Thoughtforce/Careers@work
  I'm an executive search consultant. Over the past 2 years I've seen more people than I care to count loose their jobs, erode their financial security, loose their dignity and look to social services for assistance. The government has no programs to help dislocated workers earning over $60k. Most of the people I work with were earning at least $150k. Many of these people were my clients. Since 9/11/01 the market for executive search services has virtually disappeared and from a business perspective, I've been unable to assist them. But I did want to help. So this is how I've been able to help 20 people per month.

I teamed up with a not-for-profit organization, Careers@Work, to sponsor our outplacement workshop designed for the current job market. My services are offered pro bono, they reproduce the materials and provide the classroom. This free workshop is a 2 day intensive classroom setting for senior managers and executives. I lead the session, first to motivate then to educate. My experience shows that to make a difference, the audience must be receptive. We focus on helping the attendees learn about themselves to find their innermost motivating factors. With this knowledge we help them develop a "personal brand" to replace the "stigma of the unemployed". And finally, we show them how to use the best practices of sales and marketing in a small business context to penetrate their desired employers and get face-to-face meetings with executives. These meetings focus on critical business issues that elevate the need to create a new job.

Many of the executives attending our workshops have been through expensive outplacement programs which left them feeling more helpless than motivated. Almost without exception our participants leave at the end of the second day in a state of high energy empowered with some really effective tools. The program has caught on so strongly that roughly half of the attendees at each workshop come from word of mouth.

The real rewards are evident when we see our "alumni" getting jobs and creating new jobs for people in the true "Pay It Forward" spirit.

Contact information for Thoughtforce is:

Sam Dobrow President/CEO samdobrow@thoughtforce.com http://www.thoughtforce.com/people/sdobrow.html
ThoughtForce International, Inc.
http://www.thoughtforce.com
770-625-5155

Contact information for Careers@Work is:

Barbara Feinberg feinberg@jfcs-atlanta.org
Director, Careers@Work

The employment division of Jewish Family and Career Services
http://jfcs-atlanta.org/careers/
http://www.atlantaatwork.org/

 
 

 

 
   

 

Authore Web site Pay It Forward Foundation