Bukowski works as a career counselor at the Montgomery County Commission for Women and is a graduate student at George Washington University. He will be leading a new Job Search Support Group beginning Monday.
So what’s the goal of this support group?
The idea is that it’s something for people looking for jobs, so they can get together and learn techniques and also have a group of individuals as a support network while they’re looking for jobs.
Have you organized these groups before?
There have been other job search support groups here in the past. This one’s going to be a little different in the sense that right now we’re seeing a lot of clients who have had prolonged periods of unemployment because of the economy. It seems that clients are seeing perhaps a little bit more frustration than in the past. There’s a little bit more of an emotionally supportive component to this group rather than it just being search techniques.
What do you tell people when they get frustrated with the job search process?
What we do is try and orient people to their strengths and to try and help them take advantage of the resources they have, to try and look more broadly at the social network that they have. When someone is frustrated, the first thing you want to do is plant some small successes, anything achieved that will help you build motivation to continue on toward greater successes.
What are some examples of “small successes?”
A lot of times, people will come in who haven’t applied for jobs in a while because they had a job until recently. … So somebody getting their new resume polished up that’s current and really represents themselves well … is something that can help them feel confident.
What’s your No. 1 piece of advice for job seekers?
Research the company that you’re interested in working for, research the job position and focus on the hit between you and that job.
– Alan Suderman
