Mixers unite job seekers, recruiters

By Tammy Joyner

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Pink slip mixers,” the tonic of the jobless during the dotcom bust, are back — this time with a twist.

A pair of unemployed technophiles who’ve hosted happy hour-style gatherings in California, Nevada and Florida for job seekers and employers for more than a year plan to bring the free job matchmaking event to the Atlanta nightclub The Opera on Nov. 4. Job seekers will be able to connect with recruiters and companies looking to hire.

Here’s how it works: Job seekers and recruiters or company representatives are identified by different color name tags. The networking will stream live on large screens throughout the club, complete with feeds from Facebook and Twitter, which will allow those who can’t attend the mixer to be able to keep up with the event in real time.

Let’s say you’re attending the event as a recruiter and you’re looking for an accountant. That information, along with a brief physical description of you and perhaps your location in the facility, would be sent out in a short burst known as a tweet and streamed live on the large video screens. Accountants in the room have a possible job lead. It also works the same way for job hunters.

“I wanted to use online technology tools and incorporate that into live networking events,” said Edwin Duterte, a commercial real estate lender who founded pinkslipmixers.com after he became one of the California casualties of the real estate meltdown last year.

“It’s speed-dating for the unemployed with elements of professional business networking minus the booths and lines” of job fairs, said Carlos Gil.

Gil lost his job as a regional sales manager in Florida for the insurance giant AIG after Wall Street collapsed last year. He formed his own online job-hunting service, JobsDirectUSA.com.

Gil now spends eight hours a day networking on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media. He also collaborates with Duterte to host the mixers.

With six unemployed workers for every job opening nationally, job seekers have to be innovative to land jobs these days.

Leadership consultant Jeremy Garlington says the mixers offer a different approach to a very difficult job market.

“That’s a great function to have for people who are out of work,” said Garlington, managing partner of Point of View LLC in Atlanta.

It’s proved invaluable to people like McGyver McCargar and Roger Lopez, both of Los Angeles.

McCargar, president of a Los Angeles executive recruiting firm called McGyver Represents, said the mixers are a great blend of technology and tradition in a relaxed setting.

“It’s kind of a water-cooler atmosphere,” said McCargar, who has attended several of the mixers in Los Angeles. “It’s a great way to bring the virtual world to the real world. The real personalities show up.” While he hasn’t hired anyone through the mixer yet, he said the mixers are a reliable screening tool for him.

Lopez followed the advice of someone he met at one of the mixers in California and wound up landing a job.

“Basically I got my job through networking at the mixers. It was helpful,” said Lopez who is working in commercial real estate. “A lot of people don’t follow-up [when they get job leads]. And that’s what I learned from this.”

Duterte and Gil hope to take the mixers to other parts of the country where unemployment is high. Atlanta was a logical first choice considering the unemployment rate here is 10.4 percent, which is higher than the national average of 9.8 percent. More than 7 million jobs have been lost since the recession started in December 2007. The pair decided to come to Atlanta after being contacted by the people at The Opera, a sponsor of the event.

“We wanted to create a [job-seeking] community for everybody to help one another,” Duterte said.

For more details about the Nov. 4 Pink Slip Mixer, which will be from 4 to 8 p.m., go online to www.pinkslipmixers.com or www.JobsDirectUSA.com.