Hundreds of Minnesotans Turn Out for Career Clinic Event
Free Job Help Event from McKinley Group Places Networking Top of Job Hunt Agenda
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. February 17, 2009 – More than 250 jobless Minnesotans gathered Monday for a free skills event designed to help them all get back to work as quickly as possible. The event, organized by McKinley Group, Minnesota’s top executive search firm brought together career specialists in social networking strategies, resume writing and online job hunting.
“Each year our company looks for causes to work with,”
says Tony Sorensen, partner and co-founder, McKinley Group. “This year it’s obvious to everyone, there’s no bigger cause than helping people find work. We typically work with companies to help them fill vacancies, but we’d been receiving so many calls from individuals looking for jobs that we had to do something to try and help.”
The event, held throughout the Carlson Towers, in Minnetonka included sessions on online job hunt strategies from Paul Podowski of Careerbuilder.com; on the critical importance of social networking from Pat O’Donnell, the Placement Genius; and on resume writing and refresher skills from Joann Meehl, the Resume Queen, and Graham Riley. Topping the list for every speaker was the importance of both social and face-to-face networking for people looking for work and for their next career move.
“Losing a job in today’s job market can feel a little like getting divorced after 20 years and being thrown back into the dating pool. It’s a culture shock, a traumatic event and worse still – everything has changed from how to go about getting a job to the pace you need to work at.”
Just as the dating world has embraced online and social networking, Sorensen, 
says job seekers have to get very savvy about new job search techniques too. Networking tools such as Linked-In, the online social network to share job leads, upcoming projects and keep track of former colleagues and contacts is critical to job search success today. Other sites such as www.indeed.com should be on any candidate’s bookmark bar. The site automatically aggregates job openings by the preference profile a user creates and emails openings to them each day.
“More than 80 percent of jobs are filled from candidate’s networks and through referrals,” adds Sorensen. “It’s critical to ensure you have online resumes, an updated professional profile and you market yourself as widely as possible. But job seekers shouldn’t forget relationships in the real world too. Getting the word out through family, church groups and networking organizations that meet is just as important.”
Career Clinic 2009 ran all morning from 8.00am through 12.00 noon. The event proved so successful, organizers, McKinley Group, are looking at repeating the service to job hunters at a future date.