The Mosaic Job Cafe is not held in a cafe at all, but in a section of the vast Jason Lee Hall at the First United Methodist Church in Vancouver’s Uptown Village. Coffee is served up in Styrofoam cups at 7 a.m., an early start for job seekers looking to navigate a local job market that hasn’t yet gotten the message that economic recovery is under way.
On Monday, about 20 people showed up to hear Valerie Vance, executive vice president of Vancouver medical supply startup Redpoint International, describe the ways that professional networking has helped the company in its push to market. Vance told the job seekers that to succeed they should give as well as receive. “Be seen, take part, and be the solution,” she said.
Penny Fillhouer, a corporate recruiter who helps coordinate cafe events, encouraged those searching for new or better jobs to fight the temptation to give up on networking. “Get out and do it one more day, because that’s the time you might run into your next employer,” she said.
Following the presentations, Felida resident Shannon Decker said she was bracing for an April 1 layoff from her job as a business relationship manager for Umpqua Bank. Decker, 46, said she hopes to move out of banking and into a nonprofit or another industry in client relations.
“Yes, I’m stressed. Yes, I’m scared to death. We are a two-income family and we need my income,” she said. But Decker, who is married and has two teenage children, said she’d had her “pity party” last week and was prepared to move forward.
Hayden Island, Ore., resident Marvin Windred, 74, said he was looking not for a job but for a new vocation. Windred said he’d worked in office products sales and other sales jobs before taking early retirement to care for his wife, who was ill. He said he feels younger than his age and is thinking of starting a small janitorial business.
Windred wore a tie and suit jacket as a way to start getting back in touch with the world of work. “Networking brings out the best in me,” he said.
Every other Monday
The cafe’s emphasis is on helping people move forward under the theme “tips and tricks for the unemployed and the underemployed.” It’s held every other Monday and is sponsored by Mosaic Blueprint, a Vancouver recruitment and communications firm. Deena Pierott, president of Mosaic Blueprint, said the cafe evolved from her consulting work for Hewlett-Packard about two years ago, when she assisted laid-off workers. She said the event has attracted many baby-boomers whose jobs have been eliminated as companies shrink middle management.
Despite talk of economic improvement, “I think the need is as great now as when I started it,” Pierott said.
