PORT TOWNSEND — Jeanine Woodley had good news to share with her fellow job seekers at the close of a series of workshops on finding employment:
“I got a job!” she announced.
Woodley was one of more than a dozen people who attended the Port Townsend Library’s first Transition Yourself” series of six free workshops on job hunting, which started Jan. 26 and concluded last week.
Led by Susan Wilson, the workshops, which will be repeated, focus on how to tap into the hidden job market.
“The big thing I put into this is the networking-group approach of it, and the support-group aspect of it,” Wilson said.
“Seventy to 80 percent of all jobs are not advertised.”
Funded by state and local grants, the workshops are designed primarily for people who have been in the work force and are regrouping after losing their jobs, Wilson said.
The first series drew participants who were mostly in their 30s and older, Wilson said, and had had strong careers in a specific industry — engineering, environmental health, hotel and restaurant management, nursing and transportation.
“There was a lot of talent in this room,” Wilson said of the conference room at Mountain View Commons.
“These folks have worked all their lives, have a strong work ethic and transferable skills in many areas. They have a lot to offer.”
One example: Eric Hammond, 58, an electronics and software engineer who was laid off after being with the same company for 10 years.
One of 400 people at the company who got pink slips — 30 percent of the work force — he not only lost his job, but also his built-in network of friends and co-workers.
“They all scattered to the wind,” he said.
Hammond, who moved to the Olympic Peninsula from California six months ago after exhausting job possibilities there, said the workshops gave him new tools and new ways of looking at job searching, which had changed dramatically since he was last in the market.
The main difference: most jobs are advertised online, making the process very impersonal.
“When I looked for a job before, I met people and talked to them,” he said.
“I always got a job in a matter of weeks, if not days.”
To supply personal contact and support, Wilson is following up the workshops with a job-hunter support group, which meets weekly at the library’s Pink House starting at 10 a.m. today.
Wilson is also offering free one-on-one job counseling and organizing an online support group which, like today’s gathering, is open to all.
By joining a networking group and plugging into the library’s job hunting resources, online and on shelves, people can take what was covered in the workshops and put it into practice, Wilson said.
“It’s all there for them to use,” she said. “They can make a plan that tells them what direction they want to go and what the next step will be.”
Woodley, who said she has been on unemployment for 10 months, said the “Transition Yourself” workshops gave her the confidence to do well when she got a job interview.
She had worked at Port Townsend Lumber until it closed in 2002 and also in real estate, she said, and had applied to Home Depot, making it through the first interview.
The second interview, with the manager, was scheduled later the same day as the workshop where the participants role-played being interviewed, Woodley said.
Having thought through her answers to a variety of questions and practiced giving them, the interview with the manager was a breeze.
“He offered me the job right there,” she said. “I start next week.”
Funded by state and local grants, the Port Townsend Library’s “Transition Yourself” workshops are free and offer life counseling and job counseling for people looking to re-enter the work force or just starting out, Wilson said.
For more information, go to www.cityofpt.us/library or contact Wilson at 360-344-4608 or ptplhardtimes@gmail.com.
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Port Townsend/Jefferson County reporter-columnist Jennifer Jackson can be reached at jjackson@olypen.com.