Helping Hurricane Victims Find New Jobs
ZAHN: Welcome back. We're going to be taking calls and checking messages for our job seekers throughout our program tonight. You can get in contact with us by calling 1-877-hire-me5. You can send an e- mail to mynewlife@CNN.com, mynewlife all one word, or go to our Web site, cnn.com/Paula. Ali Velshi meanwhile, is in Washington with some very important information for anyone out of work because of the hurricanes. Help may be as close as the nearest computer, but then again you have to be as gifted as Ali is on the computer.</s>VELSHI: If you only saw what I've gone through to get this big, fancy computer to work. But listen, this is the thing. Not everybody has got immediate access to computers. If you can get to a library, one of the shelters, various places with computer access, the ability to use the Web to find a job is actually fantastic because you might be displaced. You might need a job in another city. You might want to know where a job are available. One of the first places to start might be craigslist. It's not a company, it's an online community. A lot of people might be familiar with it. I've bought and sold furniture on it. People find apartments on it. You can even get dates on it. But in this particular case, there are a listing of cities on the right-hand side. They are typically all in blue. But after Hurricane Katrina what happened is that craigslist started to put a few of these cities in red. These are cities that have been affected by Hurricane Katrina. So, if you hit on those, you look at something like Austin. You hit on Austin, but what you can do is you find listings of things like employment offers on the left and you will find jobs and jobs that are specifically meant for hurricane survivors. Now, there are companies as well that specialize in job listings and resume listings. One of them is Monster. If you look at Monster's site down on their page -- this is the main page. If you scroll down right to the middle there's a hurricane relief job board. You can hit on need a job and it will give you an ability to search for jobs. This is for hurricane survivors. You enter a location, you enter a category, maybe a trade that you specialize in, and you search for jobs. There are other sites that work like this. Careerbuilder is another one of those job sites. They've set up a special site. It's called katrina.jobs. This is the home page for katrina.jobs. Works the same way. You can set a location in, and a type of job. And finally if you go to the Department of Labor, they've got a page called -- it's specifically for hurricane recovery jobs. I looked at that a little while ago. Just today, 1,545 new jobs available there. You have to be discriminating when you're using the Web to look for a job. Not everything on there is how it appears, but for a lot of people, Paula, it will be a great opportunity to find some work after the devastation of Katrina and Rita.</s>ZAHN: And you made that all look so easy. And that's a very good thing for someone who is as technophobic as I am. I'm sure the folks that will be logging on in the Gulf coast are probably a little swifter at it than I am. Ali Velshi, thanks so much. Now it's time to meet another one of those job seekers. Hurricane Katrina is one of the tragedies he's endured this past year but he has a very positive attitude. And that is incredible in and of itself.</s>RAYMOND WASHINGTON, WELDER: I have been a welder for 25 years. I like the challenges. I like to build things of beauty. This is what I want to do. I love it and it feels great to build things and then when you stand back and see what you have built and I did this work and it going to last and it's going to help somebody get from here to there. That's one great thing. I am raising my three grand babies because my daughter died of breast cancer and me and my wife took it on ourselves to raise them. I don't care, you know, what get tore down or what get blowed away, the family needs to keep that love value. Without that love value ain't nothing in this world exists. I will take carpenter work, I will take work, just make sure I can get it there for my grandkids. I have to keep them going. I figure someone should hire me because I'm good at what I do, and I want to take care of my family. I love my family.</s>ZAHN: We can see that. Raymond Washington joins me now from New Orleans. If you're in a position to hire him, the contact information is right at the bottom of your screen. Raymond, so good to see you. You have been thrown just about every bad curve ball you could have been thrown in a very short period of time. How is your whole family holding up?</s>WASHINGTON: I'm holding them together, holding them real strong.</s>ZAHN: Your attitude is just amazing. And as you try to keep your grandchildren strong and keep them hopeful, you've also had to try to look for work during all of this. How is your job search going?</s>WASHINGTON: I'm still looking, ma'am.</s>ZAHN: Any nibbles at all? Or is there just nothing out there at this time?</s>WASHINGTON: Well, the city looks like things are going slow for it, for welders and things right now.</s>ZAHN: And ...</s>WASHINGTON: But I'm willing to get ...</s>ZAHN: Yes, I'm sorry, there's a little delay here.</s>WASHINGTON: I'm willing.</s>ZAHN: You sound like you're flexible and willing to do just about anything. What do you think is the greatest thing you've got going for you as far as potential employer goes?</s>WASHINGTON: My energy. I want to go anywhere to work. Anywhere. Anywhere in this country.</s>ZAHN: We'd like to ...</s>WASHINGTON: I just want a job and to take care of my family.</s>ZAHN: And do the kids have any understanding of how hard this has been on you?</s>WASHINGTON: No, ma'am, I won't put that burden on them. I just like to see them smile.</s>ZAHN: And that's what they see you do all the time, so that's why they look so happy. Raymond, hang on for just a minute because I want to bring Brad Karsh back into our conversation. He's an expert in career counseling and the president of a company called JobBound. He has an incredible attitude. He is willing to be flexible, he loves to build things. But unfortunately he's had a lot of distractions he's had to deal with, and important distractions. I don't want to minimize taking care of three grandchildren he has to raise as his own now, but he hasn't had a chance to really get into wholehearted job hunting. Any advice for him?</s>KARSH: Raymond, one of the first steps that you want to do when you jump into the job search is there are a bunch of resources available to you. There are one-stop career centers specifically set up to help you make the first steps in your job search. They will help you with career planning, they will help you with resumes, and they will hook you up with jobs. Fortunately you work in an industry that's going to have a lot of demand in the Gulf coast. And once the rebuilding begins you are going to be in high demand. Ali just talked about hurricane recovery jobs and Katrina recovery jobs that are available through jobsearch.org. That's a great place for you to go, and we actually went on there and found some welder jobs that are actually out there already, so that's something that you really want to consider and jump into right now.</s>WASHINGTON: Yes, ma'am. Definitely.</s>ZAHN: There's hope but I guess you're going to have to have some patience, too. I want to thank Brad Karsh so much of JobBound and give a very special thank to our two job seekers tonight. Raymond, thanks so much for joining us, sharing your story and before him, Tanga Winstead. Now, if you're in a position to hire either one of them, please call us at 1-877-hire-me5. You an also e-mail at this address, mynewlife@CNN.com. Mynewlife is all one word. Or please go on to our Web site at CNN.com/paula. We're going to put you directly in touch with our job seekers, and we'll go right back on the air with them if there is good news. Raymond and Tanga are standing by, as well. Again, Brad, thanks for making the trip to this part of the country to be with us. In a moment, we're going to move on to a question we probably all asked ourselves since 9/11. Could a terrorist just walk into an airport, get in a pilot's seat and fly off without anyone noticing? The frightening implications of an alleged joyride coming up next.