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Jared Langton walked into the SEMCA Michigan Works! Monroe American Job Center with a clear sense of where he stood. With a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toledo and years of experience as a quality engineer, he was qualified on paper. But in practice, he was stuck. The field he wanted to move into wasn’t looking at what he had accomplished, but what he hadn’t. Most Controls Engineering positions required direct, hands-on experience in the role itself, and no matter how strong his technical foundation was, that gap on his resume kept getting in the way. His recent layoff had forced a decision, and Jared had made it: he wasn’t going to find something similar and settle. He was going to use this moment to move in the direction he was always meant to go.

Attending an Information Session at SEMCA Michigan Works!, he learned about the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) — a federally funded program built to help job seekers gain the skills, credentials, and support they need to find meaningful employment. It provided exactly the kind of structure he needed. He connected with career coach Tatum Graham, and from their first meeting, it was clear this wasn’t going to be a passive process.

The question they kept coming back to: how do you walk into a Controls Engineering interview without Controls Engineering on your resume? The answer, it turned out, was already there — buried in the work Jared had been doing for years. Together, they went through his professional history with intention, identifying the technical instincts, the systems thinking, the problem-solving habits that translated directly into the role he was pursuing, even if his previous titles never said so. They shaped that into a resume that highlighted these key skills and built cover letters that did the same. They worked through interviews, talked through salary negotiation, and identified the specific job leads and search tools most relevant to where he wanted to land.

Jared had the drive, the program gave him the direction and the tools to put it to use, and it paid off. He landed a full-time Controls Engineer position with Brock Solutions — the exact kind of role he had come in hoping to find. Today, he is earning $70,000 annually and leading original electrical designs on major projects, doing work that finally matches the degree he earned and the career he had been building. The pivot wasn’t just a career move, but a course correction that had been a long time coming.

Jared was straightforward about what made the difference: “The SEMCA Michigan Works! team in Monroe was courteous, professional, and most importantly, extremely helpful in my career transition. My Career Coach, Tatum Graham, was very knowledgeable in hiring practices for a wide range of industries and offered me insightful advice for selling my skills through my resume as well as in interviews. I am so glad that I chose to visit the office to inquire about their programs, and was very relieved when I felt that I started to make progress in my career trajectory.”