“The New World of Work is here.”
Gone are the days of working for just one company and retiring with the gold watch. Workers today have multiple jobs and employers – and entirely new occupations – in their lifetime. The new way of careering has changed the way people find and maintain employment.
Triangle-based Career Network Ministry recognizes these monumental shifts in the job market and is “committed to proactive career management through continuous learning and relationship building pursuant to the expansion of opportunities for immediate or future employment. ”Comprised of working professionals and job seekers, the ministry assists members by providing professional development and mentorship; cultivating business relationships that have the potential to unlock new doors to employment opportunities; providing peer support in dealing with job/career loss; and seeking and understanding the spiritual meaning of God’s will in connection with one’s career decisions.
Paul Dean and Dana Gower – who previously worked for Fortune 500 companies – are the founders of Career Network Ministry. Alton Delane serves as director. All are members of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization.
“The ministry is open to anyone, not just job seekers but also working professionals who want to learn about career advancement and improvement,” Gower said. “We focus on networking, professional development and mentoring. We’re here for people of all stripes, age groups, faiths and industries. It’s a free service and there’s no commitment of any kind.”
Dean began the ministry initially as a support group for displaced workers after the dot-com bust 20 years ago. Having been laid off from a large RTP-based corporation, he understood their pain.
“In the Triangle, it was the first time we saw a glut of layoffs involving white-collar workers. Historians blamed it on the internet and the beginning of outsourcing and offshoring. Everything changed in the way of work,” he said.
Members met weekly at St. Andrew the Apostle Catholic Church in Apex and agreed to hold each other accountable in their efforts to find employment. The economy improved, members found jobs and the ministry slowed – until the labor market was hit again during the Great Recession of 2008. Gower joined the group a short time later to help a fresh set of unemployed workers.
Last spring, the coronavirus pandemic sparked another economic crisis resulting in joblessness for millions of Americans. The national unemployment rate stands at 6.2%, slightly higher than North Carolina’s. “There’s a tremendous amount of unemployment. As we start to see improvement in the job market, there’s a need to help people find that next opportunity,” Gower said.
The ministry not only helps people with the practical side of finding work – such as personal brand building, job search strategies and networking – it also helps them cope with the emotional upheaval resulting from job loss. “Some take it better than others, but there’s fear, distress, desperation in a few cases and – at a minimum – uncertainty because the whole ball game has changed in terms of the hiring process,” Gower said. “Sometimes the only thing people have going for them is hope, and we try to give that to them.”
Dean agreed, “We’ve helped a lot of people through the emotional rollercoasters of a transition or a layoff.” He estimates the ministry has served more than a thousand people since its founding.
Career Network Ministry has expanded its reach to churches in Apex and Raleigh and is hosting virtual meetings during the pandemic. Meetings take place on the second Thursday of the month from 9-10 a.m. and on the fourth Saturday from 9-10 a.m., and often feature guest speakers from across the career landscape, including recruiters, business owners and authors. Upcoming events and registration information are listed on the group’s LinkedIn page. The ministry also offers weekly phone calls with a career coach.
Dean and Gower put their collective experience into a book, “Careering: How to Find and Maintain Meaningful Work in Today’s Economy.” It serves as a practical and spiritual guide by offering ways to overcome job loss, eliminating worry associated with a career transition, developing a modern-day career plan and job search campaign, and building effective networking and interviewing techniques – as well as finding worthwhile and engaging work that inspires the mind, body and spirit. Twenty contributors, including human resource professionals, career coaches and business owners, provided valuable insight for the book, which is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers.
Dean encourages anyone facing joblessness or a career transition, or seeking career enhancement to contact the ministry at careerministry.org/contact.
“We understand what people are going through, and we want to help them any way we can,” he said.
