By Dana Williams
"We're trying to help older unemployed people to understand that just because they are older, it doesn't mean that they don't fit into today's working world," said West Hempstead resident Valentina Janek, one of the club's founders and its president. "They have experience and intelligence, and that's important."
The Long Island Breakfast Club, according to its Web site, provides employment and career counseling, workshops and interviewing classes, among other assistance, to help those who are seeking employment after losing a job in middle age. What started out as weekly breakfast meetings among five unemployed Long Island residents in 2006 has evolved into what many members describe as a much-needed career resource for job seekers who are over 40 and returning to the work force.
"We were all seasoned professionals who were downsized from our jobs, and we met at a diner to share our interview stories," Janek explained. "We were all told on these interviews that we were too experienced ... and we formed this club with the idea of helping older and experienced professionals like ourselves to find jobs."
Most of the club's members are attempting to return to the job market after working for many years in business, technology, medicine and other fields. Each month they gather at the Sterling Glen Atria senior citizen residences to eat breakfast, learn about job hunting tips and network, with the hope that those who are unemployed will find jobs. Members also have opportunities to work with mentors, who offer them referrals and resumŽ assistance so they can market their skills more effectively to prospective employers.
"What the club helps people to realize is that life is not over when they have spent many years at a job and then they get the pink slip," said West Hempstead resident Chris Fidis, 49, an implementation manager at Verizon and another of the club's founder. "The club is really something that people can turn to for help, contacts and support, and we really teach middle-aged professionals that they just have to reinvent themselves to land another job."
Breakfast attendees share stories about their job hunting and interview experiences, which many say involve some form of age discrimination. Janek, 54, contends that middle-aged job seekers have a difficult time finding jobs because companies don't want to "give experienced professionals salaries commensurate with their experience." The club's motto is "Experience counts," and it reminds prospective employers that years of experience can be an asset to their company.
"When you lose your job, it is a terrible feeling, and it doesn't help when you go on interviews and your experience is not acknowledged by these companies," said Janek, who is the director of marketing at ARS Financial Services in Jericho. "We're really trying to encourage companies to be more open-minded about applicants who are older and who have years of experience."
Members of the club have also started the Pay It Forward Program, in which they ask companies to contact the club for resumŽs that might suit their job openings. "We connect people to jobs, and we actually make the interview appointment for them," Janek explained. "This is all about helping people to find work and to restore their confidence."
Since its inception, the club has grown from five to more than 100 members from Nassau and Suffolk counties. Individual success stories, Janek and Fidis said, have helped its popularity grow. Baldwin resident Macky Digilio's story is an example. After losing her job as a property manager last year, Digilio joined the club, having heard about it by word of mouth, and she immediately took advantage of the services it offers, she said. She is now working as a property manager for a business in Lynbrook.
"The mentors in the club revamped my resumŽ for me, and I was able to meet different people and learn about job openings at the meetings," Digilio said. "Even the discussion about appearance at the interviews helped me out ... and this club can really help a lot of people."
Club officials are hoping to make it a not-for-profit organization in the near future. For more information, visit pro-fusion.us and click on the Long Island Breakfast Club.
Comments about this story? DWilliams@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 205.
