If you are struggling right now: call or text
988,
or text HOME to 741741.
Veterans, press 1 after you call 988. The practice can wait. You matter more.
For the conversation you are actually dreading: the record, the gap, the accommodation you need, the first job with no history. Build your answer in your own words, then practice it from your chair and from theirs, because fear sits on both sides of the table.
Built from 21 branching scenarios across five situations, each choice graded against the disclosure and desistance research (Maruna 2001; Pager 2003; Ali, Lyons & Ryan 2017; SHRM 2021; EEOC 2012), and a story builder built on the three-part answer from Invest Hamilton County's re-entry research
Deterministic and device-only: nothing writes your answer for you and nothing you type is sent anywhere. Alex Plus members can choose to send a draft to the coach for one reply, which is not stored. Written at a sixth-grade reading level on purpose.
Asking a business to host you · The candidate's chair
Making the ask
Most places say no because they do not know what yes involves.
The most common reason a business declines is not reluctance. It is that nobody told them what hosting actually costs them in hours. Answer that before they have to ask.
Operations manager: “We have never done anything like this. What would it involve?”
Strong move
You answered the question underneath the question. 'I do not need to be entertained' is the sentence that changes minds.
Depends on the room
Generous, and it leaves them to design the whole thing. Flexibility only helps after there is a shape to be flexible about.
Costs you something
Now you are a form to be processed. True, but it removes every reason for them to be interested in you.
Operations manager: “What do you want to get out of it?”
Strong move
Honest, specific, and it makes them useful rather than generous. People like being useful.
Depends on the room
Fine, and entirely about you. Nothing here tells them what the visit is for.
Costs you something
They cannot build a placement out of this, so they will build the easiest one, which is usually filing.
Now you, out loud
One way it can sound
“”
Keep these
Name the time cost before they have to ask.
"I do not need to be entertained" is the whole pitch.
Give them something specific to say yes to.
The Table, part of Alex for Workforce and Alex for Business · alexhamiltoncounty.com · Free practice, both chairs · In crisis, call or text 988
Practicing for a particular job rather than a
particular conversation? Get
interview-ready drills the questions that role actually gets.
The Table gives general information and coaching
support. It is not legal advice and creates no attorney-client relationship.
It never screens, assesses or treats anything. For your own situation,
including expungement, licensing or what you must disclose in a regulated
field, talk to a licensed attorney. Free and low-cost help:
Indiana Legal Services,
the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic,
and your local public defender's reentry program. In danger now: 988, 911,
or the Indiana Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-800-5556. Facts current as of
October 2026.
Talk it through with your Alex coach
A conversation, not a form. Your coach knows Hamilton
County's numbers and programs, and it will point you to the right tool
for anything it can't answer. It's an AI coach, your chats are private,
and they are never used to train anything.
