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A UMNS Feature
By Susan Passi-Klaus*
1:00 P.M. EST November 7, 2011
Volunteer Jerry Prophitt (right) welcomes a newcomer to the Roswell
United Methodist Job Networking Ministry with a gentle touch and a kind
word. UMNS photos by Kathleen Barry.
View in Photo Gallery
Katherine Simons sees it all the time. Hopelessness.
She sees it on the faces of the thousands of out-of-work people who walk through the doors of the Job Networking Ministry that Simons organizes twice a month at Roswell United Methodist Church in the Atlanta suburb.
“That look” is all over their faces. Their smiles are forced. Their eyes
are intense. Anxiety has carved lines into their foreheads.
“Stress has drained the life out of them,” Simons said.
“These are people who have run out of money. They’ve run out of
direction. They’ve run out of options. They’re discouraged. They’re
worried. And they’re afraid.”
Dragged kicking and screaming
Charlie Brown was one of those people.
It wasn’t long ago — a little more than two years — that the unemployed
computer programmer was dragged, “kicking and screaming,” to the Roswell
meeting.
“I didn’t want to go,” he said, “But the person who was pushing me to go
wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. I was so miserable and so depressed
at the time; I guess I just gave in.”
Unemployment was a shock to Brown,
who had worked since he was 18 years old. When he was laid off in 2008
at age 51, it was the first time he’d ever been without a job.
“No recruiters would talk to me,” he said. “In fact, no one was
interested in talking to me. Everyone was saying, ‘no, no, no,’ to
everything I had to offer. There just were no jobs.”
Brown spent the next several months going back repeatedly to Roswell. He called it a “university.”
“I felt like a freshman on campus for the first time because there was
so much stuff going on,” he laughed. “I didn’t know where to go. I
didn’t know what to do. I was just lost.”
On the other side
Eventually, he made it through several of Roswell's workshops
on writing résumés, interviewing and job searching for baby boomers. He
got his résumé reviewed and revised. Had his picture taken for
LinkedIn. Started networking. He may have come in without a to-do list,
but he left with many self-improvement assignments.
“My skills had gotten old and stale, so I did a refresh,” he said. “I
spent a year attending classes, seminars and doing self-study, all to
bring my skill set up to current.”
But more than getting an education in the ABCs of searching for a job,
Brown said he learned about himself and the kind of person he wanted to
be.
“I wanted to be somebody whom others wanted to be around, and the way to
do that was to become a more positive person,” he said. “Up until then,
I was always angry, and I was wallowing in it. And I had a lot of fear.
I was afraid I was going to fail my family. It was a terrifying time.
“But,” said Brown, “I learned to stay cheerful. To laugh out loud more
often. To tell funny stories. The more entertaining you are to people —
even potential employers — the more attractive you are.”
Brown said he knew a positive attitude was an asset, especially as a boomer trying to make his mark in a competitive job market.
“You can bridge the age gap if you're someone people enjoy spending time
with,” he said. “You're only as young as you act. You have to show
people you're willing to continue to grow on a spiritual, educational
and personality level.”
But it wasn't easy.
“The hardest thing you can do is put on a happy face,” he admitted. “But
you have to. You can't just sit around being upset. You've got to let
go. You've gotta work your way through it.”
A “job networking prayer basket” receives a prayer request
and an expression of hope.
View in Photo Gallery
You’re more than your job
Bob Kashey, a volunteer with the Roswell program, knows how hard it is
for job seekers to get to the mental and spiritual place of which Brown
speaks.
“People walk in here with an overwhelming fear because they've never
been out of a job,” Kashey said. “They've grown up in a society that
says, ‘You are as successful as your job,’ and they truly think their
success is tied to what they do. When you take that away from them, they
have nothing to fall back on, so they fall hard.”
While Roswell's program may focus on making attendees “job-search
ready,” the pep talks and prayer prep their souls for what's ahead.
“We teach them to focus on the content of your character — that's what
makes you successful,” said Kashey. “We need to get away from the
stereotype that says ‘my job as such and such’ or ‘the XYZ Company is my
life and I'm going to work at it 12 hours a day and never see my kids.’
“That way, when they walk into job interviews, they have their
priorities straight, and they're not worried,” he said. “They're able to
be themselves and let their light shine through — and be passionate
about what really matters.”
Charlie Brown now has good news to share with the job seekers who have
become his friends at the Roswell career ministry meetings. He was
recently hired as a software engineer in the Atlanta area.
But finally having the “un” removed from his “employed” status won't
keep him away from Roswell where he's committed to giving back as a
volunteer.
“Sometimes God's plan is not about what we want,” Brown said. “Look at
Job and Jonah. God dragged them, kicking and screaming, as he did me, to
a place we didn't want to go, but in the end, it was better for us. In
my case, it wasn't only better for me, it's (also) better because maybe I
can help others.”
Learn more about job ministries.
*Passi-Klaus is a public relations specialist/writer at United Methodist Communications, Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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