By B.C. Manion
As workers across America prepare for the three-day Labor Day weekend, millions of people continue to search for jobs.
Some of those workers have joined support groups that offer emotional and practical help in their quest.
Two of those support groups meet in north Hillsborough County.
One meets at St. Paul Catholic Church on Thursday mornings and the other meets at Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church on Tuesday evenings.
Both groups strive to offer a place where people between jobs can get help with such practical matters as brushing up their resumes, honing their interview skills and networking to find vacancies that are never posted in newspaper classified advertisements or on job boards.
Bob Saxon is a volunteer that has been helping unemployed people get back into the work force since 2002. He’s met thousands of people who have lost their jobs during the past decade.
“We’ve had everybody in there from a homeless person to someone making a six-figure salary,” said Saxon, who used to run a job search ministry at Idlewild and now volunteers at St. Paul.
“We’ve had widows who have been married for 30 years,” said Jim Carow, a volunteer facilitator at the iWork, the job search ministry at Idlewild. The retirement funds didn’t last as long as expected, and now they’re out looking for work, he said. “They don’t have any idea how to find a job.”
Nationally, official figures put the unemployment rate at 9.1 percent in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Florida, the unemployment rate was 10.7 percent during the same period. The rate was 12 percent in Pasco County and 11 percent in Hillsborough County, according to statistics released by the state’s Agency for Workforce Innovation.
Carow said those numbers do not tell the full story. They don’t reflect everyone looking for work, and they don’t include people who are underemployed, he said.
Larry LaBelle, owner of the Training Tamer, Inc., a private company that provides coaching and training for job seekers and employers, provides pro bono help to the groups at St. Paul and Idlewild, as well as a group called Real Estate Lives. Real Estate Lives, founded by land-use attorney Ron Weaver, is a Tampa-based group established to help people who lost their jobs because of the housing crash.
Lots of help is needed in today’s market, Saxon said, noting competition for jobs is fierce and job seekers must make a compelling case to stand out from the crowd.
“I think the No. 1 obstacle I’ve see in people is their resumes. They’re not doing enough to sell themselves,” LaBelle said.
Resumes should have a professional summary statement – identifying what the candidate brings to the table.
“It needs to be a sales pitch,” he said.
Resumes also must include a list of core strengths and must provide measurable accomplishments throughout each job experience listed, in order to persuade potential employers of what a candidate has to offer, LaBelle said.
“You have to show the value of what you’ve been doing,” LaBelle said.
A resume must be concise, he added.
“People can drone on and on. The more specific and compelling they can be, the better,” LaBelle said.
Job seekers must be ready to seize the moment, said Jim Kissane, volunteer facilitator at St. Paul’s job search group.
“You’ve got to put yourself out there with total abandon. It’s a now or never kind of thing,” he said.
Kissane said job seekers need to remember: “People only hire for two reasons: They’re trying to save money or make money.”
To get hired, applicants must be ready to produce evidence revealing past experiences when they got results, Kissane said.
The landscape for job seekers has changed dramatically over the years, Saxon said.
Allan Teixeira, of Land O’ Lakes, who was laid off from his job in June as a financial analyst for Clayton Services, said he was not ready for those changes.
“I kind of got caught off guard,” said Teixeira, who said he had no idea how important it is to develop a vast professional network.
He said he was focused on his job, not on developing a network of contacts on social media sites.
He’s also concerned that a mismatch between his educational credentials and his work experience will keep him from getting in front of hiring managers.
Teixeira has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural operations management and a master’s degree in agricultural engineering. But his work experience is in financial analysis.
“I’m kind of what they call an accidental accountant,” Teixeira said.
That disconnect might not matter in a healthy economy, he said. But, he added: “It’s a buyer’s market. That creates for me some very unique problems.”
There are many, good qualified people who are seeking work, so employers are less likely to take a chance on someone who is not a perfect match for their requirements, Teixeira said.
The nature of today’s job search can be discouraging, too, he said.
“Much of the job search is automated,” Teixeira said. “The Internet can be very dehumanizing.”
Dan Waters, another job seeker at a recent St. Paul’s meeting, said he’s been doing as much networking as he can to improve his chances of finding work, which is why he attends sessions at St. Paul and other support groups.
His background is in pre-construction estimating for commercial building construction, but Waters said he has expanded his search to consider a broader range of opportunities.
Kevin McDonald, who attended his first session at St. Paul, said he worked in public safety for years then decided to make the switch into insurance sales.
It turns out that he couldn’t close sales as well as he’d hoped.
So, now McDonald is back in the job market and he’s glad there are places like St. Paul where he can get help from other job seekers and from people who have put together all sorts of useful information.
He’s glad he can learn from other people’s experience, he said.
Those attending the networking groups at both St. Paul and Idlewild will find there’s a spiritual component to the sessions.
During the recent St. Paul meeting, Kissane reminded those gathered that God will help them as they encounter life’s struggles. He also pointed out a message in many spiritual teachings that, “from adversity comes new beginnings.”
Carow said those attending Idlewild meetings receive spiritual support, job search help and nourishment, too.
“We feed the whole group,” Carow said.
Unfortunately, he added, “we know, for sure, that sometimes this is the only meal that they’re (some of those gathered) going to eat that day.”
Job seeker resources
St. Paul Catholic Church, 12708 N. Dale Mabry Highway
Between Jobs Support Group
Meets Thursday mornings, 8:30-11 a.m.
For more information, contact Jim Kissane: (813) 264-3316
Exciting Idlewild Baptist Church, 18371 N.Dale Mabry Highway
iWork In Between Careers Ministry
Meets Tuesday evenings 6:30-9 p.m.
For more information, call (813) 264-8771
Real Estate Lives, go to www.Realestatelives.org for more information
