Matthew Gilling felt the magic had faded after more than a dozen years in the trucking business.

So the Simi Valley man decided in March 2007 to quit his job in freight forwarding and transportation marketing and find a more fulfilling vocation. Within weeks, Gilling learned about OPEN (Outstanding Professionals Employment Network), a networking group serving professionals in Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley. He signed up for the group's "Strategies for a Successful Job Search Workshop" and completed a career selfassessment for the first time since college. Throwing himself into volunteering while seeking work, Gilling became a disaster relief supervisor for the American Red Cross and spent three weeks in Oklahoma last summer to assist victims of devastating flooding.

He said 12-hour shifts on the blacktop parking lot of the disaster center in 90-degree heat and 95 percent humidity "was the greatest experience of my life. . . .I decided I needed to get a job with a nonprofit and be part of the solution." It took about nine months before Gilling secured his current post as volunteer coordinator for the Ventura County chapter of Habitat for Humanity, but he said it's a job he loves so much that he volunteers to show up at work sites on Saturdays. "I've been here for a little over six months, and every day my boss thanks me," he said. "I'm having a blast. I can't believe I'm having so much fun, and this job is so meaningful; I should have done this years ago." Gilling credits OPEN, which is sponsored by the state Employment Development Department,with giving him tools to find his passion in life and confidence to pursue a new career.

OPEN holds its next "Strategies for a Successful Job Search" workshop from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Mon., June 2 through Fri., June 6 at the East County Job and Career Center, 980 Enchanted Way, Simi Valley, CA 93065. Register at www.eu-open .org, or call (805) 526-6349.