Tips to Avoid a Job Club Dud - How to Get the Most from Job Seekers' Support Groups - ABCNews
Column By MICHELLE GOODMAN
April 16, 2009
http://abcnews.go.com...

Excerpt from page 3 of article:

Where the Job Clubs Are

So where do you find the golden job clubs that turn rusty job seekers into lean, mean interviewing machines?

Although they meet in person, many are easy to locate on the Web. Groups like the Virginia Career Network, Milwaukee JobCamp and NYC JobSeekers make their online home on Meetup.com. Indeed, there are more than 100 U.S. groups for the unemployed on Meetup.

Searching on "job club," "job hunters" or "networking" for your geographic region turns up many more options on Meetup, as does searching the Groups on LinkedIn. If you come up empty though, check with your local One-Stop Resource Center, your newspaper's business calendar, the regional chapter of your favorite professional association or some local places of worship to see if they're sponsoring or know of any job support groups.

You'll find that some job clubs have less than a dozen members, while some with professional facilitators draw 25, 50, even 75 attendees. Some groups, like the Virginia Career Network, mainly draw mid- to senior-level business professionals, while others draw administrative assistants and CEOs alike. Still other groups, like the Long Island Marketing Job Seekers Group, cater to workers in one field specific field.

Moral of the story: One job club does not fit all. You may have to sample a couple to find one that's a fit for you.

Michelle Goodman is a freelance journalist, author and former cubicle dweller. Her books — "My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire" and "The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube" -- offer an irreverent take on the traditional career guide. More tips on career change, flex work and the freelance life can be found on her blog, Anti9to5Guide.com.

Collins deserves all the media attention he can get!