Lenexa ? Frustrated with unsuccessful job searches, some unemployed Americans have turned to groups that use the Internet and other marketing tactics to get their members back to work.

These aren’t traditional outplacement or networking groups where members swap stories and discuss effective interviewing techniques.

Instead, these groups run themselves like small companies selling workers, using the Internet, fliers and meetings with business and political leaders to promote themselves.

Dave Hulbert, who lost his job at Sprint Corp. after leading the Overland Park-based telecommunications company’s shutdown of its integrated broadband project, helped form Top KC Professionals last fall, modeling the Kansas City-area organization after groups in Boston and New York. Hulbert said some founding members had met each other in job transition groups.

“We were just looking at each other and seeing each other and saying, ‘OK, what can we do from a marketing perspective that shares our abilities, you know, who we are?”‘ Hulbert said.

Positive feedback

Top KC Professionals and WeWantWorkBoston are for senior-level professionals who have lost their jobs. Besides sending out news releases, handing out leaflets to commuters, creating Internet sites and meeting with business leaders, the groups provide pro bono consulting work to nonprofit companies and government agencies, allowing members to sharpen their skills and meet potential new employers.

“When you’re unemployed, you get no positive feedback. In fact, it’s all negative feedback,” said Larry Flaccus of WeWantWorkBoston. “You know, your phone calls aren’t returned, you get rejection letters, you send e-mails and you don’t get responses.

“By working in a group like this,” he said, “we change that relationship and really get a lot of positive feedback.”

Flaccus said WeWantWorkBoston, which meets every two weeks, has sponsors and a budget.

“We run it like a company. So we have meetings, we have minutes, people have assigned project leaders and so forth. And that gives us an opportunity to do real work while we’re unemployed, which is much, much better than sitting around and doing nothing,” Flaccus said.

Member success

So far, none of the founding members of the Kansas City group has found a job, but WeWantWorkBoston and the New York group have had some success. Flaccus said about two dozen former members of his group have found jobs since it was formed about a year ago. On the Web site for the New York group, www.wewant work.com, more than two dozen former members are listed as having been hired.

Flaccus, who left his communications job at a financial services company when he was asked to move to New York 1 1/2 years ago, said job seekers had been forced to use different tactics to find employment during the last few years as more companies use the Internet to post jobs. While that gives companies a bigger pool of applicants, Flaccus said it also made it more likely that good applications would be missed.

Another frustration, Flaccus said, is that many senior-level positions aren’t advertised; rather, headhunters find applicants. “So part of our purpose is to raise our visibility with recruiters also, who might not normally contact you,” Flaccus said.

Also, Hulbert said, finding work in professional fields has become difficult as many jobs have disappeared. He pointed to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ employment estimates that show 690,220 fewer management jobs in 2002 — the most recent year for which figures are available — than in 2000, and 160,190 fewer computer and mathematical jobs. He noted that those were much higher paying jobs than the service industry jobs that are available.

“We’re trying to find ways — grass-roots ways — of marketing ourselves, and to be creative at the same time, find different ways to talk to people in the business community. That’s our survival approach,” Hulbert said.

In fact, many people find “survival jobs” that pay less than their previous work and aren’t in their field, which can also mean they are no longer included in the government’s unemployment statistics. Flaccus, for example, does some paid consulting work and has retreated to the bed and breakfast he owns in western Massachusetts.

But Flaccus thinks groups such as WeWantWorkBoston can help, saying people with innovative job search strategies are succeeding despite the economy.

“Plus,” Flaccus said, “it also gives a great talking point if you get called for an interview.”