Derek Shields >> Now, today, we switched it up a little bit. We're actually both going to provide you some moderator services and some presenter services. But our first presenter is actually going to be Ray Cebula.
So I'm going to introduce Ray. Ray's going to provide some content for two sections of today's WISE webinar. Then we'll have the Q&A. And then we'll flip it and I'll provide some content and Ray will run the second Q&A. So, look, now I'll introduce Ray. Ray Cebula received his law degree from the University of New Hampshire's Franklin Pierce School of Law. He spent 23 years providing legal services to individuals with disabilities in their interactions with Social Security and then became part of Cornell University's Work Incentive Support Center.

Then, in 2005, Ray joined the staff of Cornell's K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, that is in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He now serves as a program director of YTIOnline, that is Cornell's Work Incentives Practitioner Credentialing Program. Welcome again, everyone, to today's webinar and I'll now welcome Ray back to our WISE session and be back with you in a little bit. Remember to submit those questions for —

Ray Cebula >> Thank you so much, Derek, and good to be with you all today. On today's webinar overview, we're going to take a look at exploring a new career. What happens when you want to change jobs? What happens if you had a job, incur a disability and are no longer able to do that job, but still want to return to work? How do you switch? How do you find that career? What is Social Security's Ticket to Work Program? We'll discuss the players and part of your employment team if you choose to participate with the Ticket Program.
Who can help you achieve your work goals? Lots of people. And I will call them your employment team. We'll talk about what each one of those members can do for you and tips for changing your career. You know, it's a big deal to change career, to either give up what you're doing, potentially having had that taken away from you, and now you want to change it up and do it. You know, what kind of skills can you bring to that, you know, from your prior experience? Things like that. Derek's going to take you through that part.

And so exploring that new career, you know, who is making a career change? You know? This is not as uncommon as you think. And it really amazes me. There was a survey that noted that 44% of the American workforce planned career transitions within the year 2025. That's a lot of people who are looking to do something different or differently. Around 51% indicated they change jobs every one to five years. You know, that pretty rapid turnaround, too. You know, I'm one of those old people, I have had two jobs, you know, for my entire career. That's just me. But people do change really often.

The average American worker changes careers five to seven times in their working life with around 30% of the workforce changing jobs annually. You know, we could expect to be hunting for the right job that's going to let you do a little bit, find something new, it could be a quicker turnaround. Sixty-seven percent of career changers reported increased job satisfaction after transitioning. You know, we keep telling everybody, you know, get a job, get a job, go to work. Well, a career is a different thing. You know? And it could take some time to find that, and we are here to help you transition from work to a job or from a prior job into a career.
Why is career change so common? There are many, many reasons that you might decide to explore a new career, including life changes and your needs, education, and priority may change. You know, lots of things happen during your life and we still have to remember that life is the bigger part of this than is work. It's going to affect your ability. I was just on a meeting this morning with a woman who's taking a leave of absence to take care of her elderly parents. That was a big life change for her. How about changes in health? You know, lots of our listeners have suffered a disability, you know, may have been born with a disability.

That is going to affect your ability to do your job. You may have to do it differently. And, if that changes, we may have to make other adjustments. Remote or other flexible types of jobs including hybrid positions are more common than they were in the past. And I think that was a lesson from the pandemic. You know, lots of people said, "No, you can't do your job remotely. It just won't work." But we found out during the pandemic that jobs and careers can be done remotely. We are talking to you remotely today. I haven't worked in an office in 26 years.

You know? I've been working out of my home and it's a great thing. That opportunity is going to present more opportunities for you and maybe make a career possible. And people also want work that feels meaningful. You know, when I was thinking about changing a career and what is a job and what is a career, I think people wanting to make a difference and feeling good about what they do switches that switch from job to career. You know, I hope I have made an impact during my career. I hope I've helped a few people during my career.
That makes me feel good about myself and the work that I am doing. And that's what we want for all of you. Career change is possible, especially with the Ticket to Work. Now, you can change your careers. You may already have skills that can help you move into a new job. All of that, you know, as I switched from legal services into Cornell, I took all of my skills with me. Did I shelve some of them? Sure. But I picked up others as well. Soft skills like problem solving, staying organized and helping customers are needed in many jobs. And the more you move towards that career, the more those skills are going to be important.

These skills can transfer to new careers or even different fields. And we'll have a success story that's going to change fields at the end of today's session. If you need to refresh or learn new skills, you can access training through online classes and certifications that let you learn new skills remotely and at your own pace. You know, all of this is very doable now. You know, Cornell offers many courses that are self-paced. You know, all kinds of agencies that you may be associated with who are giving you education, continuing education or initial training, may have things that you can do remotely and at your own pace.

The Ticket to Work can be a great help. You don't have to make a career change on your own. The Ticket to Work Program is free and voluntary. It’s administered by the Social Security Administration, and it offers career development for people ages 18 through 64 who receive Social Security disability benefits, either SSDI, Social Security Disability Insurance, or SSI, Supplemental Security Income, and want to work. So if you're a recipient and you want to work and are 18 through the age of 64, you're eligible.
So who can help you achieve your working career goals? You know, achieving goals with the Ticket to Work is helping you make this a whole lot easier. If you want to know the truth, as you think about returning to work and possibly changing jobs and careers, you may have questions and need support, connecting with the Ticket Program service providers can help you develop achievable goals and determine the next steps that you need to take to find and maintain employment in your new career.

And that's just not a list that we give you, that's a list that's tailored to your needs, tailored to your new career. The Ticket to Work Program service provider can also help you identify the type of job or career you might enjoy and discover — help you discover the transferable skills that you already have that you can use in a new setting. Now, program providers, the Ticket Program service providers, lots of people. These are the members of your employment team. You don't have to use them all. You use as many of them as you need. Through the Ticket Program, you'll have access to a variety of Ticket Program providers including Employment Networks, or ENs, and State Vocational Rehabilitation agencies.

We call those VR agencies. The Employment Networks are private or public organizations that have an agreement with Social Security to provide free employment support services to people who are eligible for that Ticket. So these people are providing you with free services that you may need. Many state public workforce systems, such as the American Job Centers, they used to be called One-Stop Centers, are called Workforce Employment Networks. You know, these agencies can be tiny. It could be Ray's Job Shop and I am solo.
I'm going to help you discover, you know, what skills you have and try to find you a job in the local economy, or they could be national concerns, everything in between. How can working with an EN help? ENs provide services and supports designed to help you on the path to financial independence through work. And the services might include identifying your work goals, writing, and reviewing your resumes. You know, I'm at the point in my career where if I had to get a new job now, I wouldn't begin to know how to write a resume. They look different, the sense about them is different and I would have to have some help.

An Employment Network would be exactly what I would need. How about preparing for interviews? Give you some interview practices. How about helping you develop the questions that you want to ask your employer? You know, request reasonable accommodations. If you do need one and you're uncomfortable having that discussion with a prospective or a current employer, by all means, the Employment Network can help you talk about that or could do that with you. Receiving benefits counseling. This is a big deal. If you're on benefits right now, you may wonder what's going to happen to those benefits once you begin earning money through work. Changes are going to happen, and you need to know about those changes before they happen.

You know, it's always good to be in a proactive situation rather than waiting for something to happen to you, you're prepared for it, you know it's going to come and you can meet with a benefits planner. Many Employment Networks have them in house so it would be the same place where you're getting your employment network services. Some might refer you out to benefits planners. I think it's a really good thing for everybody who's considering work, let alone a career change, to have benefits planning counseling. 
How about reporting your wages? There, when you signed on the dotted line to get your benefits, you know, Social Security said, "If you go to work and you have wages coming in, you need to report them." Well, over the years, we've developed several means of doing that, you know, phone apps, walking in with your reports to the Social Security office to leave them, and everything in between. And we'll get you on track to do that, figure out the best way for you to do it and let you know when that needs to be done. State VR agencies, the VR Employment Networks are big agencies.

You know, I'm sure some of you have at least heard of them, if not have worked with them in the past. There is one in every state. There may be two in your state because VR for the Blind tends to be a different agency, part of the same agency really, but a different phone number. Doesn't matter which one you call, you'll get there. The State VR agency provides a wide variety of services to help people with disabilities return to work, enter new lines of work or enter the workforce for the first time.

A State VR agency may offer benefits counseling and may also be able to help you with vocational rehabilitation, training, and education. Now, notice those two things, training and education and vocational rehabilitation, high-ticket items. They're very expensive. And when we're talking about very expensive processes, you know, that you need to go through, the VR agency that belongs to the state is likely where you'll get those services. The Employment Networks just aren't in a position to provide you with funds to get a two-year education.
How can working with VR help you? Well, they usually work with individuals who need more significant services. Again, that vocational rehabilitation and the education certificate, some kind of training regimen you need to go through. In some states, this includes intensive training, education, and rehabilitation. They may also provide career counseling and job placement assistance as well as counseling about how earnings from work may affect your Social Security disability benefits.

So a lot of these are one-stop shopping. We can get our benefits, planning and some job placement and assistance from either the VR or Employment Networks depending on, of course, how intensive those services may need to be. And how do you provide these — how do you find these service providers? And the good thing about this is we're going to give you some numbers, we're going to give you some tips, but there's really no wrong way to get into this. There's no wrong door.

For a list of service providers, you can call the Ticket to Work helpline at 1-866-968-7824. If you're a TTY users, 1-866-833-7 — excuse me, I'm going to do that again, 1-866-833-2967. That line is open from Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time, which gets you up to 5 p.m. on the West Coast. To find a service provider online, you can use the website, the Find Help page on the Choose Work website. There is a link in your Webs pod for that. And this is a great tool.

I use it a lot to help people find someone local. I can search by your zip code, you know, if you want somebody real close to home. What types of services do you need? Do you just need to get that resume updated? Get some interview practice? Get those questions for your prospective employer developed? You know, we can get somebody who just does that. If you need more, let's look and see. What about disability type? You know, if you're blind, you may want to look for somebody who specializes in helping people with blindness.
You know, if you have a mental impairment, maybe you want to work with an EN who's very familiar with mental impairments and the impact on work so that you're at home with these people. Languages spoken, you know, we can find you — clearly, we can find someone very easily who's speaking Spanish. Now, if you want your services provided in Spanish, we can find that, and probably a lot of other languages. And how about the provider type? You know, we mentioned the ENs, the Employment Networks , and the workforce ENs and VR.

If you want to search for just your VR agency, you can click on the box that says VR. If you want to check out who the Employment Networks are that can help in your area, just search for the ENs. And I can assure you I'd take great comfort when I click one of those boxes and don't come up with a list that's three pages long. You come up with exactly those people who can help. And that gets us to the question — the first Question and Answer session.

Derek >> This is Derek. Thank you so much, Ray, for taking us through the content of the first couple of sections and highlighting how to use the Ticket Program and the service providers and, of course, at the end there, how to find the service provider. So let's talk first a little bit about the questions we're receiving that are program oriented. And then we'll switch gears with a couple more questions around like deciding if it's the right time to make a career change. The first question that's come in is asking about like the importance of what kind of benefit somebody's receiving. Does it matter if I'm on SSI or SSDI if I want to join the Ticket Program?

Ray >> And whether you receive SSDI, SSI or a combination of both. So the Ticket is open. Why it matters what benefit you're on and why you really need to bring the correct information to your service providers is so that they can talk to you about the right programs, the right Work Incentives. You know, the SSDI Program and the SSI Program are very different. They come with very different Work Incentives. And, you know, I don't want to waste your time talking to you for an hour about Trial Work Periods and Extended Periods of Eligibility. If you're an SSI recipient, it's just going to confuse you. You know, so we want you to know what benefit you're on and get the information that pertains to your situation.

Derek >> Thanks, Ray. This is Derek. We had a bit of an echo at the very start of your response. The production team had to mute you. Can you just restate the beginning about SSI and SSDI to make sure everyone could have that information?

Ray >> I'm going to try, Derek. It doesn't matter whether you're on SSDI, whether you're on SSI or whether you get both, you can always participate in the Ticket to Work Program. The only other qualifications are that you are 18 through age 64 and that you want to work. You know? And then I got into the differences between those two benefits. The SSDI, Supplemental Secure — I'm sorry, SSI, Supplemental Security Income, and SSDI, Social Security Disability Insurance, are very, very different programs. And you're going to want to bring the correct information to your providers so that they can take a look at your situation and get you to the right place. The Work Incentives are different, and we just need to all be on the same page before we start making your plan to return to work.

Derek >> This is Derek. Thanks, Ray, I appreciate that. That came through and no echo, so good news there. One more question in terms of [indistinct] we've got a couple of questions. This is kind of saying, you know, what — the services and supports that you mentioned that are available through the Ticket Program service providers and the idea of a career shift or change, talk a little bit more so folks have a better understanding about the types of training they can get in order to get those new either like certifications or skill sets in place.

Ray >> All right, what kind of training might you need? You know, if I'm entering the workforce for the first time and I want to be a teaching assistant, you know, and I don't have a college degree, well, we're going to start at the beginning. You know, I am going to need, you know, in my state of New Mexico, an associate's degree, a two-year degree, so that I could become a teaching assistant. You know, that is going to be required. So that's where we're going to look at. We're going to do that type of education.
The VR agency is a likely suspect here. They may pay my tuition, they may pay for my books, provide me with transportation to and from school. You know, so that's available. Many people that I've worked with have had bachelor's degrees, so four-years degrees, to get the job that they wanted. You know? And then if we look at the other side of the spectrum, you know, if you want to go into the trades, you know, I want to be a plumber, you know, you need a certificate. There's going to be a state program or some educational program that's going to get you in touch with a plumbing school.

You'll be sitting in classes, you will work with a master plumber. And it's not going to take as long as a two-year degree, but you do have to go through the process in order to get your certificate and your state license to do that. So those are two very different jobs and two very different processes of getting there. What if I want to become a real estate broker? I've got to go to real estate school. That's fairly quick. It takes six months or so. Then I have to take the exam. You know, well, if we need assistance paying for that, VR might do that.

If we're looking for, you know, getting — finding out which schools are the best, an Employment Network could help you do that. So there are lots of ways to get what you need and it really depends on what you choose to do. You know, and the same thing's going to happen when we talk about switching careers. You know, I've had my career, I incurred a disability, I'm ready to start. And maybe I want to be in the same field, but I have to be retrained to do my job in a different way, to take the skills I've learned and teach somebody else maybe. You know? So there are lots of things that Ticket can help you with.

Derek >> Excellent. Thank you, Ray. This is Derek again. Let's get another question for you. Again, a couple more straightforward ones. Is the program free or is there a fee?

Ray >> There is no fee. There is no fee whatsoever. The program is free and it's voluntary. So if you choose not to do it right now, that's fine. If you choose to do it, that's great. You know? But you will not be paying a fee. As I said when we talked about the Employment Networks, those are agencies that have an agreement with Social Security and Social Security will pay them to provide you with free services. And that's kind of based upon your progress. You know? So everybody is involved, everybody has a stake in your outcome and, no, there are no fees involved.

Derek >>  Excellent. This is Derek again. One other pretty straightforward one. Folks are considering a career change or working for the first time, several questions about do they have to work full time or is part-time work in option.

Ray >> I think part-time work is not only an option, but it could be a good end. Right? I think it could be a good solution. You know, we are all different. We all have abilities and disabilities and limitations. And if your current impairments prevent you from working full time, there is nothing wrong with using the Ticket to get yourself a part-time job, nothing wrong with that at all. I think people who work to the — their ultimate capacity are a success. I don't care if it's 20 hours, 30 hours or 40.

Derek >> Thanks, Ray. This is Derek. Yeah, it's a great way to try a new job on that next step in their career and to also test capacity. We are reminded that the Ticket Program's objective is to return to financial independence and that does lead to full-time work. But we have this pathway of trying part-time work to see how much you can work and to see, really, if you're a good fit for that new job and that change of a career path. Love that. Ray, as I mentioned in your intro, you've been doing this work for a long time.

Service providers, as you've mentioned a couple different times, include ENs and VRs, those Employment Networks that are Social Security partners in this work and then the Vocational Rehabilitation agencies in the states that are also doing this work to help people get training and on to work that choose that path. Explain, you know, how can I work with one and then the other, and kind of is there a better front door for some people that are listening.

Ray >> Yeah, you can potentially work with both. You know, the idea of that Ticket is that it belongs to you. You can assign it to whoever you want to. Now, if you need significant services, let's say I am going to become a teaching assistant, I need a two-year education, I may choose to work with VR. Well, VR is a special kind of partner here because they don't have to take my Ticket. They can put it in what's called in use status so that I'm using it, but they don't really have it. They're going to provide me with money to go to school, you know, with — for books and all those other things that, you know, come along with a college education.

And then, once I have had a successful closure with a state VR, I could take my Ticket to an Employment Network, assign it to the Employment Network and get help with developing my resume, with interview practice, with job placement services. So, there is a potential way to use them in tandem if you use VR first and then use an EN. It's a program called Partnership Plus and, you know, it's one of those things I just like to say, it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Derek >> Ray, this is Derek. Some people were probably chuckling. But, between your resume stories and sliced bread stories, I think we're figuring something out about you. I think the idea of Partnership Plus is fantastic. You can get a continuum of services so then they give you different services at different times. And one of the things that is important if you do a career change, an Employment Network can help you with what we call job retention services. Right?

And so we just emphasize that as an interesting support that, you know, when you're trying something new, when you start it, you might feel like it's going well, but it's new. And so there's job retention services are available to help you kind of strategize and think through with your employer things that you aren't always able to predict. All right, one more question —

Ray >> That's a very important point there. That's a very important point. Thank you for bringing that up.

Derek >> This is Derek. Absolutely. You know, one more question here. What about the type of work? So when we think back to your opening remarks about how such a high percent of Americans are considering career changes, part of that is for people looking for a new purpose in work. A lot of it is a shift for a change in life.

And, in our case, that could be acquiring a disability or having a health condition that paused work. In those regards, what if people aren't sure what kind of work that they're good to do? You know, how do you approach an Employment Network when basically you've got a big question mark? You're like, "I have to create change, I've got to do something different, but I'm not even sure where to start."

Ray >> That's — you know, you've often — I think you've just put out there the perfect person for the Ticket to Work. You know, that's what an Employment Network is all about. That's what VR is all about. And lots of us, you know, are in those situations where we just wonder, "How the heck am I going to do this? You know, what do I want to do? How much can I work?" You know? And when you are not working because of a disability, you're doing things. You know?

It's — you know, you're not doing nothing. And not only do you have the skills that you can bring from earlier work, but you may be developing new skills while you are at home recovering. You know, an Employment Network is going to be able to have a discussion with you and knows how to have the right discussion to draw that out. You know? And we had — I don't think it was a Ticket to Work success story, but it's a success story I've been using for years.

You know, a woman who was disabled and, while she was out, learned how to knit and crochet. And she loved it. You know? And she didn't think she could sell that. You know? But, after talking with somebody, you determine what you can sell. And this woman sold that to Michael's Hobby Store, you know, and was running the "beyond" section. She knew all about that stuff, could help people, and eventually got to the point where she was running little classes in Michaels. So her hobby that she picked up turned into a job, which then turned into her teaching other people had to do what she loved to do.

So it's just a matter of having the discussion. You know, it's hard to have that discussion with yourself, you know, and list things that you might be able to do, there's things you learn to do. You know? But if you have — if I sit down with Derek and he asked me a few questions, maybe that stuff starts coming out. So don't be worried about that. That's the first step for an Employment Network. You know, what do you want to do? How much can you do that? And we then have processes to begin to turn that information into a job, into a career.

Derek >> This is Derek. Well, thank you very much, Ray. I appreciate the exchange and getting to as many questions there as possible. At this point, we're going to move to the next section, which I'm going to speak to. But, in the meantime, Ray is going to be ready to ask me questions that you submit at our second Q&A. So we do encourage you to keep submitting them and we'll get to many as possible. And now we shift to practical tips for exploring a new career. And I'm going to now provide those and start out by examining the "why." It's really important to think about this.

When Ray was talking about the context of people making changes, it's important that you start thinking about, "Well, what is it that's driving this to happen?" So some of you have worked before, some of you might be working and some of you perhaps haven't worked before, but have other experiences that you can lean into to say, "What are the likes and dislikes that I have about those work experiences," whether it's a previous job or a current job. And I think it's important to think that and write it down, so making that list.

You could also have conversations. You could do that with a service provider, of course, but what we're talking about might be before that step. It's creating kind of just your internal thoughts about, "Well, what do I like or dislike," writing that down and then maybe talking to a family member or a friend or just some sounding board so, if you present it to them, they might come back and say, "Well, Derek, you know, you've never talked about that. Like are you sure?" And then they might hear you and say, "Well, this sounds like something that you're really passionate about."

And I think when we talk about finding your "why," we are talking about a hunt for purpose. And that's such an important thing. And some people that make career changes do it for that reason. Other people do it out of a necessity. So, if we can combine both, then that's kind of the most of -- the best of both worlds, so to speak. In the second area here, we get into what are you looking for in that new field. So, first, you have your likes and dislikes, and then we're looking for a list of what you think is going to be fulfilling. Is that an opportunity for an income change?

Is it an opportunity just to reenter the working sector and to try to provide a contribution. Contribution through work is really important for a lot of people. And if that's something that you're saying, "Right now, that's what I want to do, that's what I need to do," then this is an opportunity for that. And, for other people, some folks need flexibility. Caregivers maybe want to return to work, but we also have to have reality about caregiving responsibilities and look for work or a field or a sector that has work/life balance.
So a lot of different ideas there, but the purpose is important and a career change can support that. So then, third, we look at, you know, identifying the "why do you want to change industries or find a new type of job in that same field." And, you know, personally, in reflection, that was my story. I changed jobs, I changed companies, but I really never changed my mission since 1995. I did it when I was younger. I was in a sales job. I got really good training and I was pretty good at it.

But, at the end of the day, selling a certain number of items, for me, it wasn't as fulfilling. I wasn't excited about getting a commission on a sale. I wanted something that was more, for me, the mission connected to a social cause and helping others. And that's when I turned to disability employment and inclusion work. So I was able to help organizations in my career through different roles and in different companies and I had changes that allowed my career to evolve. But, in the background, it was always around disability inclusion work and thinking about community inclusion for people with disabilities.

So a change can be really big or it could be small and stay inside of the same field if you want. But it's really thinking about your own purpose and how you can change to evolve in that career or return to work process. All right, then we got a couple more here on the "why." The fourth one here is, "Do you need new skills or education?" And this is critical. Right? This could be the right time to make that list and bring it to the service provider. So if you have your likes and your dislikes, and you have these opportunities that you've identified for a change to, you know, a new industry or finding kind of a refresh purpose, well, in that direction, if I do it, what do I need to know from training or certification and how would I find that?

Well, that's a fabulous list to bring in. And the last one is the interest, core values and skills themselves. And I call this an assets inventory. So, when we work with a lot of young adults with disabilities, we say, "Well, what are your core interests and passions? What are the core values that if you went to work with somebody your personal values would align with the business or organization's values? And what skill sets do you have?"

So that total package is the assets inventory. If you bring these five things together that identify your "why" to a service provider, you're going to be able to have a very rich conversation with them. And that conversation could be with an Employment Network or a Vocational Rehabilitation agency. And one of the first things that they would do is if you agreed to work with each other is to make a plan. And what the Ticket to Work Program, as Ray was describing, the Employment Networks will work with you to develop an Individual Work Plan, or what we call an IWP because everything has an acronym.

And it's really your personal plan. In this case, it would be to have a career change inside of your Individual Work Plan, and it would give the steps — your road map to success per se. This first bullet has a link there and that actually goes to item number 12 that's in the Web Links pod. And this will pop up a fact sheet that the team has made on what is an Individual Work Plan and what it contains. But I'll just call out three things that can be in it. It's going to be a career planning tool that's going to take those, find your "why" elements that I just went through.

It's going to identify the services and supports that Ray talked about that would help you, you know, prepare for a job interview, refresh your resume, you know, do an actual interview, find your job and then onboard and then job retention services. And then the last piece of that Individual Work Plan; it really becomes a bit of an agreement or contract between yourself and the Employment Network, "I'm going to do these things and they're going to do these things."

And, if we all do that, we're most likely to be able to navigate that road map to success. So an Individual Work Plan is a fantastic tool. And, you know, those ENs or the VRs, as we call them, will work with you to develop and approve the plan and connect you to those resources that may be identified in the plan. And, you know, since it's built around your "why," you know, your interests, your passions, your strengths and, specifically in this case today, career change goals. It's a fantastic way to bring in assets inventory to feed the conversation to build a really healthy work plan.

And what that would include would be these SMART goals. So you and the Employment Network would use them, you know, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based goals, that would help you know if we're each doing our part, I'm going to do these five things and they're going to do those five things, I should be at this outcome by this time. And these Employment Networks , you know, a lot of them have great relationships with community partners and employers so they're going to help you kind of figure out how to navigate that.
And then also, as one says here, these goals can include saving money for a car or saving money for post-secondary education courses. So they could have subsets. Yes, the big picture goal is career change, but the smaller picture goals are going to help me get there. Things like I need transportation because my job choice is someplace that I have to drive to or my job of choice requires more education than I have, let me go get that first and then I'll move on in my plan. So that's the second area, find your "why" being the first, make a plan being the second tip.

And then we get to a third tip. And, while we have ENs and VRs and a lot of different service providers available to you, what's important to take on is accountability to oneself. And I think this is where we could look at this tip and say building your own network can help you navigate your own career path, you know, changing jobs or pausing work because of a disability. As Ray was saying before, you know, work is part of a greater thing, and that's a life experience. And our networks, while they can be a net of people to catch the work you want, they also are relationships that come from all sectors of your life. Some are family, some are friends, some might be coaches or art teachers. And then, as we get older, we tend to think about networks of only being professional types.

I would suggest if you blend them all together and manage your own network and talk to different people about your work plans and your career change goals, this could help you really leverage people to support your change in your path. With that in mind, while you're applying for a job or waiting for an interview, and I read it every day on LinkedIn posts and I read about frustration people are having with applying for jobs and not hearing back, well, one of the positive things you could do when you feel like you're in that void is, yes, you know, create your assets inventory, connect with a service provider and build your Individual Work Plan.

The other thing you could do is recreate your network and find people that some researchers would say are maybe more of your weaker ties, I haven't met this person yet. You know, a researcher at Ohio State University would actually say, "The strongest person for your next move is a person you haven't met yet. You just have to figure out what that person's characteristics are like and who can introduce you to them." So think about networking in that way. Another way, of course, is to go to career fairs.

If you have been in an educational program or a fellowship program, you can do some type of alumni gathering that could be virtual or in person. And then reaching out to companies and asking for an informational interview. If there's some place that you'd really like to work, reaching out to somebody to try to build a professional relationship, maybe not with that one company, but maybe in that industry. And that would be a way to explore, "Well, what's happening in technology? I've never been a technology expert, but I have good administration and professional skills through my previous work. Maybe I should change and try the tech sector because it seems like it's growing quickly."

That type of thing. So try to embrace networking there. Let's move now to the next tip. And this is updating your resume. And, for this, we have a couple slides of content. Since Ray said he hasn't had a need to do this in a while, wanted to know where to start, he said, "Derek, you better cover these." So the first one is updating your resume. And once you have determined the type of work that you'd like to pursue because you've gone through those first steps we just covered.

Now it's time to figure out, well, how to put all that together for your new position. And it would go into a resume, you know, a hiring manager or somebody in the talent acquisition space, that could be like a recruiter or a screener at a larger company or, for a smaller company, it might be like a human resources representative. You know, they're going to receive a lot of resumes and they're going to be a judge to see if you're a good fit or match for a position. So it's important that your resume does just that, it matches the job requirements, and it really highlights specific skill types that they're looking for those positions.

So, if you're not sure how to do that, we definitely recommend working with a Ticket Program service provider. This is what they're very good at. And these Employment Networks and the VR agencies are doing it. We also have our partners at the Department of Labor at the American Job Centers that can do this, too. So it's important to get other people involved. You can leverage your own network, but you can also reach out to these fantastic service providers and ask them to support you in updating and getting those, I guess, relevant and important skills matched up.

It's not only about making it look good, which is important, and not having errors on it, which we could use tools and people for editing to help, but it's also important to have a refreshment line so it's a good match and it can be filtered into the hiring pipeline instead of out. So this concept is relevance, resume relevance. And, on this slide, we have a few tips applied to three different positions. It's really demonstrating how skills can be applied to a new position. So, in this case, we have, you know, position titles that might not match a traditional path to a new career but explaining how your skills could be applied to that new position could help you secure the next interview. And that's just key. Right? So many of us, if we could get to be with the company representative, well, then we can tell them all of the skills and our stories that we bring.

Here, for the school teacher in that first position, you know, running an elementary school classroom can take strong and clear communication skills and exposure to different types of computer programs. Well, how you tell that story if you're transitioning from another place into the school teacher is one thing, but if you are — have had school teaching experience, but want to transition to another sector, the focus is on those skill sets. And, clearly, a lot of elementary school teachers have demonstrated amazing amounts of patience.

So you really could look at, well, is this a long project cycle at this work or is there a high rate of noise in environment, well, you could bring those in, too. If you're a mechanic, you know, we turn to the next one, this person understands attention to detail and rapid problem-solving skills, key characteristics that you could export into other areas. And, outside of that, you know, if you have a disability and you identify it, so you've been demonstrating rapid problem solving skills for as long as you've had a disability, and my colleagues and friends with disabilities are the best problem solvers that I've ever seen or experienced because they've been dealing with the barriers society has built and trying every day to problem solve around how to get access, whether that's physical access or digital access to content.

So make that a strength and bring that into the interview, too. And last, a nurse. You know, a nurse can certainly work amazingly well under pressure and with a wide variety of personality types. That's what they see every day in customer service, too. So your research on the key skills to add is keywords would really be key and helpful there. And so I'm going to rephrase that. So if we look at these skill sets and we turned them into keywords, they have to appear in your resume. That will help the human resource filtering tools to filter you in because they're going to look for demonstrated experience in some cases, they're going to look at skill sets and they're going to look at keywords.

And, if they don't find them, then they filter you out. So working with a service provider to match up skills and keywords is really a critical step for that resume relevance tip there. All right, next, we look at the cover letter. The cover letter is the time where you can stand out. Right? And some people have online cover letters that are short paragraphs and they're sending to a lot of different positions. Others are tailoring them. And we encourage you to tailor yours to kind of connect your story. You know, what is your past experience and how does it connect to the new goals?

And you can practice this. You know, a cover letter could be done in a variety of ways, but the best way to do it would be to practice telling your story, "This is my assets inventory. I've figured out my 'why' with my purpose. I've refreshed my resume. And my next step in my career is to get this position because of these key reasons. And, if I had the position, this would be the impact I'd bring." This would demonstrate your strengths, it would demonstrate your motivation and, importantly, it would demonstrate your confidence in going into what in effect is unchartered territory if you're making a career change. So while a company might feel like, "Oh, this person is a risk," if you could tell the story in a way that takes the risk away, then you're more apt to be filtered in yet again, that the risk would be letting you go. I have a problem solver; they know exactly what they want in their career. And, if I hire this person, they're going to bring that to me, and I need that on my team. 

All right. So our tip number six, transferable skills, it's the sixth tip here. And then we have a few slides to talk about them. You know, I've been mentioning keywords and we brought up skills and transferable skills earlier, but, you know, we're going to dive a little bit more deeply in it — into it before we get to our second Q&A. So just so we're clear here, transferable skills or abilities that are useful in many, many different jobs, sometimes they can matter more than the experience itself in a specific field.
And I think that's really important to keep in mind if you feel like you're always going up against somebody with more experience. And we see this a lot right now with people applying to positions. I think if we can think about the skill sets we bring as just as competitive as the experience we bring, it could really improve confidence. And we know that employers are looking for these skills. So every job or volunteer role or a classroom or a life experience, all of these teach us skills. How we talk about those skills and transfer them into an applicable way for the employer is, unfortunately, a skill that we're not taught very well.

You know, nobody taught us how to do that in high school. We were learning about state geography, not about how to discuss transferable skill sets. I would ask my service provider to help me in that regard. You know, if I took 10 years off to help raise my children, how do I explain that not in a way as a gap on my resume, but as the best 10 years I ever got in time management," because I know that the people I've connected with that raised children can be some of the best darn time managers there are out there, but aren't really well spoken when it comes to talking about how to transfer, "Well, where did you gain that experience from?"

So, you know, I encourage to think about that and talk to a service provider about how to tell that story because knowing how to build your confidence, you know, will help guide those kind of new career choices and how to talk about them. The skills like communication skills, problem solving, organization and teamwork are just so valuable in so many roles. And that they can all come from really just about anywhere. It doesn't have to be work only. Now, you know, I mentioned, you know, taking time off from work, but where do we get them outside of that one example school, volunteering?

You know, I have worked with a lot of young adults with disabilities on project planning skills. And just last night I got a phone call from my young adult in California, and we were talking about project planning keywords. And, you know, this was a skill set that I didn't really originally have in a paid opportunity. It came through some work that I did on national mentoring initiatives. And the other thing that I learned to do is moderate better inside of a disability-led panel through national mentoring events over the last decade. I gained skills through volunteer work that now I could bring into my paid work.

Well, those are transferable skill sets. I would encourage you to do an inventory of, "Well, how did I gain those things? What have I volunteered in?" And, if that's with a local church or a faith-based organization or if that's with some sports and recreation program, we all have those experiences, try to figure out how to bring those in. You know, as I mentioned, there's different types of skills, transferable, and then we have two other kinds we're going to cover here, soft skills and technical skills. You know, I think soft skills have been spoken about more and more over the last, you know, 10 - 15 years, but these bring in abilities that you use every day and, no matter any job that we have, they will be put to use.

And that's where, you know, communication and teamwork are being two of those critical ones. I'd encourage you to think about the soft skills that you have that are strong and then really focus on the ones that you think are weaker and talk to a service provider about that. You know, do a Google on "key soft skills" for this career area that you're looking at and that Google search might just give you some tips or tools in order to check out. And, even if you're changing careers, those soft skills can make you a strong candidate and that might be very well suited in another place, especially if it's a technical career. Sometimes technical teams enjoy having some more folks that bring in some other skill set types, too, to break up kind of the monotony of skill set base. Who can you talk to about the soft skills? Those service providers for sure.

Now, on the technical skills side, these are specific abilities that help you do certain tasks and can help make moving between industries a little bit easier. Examples can be like, you know, using Microsoft Office or project planning and management principles or writing skills. All these would be helpful in a variety of areas. And, you know, an inventory of technical skills would really help. You can work with your provider and we also encourage you to check out this link, the Technical Skills link, number 13 in the Web Links pod. It's fantastic. There's a skills matcher out there. It's going to ask you 20 questions. You have a scale of one to five.

And so the responses are kind of funny. If you haven't used it before, I'd encourage you to check it out. It's a little amusing. I did it today. I hadn't done it in a couple of years. And they give you 10 sectors and 10 position types that you might be a great match for. And I'm not going to tell you all 10, but the number one hit for me was I could be a spa manager. And I thought that sounded just about right. I never thought of myself as a spa manager, but that's what the skills matcher test applied for me today. They also have a career explorer test tool, too. Check those out. You can build some more information about what technical skills you have and how they match up with different sectors or career areas themselves. 

All right. Where to find help? You know, there is an identified transferable skills kit that goes with that matcher at the CareerOneStop, that's the U.S. Department of Labor. And I encourage you to go to that link. That's number 14, CareerOneStop. Great tools. And that can help you as well. And you can also work with your Ticket to Work service provider for guidance for sure. And now let's turn to that success story that Ray was talking about before.

This is a great case of where transferable skills were put into place. And, on the screen, we have a picture of Rebecca. And this is Rebecca's Success Story. After surviving an aggressive form of cancer, Rebecca did an inventory of her life and kind of reassessed her future, and decided she wanted to return to work, but wanted to make a career change. And she really mapped out a plan for a second chance in life to a second type of career. And she had spent 20 years as a teacher, but she felt ready for a fresh start and to get out of the classroom, quite frankly.

And she actually joined us for a WISE webinar once and it was great to hear her tell her story. Rebecca received a letter in the mail explaining the Ticket Program. And, with the help of an Employment Network, she received benefits counseling. And that helped her understand how work would impact her SSDI and Medicare. Then she received career guidance. She got that help in taking those transferable skills to refresh her resume. And then went about how to tell her story, "I had a pause in my career. I was in the classroom, but these skill sets had prepared me for my next career chapter."

And, with that, you know, all of this was personalized in her Individual Work Plan and she knew, with the Work Incentives that were available to her, she could pursue this career change pivot and knew what her financial and medical mapping would be. She felt that she had that stability to make that transition. And so she launched that new career. And she went from being a classroom instructor to working for the American Kennel Club. And she took her transferable skills and started traveling the country and conducting kennel inspections. She had all the tools to be a great project manager because she did that in the classroom.

She certainly knew how to meet standards-based requirements because she was in the classroom. And she had a chance to pivot to align with her interests and passions. And she was an animal lover, a dog lover, so that offered her that meaningful work and represents a complete reinvention for her professional identity. So her career is turning out to be two significantly different chapters, both being amazingly rewarding. Rebecca's key takeaway here is her story shows how major life events can spark a career — a successful career reinvention and how the right support can make a bold transition achievable. So we applaud Rebecca.

And we ask you to think today could you be the next Ticket Program success story as you pursue a career change perhaps like she has. So it's often part of life. Don't overthink it. Sometimes, if you have the right support, it could be the right thing to do for you. And we encourage you to think about the Ticket Program helping you to explore those options, do the asset inventory and make the plan to get you to the future that you want. All right, Ray, that goes through the tips for career change, and I think it's time for our second Q&A.
Ray >> It sure is, Derek. And we've got some questions for you. The first one I have, somebody wants to know, "Do I have to go to college to start a new career?"

Derek >> Well, it's a good question. And, you know, unfortunately, the answer is "it depends." So it certainly depends on what type of position you want and what sector that you want to be in. So you have to do a little research on that. And sometimes that could be hard to figure out. You know, I mentioned before doing a Google search. Well, sometimes you do something like that and you can get a lot of answers and sometimes they're conflicting answers.

So we encourage you, in that case, to work with a service provider, an EN or a VR agency, to really think through what kind of educational qualifications are needed for which types of positions in different sectors. Then you would have a little bit more informed and supportive research. We don't want you just to try to go off and get a degree without knowing that it would be attached. However, there are a lot of positions that require a two-year or four-year degree, or the equivalent of work experience or certifications or skill sets. So maybe a mix and match could be applicable, too.

So we encourage you — you know, there's a lot of technical skills that are required now and you can see on resume — or on requirements for positions, a lot more positions aren't requiring four-year degrees. So examine that. But I encourage you to talk to a service provider about it, too.

Ray >> Okay, thank you, Derek. We actually have somebody who is a nurse and wants some advice. "Before I started receiving disability benefits, I had a job as a nurse. I can't go back to that job. And I feel like there are no other opportunities out there. What can I do?"

Derek >> Yeah, thanks. This is Derek. You know, I think part of that is, if you can't go back to a previous job, such as being a nurse, it's going back to that idea of transferable skills that I was talking about. There's two pieces to this. One is acknowledging that if that was your dream career and for some reason now that's been paused or it's been ended, then that's a process that needs to be acknowledged. And it's not a simple one. While doing that, I would encourage you to think about is it the sector that you want to stay in, meaning healthcare. And, if so, then what skills could you have as a nurse that could still help?

An example could be like Rebecca. Rebecca was part of an inspection organization. Well, health care as a field has standards. And the standards organizations do audits. You likely don't have to be a nurse in order to be part of the inspection and standards association that's behind the nursing industry. That's one way to go. There's other groups out there that you could talk to about transferable skills, too. Did you know that there's an organization called the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities? So, if you thought you had to take a pivot because of disability, maybe there's some nurses with disabilities out there that you could talk to to explore, "Well, maybe I could stay in the field with or without reasonable accommodation."

But, in general, talk about your — "What are my transferable skills, and could they apply to other jobs if I am going to leave nursing altogether?" Those would be those excellent communication and bedside manner skills that we all hope for when we go into a nursing situation or a medical professional. But, likely, a lot of problem solving and organizational skills some of the best skill sets you have. You can use that CareerOneStop website, again, that item number 14, to help out or reach out to that Ticket to Work Program service provider. They can help, too.

Ray >> Okay, thank you, Derek. I'm trying to look. Here's one near and dear to my heart. "I am 55. Am I too old to change careers?"

Derek >> This is Derek. Well, first, I'll chuckle because it's near and dear to your heart. But certainly, the answer is "no." I happen to be 55, too, and I hope I have another change or so left in me. It's never too late to pursue your goals. The key for the Ticket Program is that it's 18 through 64 years in age to be eligible. But, for anyone out there, if you want to work and you want to change careers, I would encourage everyone to explore that.

It's helpful to do it with a service provider that helps you with an Individual Work Plan because it will map out kind of "watch out for these areas" and "get these services and supports" to help you to achieve your road map. But, no, there's no issue about your age. It's not too old to change careers. In fact, it's happening more now than ever. If we go back to that data from 2025, that includes older workers, too.

Ray >> Okay, Derek, thank you. That's good to know. Somebody wants to know, "I want to change careers because of my disability. What should I say if I'm asked why I want a new career if the interviewer asks me that question?"

Derek >> This is Derek. Yeah, this is an excellent question. You know, there's a couple of different tactics here. You know, one way to approach that is, "I'm looking for a role that better fits my skills and interests and lets me contribute in a meaningful way." Fairly generic, clearly doesn't mention disability whatsoever. But, because of disability, you go into a position that you're trying to frame your strengths and skill sets that are a good match and you're looking for a change. There's a couple other ways, too, "I want to apply my experiences and strengths in a new sector or setting where I can continue learning and growing." You know, did Rebecca tell the American Kennel Club about her cancer story? I don't think so. I'm not positive on that, but I don't think so. But she used that, "I want to apply my experience and strengths in a new setting so I can keep learning and growing and support your mission."

You know, one of those asset inventory things I mentioned was in finding your "why," find your passion and find where your values align. Well, clearly, Rebecca's values aligned with the American Kennel Club's values. And she wanted to make sure that dogs around the country were in safe conditions. And that was something she was passionate about. So that second example there is good. You don't have to focus on your disability. And, yet, in the middle of an interview, you might choose to disclose.

That's your choice. And, if you do, then you can talk about the strength-based approach to having a disability, what you've learned from that and what that brings. Companies like Procter and Gamble and Microsoft are hiring people with disabilities to help rethink their design, both of their products and of their packaging, to ensure they have access to the global $13 trillion disability marketplace. When you say it that way, well, then disability becomes a strength. So something to think about there.

Ray >> Okay, Derek, thank you for that. And we've got one more. Sometimes this change of career can cost a lot of money. "Would the Ticket to Work cover the cost of training if I had to switch to a new field?"

Derek >> This is Derek. Well, while ENs are required to provide specific services and training can be included in career planning services, the answer is often "yes" there to support a career transition. But, if it's more in depth, you might have to go over to a VR for deeper education. And it might be covered there. I think what we ask you to do with that question is reach out to the Help Line or to an employment team member, an EN or a VR, and we get clarity there. So that's really important. You know, the likeliness is, "yes," but you need a deeper conversation to cover the specifics.

Ray >> All right, thank you, Derek.

Derek >>  Absolutely. Thank you, Ray. It's been great working with you once again on this topic of exploring career change and Ticket to Work. At this time, I'll go to wrap us up. It's important, everyone, to know that if you're interested in getting started, it's important to think about eligibility first. So, if you're aged 18 through 64, like we've been saving, and receiving SSDI or SSI due to a disability, you're eligible. We encourage you to use a couple of tools that we have in place.

You can use the Find Help tool on Choose Work, and you can search for an Employment Network or a Vocational Rehabilitation agency. These providers offer a range of services from career counseling and resume help to that job placement that we were talking about and, importantly, the benefits and Work Incentives guidance. Once you have found your provider of choice, you will assign your Ticket to them. And that means you're officially working together to pursue that career change and employment goal.
If you'd like help getting a list of those providers, we encourage you to reach out to the Ticket to Work Help Line at 1-866-968-7842. Or, through TTY, for callers that are deaf or hearing impaired or have speech disabilities, that number is 1-866-833-2967. Our team members at the helpline are available to guide you and connect you with those right resources. 

Now, we have different ways that you can stay connected with us and keep you informed about the Ticket to Work Program. An easy way to do that is by subscribing to the Choose Work blog and signing up for our email updates. Just go to choosework.ssa.gov/contact. There you'll find subscription options and more ways to stay engaged with us. The link is also available in the Web Links pod under the Ticket to Work Contact Information. If you prefer updates sent to your phone, you can opt in to receive text messages. Simply text "ticket" t, i, c, k, e, t, to 1-571-489-5292. Rates may apply. Excuse me. If you have questions, you can send them to us at tickettowork@ssa.gov. Ray, I'm going to give that to you.

Ray >> Okay. Join us for our next WISE webinar, How Will Work Affect my Social Security Disability Benefits. It will be held on February 25, 2026, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. You can register online or call 1-866-968-7842 or 1-866-833-2967 if you use a TTY. I want to thank you for being with us today. Derek, it was great working with you. And we'll see you all next month. Thank you.