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The smell of burgers and plastic key chains floated through the air – an obscene amount of money obviously spent on a venue and free food. Banks dotted the room, offering to open checking accounts for veterans for when money did start coming in (from somewhere) – but few jobs were to be found. I felt scammed, and robbed of my time. Where was this? My first veteran’s job fair – which I quickly decided would be my last. I wasn’t any better off on my job search than before I had gone to this job fair. I was an 11b with a Master’s degree. I didn’t need any spectacle, I just needed a job, and it had to be one that I wanted to do or there was no way I was going to do it.

I am now a Veterans Career Coach and Job Search Consultant at National Able Network. In August, I started leading a program in Chicago called the Veterans Job Search Work Team (we go by Team Green) and I don’t know of another veterans program like it in the nation. I meet with a small group of veterans who come together as equal collaborators each week until they are placed into new and meaningful employment. Many members that have gotten jobs stay with Team Green to get better jobs. The format for these meetings was established by Orville Pierson, a job search consultant and creator of the Job Search Work Team model. Team members are expected to meet every week for two hours, deliver reports, including highlights, priorities, and a list of decision-makers and other contacts that they networked with over the last week. The brilliance of Pierson’s plan is his idea of “agenda items” – subjects, issues, challenges that can be discussed by the group in open forum. With top experience in the group, including high-ranking and highly-educated veterans, these agenda items never go unsolved.

As a Career Coach, I’ve never liked to think of myself as the only job consultant; I can learn from my clients too. I am a small group facilitator and instructor, and my job is to stay current, informed, dynamic, and to help my clients focus their job search. Job Search Work Teams disrupts the paradigm of professional job search advice by treating everyone on the team like experts with valuable insight for job search. Since clients feel as though they are treated with a higher level of respect because they are asked to contribute to discussion, all departing (and employed) members of the Job Search Work Team request to volunteer as mentors of incoming members of the team. The relationships of outgoing team members make our employment resource network even more valuable.

Reflecting again on my own job search, in six months of job search I filled out an exhausting amount of applications, went to one job fair, and finally landed a position as a career coach through a cold call I made. Thinking back on some of the events I attended, I would have landed a job faster had I never gone to a job fair and relied on networking opportunities such as a Job Search Work Team. Job Fairs are like wading through noise with the current rolling against you. They are the antithesis and the enemy of focus. If you can make meaningful networking communication happen at a job fair, then you’re doing something right. However, in the typical job fair scenario, neither employers nor veterans are happy because neither party has what the other wants.

Job fairs are hopeful but are not designed to be helpful. Conversely, the Job Search Work Team model is quite helpful because it allows for an objective measure of your job search progress by other veterans who can both empathize and suggest new ideas. Veterans – and anyone else looking for a dream job – if you don’t know what to do with your job search, it’s time to get on board with a Job Search Work Team.

To learn more about National Able Network’s Job Search Work Teams, please call 855.994.8300 or click here!