East Brunswick 'Breakfast Club' serves job tips

EAST BRUNSWICK — On the second Saturday of each month, about 150 people will gather at the Days Hotel Conference Center on Route 18 in East Brunswick.

They start arriving a little before 8 a.m., and they call it the Breakfast Club, even though no food is served. What the members do serve up to each other are huge portions of job tips and career advice in this rough-and-tumble economy.

Started by East Brunswick resident Frank Kovacs in the wake of the attacks on 9/11, the organization has mushroomed from about two dozen people who used to meet at the Colonial Diner to about 1,600 members in all.

"Our basic philosophy — and all we ask our members to do — is to help each other,” said Kovacs, an executive at a Fortune 500 technology company. “We do social networking with Yahoo group, and once you become member, you're automatically given an invitation to the LinkedIn group to expand networking capability.

"We teach people how to network, we teach them about branding … how to represent their credentials,” Kovacs said. “Members come here and learn how to make their case for each and every job opportunity they get. They learn how to think of themselves as a business and how to market themselves.”
 

Kovacs says he makes no money off the organization, which asks a $10 fee for those who show up to club meetings to simply cover the cost of using the large meeting room. Kovacs said the club is now looking for larger quarters in the area.

Meetings will typically feature a guest speaker, and Kovacs will give new members a brief introduction. The members will then work the floor with other members as they gather tips and leads and work on how to present themselves to employers.

“What they do is they go around and give a 60-second elevator pitch, which basically teaches them how to hone their value propositions … what it is their looking for, their experiences, some of their target companies,” Kovacs said. “We're at critical mass now with over 1,600 members where there's a good chance that we either have somebody at that company right now, or somebody that worked there recently.
 

“And they can tell them ins and outs of that organization, they can help them navigate it, understand the culture and make sure that it's a match for them.”

The Breakfast Club's Web site is www.thebreakfastclubnj.com. The organization is largely comprised of professionals working, or looking for work, in IT, finance, communications and human resources. The group does not turn away members from any employment sector."

“What we've done within the group is help over 1,000 people land a job,” Kovacs said.
“But outside the group, we've helped thousands more land (jobs). The reason for that is when have things like the Yahoo group, things become electronic, people start sharing e-mails and it's almost, like, viral. People find out about the opportunities.

“I've gotten a lot of thank you notes from people not even in the group that the group helped land jobs.”
East Brunswick Councilman Matthew Korten mentioned the work of the Breakfast Club during the “For Good of the Cause” portion of a recent Township Council meeting. He was looking to further put the word out about the group which he attended while he was looking for a new job at end of 2006. Korten found one on his own, but was able to see the power of the Breakfast Club firsthand.

“Obviously, landing a position is critical when you're out of work,” Korten said. “After health issues, there is nothing more destabilizing to a family than unemployment. The Breakfast Club is a very special group. It helps people hope, it helps people develop skill sets and it helps people get jobs.

“It's not just the job opportunity you find, it's the journey you take to get there and the journey you take after."

Gene Racz: 732-565-7306; gracz@MyCentralJersey.com

<Download Here>