When you get the ax, this is where you roll

— Know what you want. Nothing drags out a search more than not being specific about what job and company you’re targeting.

— Empower others to help by being able to tell them in 10 seconds or less what you are seeking.

— Find someone who knows someone (possibly through LinkIn) at the place you want to find job. Ask them to ask the hiring manager to give your resume a second look. It’s subtle enough that they aren’t risking their credibility.

— Seek to be the most prepared, most passionate person who is qualified or trainable for the job. “Wow” hiring managers.

— Attend job networking groups. Visit industry and topic specific Meet Ups to get an inside track.

Source: Jay Litton, a volunteer who helps lead Roswell United Methodist Church’s long-running job networking program.

If, for the moment, you have a decent job, it’s tough to visit one of metro Atlanta’s top networking events for economically battered professionals. But it’s worth it.

Because you’ll realize how easily you could end up like those who didn’t make it out of the recession (or its lackluster aftermath) with a good-paying job. You’ll also learn lessons on how to survive when it’s your turn.

Twice each month a new wave of job seekers find their way into building B of Roswell United Methodist Church, the same way thousands of jobless or job-poor people have done before them.

Many are professionals. Virtually everyone I saw on a recent visit was middle aged or older, trying to navigate a job world that has shifted in confusing ways.

They arrive hoping to learn the secrets of getting a job. And Jay Litton, a software salesman/church volunteer who has helped run this program for nearly two decades, intends to give them something close to it, with the help of about 100 other volunteers.

Which is a good thing. Because, despite renewed job growth and falling unemployment rates, many of us never really got the stink of the Great Recession off us. At best, we came away with the frightening realization that our jobs – our whole careers, in fact – are not necessarily ours to keep, no matter how hard we try to excel.

Job seekers are even more shaken.

“They are looking for a pill or a magic wand that will get them a job like that,” Hal Coleman tells me, snapping his fingers.

For six years Coleman, a small business coach with long white hair and a folksy delivery, has preached subjects like the one I witness: “Why should I hire you?”

“Seventy minutes from now you are all going to be prepared to answer it,” Coleman assures three dozen people gathered in a church classroom.

Sweating details

Most have notebooks on their laps and pens in their hands. When your financial future is on the line, you sweat the details.

If you are looking for a job, you have to understand the mindset of the employer, Coleman tells them. Employers don’t care about you. They care about what you can do for their business.

A volunteer, a middle-aged woman with what looks like more confidence than most people in the room, stands at the front to give her version of a personal elevator speech. She’s aiming for a job as a marketing research director, a position I suspect she’s held before.

Coleman essentially tells her she has spoken a lot of words without delivering a memorable message. She uttered the word “I” 11 times (he’s counting) and the word “you” not at all.

Try again, he says.

He discloses that for years he owned a local pest control business and was a networking pro. But he didn’t realize his elevator speech for his own business was fluffy. With help, he got it down to the basics: “We kill bugs.”

Other workshops, all of them free, are underway simultaneously. How to Change Negatives to Positives, Boomer Career Survival Strategies, One-On-One Resume Review, Leveraging Your LinkedIn Profile. Session after session. For eight and a half hours, with a break for a communal dinner and organized table discussions on topics like “Talk about how you might be able to make ‘Your Mess’ part of “Your Message.’”

A distant look

By the time people reach building B, plenty have a distant look. Veteran volunteers like Paula Pope confide that they can tell which ones have been out of work a long time. The dejection shows: They hadn’t expected to be hustling for job interviews at this stage of their life.

Volunteers are supposed to share kind words and some tough ones for people who haven’t grasped what it takes.

“We are the people who will tell you what nobody else will tell you,” Julie Mizer says.

Like, get a haircut. Or new glasses.

Downstairs rooms are stocked with donated interview clothes, suits and dress shoes. One free outfit each for those in need. Some people already have nice clothes, but they no longer fit because they’ve lost or gained so much weight in their weeks, months or years out of work.

Job seeking is an all-consuming hunt, Mizer says. “We’ll tell people you are looking for a job 24/7. You are not going to Starbucks in your yoga pants.”

The program’s volunteers know how rough this road is.

Pope was a division vp for Macy’s before getting laid off in 2009. Mizer lost her HR executive post with ADP in 2000. Charlie Brown (“Hi. I’m Charlie Brown … From Woodstock … I have a cat named Snoopy … You got to be memorable.”) was a software developer who’s been through two layoffs in recent years and is looking for work as a “ScrumMaster,” teaching teams how to lead themselves.

Sharing experience

Litton began volunteering with the church’s networking program in 1997, thinking he could share how he managed to wow employers in his own job searches.

The number of workshops ballooned over time. Other churches visited to get pointers for their own programs.

Of course, the recession officially ended years ago. In Georgia and around the nation unemployment rates – the official tally of people who are out of work and actively looking for jobs — are down.

That’s not what Litton and his colleagues say they see. Plenty of people never regained solid employment footing.

Former middle and senior managers keep filling workshops, hoping to find a way back to something financially approximating what they once had.

“It’s still a problem out there,” Litton tells me.

So the volunteers keep returning.

“I can’t find anything else that is more rewarding,” outside of family and work, Litton says.

“People remember 20 years later how they got their job.”