It’s a delicate and time-consuming process. It requires research and discussion, sensitivity and finesse, trial and error, speaking with mentors and learning experiences. When it’s time for a kollel yungerman to make the transition to the workplace, where does he begin? How can he find the option best suited to his personality and parnassah needs? And how can he draw on those years in the beis medrash to benefit and inform his new schedule?
In Lakewood NJ where there is an intense concentration of kollel yungeleit there are several advisors guiding yungeleit whose spiritual mentors have directed them to transition to the workplace. Of the talmidim who choose to leave kollel about 50 percent will enter a field in klei kodesh and 50 percent will take a job in the secular workforce.
Many of those yungeleit find their path to the workplace throughLakewood’s Professional Career Services (PCS) a division of AgudathIsrael ofAmerica that provides job counseling training and liaising services. Rabbi Yoel Tolwinski Job Placement Director of PCS finds that most of his clients approach him straight from yeshivah eager for advice and direction before their first foray into the workplace.
Over the past ten years Rabbi Tolwinski has followed the trends in the Jewish job market from computer programming to the stock market to real estate. “Now” he says “people are trying anything just to make a living.” A quick sampling of recent job placements illustrates just how wide the field is: He’s landed clients jobs in property management mortgage brokerages online marketing firms and plumber services.
Some people enter the PCS office determined to pursue a particular career but without a good understanding of what the job entails. Rabbi Tolwinski tries to paint a realistic picture of the job in question. “If someone comes in and tells me ‘I’m good with people I think I should go into sales ’ I’ll make sure to explain to him that sales also involve rejection and disappointment. I’m not trying to discourage them ” he clarifies “but I want them to understand what they’re getting into.”
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