The Alternative To
Cookie Cutter Insurance.
GETTING REAL page 59
We start with a blank sheet of paper.
We develop long-term solutions.
We're looking for strategic partners.
We want to satisfy your needs.
We're proud of our 97% retention rate.
We're long-term players.
We rarely leave a program.
The Alternatives People:
Meadowbrook Insurance Group, The Alternatives People, specializes in property,
casualty and benefits programs, including group captives and other
alternative risk management programs.
We've been the unique alternative for the past 40 years for associations, brokers,
businesses, groups and risk managers...almost anyone requiring special
solutions to today's business challenges.
Michael Silverton loves his new position.
We also specialize in quality, low cost homeowners and automobile insurance.
26600 Telegraph P oad
Southfield, Michigan
48034-2438
TAT.
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Star Insurance Company, Rated A- (Excellent) by A.M. Best
Savers Property and Casualty Insurance Company, Rated A- (Excellent) by A.M. Best
American Indemnity Insurance Company, Ltd.
call 1-800-INSURANCE
for Alternatives—ext. 297, for Personal Insurance—ext. 294
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Financing the American Dream
EOUAL HOUSING
OPPORTUNITY
"I knew nothing about the pro-
gram," he says. "When I went
through it the first time, it was in-
credible. [I learned] you can't be
complacent. You've got to be in-
credibly proactive. This is what
the program preaches and tells
you. It forces you to really wake
up, and to quote one of Walt's pet
expressions, 'Get real.' "
A 50-year-old father who asked
not to be identified came to JVS
last year after his advertising-
marketing agency went out of
business. He's working now, in a
marketing capacity, but still stays
close to Corporate Opportunity
Program participants and Mr.
Tarrow.
When he was down on his luck,
they pulled him back up.
"I was in the [advertising] busi-
ness for 20, 25 years. Basically, the
advertising business was shrink-
ing and really changing. They're
hiring younger people who work
harder and longer. You become an
aging baby boomer and you're not
quite the valuable commodity you
thought you were," he recalls.
He attended job-search semi-
nars, used the library and phones
at JVS and joined regular net-
working sessions. He landed his
current job through a networking
contact.
"I'm in the marketing business,
so self-promotion was easier for
me than for other people," he al-
lows. "Accountants and financial
people had a much tougher time.
Frankly, that's one of the things
that helped me get through it. It
wasn't easy to get up some days
and push myself, but I managed
not to stay home one single day."
, The Corporate Opportunity
Program was created in 1993 with
a grant from the Jewish Federa-
tion of Metropolitan Detroit to ad-
dress the problems of newly
unemployed professionals. The
Federation grant ran out after the
second year, forcing JVS to absorb
the program in its general budget.
A nominal fee is charged to par-
ticipants, but Ms. Nurenberg says
the future of the program is in
jeopardy. That's one reason JVS
doesn't advertise it. The other is
that there are simply too many
people out there to serve.
Last week, the program wel-
comed its 500th participant, Mr.
Tarrow says.
On average, the Corporate Op-
portunity Program, which has a
small fee attached, serves 100 peo-
ple a year, although recently many
more have joined. Mr. Tarnow says
most are first-timers.
During the first two years of the
program, 1993 and 1994, it took
about four months for the average
participant to find a new job. By
the third year, the time stretched
to almost five months.
The good news, however, is that
the average starting salary is high-
er — about $42,000 — than it was
in the early years of the program,
Mr. Tarrow says.
"In some cases, more now, peo-
ple are getting salaries above what
they got before. I had a few people
who were earning in the mid-
$60,000 range and are now earn-
ing in the mid-70s," he says.
Fortunately, many of the partici-
pants tell him when they start the
program that they didn't like the
work they were doing, anyway.
Mr. Tarrow, a corporate con-
sultant who has extensive train-
ing in organizational psychology,
holds weekly networking groups
that focus on a particular topic,
whether it's interviewing or trawl-
ing for job contacts. Sometimes a
former participant will return with
ideas or even news of job openings.
In addition, JVS holds seminars
that touch on topics like "prospect-
ing," which includes cold-calling,
canvassing and contacting an em-
ployer directly. Mr. Tarrow prefers
that newcomers attend one of the
seminars "so there's an orienta-
tion to the brand of approach I
have," he says.
Part of that approach is getting
participants to go beyond tradi-
tional methods of job-seeking by
framing their skills better in a re:
GETTING REAL page 62
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