Working Smarter, Not Harder: Jontae Grace’s Job Search Success Story
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Job searching requires both emotional resilience and strategic efficiency. Find Your Dream Job guest Jontae Grace learned this during his six-month job search after being laid off, including the crushing disappointment of reaching final interviews twice without receiving an offer. His advice: separate your self-worth from your employment status and never stop applying until you have a formal offer. Jontae advocates for using quick apply functions on job boards to save time: what traditionally takes 30-45 minutes per application can be reduced to seconds. He also suggests looking beyond salary to total compensation packages, sharing how one employer’s wellness reimbursement program provided $1,500 annually in real value through dollar-for-dollar matching on health and wellness expenses.
About Our Guest:
Jontae Grace is an employee relations specialist at Do Good Multnomah.
Resources in This Episode:
- Connect with Jontae on LinkedIn.
- To learn more about Jontae Grace’s job search, visit macslist.org/stories.
Transcript
Find Your Dream Job, Bonus Episode 84:
Working Smarter, Not Harder: Jontae Grace’s Job Search Success Story
Airdate: August 4, 2025
Mac Prichard:
This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.
I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.
One of the best ways to get good at job hunting is to talk to people who do it well.
That’s why once a month, I interview a Mac’s List reader who found a job they love. Our guest today is Jontae Grace.
He’s an employee relations specialist at Do Good Multnomah. It’s a nonprofit that owns and operates shelters for homeless veterans in Portland, Oregon.
Jontae Grace believes you should look at the complete compensation package an employer offers, not the salary alone. When you do this, says Jontae, it tells you how much or how little an organization values its employees’ well-being.
In a story you can find on the Mac’s List website, Jontae encourages you to consider 401k contributions, insurance premiums, and other benefits.
These perks may not be part of your wages, but they can make a huge difference to your bottom line.
Why do you love your job, Jontae?
Jontae Grace:
There are many reasons, but if I had to pick one, I would say I love solving people’s personal problems. The field of human resources is a very private field where people will come to us with very, very personal issues, and they come to us in confidence.
And it’s our job to treat them both with the dignity that they deserve, but then to also listen to their concerns with empathy and try to match the resources that we have as an organization to try to help solve whatever issues that they’re having.
Whether those issues are financial, sometimes they need to switch around, you know, direct deposits because maybe they’re going to accounts that are being garnished or swallowed up.
Maybe sometimes they’re having, you know, they’re paying too much out of insurance, you know, things like that, that they really come to us, and sometimes they may not have any understanding of who we are, but they bring those, they bring those concerns to us.
And I really love getting that level of trust from them and being able to help solve a personal issue they may have.
And it really makes my day.
Mac Prichard:
How did you find your job at Do Good Multnomah?
Jontae Grace:
Well, I had been working for a nonprofit before that called Outside In, and they did the same type of work. They were a clinic and a homeless shelter for adolescents and teenagers in the Portland area.
Unfortunately, due to some budget shortfalls, they had to lay off about 25% of the workforce and out of a 200 or so employee organization that included about 40 or so of employees, and I was included in that.
And so I had never heard of Do Good at that time, but I was looking for other nonprofits because I liked the work of the nonprofits, the mission of the nonprofits. And so I just stumbled upon them and found it.
Mac Prichard:
And so say more about that. You said you stumbled upon it. What happened exactly?
Jontae Grace:
Well, that’s when I went on my traditional job search, which I am not ashamed to say I’ve been in that position several times. You know, this economy goes through cycles, with periods of boom and bust.
And I found myself, you know, gainfully employed at times and then also looking for work at times. And so once I found myself laid off in 2024, it took me about six months of job searching and interviews, and different opportunities that seemed to go somewhere and seemed promising, but didn’t actually pan out before I found this opportunity at Do Good.
Mac Prichard:
As you went through that process, that’s a fairly long period, six months, what were some of the challenges you faced and how did you address them?
Jontae Grace:
I had faced experiences that I had never gone through before in my adult working life. And to be more specific, I had made it to the third and final interview round at two different opportunities and did not or was not offered the position after all of those interviews.
I’m not ashamed to say it really crushed me at that time, you know, because as I said before in the article, I don’t get emotionally attached to jobs at the beginning because you never know how many people are in running for that job or whether it’s still available.
But as you get further in the process, it starts to feel more real to me. Then, as you find yourself at the last interview, the third interview, sometimes you just feel like, foolishly, I was thinking it was just a formality, right?
I was thinking it was just a done deal and that the job was pretty much mine, and I just needed to kind of, you know, close the deal, so to speak. And I learned through a painful experience that it is not done and it’s not over until you actually receive the offer.
Mac Prichard:
That’s not an uncommon experience. Many people, particularly when they get to the third round or even earlier, begin to see themselves in the job.
We don’t like to hear no, and it’s especially hard when that happens after so many conversations with an employer. How did you manage that disappointment?
Jontae Grace:
The one thing that saved me is that I told myself a long time ago that I am not defined by the career or the position that I hold.
I had to divorce my self-esteem and self-worth from the salary I was making or the job I was holding at that point in time, because I think that’s a common mistake, especially for men in this society.
A lot of times we are valued for either our ability to provide, right? Or if that all comes back to what type of job you have, what type of career you have.
But I got some sage advice when I was just starting off, once I had graduated school, to cultivate those values that don’t coincide with what type of job you have, you know, like being a decent human being, being a man of integrity, being a man of principles.
Those are the things that you carry with you, whether you are employed or not. And if you ever find yourself in a position where, you know, the chips are down and, you know, the jobs aren’t calling you back, you still have that self-belief in yourself to know that one of these can be the one, and it can turn at any moment in time.
And that’s probably my spiritual way of getting through to that. As for a practical way to get through it, I kept applying, even though I was interviewing for specific positions and making it far in the process. I would say, ‘You know, it’s not done.’ It’s still not a done deal.
So every day I would still wake up and still scan the job boards and still apply for jobs, even though I was still interviewing. The important thing to take from that is just don’t stop because you think that a specific interview process is going to go the distance.
You still want to keep those applications flowing out because once one didn’t pan out, I was receiving calls or email responses the next day.
Mac Prichard:
Let’s talk about those applications and kudos to you for continuing to look even as it looked like you might get an offer.
As you sent out those applications in your article for us, you talked about how you like to use the quick apply function.
Say more about that, why you like it, and how did you also balance between the quality of applications you sent out and the number of applications?
Jontae Grace:
Absolutely. The quick apply function is a feature that has been added to almost all major job search sites.
And basically, what it is is it allows you to create a profile on that particular search site, whether that be Mac’s List or Indeed or Monster or, you know, Glassdoor, all of these different ones that, you know, they all do the same thing.
What they’ve added is a feature where you can enter in your personal information, your employment history, and your job preferences on that particular website, and it will save it.
And it will even generate a resume for you if you don’t already have one or if you would like to change up the format of your resume. But the bottom line is, it saves all of your information, just as if it were a resume.
And then, as you’re searching for the jobs listed on that particular software, they may have an emblem or icon next to it that says ‘Apply Now’ or ‘Quick Apply’. And if you click that, it will send your information that you’ve already built into the job search function.
It will send that information to that job opening as if it were an application. And that saves you hours of time because the old traditional way is that you see the job on the website, click ‘apply now,’ and then it takes you to an external site, namely the job’s company website.
And then you go through the traditional application process on their website, where you enter in your personal information, you post your resume, you fill out your employment information, and you answer all of the EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) questions and all of those things.
These traditional processes typically take between 30 and 45 minutes. I’ve spent upwards of an hour on one particular job application, especially as your work history becomes longer and longer.
They want to see all of those things. Entering all of those things can slow you down. I’ve found that the quick apply function is a game-changer because it allows you to rapidly send out applications, and then you can see who contacts you back and move forward from there.
Mac Prichard:
So you’re saving time. Another point I want to raise that you made in your article was about the importance of thinking about the total compensation a job offers, not just the salary alone. Why is this important, Jontae?
Jontae Grace:
Because I found, honestly, that it still adds up to real dollars. And I’ll take one particular example. I was working at an organization about three years ago. And when I started working for them, they made a big deal about their wellness reimbursement package.
And in my mind, we’ve all heard of those things. You get, you know, an EAP or employee assistance package where you get to call and you get free counseling sessions, which I’m not making light of because that is definitely, you know, that’s definitely valuable if you need counseling.
But they went a step beyond that. They actually had what they called dollar-for-dollar reimbursements on any product or service that you purchase that either falls into mental health, physical health, or I think there was a third category.
But all you had to do was keep your receipt and submit the reimbursement application. And I mean, this goes from anything from gym memberships to purchasing Fitbits or… you know, a workout monitor, tracking devices, anything, even musical lessons fell into the wellness category because it was a way of balancing your work-life balance.
So when I found out that that was the new feature of a lot of cutting-edge or innovative employers when they were offering what they call wellness reimbursement.
They were encouraging employees to go out and spend their dollars on what they call self-help or self-fulfilling resources. And then they would reimburse you dollar for dollar up to a certain amount.
At this job, it was $500 per category. So, not just in one category, it added up to $1,500 per year of reimbursable dollars that could be saved if you were to purchase the resource yourself and then submit the receipt.
Mac Prichard:
Well, that’s certainly very valuable. It’s been a great conversation, Jontae. Now tell us, what’s your number one job hunting tip?
Jontae Grace:
My number one job hunting tip is that it’s not over until you receive the offer. That’s what I would say: do not stop applying and do not turn down the opportunity to speak with another or a prospective employer simply because you have made it far along in a certain process, or simply because you have your eye on a certain job that you really feel attached to.
It’s not over until you actually formally receive an offer. And so you always want to keep applying and keep looking for that next opportunity.
Mac Prichard:
Thank you for sharing your story, Jontae. And if you’d like to learn more about Jontae Grace’s job search, visit macslist.org/stories and go to the Mac’s List website for dozens of other success stories.
On the second Friday of every month, we have a new interview with a Mac’s List reader who has found a dream job. Go to macslist.org/stories.
In the meantime, thank you for listening to today’s bonus episode of Find Your Dream Job.
This show is produced by Mac’s List.
Susan Thornton-Hough schedules our guests and writes our newsletter. Lisa Kislingbury Anderson manages our social media.
Our sound engineer and editor is Matt Fiorillo. Dawn Mole creates our transcripts. And our music is by Freddy Trujillo.
This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.
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