Since being laid off, 30-year-old Amy Hirschman of Encino has dedicated much of her time to finding a new position, seeking out support groups and other unemployment services through the Internet.

What could be mistaken for a gathering of coworkers, unwinding after a long day at the office, is actually an unemployment support group.

The members of the Unemployed Support and Survival group swap frustrating, sad, and sometimes funny stories about interviews, resumes, and their attempts at networking.

Kelly Eubanks, one of the happy hour attendees, tells a story about one experience she had where she was asked her astrological sign during an interview with a potential employer. The rest of the group is shocked as Eubanks recounts the incident.

Someone else compares the condition of joblessness to a contagious disease that those with jobs fear they will catch from the unemployed.

Though most of the group members are unemployed and looking for work, a couple of them have jobs. Some of the participants have attended meetings before, while some are first-time attendees.

This gathering was arranged by an unemployment support group on Meetup.com, a website where people with common interests can arrange to meet one another outside the Internet. In the Los Angeles area, there are four groups on the website specifically targeted at jobless people.

The group’s purpose is to serve as a place “to find support and the opportunity to be reinvigorated to enjoy life in spite of the difficulties created by unemployment,” as described by organizer Dani Zandel on the group’s page on Meetup.com.

Zandel started her first Meetup.com organization, Westside Unemployment Support and Survival, in January 2011, six weeks after losing her secretarial job at a car dealership. She eventually merged that group with her new one, Unemployment Support and Survival.

On this night, the group has attracted 30-year-old Amy Hirschman of Encino, who lost her job in mid-October.

Though she has only been unemployed for a few weeks, Hirschman has still found the job search to be a difficult process.

“I think that looking for a job is like trying to win the lottery these days,” she said.

She said she has attended larger group gatherings but could not make a connection with anyone. Seeking a smaller, more intimate networking opportunity, she found the Unemployed Support and Survival group on Meetup.com.

Hirschman, who worked for more than four years in the Los Angeles offices of a Japanese newspaper as an account executive in advertising sales, received the news of her termination without warning.

An unfamiliar woman in a business suit asked Hirschman to accompany her into a meeting room, where she was given the bad news.

“She just told me, ‘The company has found it necessary to eliminate your position,’” she said.

Hirschman’s boss was also laid off, along with about five additional employees at the newspaper’s New York office.

As jarring as the experience was, Hirschman said she considers it somewhat of a “blessing in disguise.” She had been looking for other career opportunities for months when she lost her job.

Hirschman, who majored in Japanese and film studies at the University of Pittsburgh, has a passion for translating Japanese texts into English, and says she would love to pursue it as a full-time career but worries about how realistic that may be.

“I feel like the only thing that’s going to help me pay the rent is a job in an office,” she said.

Hirschman said ideally she would love to work as a cultural consultant in the entertainment industry, but for now, she is aiming for a position as a marketing coordinator or a public relations coordinator.

In her free time, Hirschman translated the Japanese book Crafting with Cat Hair, a book about making art projects from cat hair, into English. It is available, and popular, on Amazon.com.
 She has also attended motivational workshops and job fairs.

She came across the listing for the happy hour gathering on the day it was scheduled by looking through the unemployment section of Meetup.com.

Hirschman said she found the group by searching ‘unemployment’ on the website. She liked the message on the group organizer’s profile and decided to make the drive from the Valley to attend the event that night.

At the event, Hirschman met Zandel, an experienced group leader, and the two made plans to meet up again the next week as part of the Meetup.com group’s Monday Morning Motivation gatherings.

She also planned to attend an orientation program at Jewish Vocational Service, a nonprofit organization that helps people find jobs, hosts workshops, and provides career counseling.

Hirschman also started a daily journal in which she keeps thoughts, notes, and daily to-do tasks after receiving the suggestion from an article in Fortune called “How to Find a Job.”

“It helps keep me on track,” she said.

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