By Keith Eigelbach
NKyTribune reporter
Diana Long feels like she’s hit the lowest point in her search for a job.
Natalie Ruppert, manager of workforce development for the Kenton County Library, speaks to a meeting of the Northern Kentucky Accountability Group on Wednesday at the library’s Erlanger branch (photo by Kevin Eigelbach).
Out of work since last fall, she’s been looking for a job in her area of expertise, which is human resources, especially programs that deal with diversity and inclusion. But the Edgewood resident’s search hasn’t been going well. The fact that she’s 58 might have something to do with it.
“I don’t know where to begin,” she said Wednesday at the Erlanger branch of the Kenton County Library. “I’m here to find some hope and direction.”
Fortunately, she had come to the right place – the weekly meeting of the Northern Kentucky Accountability Group. It’s a support group for residents in transition or seeking new careers, most of whom have had extensive work experience.
Tom Heilman, formerly with Brighton Center Career Connections, created the group with a colleague in 2013. It began with about 10 people, but has grown to about 50 weekly attendees, said Natalie Ruppert, who runs the group.
There’s a group like it that meets in Hyde Park, the Job Search Focus Group, which calls itself “the largest, longest running job search support group in America.” But there’s no similar group in Northern Kentucky said the library’s executive director, Dave Schroeder.
The Northern Kentucky group meets from 9:15 to 11:30, and spends most of its time listening to attendees update each other on their job searches, and offering suggestions.
Long told the group she was expanding her search to include work for nonprofits, but not as an executive director because she didn’t want to raise funds. Someone suggested she connect with the local chapter of SCORE, which meets at the library on Tuesday mornings.
Ruppert offered Long encouragement, telling her she had a great resume and just had to find the right fit. She urged her to get out and talk with people about their work. That way, she could find problems she could solve, which would make her valuable to an employer.
Dave Schroeder
Another update came from Greg Yurchak, 60, who introduced himself as a “high-touch, authentic manufacturing operations leader,” who is known for fixing problems. It was clearly a pitch he had practiced for potential employers.
The West Chester resident drives to Erlanger nearly every week for the group’s meetings, he said.
“It’s worth it,” he said. “It’s a lifeline.”
In addition to updates on job searches, the group heard two success stories.
The first came from a 63-year-old Taylor Mill resident who declined to be identified. He had taken a voluntary buyout in June because his job was going to be replaced with new software. He couldn’t afford to retire, he said.
He caught a break, he said, when a hiring manager hung onto his resume, which he’d sent to apply for a job he didn’t get. The hiring manager thought he’d be a good fit for another job in retirement plan administration, he said, and he starts that job April 16.
Diana Smith, of Erlanger, found herself looking for a new job at 66 years old when Mercy Health eliminated her job seven and a half months ago. Nothing much happened until she spruced up her LinkedIn profile and began posting on LinkedIn regularly to show off her expertise.
“I started getting invitations from people with some great titles,” she said.
One of those contacts connected her with a decision-maker at a local company. She had coffee with that person at 8 a.m., she said, and by 5 p.m. she had an offer to work as senior manager of retirement plans.
The Kenton County Public Library Erlanger Branch is located at 401 Kenton Lands Road in Erlanger.
“The point is that you can’t lose hope. You never know when the next door will open,” Ruppert told the group. “The more people you know, the better off you are … Each person is like peeling an onion of new opportunities for you.”
She starts the meetings off with a presentation about job search tips or something else she thinks will help the job seekers. On Wednesday, she talked about some of the free programs the library offers job seekers, including such essentials as Microsoft Excel training.
Workforce development is one of the library’s four major goals in its three-year master plan. To further that goal, last year, Schroeder created the title of manager of workforce development for Ruppert.
She had originally worked as a reference librarian in the Covington branch, she said, but found herself often working with job seekers, who flooded the library during the Great Recession.
On March 22, she said, the library became a partner with the Northern Kentucky Career Center. It’s also one of three library systems statewide that are part of the Library Economic Advantage Forum, a partnership between the career center and the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet which began in July.
Her work has garnered a lot of recognition from across Greater Cincinnati, Schroeder said. The accountability group is “something we’re really proud of at the library. It’s really paying off for the community, and that’s what the library’s all about.”
Contact the Northern Kentucky Tribune at news@nkytrib.com
For more information: KCPL’s Job Search Central webpage or call 859.962.4002
