Web site is safe haven for people seeking construction jobs
By Tom Zucco, Times Correspondent
In Print: Sunday, April 26, 2009
Kim Sichterman started a Web site for people looking for construction work after being spammed and scammed while using other sites to network for a job.
The newspaper ads were a dead end, so Kim Sichterman thought she would cast a wider net and look for work at craigslist.org, the free online classified ad service that's used by more than 50 million people every month.
She had bought and sold items on craigslist with no problem. Why couldn't she land a job?
So Sichterman, a licensed residential contractor from Tarpon Springs looking for work in Florida's hard-hit construction industry, hit the Internet pavement. She responded to job offers, usually by e-mail.
And then a funny thing started to happen. She got no calls back. But her e-mail in-box started to fill up. With spam.
"That's when I started thinking, 'What information have I been giving out?' " she said. "The (potential employers) never respond back. Why? Because they got my e-mail address and they're done with me? Then I started to talk to other people who were having the same experience.''
This is the point where Sichterman would give up and move to another state. But she can't. For one, she and her husband can't sell their house.
And Sichterman, 46 and a mother of two, thinks she has a better idea. "I found myself falling for things because I'm desperate,'' she said. "So I started the group.''
The group is a message board for people looking for construction jobs (finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Realjobsrealpeople/) that Sichterman describes as a safe haven. So far, about 98 people, most of them men and some from as far away as Michigan, have joined.
Many of the messages Sichterman has received sound like this one she got recently:
"Twice today I took the time to write letters of interest to the prospective employers only to have my reply forwarded to some kind of automatic application, which really didn't have anything to do with jobs, but more to do with online education.''
The purpose, Sichterman says, is to get people who are real and employers who are real to post real jobs. "It's people exchanging information,'' she said. "If 98 people are out there looking, that means there's a better chance of finding a job, if not for you, for someone in the group.''
For example, Sichterman stopped at a 7-Eleven recently. Parked next to her was an electrician's truck. She asked the driver if his company was hiring because an electrician in the group was looking for work.
"He said no, but you never know,'' she said. "He might have said yes. What if all the people in the group did that once a day?''
Several people in the group have already gotten leads, and one wants to organize a support group. There is no charge to join, but it's by invitation only. And Sichterman is the gatekeeper.
"I'm doing the best I can to screen the people who want to join,'' she said. "It's just a matter of people feeling safe. These are people who have tried everything.''
And who, like Sichterman, have a sense of urgency. She has to decide soon whether to pay her credit card bills, her phone bill or her utility bill.
"We're talking about survival here,'' she said. "What's in it for me? I hope to get a job.''
But it's more than that. It's personal.
Some of those who want to join think Sichterman can find them a job. "I have to say no,'' she said. "I'm not an employment agency or a headhunter. Just an average Sally trying to help other people in the same boat I am.''
Even if Sichterman finally lands a job, she insists she'll stay active in the group.
"It's a message board,'' she said. "But you read these people's stories and how can you not be affected by it?''
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