putting you a little bit on the spot here,
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but what does the future look like for Project Placed in a year or even three
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to five years' time from now? Wow.
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Well, in March this year, we celebrate our five-year anniversary, which I can't believe.
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So if you'd asked me at the beginning, what would we be doing in five years,
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I'd say we probably wouldn't be here.
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But here we are and helping more and more people.
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Look, the market means that we're going to continue to be here.
00:16:05.043 --> 00:16:08.203
And I think that the fact that we are here is a terrific thing.
00:16:08.923 --> 00:16:12.763
Hopefully through some more support and partnerships, we'll be able to grow
00:16:12.763 --> 00:16:15.223
our services to mature them.
00:16:15.383 --> 00:16:21.163
I'd really love to have a service model where we can almost adopt the same type
00:16:21.163 --> 00:16:24.703
of service that some of the outplacement services do, where you're seeing the
00:16:24.703 --> 00:16:29.903
same coach over a six-week period of time as an example and really growing through a program of work.
00:16:29.903 --> 00:16:33.263
But you know that's something for for the future and
00:16:33.263 --> 00:16:36.343
we'd love to continue to do some more workshops in person all across
00:16:36.343 --> 00:16:39.463
Australia. We've done some in Sydney and we've done some in Melbourne, we're
00:16:39.463 --> 00:16:42.743
going to expand that hopefully within the next 12 months so that's
00:16:42.743 --> 00:16:46.043
really exciting. We've got some great new partnerships speaking
00:16:46.043 --> 00:16:48.843
of those one is with an organisation called Levyl
00:16:48.843 --> 00:16:52.563
which is an HR firm really focused on DEI and levelling
00:16:52.563 --> 00:16:55.563
the playing field and making jobs accessible and flexible
00:16:55.563 --> 00:16:58.543
for people, so we're doing some great workshops and
00:16:58.543 --> 00:17:01.203
projects with them so you know we're going
00:17:01.203 --> 00:17:04.083
to continue doing what we're doing as a core service. We will continue to be
00:17:04.083 --> 00:17:08.723
free for those people who need us we will continue to have amazing career coaches
00:17:08.723 --> 00:17:13.543
as volunteers who help our clients and help anybody across Australia who needs
00:17:13.543 --> 00:17:17.423
us and will hopefully also grow over the next couple of years in terms of being
00:17:17.423 --> 00:17:21.023
able to widen that reach and help even more people who don't know that we exist.
00:17:21.583 --> 00:17:26.563
Yeah, unfortunately or fortunately, this is a space that's continuing to grow
00:17:26.563 --> 00:17:30.423
in terms of restructuring and people being out of work.
00:17:30.563 --> 00:17:34.643
But equally, having a service like this can be just a game changer.
00:17:34.883 --> 00:17:37.963
But as you say, it's not just a service, creating this community.
00:17:37.963 --> 00:17:41.643
Because what I'd like to say, and I mentioned it in one of my episodes,
00:17:41.983 --> 00:17:47.383
is unfortunately, my observation and my experience tells me that in the corporate
00:17:47.383 --> 00:17:52.643
space, most people are going to experience some sort of job loss during their career.
00:17:52.963 --> 00:17:58.043
So having this when you need it most is absolutely important.
00:17:58.043 --> 00:18:03.443
So I wanted to thank you, Ant, for creating Project Place because I can see
00:18:03.443 --> 00:18:08.163
that it is making a difference for people, not just on the tactical side,
00:18:08.163 --> 00:18:12.583
as we spoke about, but really building them back up, gaining their confidence,
00:18:13.263 --> 00:18:16.763
thinking through what's important to them and positioning themselves the best
00:18:16.763 --> 00:18:19.643
they can in the market so they can find something.
00:18:19.643 --> 00:18:25.883
So, I do see a very bright future and it's great that it is evolving into something
00:18:25.883 --> 00:18:28.723
much more than maybe you expected five years ago.
00:18:30.383 --> 00:18:34.503
It's certainly done that and I really, really appreciate those sentiments.
00:18:34.883 --> 00:18:40.043
It means the world to me. I'm not a coach, but the whole reason why I put in
00:18:40.043 --> 00:18:43.463
the effort that I do, why the entire team puts in the effort month in,
00:18:43.583 --> 00:18:45.823
month out, is because we do make an impact.
00:18:46.303 --> 00:18:49.043
Because people do need us. That's the
00:18:49.043 --> 00:18:52.383
sad reality, but I'm so grateful that we're here and we're able to do it.
00:18:52.563 --> 00:18:56.363
So thank you so much. Thank you very much for the chat and, you know,
00:18:56.503 --> 00:18:58.463
helping me get the word out about what we do.
00:18:58.983 --> 00:19:01.783
It's, you know, always a terrific conversation to have with you.
00:19:02.444 --> 00:19:07.784
It's so great that services such as Project Placed exist for those who need
00:19:07.784 --> 00:19:12.204
it most and it's something that's really grown from the wonderful volunteers
00:19:12.204 --> 00:19:16.864
who are career coach experts taking out some time to help people during a difficult
00:19:16.864 --> 00:19:19.664
time or helping someone re-enter the workforce.
00:19:20.124 --> 00:19:25.184
With my HR hat on, I know how important these services are to build confidence
00:19:25.184 --> 00:19:30.064
for job seekers but also so that can put their best foot forward and show the
00:19:30.064 --> 00:19:32.144
potential they have to bring to an organisation.
00:19:33.064 --> 00:19:37.404
I'll add links to Project Placed in the show notes if you want to learn more.
00:19:38.244 --> 00:19:42.364
Ant also mentioned a HR recruitment firm they partner with called Levyl,
00:19:42.604 --> 00:19:46.364
which may be familiar for those who listened to the episode I did with Sarah
00:19:46.364 --> 00:19:49.064
from Levyl last year in our recruitment episode.
00:19:49.424 --> 00:19:53.684
I'll also add a link to that episode in the show notes, as well as an episode
00:19:53.684 --> 00:19:58.544
I released previously on navigating redundancies, which you may find useful as well.
00:19:58.964 --> 00:20:02.164
Before I wrap up, I wanted to ask a favour to my listeners.
00:20:02.644 --> 00:20:07.464
If you're enjoying the podcast or any of the episodes, please follow and rate
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the podcast on whatever platform you use to listen to the podcast.
00:20:11.304 --> 00:20:16.004
And please share the podcast with your colleagues, friends and family as they
00:20:16.004 --> 00:20:18.104
might find the content insightful as well.
00:20:18.564 --> 00:20:21.824
Thanks for listening and until next time, stay safe and well.
00:20:23.600 --> 00:20:43.699
Music.