Help Job Seekers Navigate Career Transitions

There are many ways to support the Lake Grove Job Seekers (LGJS) Program:

• Become a Mentor and support job seekers (5-10 hours/week, but flexible)
• Become a Friend:
  • Assist with mock interviews (occasionally)
  • Give a presentation at one of our weekly meetings (1-2X/year)
  • Offer your specialized services on an ad hoc basis (e.g., legal, counseling - occasionally)

Most volunteers elect to coach active job seekers in the career planning and job search process.

As mentors, we listen and advise, with the goal of enabling job seekers to eventually help themselves in this process.

Timing and commitment.

We meet as a group on Monday mornings from 8:15-10:15. If you would like to become an active mentor and coach job seekers we ask that you attend these meetings as often as possible. We are very flexible about vacation schedules and help each other out when needed. Mentors work approximately 2-10 additional hours per week based on the number of job seekers they choose to mentor. Ad hoc support (legal/admin) would be at your discretion.

We are non-denominational.

While Lake Grove Presbyterian Church is our sponsor and hosts our program/meetings, our mentors and our seekers come from a variety of educational, professional, faith, ethnic, and gender backgrounds. All are welcome as mentors and as job seekers.

We have fun and are a supportive group of long-term volunteers.

Many mentors are former job seekers who found so much value in the program that they have returned to pay it forward. We are completely volunteer-run and operate in an atmosphere of mutual respect - and fun! Monthly Mentor Happy Hour get-togethers help us to work better together as a group and get to know one another.

About You

We are looking for Mentors who are seeking a long-term commitment to helping job seekers. Many of our Mentors have been with the organization for years. While we don’t require a years-long commitment, that longevity gives you a sense of the commitment of our mentor colleagues.

Strongly preferred experiences for mentors:

Supervisory / Management / Leadership Experience. Mentors with solid experience in hiring, promoting, demoting/firing, and coaching employees can help job seekers understand the hiring dynamic. Besides their own lived experience in this area, familiarity with the thought processes of peers and more senior management helps a mentor offer perspective about how a job seeker may be viewed by those on the hiring team.

OR

HR/Staffing/Recruiting Experience. Familiarity with the internal or external recruiting and hiring process, especially what goes on "behind the scenes" can be very valuable to job seekers. For example, how best to work with recruiters, how staffing people evaluate a job seeker’s materials, or how organizations approach negotiating are all important topics for job seekers.

OR

Career Coaching/Counseling Experience. Those mentors with this experience are not only able to help with the outward aspects of looking for a job or navigating a transition, but they also offer invaluable knowledge and expertise in coaching job seekers through the internal turmoil caused when one is out of work, feels they are not in the right career or is having trouble working through the rejection inherent in the process. Emotional resilience is a huge component for everyone in the job search or career transition process.

If you are flexible, collaborative, and committed to helping others and continuing to broaden your knowledge about job search, you will fit right in!

Becoming a Mentor

You will have a Mentor Sponsor to guide you through the onboarding process of becoming a mentor. This person is there to help you understand more about the LGJS program and how we operate, but we fundamentally believe that, as an experienced professional you probably know more about coaching job seekers than you realize or give yourself credit. If you’ve hired, fired, and/or developed employees in your professional life before, you have much of what it takes to become a mentor. What we suggest below is concentrated in three key areas:

1. The nuts and bolts of a job search in today’s environment
2. Online tools and resources
3. Coaching reminders

These areas are all things that you can learn, even if you feel less than proficient today. We’ve never had a mentor join the program who was an expert in all areas at the start, nor would any of us profess to be experts today. What we all are, is willing to learn. With that attitude, we can teach or help you brush up on any areas where you may be weaker.

People looking for a job, whether they have one or not, are often in a vulnerable place. They may have been fired or let go, they may be reentering the workforce after a long absence, they may have been in a toxic environment, or they may simply want to change jobs or careers. What you bring to the table is a willingness to listen, share alternative perspectives, and encourage persistent effort and risk-taking -- even when the going gets tough. Beyond job search "how to's" helping job seekers find their inner strength and courage is often the value you bring.