On stage in front of a crowded room of job seekers at the McLean Bible Church, Bob Korzeniewski asks for volunteers to step up and recite the 30-second pitch they’ll use on prospective employers.
The role-playing is a familiar practice for job hunters, but the weekly sessions at the Career Network Ministry reach beyond timeworn employment strategies.
Korzeniewski and a team of volunteers are counseling the unemployed in the new skill set needed to land a job in this competitive job market.
While a sales pitch and a good résumé are vital, Korzeniewski emphasizes the importance of social networking — online and in person — in an environment that also has a spiritual component.
“Our goal is to find five jobs where someone carries your résumé in. If we do that, we’re going to have success in one of those five. Let’s get you from the résumé game into the networking game,” Korzeniewski says.
Developing the skills to play the networking game is happening not just in this room but all over the country.
The website Meetup, which helps users organize any sort of gathering around shared interests from dog walking to sailing, has more than 1,400 career network groups nationally.
FULL STORY: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2010-05-09-job-hunting-social-network-support_N.htm
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