Kevin didn’t always see himself as someone who would show up early to an interview and land a job in a skilled trade. In fact, just a few years ago, he was known for cutting class and collecting Fs.
“I was the black sheep of the family,” he says. “I was a bad kid, cutting class… I didn’t like to sit down for eight hours in school.”
But after seeing his mother breakdown, something shifted. “She didn’t know what was going on, and that’s what got me too. It was like, why am I having my mom cry?”
Determined to make a change, Kevin graduated from a continuation school and later enrolled in New Door’s Career Search Accelerator, a three-week program designed to help young people build job readiness skills and confidence before entering the workforce.
At New Door, he met Darian, the Career Services Manager, who became a mentor and role model. “I want to be like Darian,” Kevin says.
That feeling was mutual. “To be perfectly honest, I came from the background that Kevin came from. A lot of these young people that walk through the door—I share that same story,” Darian says.
“With me just being genuine, being open, being supportive, it allowed him to come out of his shell.”
Kevin threw himself into the program. He learned how to write a resume, practiced interview skills, and after graduating, continued the momentum, picking up 11 construction industry certificates.
“I was always nervous before interviews—not looking at the interviewer in the eyes, looking down,” he says. The mock interviews helped me out a lot, and thanks to New Door, I got accepted to pre-apprenticeship.”
Kevin carried those skills with him after his apprenticeship too, showing up an hour early to an interview at Aggreko, a global utility company.
“The interviewer laughed and asked why I was so early,” Kevin says. “I told him I was taught to always show up early. He said, ‘Alright—you ready?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am.’”
He got the job a week later.
Now, Kevin is working on industrial generators, doing mechanical and electrical work, and traveling to job sites around the Bay Area.
“I feel like they are proud,” Kevin says, about his parents.
“They don’t really show it, but inside, I know they are proud by the way they smile when I tell them the things that I accomplish.”
And they’re not alone. For Darian, seeing Kevin take control of his future is the reason why he works at New Door.
It was like putting a battery pack on the back of him. He was calling me; he was pushing me to get where he needed to be,” Darian says.
“When it clicks for them, when the light turns on and when they realize, “I can accomplish this, when they get that confidence—I really enjoy that part of the work.”
Looking back, Kevin has a message for Darian and mentors like him: “Keep doing what you’re doing—helping young people like me who have different challenges. Everybody has a story. Just keep being part of those stories for all these young people so they can succeed and motivate them to follow their dreams—like how you did for me.”
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