Who is in a Job Club?
A job club's membership can be made up of a group (two to 30 people) of similar people, such as homemakers seeking to return to work, people all downsized from the same company, friends who live in the same community, or unemployed new college grads. They can also be a mixed group of individuals whose common link is the need to find a new job.
Member advantages?
- Mutual support and motivate each other to:
- complete job search tasks
- overcome mental roadblocks
- prevent depression that sometimes sets in during a lingering job search.
- Increase your success rate. Richard Nelson Bolles, author of the classic What Color is Your Parachute? and a strong proponent of job-seeking support groups, notes an 84 percent success rate when job-search techniques are conducted in groups, compared with a 15 percent lower rate when the same techniques are followed individually.
- The exchange of job leads, business cards, resumes, ideas, and information that occurs in a job or networking club can energize members and teach everyone valuable career strategies and techniques.
Where can you find a job club?
Local newspaper's business or community calendar section. Some newspapers list job-club meetings in special sections devoted to employment and workplace issues.
- In some cities, you can find free employment weekly newspapers with announcements for job clubs.
- Look for local Job Club news/events on www.illinoisworknet.com. These can be posted by local employment offices, community-based organizations, faith-based organizations, education institutions, and libraries.
How often should the club meet?
The usual model is weekly. If it's difficult to find a place to meet or a time when all interested members can attend weekly, you could conduct the bulk of job-club activities virtually using social media, like Facebook or LinkedIn. Then meet monthly in person. Members can phone each other for support. A member who had a job interview could call other members to debrief about how it went.
Who should lead the group?
The group's founder can certainly lead the job club, as could any member who is deemed to have good leadership skills and experience. Leadership could also rotate among members.
What rules do you need to set?
Your job club's structure can be as loose or as formal as you and your members choose. The need for rules will probably be determined as individual situations arise. Your club might want to set rules for how to deal with difficult members and for ensuring that discussions stay on track.
What goes on at a job club meeting?
The idea is to share each other's job-hunting and career experiences and encourage each other in the quest. What works? What doesn't? Who's hiring? Who's not?
Many job clubs follow a model developed by psychologist Nathan Azrin, widely recognized as the father of job clubs. The model, which assumes weekly meetings, looks like this:
- Members spend a few minutes at the beginning of the meeting sharing results and accomplishments of the previous week's job hunting.
- Members ask the group for support in specific areas. This portion of the meeting is a problem-solving and brainstorming session. Members can ask for advice, support, leads, ideas, strategies, and direct assistance. It's in this section of the meeting where a professional facilitator may be the most useful.
- The meeting ends with members stating their job-search goals for the upcoming week. Members should set goals that can realistically be accomplished by the time of the next meeting. Here, it may be helpful to lay out some good benchmarks, such as a productive yet realistic number of contacts that members should strive to add to their networks each week.
(Note: This model is also outlined at the Web site of Evergreen State College's Career Development Office, from which the above is adapted).
According to Azrin, job club efforts will be more successful if:
- Job-seekers have a specific goal or focus for their job search. Members should have a good idea of what kind of job they want.
- Job-seekers are well acquainted with their own skills, abilities, and interests. Azrin says members should be able to articulate verbally and in writing at least five skills and abilities that they would bring to a job.
- Job-seekers have considerable knowledge of the employers they wish to approach.
- Job-seekers follow a particular pattern in the way they conduct their research.
Illinois workNet offers
self-access activities and resources that can be completed on an individual basis or in a group environment such as a workshop.
- Networking Basics – Getting your virtual network set up. Learn how to network in person. (Related activity: Networking)
- Identify your skills - Use the skills and interests section and the workplace skills section to identify your skills. Identify at least five skills and abilities and articulate verbally and in writing what they would bring to a job. (Related activities: Identify Your Skills, Introduction to Workplace Skills, Introduction to Interviewing)
- Explore careers that align with your skills and interests - Look up your past jobs (occupational titles) and look at related occupations. What training would you need to get the related job? (Related activities: Explore Careers and Training Programs, Find Training Programs)
- Set a specific goal – Have a specific goal or job search focus. (Related Activity: Set Goals and Make a Plan)
- Prepare your resume – Use the resume resources to put together a draft resume. Members can bring resumes for constructive criticism. Also members can exchange and distribute them when opportunities present themselves. Post the resume to social media sites. (Related Activities: Introduction to Job Search Preparation and Resume Writing)
- Share helpful articles or the best ideas from a book about job hunting on social media. Post suggestions on the Illinois workNet Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. Send a direct message to the Illinois workNet Twitter account.
- Get ready for an Interview - Members can conduct mock interviews with each other. Members can also brainstorm ideas for questions to ask the interviewer. Use the Illinois workNet resources. (Related activity: Introduction to Interviewing for a Job) Members could critique and help each other pick out interview attire.
- Put together a job search strategy - Part of the meeting could be spent conducting employer research, especially if laptops or other computers with Internet access are available. Find job openings and then research the employer. (Related Activities: Introduction to Job Searching and Applying for a Job, Introduction to Interviewing for a Job)
Other suggestions: - The club could develop a special ritual or ceremony for "graduating" members who've found a job.
- Guest speakers could be invited to job-club meetings. Career counselors, career coaches, resume writers, authors of career books, college professors, and other experts generally welcome the opportunity to speak on their area of expertise. Topics might include career assessments, resumes, cover letters, interviewing, job-search follow-up, salary negotiation, Internet job-hunting, and company research.
- Club members could take field trips to tour companies of mutual interest. Informational interviews in small groups may even be possible.