Networking groups get jobless locals hooked up

By Maya Gurarie
Longmont Ledger

John G. Adams, 64, isn’t a Face´book person. He doesn’t do Twitter. But he did recently open a LinkedIn account.

Adams volunteers eight to 10 hours a week with the Longs Peak Net´working group while looking for contract work. The group provides networking opportunities for unem´ployed people ages 40 to 60, to help make the transi´tion between industries, meet oth´er job seekers and build positive routines into their lives while they seek work.

Longs Peak Networking currently has 230 members who meet week´ly at LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont. Longnet, a smaller networking group with 14 members, gathers at Central Presbyterian Church lo´cated at 402 Kimbark St.

“What I needed personally was structure in my day-to-day life,” said Adams, who settled for early retirement from a medical devices company in Longmont. “It’s easy for people separated from routine to get in the bad parts of that rou´tine, stuck in their pajamas and surfing the web.”

Approximately 95 people gath´ered at 8:30 a.m. one recent Tuesday to hear director Gordon Nuttall out´line goals for the group. Longs Peak Networking has oper´ated for seven months. Leaders intend to work on sustaining the group’s mem´bership base by attracting spon´sors and recruiters.

The suggested member dona´tion is $2 per meeting. LifeBridge Christian Church donates the meeting rooms and provides lunch for occasional job expos.

Eight new members at the recent meeting grabbed the microphone and gave “elevator speeches.” The 30-second pitches showcased each member’s back´ground and what kind of job they’re looking for. The newcom´ers represented a range of indus´tries including organic food, high-tech products, IT staffing, land´scape architecture and manufac´turing.

Nuttall mentioned that 60 mem´bers already volunteer on commit´tees within the networking group and encouraged others to sign up. Members David Lambertson and Lori Spencer spoke about the im´portance of helping others with re´ferrals. The group has 40 alumni who were members but have since found jobs. Alumni provide an important base for referring job seekers to employers.

The Longs Peak Networking Web site provides a place to post new jobs, work on committees and stay updated about events. Resources such as how to get started on LinkedIn are also avail´able to download.

Members follow a tradition and bring a treat in when they find a job and leave the group. The tradi´tion helps show that the group is suc´cessful for some members.

“During the first half of the year we didn’t have very many people bringing donuts,” said project management professional Bob Keesy, 57, who has been with the group since March.

While the Longs Peak Network´ing group helps some, project manager Arther Bhatti mentions those who have been there since March and still don’t have jobs.

“It’s very frustrating when you have a family,” said Bhatti, 48, who is married and has three daughters. “It’s been six months on unemployment.”

Bhatti receives $2,000 a  month in unemployment benefits, but his health insurance will soon cost $1,000 a month. In addition to paying for mortgage, taxes and utility bills, he worries about pay´ing for the extras such as his 19-year-old daughter’s cell-phone bill.

Longs Peak Networking helps Bhatti target his job skills in sup´ply management to new indus´tries. He worked at Hewlett Pack´ard and would like to branch out to the alternative energy or manu´facturing industries.

Longnet networking group, much smaller, has similar goals for members but a different strategy. The small size of the group fos´ters interactive discussions, members say. The informal nature of the meetings means that members can donate canned goods to the church for their membership fee.

Longnet organizer Clark Ander´son, 72, led a discussion about job narratives one recent Monday for members who  gathered for the weekly meeting at Central Presbyterian Church in Longmont. He encouraged them to choose samples from their re´sumes and explain their accom´plishments. Information also in´cluded behavioral interviews with human resources, working on re´sumes, evaluating marketing ma´terials and polishing LinkedIn ac´counts.

Anderson emphasized the im´portance of using online re´sources such as Collectivenet and Yahoo groups to communicate. He explained how to access the virtual groups while waiting for the Longnet website to load.

“You might want to turn that dial on the side of your computer to make it go faster,” said Ander´son, 72, who is searching for a programming job creating SQL queries. “That was a joke.”