Day 43 - ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

JOB SUPPORT GROUP
Every Wednesday, I attend a job support group. Actually this was the second time for me. I was kind of excited in a lame way. I guess it gave me a reason to get dressed, hair and make-up and go somewhere. How sad for me? But it is kind of true. When I worked, I used to go to meetings and had a structured day. It is just weird not having somewhere specifically to go to during the workday. I digress once again... So I was a little pumped up because I thought there would be more people attending this team meeting and the subject topic of creative networking sucked me in.

So I get there with diet coke in hand ready to learn something and meet new people. Of course I was greeted by the same old team- Brock (the forensic auditor - who talks and talks with no end); Jim (the Intellectual Property and Quality Guy) and then my favorite guy, who I still do not remember his name(cultivates media- bacteria). The attendance was actually worse than the week before. The Consultant had sent out a harsh - you better come to the meeting e-mail and still no one came. I guess these meetings are not being taken seriously with the unemployed community.

We started the meeting with the creative marketing topic. To my dismay, this topic lasted 10 seconds when he handed out a two page article on creative networking. It was a bad one too. Some unemployed guy wrote it and just said that we should get up, work out, put on nice clothes and hang out in Starbucks and talk to strangers. It sounds like loitering to me but who am I to judge. Let's just say this was not what I expected. Shame on me to expect anything.

We then went around our circle to discuss progress. Once again we started with Brock who said he would take 3 minutes and he took about 30 minutes. Brock had an exciting opportunity that he was interviewing for next Tuesday and I decided it was time for me to step in. I am not sure if he is going to appreciate it but he needs me bad. I realized after my second meeting with him that he has no problem getting the interview but he blows it with his long winded stream of conscious communication style.

I sent Brock an e-mail with some candid feedback and some coaching assistance. Either he is going to really appreciate it or be totally offended - we will wait and see. Worse comes to worse, the outplacement group is changing our job support meeting day so I may have to go to another group. I hope is he OK with this - Peace and love, peace and love.

AHA MOMENT
I noticed that I am getting my professional confidence back. I started listening to some of the advice our counselor was saying and he was definitely off. Some of the activities outplacement counselors suggests is a total waste of time. Today's advice was for us to send LETTERS to target companies of interest. I know that letters never get opened or completely blown off. It almost makes the candidates look like they are not in tune with today's technology.

REALIZATION
I think my job support group is more about building my confidence to help others with their job search then for me to learn too much. But this is good because helping others comes back three folds to me. Realization two - I am getting my mojo back as I have reached a new level of confidence in my temporary status.