By Ricardo Tello – September 2025
This past Tuesday on September 10th, the MCC Chicago’s education department organized a mock job fair. The event was attended by about 50 inmates who are designated to finish serving their time in this facility within the next twelfth-months. The guys known as “floor 21 in green” went down to the gym and met with leaders of non-profit organizations, probation officers, and members of the community who acted as employers doing mock job interviews. Everyone was able to get real life experience and learn strategies that can help when applying for a job.
Thanks to the support of the education department staff, I was the opening speaker for the event. For all of those just leaving prison or getting ready to leave, I am sharing with you my speech:
Date: 09/10/2025
Location: MCC Chicago GYM
Event Name: Mock Job Fair
Good morning, my name is Ricardo Tello but everyone calls me Tello. And today I’m here to give you the bad news: You are about to be released from prison.
No more sleeping in. No more food delivered straight to your door. No more free laundry service. Now you’ll have to make the hard decisions in life: like what to wear in the morning, or even more scary, what to cook for dinner. But in all seriousness the biggest challenge waiting for you isn’t food or clothes. The real challenge is getting a job.
You’ve been here for a while. The world has moved on. And I know the question that lives in the back of your head: Who will hire me? How will I support my family? How will I stay in compliance with probation?
Let me tell you something I realized recently. A couple of years ago, if you walked into my company and checked the box “Felon” I would’ve put your application at the bottom of the pile. Next applicant, please. But being here, going through what we’ve been through, I see it differently now. I see the talent, the hustle, the potential sitting in front of me. I see people capable of building real lives, if they choose to.
Here’s the truth: every single one of us will walk out of here. This place doesn’t have a graveyard. But the numbers are ugly, 2 out of 3 will come right back. That’s 67.8%
What separates the ones who come back from the ones who stay out? One word: a plan. A plan not just to survive, but to succeed.
And the very first step in that plan is––getting a job. Not the dream job, not the perfect job, any job. Because that first paycheck, that first step forward, is what unlocks the rest of your goals.
Now here’s where most of you shake your heads and say, I’ve been locked up too long. I don’t have any skills. But let’s be real. You’ve been working all along.
- You trade commissary, that’s entrepreneurship.
- You work in laundry, that’s hospitality, like hotels.
- You work in food service, that’s catering and restaurant experience.
- You’re an orderly, that’s maintenance.
- You read, organize, type on Corrlinks all day that’s admin and clerical––office job.
Prison is like a small city. And everything you do here has a mirror out there. You already have work experience. The only difference is you haven’t learned to translate it into job language. That’s what interviews are for.
When you sit down for an interview, here’s what matters:
- Be persuasive – Believe in your story before they do.
- Share your skills – Translate prison hustle into workplace skills.
- Talk about your goals – Employers love forward-looking people.
- Be determined but humble – Confident not arrogant.
And here is the mindset: Don’t think of an interview as begging for a job. Think of it as showing the value you bring to their team. Employers want solutions, reliability, and grit. And trust me, you’ve already proven you have grit just by surviving this place.
Success is not random. It’s not luck. Every successful person you admire––athletes, business leaders, even celebrities––all follow patterns: they set goals, they took small steps, they built habits.
So set your end goal now. Visualize it. Then take that first step the moment you walk out: get a job. Any job. That job is your platform to build the life you want.
Listen your past doesn’t define you, your future does. The fact that you are here means you have a chance that some people will never get the chance to start over.
So, when you walk out there, remember this: Don’t just survive. Build. Build a life where you don’t have to ask. “Who will hire me?” Instead, you’ll say, I’m exactly the kind of person any company would be lucky to have.
Thank you.