Neighbors Helping Neighbors Blog 16- We love our Libraries!!!!

Issue 16 of Neighbors Helping Neighbors The Blog!
We have some interesting topics to cover:

*Keeping Busy
*Hasbrouck Heights Spearhead!
*T Letters
*Expansion and Coverage
*Meeting Times

It’s getting better, the economy that is. More jobs are being created, more people are finding work nationwide, though in New Jersey it seems like it’s moving at a snail’s pace! But as long as we keep moving, as long as we keep supporting each other, we can find work, find a future and get ourselves out of the rut we are in!

This is why I push Neighbors Helping Neighbors whenever I talk with someone looking for work. Many of them are in the position I am in; underemployed college graduates who were expecting employment within a few months of college and are still working minimum wage. There are worse positions to be in, of course, for example, no job. And, sadly, to be unemployed is now a black mark on someone when they apply for a job that matches their skill set. What’s a person supposed to do?!

Keeping Busy====================================================================
There are two ways to fill job gaps in resume after you have lost your job. The first way is to find any job, even a minimum wage job. You’ve filled the gap and there is no way to say that you are unemployed. Of course, in this economy, finding ANY job is difficult and finding one that will help you pay the mortgage or the food bill can be difficult to get. Many times, the only easy to apply jobs are the minimum wage jobs and they have the disadvantage of, not only taking up time you can use for your job search, but not making you enough money to make ends meet.

The other option is volunteering. I have pushed this before in our blog and I will push this until I croak. Volunteering is a great way of expanding your skills, filling a gap in your resume, and networking. In addition, it shows initiative, creativity, and determination and can possibly lead to full time employment. The downside is that you get no income from this, nothing! But if you are on unemployment, if you have a living arrangement where your food and shelter needs are covered and all you need is a way in, then this is the way to go!

Target a company that fits your interests. If you want to go into engineering, target an engineering company. Tell them you are looking to volunteer a couple days a week or as many days as you can and get an interview. This should work much more easily than an interview for a paid position, but you should prepare for it that same as a paid one; show up on time, best foot forward with your resume and, if need be, a portfolio. Once you are in, treat it like a full time job; if you have the day, stay and work from nine until five. Follow the office rules, take on projects, be you, the professional you. Something is bound to happen.
And if all else fails, if this company turns out to be just using you for mindless grunt work, you can always go elsewhere.

At the very least, you can cover a gap in your resume. AT best, this may lead to a full time job. Go for it! You have nothing to lose!

Hasbrouck Heights Spearhead====================================================
Hasbrouck Heights started a new plan to get more people employed, even if the employment would be just temporarily. It goes back to what we just went over, filling gaps in one’s resume, but this would have the added benefit of being paid. Under the suggestion of Mimi Hui, the Director of the Hasbrouck Heights Library, we have started a database of all our members and submitted it to the local Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber of Commerce routinely receives requests for the names of people who can do certain contract jobs. Small businesses approach looking for people with certain skill sets to do small jobs, contract jobs for a decent price. Mimi thought it would be good for the Chamber of Commerce to have a list of some of the most capable workers in New Jersey, the Members of Neighbors’ Helping Neighbors.

Using an Excel Spreadsheet, we collected the names and contact information and added a column for skill set keywords. As I was the one who put it together, all I had to do was collect the resumes and look through the qualifications and past work experience section, snapping up keywords.
No word yet on whether this will work, but we are expecting something to come from it.

Special thanks to Hasbrouck Heights Library Director Mimi Hui!

T-Letter================================================
Sometimes there are too many ways to do something.
Organizing a resume appears to be one of them and, I swear, everyone has an opinion on it. Normally, I brush 90% of it aside, but just recently, one of Hasbrouck Heights NHN members, Peter Birdsall, sent us a great layout he picked up from a Job Search Workshop at Corpus Christi Parish!

Called the T Letter, it’s a fairly easy little piece to mimic. A combination of cover letter and resume, it give you the advantage of a human sounding cover letter so you can introduce yourself and show off all your qualifications like you would in a resume. I attached a copy of this to this blog so you can see it and utilize it!
The name comes from the shape of this letter, being that of a “T”. Your contact information goes atop, you start it like any cover letter, tell them where you heard about the job, and such. Then, in two column you list THEIR REQUIREMENTS in the left column and YOUR EXPERIENCE as it relates to THEIR QUALIFICATIONS on the right column. Finish it up with a nice little closing statement (They should really call this the “I” letter), proof it, and you are set!
Special thanks, once more, Peter Birdsall!

Once More, a Copy has been attached below!

Expansion, Libraries and Coverage!===============================================
Neighbors Helping Neighbors and the idea of Paying-It-Forward is catching on! John has been making media appearances and, while we may have lost a couple of meeting places here and there, we are gaining more members and locations, even in places OUTSIDE of New Jersey! That’s right, Boston and even California have begun to adopt Neighbors Helping Neighbors’ methods and ideas to get their people back to work!

None of this would be possible without the help of the Libraries. Libraries have been in the Bergen Record a lot lately; several were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy and need to be rebuilt, others are in danger of being snuffed out through budget cuts. Many are evolving into information and technology hubs especially as eReaders become more and more popular. For the job seeker, they offer communication and research opportunities galore!

We need our Libraries, but our Libraries need us. Support your Library! After your Neighbors-Helping-Neighbors meeting, hang out and discover all the wonderful ways they can help you in your job search. They’re not considered the most cosmopolitan places anymore, but that only serves to show the short sightedness of the cosmopolitan mindset. There value runs deep, deeper than most people realize. The Libraries, our Neighbors have helped us, let’s help them, pay it forward and keep our Libraries alive well into the 21st Century!

Below are links to a couple of interviews and videos about us, NHN!
http://www.northjersey.com/news/188628151_Two_years_of_helping_people_find_work_catches_on_nationwide.html

http://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2013/01/28/1871833/

Meeting Locations=========================================================

Library Meeting Locations:
Mondays
12:15pm Hasbrouck Hts.
6:30 Mendham Twp.
7pm Westwood
7pm Waldwick
7pm Fair Lawn

Tuesdays
10am Colts Neck
  1pm Oradell
7pm Bergenfield
7pm Hawthorne
7pm Emerson
7:15 Lake Hiawatha

Wednesdays
10am Monmouth Co. Eastern Branch
6:30 Cranford
6:30 Bloomfield

In 2013
7:00 Boston MA
7:00 Middletown

Thursdays
10am Middletown
10:30 Oakland
  1pm Maywood
6:30 Cedar Grove
6:30 Warren Co
(every other week)
7pm River Edge
7pm Ridgewood
7pm Wayne
7pm  Howell Twp     2nd & 4th Thurs. 2/14, 2/28, 3/14, 3/28, 4/11, 4/25, 5/9, 5/23, 6/13, 6/27, 7/11, 7/25, 8/8, 8/22, 9/12, 9/26, 10/10, 10/24, 11/14, 12/12 & 12/26.

Saturdays
2pm Monroe Twp

More info at: http://www.neighbors-helping-neighbors.com/meeting-locations.html

That’s all we have for you this time!
Good Luck!

Neighbors-helping-Neighbors
USA, Inc. (NhN) is a cost-free, highly successful Peer-led volunteer
support and networking group targeted to individuals who are actively looking
for work and interested in reinvigorating their job search. Membership is open
to anyone in career transition, including unemployed or underemployed
individuals and recent college graduates in the fields of business, non-profit,
and education, as well as persons re entering the job market, struggling small
business owners and retirees looking for part-time or volunteer work.



For more info www.neighbors-helping-neighbors.com