Job Search Work Team

I went to my first meeting of a job search work team.  Essentially, it's a group of people who get together on a weekly basis to report progress (accountability)  and share ideas (networking).  I really didn't know what to expect and I think my day 1 was not necessarily typical.  I got there early (as is my habit) and met one or two team members before the meeting got started.  The facilitator (a career consultant from the outplacement firm) started the meeting by saying that one of the members was coming in soon with good news. Soon thereafter a team member arrived and told us that he had gotten and accepted an offer.  He also mentioned that he had a couple of others pending that he would stop pursuing.  Most of the session was this individual sharing his excitement with us.  He paid tribute to the outplacement folks and to the process.  According to him (and confirmed later by his work team members), he is the guy who worked the most at finding a job.  He did all the exercises in the process, took lots of on-line courses and took every available teleconference and in-house course.  One interesting note, he worked almost exclusively with agencies in his search.  Everything about his chosen job sounds good - company, location, pay.

I guess this is why we go to these meetings - to experience the taste of success through others.  I'm happy for this guy I just met, but success will taste sweetest when it's mine.