Consultant
By David E. Dickman - BUYLINESconsultancy
Blind since birth, Jerry Berrier, by his own admission, has always been blessed with, “more than average self-confidence, enough intelligence to get me by, and a sunny disposition.”
Jerry says the only challenge he faced in life was that he wanted to hold down a job and just be a regular guy. After graduating from college with a BA in Psychology, he started looking for work. “It took me a year to find my first job. During that year, I drifted into a lazy kind of existence. I lost most of my self-confidence, I began to believe maybe I would not find a good job, and I even started not to care too much.”
In 1979, after a brief stint with an association for the blind, Jerry landed his first major employment opportunity with Bell Telephone in Pennsylvania. “In 1998,” says Jerry, “the company offered me a voluntary transfer to Marlboro, MA, and work in the company's center for customers with disabilities. They wanted me to put my Braille knowledge to use and act as a contact for a group of equipment distributors who provide adaptive equipment to customers with disabilities. I found a great niche for myself there.”
Over time, however, Bell became Verizon, and Jerry took an early retirement package along with his boss and 21,000 of his fellow coworkers.
But Jerry did not want to go back to the good old bad days of not caring if he found a job or not. “I knew I needed to do something proactive to avoid any possibility of falling into the crack I was stuck in after graduating from college. My goal was to take advantage of any resource that might help me, and that's how I contacted Resource Partnership.”
“They helped me improve my resume. I had one face-to-face session and several very encouraging phone conversations with them. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do after accepting early retirement from Verizon. Should I start a business? Should I revise my resume? Should I just apply for everything and take the first job that comes along? The counselor I spoke to helped me to sort all of that out in my head. He helped me conclude that I wanted to teach 'access technology' computer skills to people who are blind,” declares Jerry
Today Jerry is a self-employed consultant. “It has been better than I ever expected. I do some contract work for Verizon, Verizon Wireless, the Mass Commission for the Blind, and the Carroll Center for the Blind, and a couple of other companies on an as-needed basis. I'm fairly busy, but I have the freedom to pretty much set my own hours. I'll never be rich, but I am doing very well financially. My family and I are comfortable, and I am very grateful for what I have.”
Finally, Jerry has this to say about Resource Partnership: “I received very professional assistance, and when I visited the Resource Partnership office in Worcester with my guide dog, we were treated well.”
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