Donnie Corron blames the economy, not the company that laid him off from his six-figure job as a plant manager a year ago.

The 46-year-old had moved his family from Florida two years ago so he could run New Millennium , a Salem steel plant. But the parent company closed two of its fi ve plants more than a year ago, and a manager with more seniority was brought in to do Corron’s job.

Unemployed for a year now — and with scant networking contacts in the region — Corron reached out to Back on the Path, a support group for job seekers that meets weekly at Cave Spring United Methodist Church.

Corron received plenty of encouragement and tips from the two-dozen meeting regulars. But, alas, no one at a recent meeting had any job news to share.

In fact, the group’s performance dovetailed perfectly with the latest Virginia Employment Commission records for new unemployment claims: During the week of Aug. 6-12,     544 people in the Roanoke metro region made initial claims, up almost 70 percent from the same week a year before.

Network power

The people who man Back on the Path are called “helpers.” In group parlance, they’re here to help the so-called “hikers” fi nd work, and to cheer them up when they don’t.

But in the 11 years since the group began meeting at the church, many helpers have found themselves wearing hikers’ shoes.

Co-founder Al Col-grove remembers being so distraught when his marketing job for a national building supply chain was eliminated in 1987 that he put on a suit for most of the two years he was unemployed — even though he had nowhere to go.

He was too ashamed to admit he was out of work. Later, he says he came to realize: “I should have told everyone I came in   contact with that I needed a job.”

Network, network, network: That’s the group mantra.

Network by calling 20 people you know — or people your friends know — each and every week.

Network by setting up monthly informational interviews, fact-gathering meetings with employers where you learn about a job you might be interested in — and get your resume into a new set of hands.

Such strategies are at the core of Back on the Path meetings, which have the feel of group therapy but also provide nitty-gritty job-seeking tips, from how often to update online resumes to where to buy calling cards cheaply.

Helping one another

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 14.6 Americans are looking for work; 1.4 million of them have been jobless for nearly two years.  

Back on the Path maintains an e-mail list of about 270 area job seekers, most of them college educated. About 70 have reported accepting jobs, most of them not via advertisements but through what Cosgrove calls “the hidden market,” or word of mouth.

“The most rewarding thing that comes of this whole ministry is the enormous help the job seekers give to one another. They see things that others don’t see,” Colgrove explains.

“It’s like having 30 people looking for you.”

There was the 40-something woman with a doctorate who kept hearing that she was overqualified for every job she applied for — until a fellow hiker recommended she remove the   doctorate from her resume.

There was the 50-something woman who de-emphasized her 20-plus year career in human resources in her interview — and landed a contract management job based on experience she had from a long-ago job.

And there were several middle-aged men at a recent meeting who started their own businesses but continue looking for work — to see if something better, with benefi ts, comes along.  

‘Serially unemployed’

Heather St. Clair had no intention of becoming the poster child for the serially unemployed. But that’s what it’s beginning to feel like.

For the third time in 18 months, the 33-year-old Roanoke County woman has faced joblessness. First she was a Mississippi television sales manager who telecommuted — until new management came along that didn’t believe in virtual employees. Then she did marketing for a local health care company for six months — until her job was eliminated, along with four others.

Now she works in sales for a Roanoke technology firm. She couldn’t bring in enough business to support her position in this economy, she says. But her employer has given her some time to look for work while still on the job, in lieu of severance pay.

St. Clair is newly married, with a Brady Bunch melange of his children and hers, so she doesn’t have time to attend Back on the Path meetings, though she keeps involved electronically. (Members also share job-opening tips via e-mail.) She does attend weekly breakfasts with Roanoke MeetUp, a networking group,   and recently launched her own group of young professionals called Roanoke Unwind , which meets twice a month.

She has two things on her side, judging from the tenor of recent meetings. First, she’s relatively young in a market where “experienced” is viewed by some as “too expensive.”

Second, unlike business designer Bob Cole, who moved to Roanoke from northern New Jersey in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, St. Clair grew up here.  

‘It sucks to be you’

Unemployed for a year now, Cole has exhausted his unemployment and much of his savings. He’s working hard to network, but says it doesn’t come easily for non-Roanoke natives.

“A guy I knew who grew up here told me it was easy when he lost his job; he just called up his buddies from high school and had another job in a week. He looked at me like, ‘Man, it sucks to be you,’ ” Cole recalled.

“So it comes down to the fit and it comes down to who you know, and I don’t know anybody.”

Corron, the former plant manager, could relate. A headhunter alerted him to what he believed was a new controller opening this week, he told the group, hopefully.

But Cole had more disappointing news to share: “I’ve already had a second interview for that one three, maybe four weeks ago.”

Corron was undeterred. “It’s nice to know other people looking have the same feelings you have,” he said. “I’ve never been down this road before, and it’s been a real eye-opener.

“You’re never too big to fall from grace, I guess.”


Hiking 101: Tips for the job search long haul

-- Don’t send out blanket resumes; target them individually for each application, highlighting the skills you have required of that particular job.

-- If someone asks about salary requirements and you’re uncomfortable answering, ask: “Have you been given a range for budgeting purposes?”

-- Make sure the information on your resume matches your online profiles, including LinkedIn. Employers may check to make sure you’re being honest, including by doing a background search. LexisNexis  offers one free copy of a person’s background report per 12-month period, and some hikers recommend requesting a copy to make sure your resume perfectly matches the dates and other listed information.

-- Resumes that list “job objective” at the top signal old school. According to resume writer Susan Geary: “Nobody will read through your entire resume except you and your mom, so summarize it in a headline at the top: 'I’m a project engineer with 10 years’ experience.’ ”

-- Call 20 people you know every week to tell them you’re looking for work and ask them to look out for opportunities for you.

-- Schedule one “informational interview” each week — a fact-gathering appointment where you learn about a job you might be interested in (and extend your job network). Don’t ask directly for work, but do say you need help and advice.

-- Avoid making cold calls on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons.

-- Buy calling cards with your profession listed and contact information. (Do a Google search for “free business cards” and check out discount sites such as vistaprint.com.)

-- Make sure your resume is filed in the state system at jobs.Virginia.gov.  Job seekers say it’s a laborious process, but if you print the application out for your records, it can be used as a base for other applications.

-- Likewise, make sure your resume is uploaded to the VEC’s  website at Vaemploy.com  — some employers search through resumes there without ever listing their jobs. And remember: To stay in that system, your resume needs to be reactivated every 90 days.

-- Get out of the house;  it will improve your mood. Volunteer to get experience in a new field. Visit one of the VEC job centers (information online at vec.Virginia.gov) for help with the process.

-- Jump on opportunities as soon as you learn of them, or in the words of one  adviser: “Ten minutes after somebody dies or gets fired, that’s what I say!”

-- Do let people, including Facebook friends, know you’re looking for work. But don’t share every up and down on your Facebook page.

Source: Back on the Path