How to find a community of job seekers Part I -

How to find a community of job seekers Part I - If youre a regular reader, you know that I am working with Carolann Jacobs from Vivid Epiphany on a free teleseminar series to help job seekers dive into their job hunts. (Click HERE for more information you can still sign up; there are 7 weeks to go!) At our first session last week, one caller made a comment that really resonated with me. She pointed out that it was so nice for her to join the call with so many other job seekers and to realize that she is not alone in her job hunt. All along, I had been focusing on offering specific information in the seminar that would be useful and practical. I hadnt specifically considered the value of bringing a group of job seekers together for support and encouragement. Im glad to be enlighted! It was exciting when the participants on our call started to help each other and make suggestions to fellow callers. We started to build our own community in only one meeting! Which leads me to this postWhere else can job seekers find support and encouragement? My business partner Hallie Crawford made several good suggestions in her recent guest post. I thought it would be useful to make some additional specific suggestions. When I started to write this post, I realized that there are so many resources, I decided to break this up into a mini-series of posts. So, please stay tuned for the next few days for a slew of ideas if you are looking for a job! Dont hesitate to comment with additional ideas or resources. Ill be happy to include them in future posts. Blogs I am a bit biased, but I think blogs are terrific sources of support and can be community building mechanisms. Id like to think that my blog is a place for job seekers to gain support and information, and there are many other great bloggers in the job hunting niche. Youll find all of my favorites and more oncareer.alltop.com. Select online resources Online job seeking support forum, such THIS ONE on about.com, hosted by career advice guru Allison Doyle. At this site, you can discuss issues related to job searching, employment, and work. Ask questions, provide answers or start discussions on topics of interest to you.    Secrets of the Job Hunt is another terrific site that brings job seekers and career professionals together. If you have a question, you can post it and Chris Russell, who created the site and is also a founder of JobRadio FM,  may repost it to all of the career professionals who are members on the site to respond to you. You can also read blog posts from many career professionals on this site. (I am a contributor as well.)    job-hunt.org has a wonderful list of resources and in-person groups by state.    Im the Career Advice Expert for  GreatPlaceJobs, a job board that only posts positions from award winning companies. Since we know that networking is key to the job hunt, GPJ hosts a LinkedIn networking community for our members, employees at great workplaces and recruiters. We are also planning teleseminars and other opportunities for recruiters at great workplaces to connect with employees. This could be a great resource if you are interested in working for an organization that has the potential to outperform in a recession. Keep your ears and mind open to the possibilities that exist when you actually engage with people in person instead of focusing all of your networking online. Do you host or sponsor a group or site that supports job seekers? Feel free to add it in the comments! I would love to add it to one of the next posts in this series. Stay tuned for in-person resources and more! You have no idea how to network and could use a little help? I can teach you how to take the steps you need to be successful. Contact me to learn more. photo by niallkennedy