Library speaker gives job seekers sage advice

If you are on the hunt for a new job, take some care when walking that networking minefield.

That's what Scott Kane of Gray Hair Management, a senior executives job-search firm, recently told members of the Tri-Cities Unemployment Group at a meeting at the St. Charles Public Library.

It sounded a bit odd when Kane said, "Don't give anyone your resume."

In explaining that advice, Kane noted that job seekers too often take people up on what appears to be a sincere offer of "give me your resume and I will give it to a guy I know who may be hiring."

"Get that third person out of the loop," Kane said. "Because it never works when they say they will give your resume to someone."

It is far better, Kane advises, to ask that helpful person to speak to the potential hirer and ask if it is OK for you to call them.

Kane had plenty of other tips to share, but the bottom line was that networking is an art that takes strategy and effort. You have to pick the correct chamber, business or trades meetings, and also know where important social or church gatherings take place.

Mostly, Kane said, have fun when networking, and be prepared to listen and ask questions rather than talking about yourself nonstop.

More information about TUG is available at (630) 631-1871.

The year to build

Matt Bischof figures there is a reason that the last two homes he has lived in were built in 1892, but he's not sure what it is.

Bischof is a new resident in St. Charles, living in a downtown-area Queen Ann-style home along Fourth Street. The home was built in 1892, the same year his previous home in Hinsdale was built.

"My home is not yet landmarked, but it is a great structure with plenty of history behind it," Bischof wrote in an e-mail. "Come to think of it, many homes we looked at prior to purchasing ours here in St. Charles were built in 1892.

"Why were so many homes in this area built in 1892?" Bischof asks.

It would take some more extensive research to pinpoint exact reasons, as well as the families and builders who were behind the region's build-out. But it is known that the early 1890s or "Gay Nineties" represented the move into a more prosperous decade as many people felt better about their ability to earn money and raise families.

In the Tri-Cities, it marked a year in which The Moline Malleable Iron Co. was moving into St. Charles, and many street lighting and power companies were busy in the region for the first time. It meant more jobs, more people and more homes.

It also didn't hurt that lumber companies to the north were prospering and wood for housing was at a good price. For possibly the first time in the nation's history, the price was right for many people to build homes.

A first visit

On occasion I will surprise readers by mentioning I went to a well-known local place for the first time.

Many people feel that because I have been around here for so long and writing for a newspaper for 30 years, I have "seen it all." Not true.

I was by the Quarry Pool in Batavia for the first time last week. Yes, it is drained and bone dry now for winter, but my wife and I used Quarry Pool as our starting point for a 7-mile jaunt with our Nordic walking poles. The Fox River trail is beautiful at that point. And yes, Batavians have a very cool swimming hole there.

My wife has taught water aerobics at Quarry Pool in the past, so it's possible I have avoided it for that reason -- I might have been dragged in for a class.

Go more often?

I am guessing that I am not too unlike the rest of the married men who answer with a resounding "no" when asked by their wife to go to the grocery store with them.

But I decided to go last weekend, for the first time in a long time. I was reminded rather quickly that a Saturday in a grocery store means free samples! After a delicious sample of a chicken and dumpling soup, I was considering shelving the automatic "no" response.