The Gardeners' Blog - Part 1

• The Gardeners’ Blog

(by Bob and Tiff, September 2020)

Introductory Chapter – Part 1

The year 2020 has been a year like none other. Our Spring and Summer have tragically been taken away from us. Covid-19 has wreaked much tragedy and devastation across this country and across the world, in the way of both illness/death and job loss/economic hardship. In St Louis, Missouri, however, it has also been the impetus for the formation of a new and uniquely caring networking group. The Job Seekers’ Garden Club of St Louis, a social networking group for job seekers, has formed in the Bi-State region of Greater St Louis under the leadership of Co-Founders Tiff and Bob.

The Garden Club helps Job Seekers by providing fun and social networking opportunities to meet other Job Seekers as well as Career Coaches, Mentors, Hiring Managers and Recruiters. The Garden Club’s mission is to help each other grow and develop by providing a network where you can share your story and receive mentoring and career guidance. It is intended to be a fun, relaxed place to grow your network while receiving nourishment and encouragement.

Tiff and Bob first met virtually through LinkedIn in February 2020, only a couple weeks before the Covid-19 shutdown that would cost tens of millions of Americans and 100,000 plus people in the Greater St Louis area to lose their jobs, many permanently. Bob had reached out to Tiff who was struggling with career advancement. They exchanged information, and due to the chaos that ensued shortly thereafter, did not talk virtually again until June 2020. This was 3 months into the pandemic.

In June 2020 Tiff was invited to join Bob’s group on LinkedIn, “Greater St Louis Job Seekers, Recruiters and Connectors”. Once in the Group she posted her resume, told her story about how she was not getting any hits on jobs she applied for, asked for suggested edits on her modified resume, and for leads on open job requisites. Bob, as owner of the group, immediately responded to her with words of encouragement and by tagging her with many recruiters in the group, asking them to connect with Tiff.

Well, to say Tiff was blown away by the response that soon followed, would be the biggest understatement of the century. In her own words, “I have NEVER talked to as many recruiters as I did TODAY!!!!!! I have NEVER received as many personal messages as I did TODAY!!!!!! I was terrified before I hit “post”…..but I DID it, and the results have blown me away…” She went on to advise her entire LinkedIn network to put themselves out there, giving credit to the St Louis networking group that she had just joined, encouraging others to ask for help, and to not be afraid.

Bob was taken aback by her humility, her braveness and by her very sincere showing of gratitude and appreciation. A friendship was formed on that day, as this was an affirmation to Bob that the group he grew and nourished from a meager beginning of about 40 members pre-pandemic, beginning in mid-March, to nearly 1000 members in mid-July, was having a positive effect on others, as he had hoped it would.

When Tiff asked Bob if he would be her mentor, Bob was both humbled and very appreciative to be asked. Bob realized that by sharing with Tiff his career knowledge and advice, and by being her sounding board while Tiff was making future career decisions, that he would grow too while taking this journey with her.

Bob was looking for new and dynamic leaders to help him continue to grow his LinkedIn group with the mission to help job seekers get connected to new opportunities, in order to provide for a much needed resource for those struggling in the community to get back to work. Tiff seemed like a natural choice due to her exuberance, her humility, and her sense of wanting to help others. When asked to join the team of managers for the group, Tiff accepted with great excitement and appreciation for the opportunity.

Tiff and Bob met for lunch to discuss her resume, her job prospects, and her career struggles. There we discovered many parallels in our lives and in our desire to help others. How could this be that we had so much in common when we both grew up in different generations, different cities, different cultures? This is a testament to the little accepted fact in today’s world that as human beings we have way more in common than we have differences. We all came into being from the same Creator and we were all created equal. This 6 part blog will explore Tiff and Bob’s beginnings from childhood until present day to see how they both arrived together for a common mission and purpose.

Stay tuned for more information about this new "In-Person" networking Group. The speed at which this new group grows will be dependent upon how soon we return to some semblance of the old normal.

Proposed Mission Statement of the Garden Club: To foster a warm and caring community in which job seekers, recruiters and connectors come together to nurture and support one another, and to find both career and growth opportunities through networking in order to make St Louis a stronger and more vibrant community.