The future is Bright for Lachlan following intensive support from the Interact team

Lachlan had been in the DES program with CoAct service partner Interact for 85 weeks receiving support with his resume, his interview technique, and reverse marketing.

Lachlan is a young man living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) who identifies as high functioning autistic. His recruitment partner Brinn and her team at Interact worked very closely with Lachlan to help him find work with help writing his resume, reverse marketing (contacting employers in their network with suitable job vacancies on his behalf), accompanying him to job interviews, and attending first day shifts when he secured a new role.

I signed up with Interact in 2022 as I needed help finding work, says Lachlan.

The people at Interact have constantly researched and helped me apply for jobs. Just recently, they were able to help me find work at Woolworths. They attended work with me at the start to make sure I was comfortable.

I’m not a local to the Bright area, but I constantly monitored Seek and made calls to local businesses that I thought would suit Lachlan, continues Brinn.

The team were impressed with Lachlan’s work ethic while he was looking for work, and how he “put himself out there”, handing his resume out to local businesses and working hard to get himself multiple local job interviews.

Their hard work paid off, Lachlan is now employed in a suitable and sustainable role.

“Lachlan has been a check point person for Mount Hotham and now works for Woolworths in Bright,” says Brinn.

“They were more than happy for me to accompany him on his very first day and to complete his training and learn how to use the registers so I could be that support for him, which was fantastic.”

Lachlan’s is now thriving thanks to Brinn’s efforts:

“The very first appointment I had with Lachlan he was very shy, didn’t talk a lot and didn’t make eye contact. He now has full conversations, looks at me and smiles,” she says.
“Now he has just come out of his shell; he makes jokes, he’ll tell me about his weekend, and he’s working and he’s loving it so much that he’s even asked his employer for more hours,” shares Brinn.

Lachlan wrote his manager a letter, “Without me even saying anything and separate to reaching his benchmarks,” she explains, referring to the average number of hours Lachan should work each week to achieve a full outcome.

“He just thought, ‘I like working so I’ll ask for more.’”

Brinn believes that Lachlan brings authenticity and openness to his team at Woolworths in Bright, saying “I think people had this stigma about employing or working with someone with autism but now they see Lachlan working and he is actually very good at it, so now they’re realising that maybe autism is actually a skill.”

To anyone else in a similar situation considering looking for work Lachlan has a timeless piece of advice: “Just give it a go.”

Register here to find out more about how we can provide dedicated job search support and jobseeker programs to help you reach your employment goals.