Part-time resident Stephen Lake has had a long career working in some of the best hotels in Las Vegas. He got his first big break through a game of bridge.
He loved the game, and was good at it. One night he asked everyone at the table if they knew anybody in management at The Dunes a place he really wanted to work. Sure enough, one of the managers sometimes played.
He called the man and set up a game never mentioning he wanted a job. The game went well, and after a few months the men were playing regularly. Six months from the first time, Lake had the job.
Now Lake is looking for similar connections in Park City in order to move here full time and escape the Nevada summer heat. That brought him to the first meeting of the Park City Career Network on Monday at the Temple Har Shalom.
Anne Gardner, a managing partner with AJL Renewal Partners, a turnaround management firm that works with businesses in distress, conceived of the idea. Gardner said she’s noticed two things in the last few months. First, that people have been sending her resumes who are so qualified that she could see herself working for them in a different economy. Second, that the best way for her to find clients is through networking.
“Most of our business is from relationships,” she explained.
That caused her to realize that there was a real need for career networking in Park City not just for people looking for work, but for those trying to make connections in town.
Gardner can recall many times when she made a friend with someone whose field had no connection with hers, but that person later introduced her to others who were able to aid her career.
Gardner envisioned a group where everyone could tell their stories and talk about their strengths and experiences to build those kinds of connections. So she networked to start a networking group.
She called Ellen Silver, director of Jewish Family Services, with whom she plays Bunco. She talked to her neighbor Dale Matthews with the professional recruiting firm Millennium Solutions. She also called executive recruiter Bill Humbert, whom she read about in a Park Record Marketplace article.
Matthews and Humbert are experts in the hiring process while Silver counsels people in distress.
Silver said that financial problems are causing family problems. There’s a real need to validate the emotions people are feeling right now and provide a forum for them to get constructive help.
The group will continue to meet every Monday, excluding holidays, at 9 a.m.
“Through the telling of our stories, we prompt people to think, ‘I know someone you should talk to,'” Matthews said.
Unlike other networking opportunities that offer opportunities to socialize, the Park City Career Network aims to offer good advice and lead the group in exercises to prompt new ideas.
For example, all four organizers said they can recall a moment in their lives when they decided to try something new and reinvented themselves. Matthews said the weeks or months in between jobs are a great time to explore that option.
“Don’t be afraid to pursue some of the dreams you had stuffed under the couch,” she said.
Humbert pointed out that while everyone understands the importance of networking to find a new career, or further a current one, most people do it wrong. They call up people they know and ask for a job.
But applying for a job is like trying to sell yourself as a product. What do most people say when asked if they want to buy a product? No.
The truth is, Humbert explained, employers like to hire people they like. Making friends and acquaintances and telling them of your strengths and experience is the proper way.
“What is your most important asset when looking for a job? Your contacts,” he said. “On average, if you network with two new people a week, it will take one year to find a job. Networking with 10 new people a week will take six months. 20 people per week, or about four a day, will only take an average of 90 days.”
Humbert and Gardner both said the worst thing for an unemployed person to do is “take a break.” Sometimes personal savings or a large severance package prompts a person to wait out the recession.
Because finding a job is a process with cycles, taking a break only delays the amount of time it will take to find a new job. Networking should be going on all the time, Humbert said.
What: The Park City Career Network
When: Every Monday, excluding holidays, 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Where: Temple Har Shalom on S.R. 224 (the group is non denominational and all organizers are volunteers)