The Job Forum’s Core Wednesday Service – Why it is unique, loved and is important
The Job Forum offers a small group job search meeting every Wednesday evening on Zoom. This is place where job hunters can talk over their job search strategies and get advice and introductions to be more successful in their job search. Unlike job searching and applying online or via company career sites, at The Job Forum there are people who want to talk with job hunters and are there to communicate with job hunters. People need other people to assist and advise and optimize their job hunting methods. At these unique meetings, this assistance and two way communications at the core of the community service.
Typically, 4 to 10 job hunters may come to meet with a panel of 3 Job Forum volunteers. This unique e-community service, which has been continuously offered for 73 years, provides immense benefits for job hunters. Job hunters get to ask hard questions or describe confusing job hunting experiences. They get new ideas for what to do next and they learn modern job search realities and methods to put in to action for themselves as a next step to take. Often a new referral or helpful introduction may be offered as well. The Job forum teaches people to fish – meaning we want each job hunter to be able to take proactive action and get the right next job and we support and advise and give useful input so they can take steps that will work or wisely adjust until it does.
Job Hunters:
The job hunters at the Wednesday Job Forum, get to ask the individual questions that they feel are most challenging to them. They speak about those issues which they believe may be getting in the way of what should be progress toward getting a job.
Job hunters really appreciate the opportunity to ask for and get individualized, customized answers and they say the process and the meetings are validating and practical. They value the honest advice and concrete suggestions they get focused on what they CAN DO. They get insights for how small changes in their approach can make a meaningful difference for their job hunting success.
Job Forum Volunteers:
The volunteers get to meet and brainstorm and help a range of people in a quick and personal way. They use their experience and all they know about job search to directly assist job hunters who need input. Volunteers report that is incredibly satisfying. They describe the joy that comes from helping along with that a surge of satisfaction seeing they are able to have impact and hearing they are making a difference for other people in a challenging time.
Some volunteers talk about appreciating that the advising experience has an almost visible impact. The impact can be seen when job hunters seem energized, are clearer about the next steps to take, and show and say they motivated to keep going in the face of a hard job market.
If you want to be a part of process that keeps working for job hunters, participate in the Job Forum Weekly Wednesday Meetings.
Being A Member of The Job Forum
It is the expectation of The Job Forum that every member of The Job Forum will sign up to volunteer on a Wednesday several times a year. This is fundamental to our organization. This is our core service.
There are many benefits:
– It is a wonderful way to stay current with the range of job hunter challenges.
– It helps you know more excellent Job Forum volunteers for your own network.
– It educates you about many job search tips and methods that you in turn can share with others, regardless of which format you most often volunteer.
Guidelines and Expectations:
As a Job Forum volunteer, we proudly put you up on our website. In doing so, we expect that you will volunteer for our Weekly Wednesday Meeting multiples times in one year. Please review our process.
– When we send out emails requesting volunteers for Wednesdays, please take a moment to look at your schedules to find an upcoming date (or more) that you are available.
– Go to Sign Up Genius, find your date, and select the role that you would like to take on for that week: Moderator, Chat Manager, or Host.
– Please plan on keeping your commitment for that date. Sign Up Genius sends out automated e-mail reminders before the date you have committed to as a reminder.
– If you are for some reason unable to keep your commitment, you MUST go to Sign Up Genius and unselect the role you were going to take on. This is important so that anyone who might want to take on that role can see it’s available and not already reserved. You should also email Arik to notify him.
– It is your responsibility to find your replacement if you are unable to keep your commitment. Many times, Arik has had to frantically search for a third panelist hours before the meeting is supposed to start. This also includes him having to redo the PPT and notify the other volunteers. We will provide you with the link to our internal directory so you can directly contact someone to replace you. You can also go to Sign Up Genius and see who has signed up for which role for an upcoming and switch with them. If you do this, please notify Arik immediately so he can fix his spreadsheet.
