The toll of jobs lost in the U.S. since the recession began is heading toward three million. Unlike previous downturns, this one is not confined to the technology or manufacturing sectors. It is the Equal Opportunity Recession, winding its way into every corner of the economy.
Job seekers have a few things in common: frustration, fear and resilience. They want to work. They have treated unemployment as a full-time job in itself because they have learned that in the end, they have only themselves (and their mentor or coach) to rely on.
A Boomer Career Counselor takes his own advice
Greg Dillon, 49, of Marietta, GA, volunteered at career centers and his church to help people write resumes and strategize about jobs. It was a satisfying way to share his skills as a training and development specialist. Dillon is now in the odd position of having to take his own advice. Last November on the day before his 49th birthday, he was laid off from Forum Co., the second time he'd lost a position in the previous 18 months. "Unfortunately for me, I know what to do in terms of being unemployed," he says.
The worst thing for Dillon is the sense of powerlessness, even as he knows that others are in the same situation. "It's a double-edged sword," he says. "You don't take it as personal because it's affecting everyone, but at the same time those other people are also competing against you for jobs."
HR Boomer in Downward Spiral
With a long career in human resources (HR) for the likes of Ernst & Young and Cambridge Technology Partners, Diana Mackey, 62, had been able to raise two children on her own, buy herself a few homes, travel, and save for retirement. A stream of corporate rationalizations, mergers and plain old bad luck has left her jobless, frustrated, and open to anything that will her and her boyfriend pay the mortgage on his condo in suburban Reno. "It's hard to believe that no one want you now," she says. "It's hard to deal with that. But we're survivors."
Mackey has been caught up in a job search that she says is even more difficult in a place like Reno, with a lot of transplants and few large companies. Career counseling sessions, she says, are "like 100 unemployed 60-year-old people in a room looking at each other."
Today, Mackey is getting $362 a week in unemployment and has reluctantly decided to start collecting Social Security (for less than she would have had she waited until 65). The couple feels trapped, unable to sell the condo because of the glut of foreclosures in their neighborhood.
GenYer Layoff in Internet Time
When a manager at Yahoo offered Melissa Daniels, 24, of San Jose, CA, a position as a community manager in May 2008. Daniels leaped at the chance. Thrilled with her team and her role as a liaison between Yahoo users and its product teams, Daniels didn't focus much on the day-to-day struggles at the company. But when the layoffs came in December only seven months in, she was less shocked than disappointed.
For Daniels, this is an unwanted pause in a life that has been on fast forward. At 22, she earned a master's degree in communications management from the University of Southern California, writing her thesis on user-generated content and viral media. At 23, when she took the Yahoo job, she bought a condo in San Jose with some help from her mother. By 24, she had already been downsized. "I didn't really know what you do in a layoff," she says. "Logistically, I didn't even know how it worked."
She networks through LinkedIn.com, posts on Twitter, and keeps a personal blog ( new2oldmedia.wordpress.com ) where she comments on happenings in her industry. Daniels has had almost a dozen in-person interviews, several with the same potential employer. Nothing has panned out yet. "It's kind of like dating. Do they like me? Do they not?"
It helps, that she still feels passionate about her field. "I wanted to do something that really interested me," she says, "because I thought it's always better to do something that you love as opposed to just doing something that pays the bills." It would be nice, though, to have both.
Source: FORTUNE, February 16, 2009
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