Scarp: Meet the pope? Free money? Better: A job

How often lately have you sat with dozens of others listening to a 90-minute presentation and not one cell phone rang? Or, no one even got up to go to the restroom?

Maybe if the speaker was the pope, or was drawing names at random and handing those people free $1,000 bills.

Neither was going on as about 125 people seeking a "landing" - unemployed-speak for getting a new job - were at Tuesday's semimonthly meeting of the Scottsdale Job Network. The 10-year-old nonprofit unemployed workers' group met at a northeast Phoenix synagogue.

Those in attendance treated what they were hearing like extras in an old E.F. Hutton commercial: ears bent and leaning forward.

Pope? Free money? Nope. When you're out of work, you want to get work as soon as possible, but need to learn how to accomplish that the best way.

Being out of a job in Scottsdale isn't much different than anywhere else: More people are lately.

Arizona Department of Commerce figures reported last week in the Tribune showed September's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the Phoenix metro area at 5.3 percent, up two-tenths of a percent from August. Arizona's rate for the same month was 5.9 percent, up three-tenths of a percent from August.

SJN's presentation that day was about networking, how to do it, with whom and how to get the most of doing it. Networking specialist George Fleming said 75 to 80 percent of all jobs in the Valley were found through networking, rather than through job postings.

MORE PEOPLE SHOWING UP

Attendance was up at this session from the last one, said founder and director Chris Vicari, who said it has been steadily increasing throughout most of the past year.

Vicari moved west to the Valley a decade ago after a career developing business training programs for a consulting company. She also found herself with few business connections in her new home.

She did contract work for about a year, but couldn't find a permanent job other than as an administrative assistant or secretary, Vicari said. "They paid money, but they weren't very challenging," she said.

Low pay and few contacts led her to come up with the idea of a job-networking organization to put people seeking work together and give them tools and skills to help them find new employment.

Now retired, Vicari spends at least 35 hours per week as SJN's director, an unpaid position. She was honored Oct. 16 as a recipient of the annual Frances Young Community Heroes Awards, a volunteer-recognition program sponsored in part by the Tribune.

Despite its name, Scottsdale Job Network attracts people from all over the Valley, and Tuesday's turnout included job-seekers from the south East Valley and as far away as Peoria and Glendale.

A basket placed at the entrance requests $5 donations from each participant. The money pays for the coffee, bagels, banana bread and fruit laid out for a continental breakfast, Vicari said. Most don't give the whole $5, she said; the average is around $1 or $2, but it's enough.

GENIAL BUT BUSINESSLIKE

The atmosphere is genial and casual, but businesslike. People are friendly, but many acted assertively in talking with one another. Lots of "I know somebody who ..."

Fleming emphasized that unemployed people don't lose their contacts when leaving their previous jobs. They still know people in business, he said, and have usefulness to them and those they meet at SJN meetings.

Sara Klug, 66, of Chandler, first appeared at an SJN meeting in 2004 after losing her job in human resources at Intel Corp. The group helped her find work since as a consultant, working for the city of Phoenix and the Arizona State University Foundation before becoming jobless again.

She returned to SJN and now is consulting once more. She said she is one of many who landed jobs through the group who returns to meetings to speak and give support to the currently unemployed.

But she was back Tuesday to find a "new direction" yet again.

"I have no idea what I'll be doing," she said. "But when you're in transition, you have to be positive and surround yourself with positive people."

Which is what the meetings do for her.

'LIGHTS A FIRE UNDER ME'

Frank Hale, 52, of Phoenix, has been in the Valley less than two years and has been going to meetings for about two months in hopes of combining jobs in several areas into a new career in economic development.

Hale said that the perspectives he gets from others in the same situation are important.

"It lights a fire under me and gives me the energy to go out and do what I need to do," he said.

Peoria resident Dianne Johns, who said she is in her late 50s, spent 30 years in human resources work before retiring. Now, she'd like to go into sales. At her first meeting Tuesday, she said the group made her feel comfortable quickly.

"What's surprised me was how natural and easy it appears to be and you're not self-conscious," Johns said.

Caroline Eggert, of Glendale, is only 18 and seeking her first permanent full-time job. But she came with some other students from the West Valley to learn the skills needed for her to find work in early childhood education.

"I have to learn a lot of job skills. I didn't know about networking but it was really interesting," she said of Fleming's presentation.

MORE JOBS IN NEW YEAR?

And the news was encouraging. Fleming said that despite the recession, many employers, particularly small to midsize ones, are gearing up to hire, particularly in early 2009.

Vicari said the synagogue, Temple Chai, donates the meeting space. Each meeting's turnout looks like everyone's neighbors, she said, saying retirees are being sought as volunteers to help with meetings. Plenty of out-of-work people volunteer to do that, too, she said, but most tend to no longer be around after they find jobs.

While SJN doesn't guarantee that participation will land you a job, she said the group tends to bring people through its front door who are rather motivated.

"People are attracted to networking groups because they understand the need for it," she said.

With any luck, and the right job-hunting skills, they'll be showing up to work soon at an office near you.

Scottsdale Job Network

Meetings: 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., first and third Tuesdays. Free admission.

Where: Temple Chai, 4645 E. Marilyn Road, Phoenix

Info: www.scottsdalejobnet.com

E-mail: info@scottsdalejobnet.com

Voice mail: (480) 513-1491