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American Morning
'Bouncing Back'
Aired May 07, 2003 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: This week, we're taking a look at how Americans are coping with tough times in our series, "Bouncing Back." Unemployment last month rose to 6 percent, and there is no sign of an immediate turnaround.
That is unwelcome news for Michael Cohn. He's been out of work more than a year, but he is making the best of it. He has created a network and support group that aims to help others search for jobs. And Michael Cohn is joining us from Boston this morning.
Thanks, Michael, for being here. Interested to know...
MICHAEL COHN, FOUNDER, BABSON MONDAY NETWORK: Thanks for having me.
COLLINS: You bet. Interested to know if you'll share with us what sort of emotions you were feeling after you lost your job?
COHN: Probably very typical that most people do. It wasn't a surprise event for myself. It was something that I saw, you know, a few months in advance coming, so I had begun the process early on to get myself ready to begin a job search.
COLLINS: But did you expect it to take this long without any results?
COHN: Absolutely not. I had some expectations, given the job level and the salary that I was looking for, that I'd be looking at, you know, seven to nine months. The fact that we're out about a year was unexpected, but nonetheless you need to keep moving forward.
COLLINS: Right. Do you have a very specific area or industry that you are trying to target? Or are you pretty flexible with the type of work you would do?
COHN: Well, I'm really trying to leverage a lot of my skills and experiences as an IT manager, who has specialized for many years in the financial services industry. And as most people know, you know, both of those two industries are hard-pressed, especially here in New England.
COLLINS: But you've done something different. You've sort of taken this all to a different level in the spirit of "Bouncing Back." You have created what I understand to be sort of a support network. Tell us a little bit about the Babson Monday Network and how it got started. COHN: How it got started is that I was one day very frustrated with my own job search and how things were going. And I started to think back who were some of the most professional and accomplished people I know, and many of them were, you know, Babson graduate school classmates.
So, I got a few of them together to share leads, share ideas. And very quickly after, you know, a few weeks of meeting in my living room, we outgrew that and took that concept and that program back to campus, back on to the Babson College campus, expanded it to Babson alumni. And we pretty much had a very successful program growing it to a couple of hundred people in a very short period of time.
COLLINS: Right. So, this just started out with a few friends and kind of exploded.
COHN: Absolutely. Exploded is the right term.
COLLINS: So, what is the main goal of the group now?
COHN: The main mission of the group is to get people who are in job transition, likely to be in transition, and for those who wish to help others in transition, to create a trusted forum to share ideas, share job leads, you know, share corporate contacts, all for the purpose of moving your job search forward and putting an end to a very difficult and challenging period in most people's professional lives.
COLLINS: Well, it's great that you're staying positive, and we certainly appreciate your words of advice and encouragement this morning. Michael Cohn coming to us from Boston today.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired May 7, 2003 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: This week, we're taking a look at how Americans are coping with tough times in our series, "Bouncing Back." Unemployment last month rose to 6 percent, and there is no sign of an immediate turnaround.
That is unwelcome news for Michael Cohn. He's been out of work more than a year, but he is making the best of it. He has created a network and support group that aims to help others search for jobs. And Michael Cohn is joining us from Boston this morning.
Thanks, Michael, for being here. Interested to know...
MICHAEL COHN, FOUNDER, BABSON MONDAY NETWORK: Thanks for having me.
COLLINS: You bet. Interested to know if you'll share with us what sort of emotions you were feeling after you lost your job?
COHN: Probably very typical that most people do. It wasn't a surprise event for myself. It was something that I saw, you know, a few months in advance coming, so I had begun the process early on to get myself ready to begin a job search.
COLLINS: But did you expect it to take this long without any results?
COHN: Absolutely not. I had some expectations, given the job level and the salary that I was looking for, that I'd be looking at, you know, seven to nine months. The fact that we're out about a year was unexpected, but nonetheless you need to keep moving forward.
COLLINS: Right. Do you have a very specific area or industry that you are trying to target? Or are you pretty flexible with the type of work you would do?
COHN: Well, I'm really trying to leverage a lot of my skills and experiences as an IT manager, who has specialized for many years in the financial services industry. And as most people know, you know, both of those two industries are hard-pressed, especially here in New England.
COLLINS: But you've done something different. You've sort of taken this all to a different level in the spirit of "Bouncing Back." You have created what I understand to be sort of a support network. Tell us a little bit about the Babson Monday Network and how it got started. COHN: How it got started is that I was one day very frustrated with my own job search and how things were going. And I started to think back who were some of the most professional and accomplished people I know, and many of them were, you know, Babson graduate school classmates.
So, I got a few of them together to share leads, share ideas. And very quickly after, you know, a few weeks of meeting in my living room, we outgrew that and took that concept and that program back to campus, back on to the Babson College campus, expanded it to Babson alumni. And we pretty much had a very successful program growing it to a couple of hundred people in a very short period of time.
COLLINS: Right. So, this just started out with a few friends and kind of exploded.
COHN: Absolutely. Exploded is the right term.
COLLINS: So, what is the main goal of the group now?
COHN: The main mission of the group is to get people who are in job transition, likely to be in transition, and for those who wish to help others in transition, to create a trusted forum to share ideas, share job leads, you know, share corporate contacts, all for the purpose of moving your job search forward and putting an end to a very difficult and challenging period in most people's professional lives.
COLLINS: Well, it's great that you're staying positive, and we certainly appreciate your words of advice and encouragement this morning. Michael Cohn coming to us from Boston today.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
