Job Club
General Information:
The Job Club model at the Career Development Center uses principles and processes developed by Nathan Azrin. This East Coast psychologist completed a longitudinal study identifying successful job search strategies by interviewing successful job seekers and isolating effective techniques from his research.
Weekly Meeting Outline
Each week each member will:
1. Check in - Each member reports the results of his/her job search since last week.
2. Agenda - Members ask the group for support in specific areas: advice, brainstorming, "woe is me sessions," support, leads, ideas, and direct assistance.
3. Check out - Each member shares goals he/she has set for the upcoming week. These goals should be manageable in a seven day period and directly related to employment search.
Rationale
The rationale for the Job Club comes from the approach Azrin takes to job search. The following information forms the basis for the activities of the members:
Therefore, each Job Club member should have a specific career goal (area of interest, specific job, type of employment, specific company, etc.). Ideally, Job Club members should have a Plan A, Plan B and Plan C.
2. Successful job seekers knew a great deal about their abilities, skills and interests.
Therefore, each Job Club member should be able to articulate verbally and in writing at least five skills and abilities they would bring to the job.
3. Successful job seekers knew a great deal about the employer.
Therefore, each Job Club member will conduct preliminary and in depth research into agencies, industries, organizations, and employers. This research can be done through written resources and through individual informational interviews with potential employers.
4. Successful job seekers had a particular pattern to the way in which they conducted their research.
Statistics informing the practices of Job Club
1. It takes ten (10) telephone calls to guarantee an interview (ratio 10:1).
2. It takes twenty-five (25) interviews to guarantee a job offer (ratio 25:1).
3. The most effective form of contact is personal interview (job or informational). The second most effective contact is telephone calls to the employer. The least effective contact is application, resume or other "paper chase" contact.
Job Club Model
Approach
1. Identify your job focus.
2. Identify people, places, organizations, businesses that do what you are interested in doing.
3. Research those leads to the best of your ability.
4. Contact those leads to arrange an informational interview (use informational interview guidelines).
5. Conduct interviews and compile all the information including leads for other interviews.
6. When the informational interviews are completed re-contact these people and inform them of your job search plans and ask for support.
Schedule
Your search will be most effective if you devote a specific number of hours to the job search. Divide the hours available strategically, ie. Monday morning and Friday afternoon use for research (most employers will be unavailable at these times). Cluster your appointments together to save travel time. Set specific times for certain activities. Stick to your schedule as much as possible.