'Raising the barn' for jobless

You could find wine, coffee, pizza, and a good deal of mingling, but this was no ordinary 5 p.m. happy hour.

The group, which had gathered in the lobby of a Fleet Bank in Wayland one day last week, had come to help Ted Barnes, a Wayland resident seeking guidance in marketing his fledgling computer technical support business, SoHolistic Networks, which he and his business partner run out of their homes.

By the end of the hour, Barnes had given a short presentation and each guest - there were about 20 - had filled out a small slip of paper offering a suggestion or a way to help the start-up venture along.

Among the suggestions were ideas on direct mail and advertising campaigns. There were offers to assist with business plans. Others said they would introduce him to potential clients.

Some were ideas Barnes had already considered, but others were not: One person suggested compiling a list of local Internet providers who might contribute potential customers.

Still, even if none of the tips pan out, it was a chance to make new contacts. ``I think it's worth it because it just created more awareness about what we're doing,'' Barnes said.

The party was called a ``barn-raising event,'' the culminating exercise in a job-networking program called Barn-Raising.Org that Wayland resident Dana Aaron created this year to help the unemployed and underemployed. Barnes and five other inaugural participants are using the program - which is built on principles of collaboration and creativity - to help one another find new ways into the job market or, in Barnes's case, build their own businesses.

The goal of the eight-week program ideally is to find work. Short of that, most participants say they have been happy with the contacts they've made and with the motivation the program has stirred in them.

Barnes was the first of the current members to hold a barn-raising. Over the past few weeks, others have participated in exercises called ``personal boards,'' small individual groups of friends and business contacts who help members hone their job searches.

Two other participants, Randy Harrison and Carole Inferrera, were scheduled to hold a joint barn-raising event at a church in Lincoln last night.

Earlier this week, Harrison, who is seeking work in marketing, said he had advertised the event locally and sent out at least 60 e-mails to invited guests. He wants to draw people who might be able to offer him some new leads.

Although he could see the potential benefits of the exercise, Harrison acknowledged that he was apprehensive about sharing his story with a larger audience.

``I've never really proclaimed to my community at large what my situation is,'' said Harrison, a Lincoln resident, adding, ``I've never gone to my community with my hand outstretched and said, `I need help.'''

Aaron said he understood the anxiety.

``If I had to stand up and ask for help, I'm not sure I could do it,'' he said.

But given the tightness of today's job market, Aaron said, job-seekers have to consider novel ways of getting ahead.

Harrison, who works as a consultant and teaches at Emerson College, said he wouldn't know until after the barn-raiser whether he felt closer to a permanent job. Inferrera, too, said she was waiting for the event before determining whether she would work toward expanding Pasticcio, her baby-blanket design and manufacturing business. Despite her background in energy exploration, Inferrera's personal board encouraged her last month to pursue her talents in design - a suggestion she took to heart.

Meanwhile, Aaron has begun another exercise to find work for his charges. He's now doing what he calls third-party marketing, wherein he contacts companies on behalf of each member to sell him or her as a candidate for a job.

Aaron, who has worked in recruiting in the past, said the idea is simply to focus the company's attention on candidates who might otherwise have gotten lost in the endless shuffle of resumes and applications.

``The fact is, there is a queue. There is a pile,'' he said. ``They go through so many, and then they've got enough.''

So far, Aaron said, he has gotten companies to look at resumes for three Barn-Raising.Org participants - Harrison; David Siewers, who is seeking a job as a chief financial officer; and Sandy Wiss, who is seeking a job as a buyer in the manufacturing field. Even if the process does not result in any interviews or job offers, Aaron said he believes it will still benefit the applicants for companies to review their resumes. ``Worst-case scenario is they get some good feedback.''

Barnes said he intends to use the third-party marketing process to gain some clients in accounting, and is planning to put together a list of possible firms for Aaron to contact.

Others in the Barn-Raising.Org group also invited people to last week's event. Jim Bricker, a financial adviser, visited at Wiss's urging. Bricker said he realized that he actually knew Barnes through a townwide adult soccer league in Wayland, but did not match the name with the face until the Barn-Raising Event. Like Barnes, he has a business degree from Harvard, and he offered to help review Barnes's business plan for SoHolistic Networks.

The event at Fleet Bank could be considered useful, Bricker said, even ``if Ted gets 17 suggestions and 16 were useless.''

Another guest, lawyer Joseph Valof said he would contribute half-price legal services to Barnes, Aaron, or any other member of Barn-Raising.Org. Valof said he already was offering some advice on copyrights to Aaron, whom he met through a mutual acquaintance.

``That's what networking is all about, really,'' Valof said.

But while job experts agree that networking is essential to a job search, the question for those in the group is whether these exercises will pay off.

Emily Shartin can be reached at eshartin@globe.com.