There`s a new way to add momentum to your job quest: employment clubs.
Using a team approach, these organizations help members develop savvy strategies for job searches.
One of the oldest, New York`s Five O`Clock Club, even is licensing its concept.
”The group approach is the engine,” says Kate Wendleton, now an
”executive job coach,” who created the organization in 1978 after informally using a collective approach to aid her own job search.
The method works, she says, because each member is usually at a different point in her search and therefore can share insight and experience about the process.
Yet ”this is not a support group,” she says. ”This is a job-strategy group.”
It keeps members on track with the help of a professional counselor who works with small groups of members to help target the most problematic areas of their search. Usually the most difficult: turning interviews into offers. The reason: Applicants concentrate too much on merely selling themselves and not on how they can meet the immediate needs of the employer.
Club members, who meet weekly for two-hour, $40 sessions, usually find jobs within 10 weeks, says Wendleton.
The group has added an affiliate in Boston, and licensees (who pay $1,000) are planning clubs for Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and other areas. For information: 212-289-1674.