Ben Bartman, June 2010

My intention is to highlight, by comparison, my past experiences with for-profit outplacement services with Job Club.

I attended Job Club sponsored by Mature Services Inc. from May 10 to May 28, 2010.  Don Zirkle led Job Club. I want to congratulate Don on doing an outstanding job teaching us not only, how to attack the job search challenge, but also enabling us to shed our original notions that we will be unable to succeed.

In the past, I held positions such as Technical Director and Research Department Manager with Fortune 500 companies, and so when I was laid off, I had access to executive outplacement services.  These included counseling on letter and resume preparation, printing, postage, mailing and business cards.  Occasionally seminars were presented, and phone and computer cubicles or offices were made available. 

However, these organizations, in my experience, do not provide the 60 hours of intensive job search techniques and strategies offered by Job Club.  When I joined Job Club I assumed I already knew the job searching process.  But in fact I learned more invaluable tactics and strategies from Don than I did in my two prior experiences combined.  In addition, Don gave each of us helpful feedback that will improve our job search prospects.

Job Club’s challenge is an order of magnitude more difficult than for-profit outplacement agencies because Job Club members have erroneous opinions about themselves and their employability.  Presenting the job search process in detail, anchoring it with examples and strategies, and then demonstrating that each of us has the ability to conduct a successful job search, empowers a group of motivated older citizens to pursue their job search with a can-do attitude.