Executive Support

Jay Davis '54 helps ease the transition for unemployed professionals.

Joseph "Jay" Davis successfully changed jobs seven times during his advertising career, and he knows the pain and stress of trying to find a high-level position. On average it takes a month to replace each $10,000 of salary lost, so an executive could be out of work a year or more with serious effects on his and his family's morale. Jay managed to keep up his own morale and confidence as he maneuvered from one job to the other, and in the process he gained some knowhow which he

thought might be useful to others of his ilk. Three years ago he founded Executives in Transition at St. Thomas More Roman Catholic Church in Darien, Connecticut, as a support group for unemployed professionals. He runs monthly sessions for groups of 20 to 30 on what he calls a "Louis Rukeyser Wall Street Week" format: several participants exchange stories about their recent job searches, and then an invited speaker gives a talk on job-search strategies. The March speaker, for example, was a specialist in phone techniques for securing an interview.

No money changes hands: executives don't pay to come and speakers, some of them very well-known, volunteer their time. In Westchester and Fairfield County, there are now more than 30 spinoffs of the program. Jay believes each group should be kept small and personal, and he is on the steering committee of the network that links these smaller groups.

The network is not an employment agency. However, the support groups may indeed play a key role in getting their members employed. Participants help and support each other, and they develop a sense of their own value. Through this interaction and the help of guest speakers, executives learn confidence and skills which may help them re-enter the corporate world and stay there.

In today's downbeat economic climate, Executives in "Transition has been receiving attention. It was the subject of a front-page article in the New York Times last September, and Jay talked about the program on the Morton Downey T.V show in November.

Jay Davis '54 advises a group of unemployed executives.