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Body and soul bootcamp for job hunters

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-02 09:26

Molly Fahey has a bachelor's degree in physics, a master's degree in mechanical engineering and no job since January.

So she's sweating it - literally - at a free workshop and workout for the unemployed at a gym in an upscale suburb of Washington.

"It's a very difficult time right now," Fahey, 26, says after the strenuous workout as sweat continues to bead on her forehead. "It's challenging and you can feel overwhelmed. Coming here was a really positive experience. I got some good information on resume writing and the job search in general, and working out is always a great thing to do," the lanky marathon runner says.

Fahey and half a dozen other men and women have just spent two hours in an aerobics room in a gym, listening to Malcolm Munro, who calls himself "The Career Fitness Coach", sharing tips on how to build a killer resume and urging the group to leave their personal comfort zone as they try to find a job. "If you want to get a job, you have to give 100 percent to this," says Munro.

"One hundred percent means you're going to have to do some things that make you feel very uncomfortable. I have clients who have been out of work for over a year, and when they started doing things that made them uncomfortable, they found a job within weeks," he says.

What Munro means by pushing the comfort envelope is doing things like meeting 20 new people a day, having business cards printed, learning to hand them out - essentially, marking a change in the way the job hunter has always done things.

Ken Harris, a fit-looking 44-year-old who lost his job as a personal trainer, struggles to keep pace with fitness instructor Libby Rubin, a tiny strip of a woman whose energy levels could light up a small city.

"I wasn't feeling great when I got here," Harris says. But after the hour-long workout and Munro's pep talk, he feels as if "my gas tank's been refilled" and he has a new focus.

The reason the job hunter's bootcamp combines both the physical and mental is because both are vital to landing a job, Munro says.

So jobseekers need to add every possible weapon to their arsenal to catch the interviewer's eye, Munro and Rubin argue.

Finding a job, especially when the economy's in the doldrums, requires bolstering "a mind, body, spirit connection," says Munro.