Are you into Group Think?

They say ‘there’s strength in numbers’

Think you’ve got all your networking bases covered? Think again.

An often overlooked source of networking is the job search group. Why would you want to spend time with other people who also are looking for jobs? Good question. Here are some better answers.

• Meeting with other job seekers may provide any number of benefits: they may suggest new “rocks” under which you haven’t looked in your search.

• They may have heard things from contacts and colleagues which aren’t generally known.

• They may have some tips on how to best utilize your time.

• They can help you energize your search and help you to just break out of your rut.

• And, sometimes you just need to commiserate with people who share your situation.

Some groups have been known to take it a step further. There are groups that welcome back alumni who come to share their stories of success and offer encouragement.

If you don’t know where to find a suitable job search group, there are many places to look. The low hanging fruit are your local libraries and churches. Librarians are great sources of knowledge about groups – even those that don’t meet at your local branch.

You can even find a job search group through MeetUp where you can search first and foremost by geography. But there are also groups that focus on age, industries, job types, etc. The larger job-support MeetUp groups have more than 6,000 members.

If you’re more comfortable in social media, Facebook offers job search support and LinkedIn features its “Unemployed Support Group” as well as “Unemployed? Need a Job?”

As with most everything else, you get out of it what you put into it. This is also true with job search groups. And, no doubt, some are better than others. But it also can be an endeavor worth pursuing. Certainly something worth checking out.

More tips.