Not Working Nation: Tales In Transition

Alison, 28, school counselor

Where do you live? Chicago, IL

When did you graduate or move? I moved back to Chicago in June of 2009

What was your field of study? School counseling.

How long have you been actively job hunting? Ever since I got here.

What sort of job are you looking for? At first it was strictly school counseling, then I opened up to any kind of counseling, then any kind of youth work, now I'm to the point of applying for office jobs. I need money, so I'll do anything.

Any interviews? Yes, they come in waves. I'll go two weeks with nothing and then have 3 in one week. I've been VERY close to getting a couple, and later got edged out by a bilingual candidate.

Are they in the same part of the country or a different part? Same part.

What are your biggest obstacles? (Do you have to move back in with your parents? Do you have a mortgage to worry about?) Really, just living month to month is an obstacle. My husband and I are both looking for work so we have to scrape together rent, utilities, and credit card payments every month by temping and selling our things.

What are your biggest frustrations? I am frustrated with consistently being edged out by bilingual candidates at the very last second after much effort and multiple interviews. For example, one school required me to submit a huge binder of programming to address their hypothetical problem scenarios, which I worked on for weeks. I went to two interviews with them and at the last second they hired someone else with ZERO training in counseling because she is bilingual. Apparently that counts for more than my graduate degree in counseling. If you want someone who is bilingual that badly, please state that in your job posting so I don't have to waste my time and get my hopes up. I am trying to learn Spanish but there is no way I can become fluent overnight, so it seems like there's absolutely nothing I can do to get a job in this town right now despite all my good training and experience. It makes me feel hopeless.

What are your biggest fears? I am afraid that I will never find something in my field and I will be miserable working at McDonald's or something, working hard everyday for minimum wage and still not being able to cover my rent, bills, and loans.

What do you do all day? I look for jobs every single day. I have applied to at least 10 jobs each day since I got here. That takes up a lot of time. I also watch more TV than anyone should, sleep more than anyone should, and feel miserable.

Do you have big financial worries -- family obligations? Loans you're supposed to pay back? A growing credit card bill? I am on a six-month unemployment leave from my student loan and that [is ending]. That is SCARY. We buy everything we need (gas, food, etc.) on the credit cards and the balances are getting higher and higher. What happens if they max out?

Martin, 31, paralegal

Where do you live? Minneapolis.

When did you graduate or move? We moved almost 2 years ago.

What was your field of study? Sociology.

 How long have you been actively job-hunting? I quit my job about a year ago and have been looking for one here ever since.

 What sort of job are you looking for? Paralegal.

 Any interviews? I have had some, but not very many.

 What are your biggest obstacles? There aren't very many paralegal jobs out there and there are a lot of people trying to get them.

 What are your biggest frustrations? I am not the best in interviews, I dislike filling out applications. I think the entire hiring process is horribly flawed. I am much better at demonstrating my skills than trying to tell them to someone. I assume there are other jobseekers like me, so this means that recruiters are hiring at least some substandard workers because they can tell the recruiter what he/she wants to hear.

 What are your biggest fears? People's perceptions of me. Losing friends because I don't have a job.

 What do you do all day? I spend a lot of time on the computer, sometimes looking for jobs, mostly just passing the day. I have been helping my brother remodel his house once a week.

Do you have big financial worries -- family obligations? Loans you're supposed to pay back? A growing credit card bill? We are doing alright with my wife's job. We have to stick to a budget strictly, so it isn't too hard.

 Any final thoughts? Looking for a job is such a purgatory. I hate telling people that I am unemployed because it is such a tired old conversation.

Krissy Domm, 31, creative writer: A clean house

 It was spooky being surrounded by the translucent images of other women’s breasts in a dark room at six in the morning, but that was my main task at the hospital.  I used to hang Mammo X-rays on the illuminated rollo-scope for the radiologists to decipher.  It was a part-time job and the pay wasn’t compensating the drive, so when my summer class schedule clashed with my work schedule, I chose to dump the part-time job.  It was really quite liberating.  Being a creative writing student, I felt that the added free time would allow me to concentrate on finally writing that long-talked-about collection of short stories.  But as they say, when you are busy you do more.  I wasn’t very busy.

            Sure, I had math and science classes three times a week, which kept me semi-occupied with occasional bouts of crying and calculator throwing, but I still had plent y of time to look for jobs and do some writing.  Which I sort of did.  After spending a few weeks sending out my resumé without getting so much as a sorry-you’re-highly-unqualified-for-this-position reply, I decided to give up and enjoy the summer. 

            My boyfriend at the time rented a room in his friend’s house.  Being somewhat of a neat freak, I’d compulsively clean his bachelor pad when I was over.  Knowing that I was broke, and noticing my attention to detail, he asked me if I would clean his house for pay.  So I began to clean twice a month for twenty dollars an hour.  Then I called my former landlord and asked him if he had any work for me.  He owned an apartment complex and hired me to clean and paint the vacated apartments, the hallways, and eventually his large, ransacked-by-children house.

            The work he had me do was anything but glamorous.  In fact, I started (and then deleted) a blog about cleaning called “I Will Clean the @$%&! Outta Your House.”  I wrote about how I judged my clients when I cleaned, the diarrhea back-splash underneath the toilet seat, the mouse-droppings and dog food in the left-behind trash bin at the apartment complex, and so forth.  At one point, my former landlord had me clean out a rental house that was abandoned by (what looked like) a family of badgers.  There was broken glass in the living room, boxes full of cigarette butts, wet clothing and empty beer cans in the basement.  They stole the dishwasher and unplugged the refrigerator.  On the hottest day of the summer I stood weeping in front of that moldy fridge filled with a sloppy mess of rotting meat, vegetables and mayonnaise.  I had forgotten my latex gloves.

To read the full essay, click here.

Nate, 26, teacher

Where do you live? South Dakota

What sort of job did you hold? Teacher

 In what industry? Middle school/High school education

 How old were most of your coworkers? A few around my age but mostly older folk

 How did you find out you were losing your job? Principal called me into his office in March. He asked me how I was doing. I admitted poorly. He told me my contract wasn't going to be renewed.

 Did you leave right away or did they give you a few weeks to get used to the idea? They gave me the option to buy out my contract and get a long-term sub for the rest of the year. I told them no. I'm glad I did. The contract pay I'm still getting throughout the summer has helped a great deal.

 Tell us a little about what you did: I taught mostly seventh grade, but I had a few courses of High School students. My topic was Language Arts/Literature.

 What was your favorite part of the job? Interacting with the students, getting to know them as people and trying my best to help them grow.

 What was the worst part? Grading, paperwork, the kids who made it difficult. My energy was shot at the end of the day and I could hardly get anything done.

 Did you like going to work? Some days. Mostly no. I was actually glad days when I would get sick, because that was an easy out.

 Did you feel like you were making a difference? Sometimes. I was always glad to help those who genuinely wanted to learn. Most times it was an up hill climb. Those that told me I was a horrible teacher I took with a grain of salt, but it still stung.

 What have you been doing since you've been laid off? Looked for work, but equally loafed. When you find out the thing you thought you wanted to do in college was not something you were good at, it definitely becomes a downer. It's easy to say that I'm depressed.

 How do you spend your days? Wake up late, skim the state work site for jobs, put in a couple online applications, take a nap, watch a movie, play online games.

 Have your spending habits changed? Trying to go to movies and rent less stuff. Unfortunately my eating habits haven't changed much because I can't cook worth a crap.

 How many jobs have you applied for since you've been laid off? 10-20

 What kind of job will you go for next? Will it be in the same industry or a different one? It will be different for the obvious reasons. I've been trying to gravitate to semi-educational jobs, but I've also applied to places where the experience is not so obvious. I'm afraid the old adage might be true, "Those that can't do, teach." If I go back to education, it could be even more difficult for me.

 

Hugo, 32, digital asset manager

Where do you live? Chicago, Ill.

 What sort of job did you hold? Digital Asset Manager

 What industry? Printing

 How old were most of your coworkers? I am 32, most of my co-workers were in their forties and fifties.

 How did you find out you were losing your job? Shortly after a major Home Improvement retailer decided to abruptly end their contract with us, I was pulled into the office at the end of the week, Friday, and the situation was explained to me, I was being laid-off immediately.

 Did you leave immediately, or did they give you a few weeks to get used to the idea? There was no getting used to the idea. They were looking to lay off as many people as possible to keep the business afloat, and that included my supervisors who looked like they were afraid for their jobs as well. After the conversation, my security passes and such were collected.

 Tell us a little about what you did: I managed a large repository of print files for a large home improvement client. As digital files came in I would make certain they were good, printable files or assets, and collect information about them on a spreadsheet. As files were deemed good, I attached metadata or keywords to them and posted them live to their online catalogue, which streamlined their re-ordering process.

What was your favorite part of the job? I really enjoyed getting hands-on work with digital files, growing my competency of design software, preflight methods and the printing industry in general. Mostly I enjoyed being the only person responsible for the accuracy and structure of this project. I was beginning to own it, and that felt good.

 What was the worst part? The environment was a bit lackluster, it seemed most people were there because it was a steady paycheck, rather than being there because they enjoy what they do and the people around them. Some employees were even subjected to being berated and verbally abused when they made mistakes by an influential sales manager who brought in a lot or revenue.

 Did you like going to work? In the beginning I did. I woke up and after being a part-time employee for five years while attending school, I felt like I had a decent job with a nice title, some good responsibilities and the possibility for growth. After a few months with little to no guidance, I felt a bit isolated, and curious as to how the rest of my employment would play out.

 Did you feel like you were making a difference? I was doing things for the client and feeling good about the decisions I made to help guide their projects, but I never received much feedback from anyone attached to this project, and often times when someone became involved, it was merely to have me act as a puppet by telling me what to say and how to say it when responding to the clients questions. It became too political.

 What have you been doing since you've been laid off? Battled feelings of depression that are associated with being laid-off, and tried to keep my mind occupied.

 How do you spend your days? I get up in the morning, think of how to refine my resume, my work search, and ponder if my resume really reflects me. I apply for jobs, I feel desperation set in and then I shake it off by getting a snack, talking things through on the phone with my partner, watering plants, reading, watching the news and indulging in some bad television.

 How have your spending habits changed? I have been a pretty conservative spender since I had a job (oddly enough with a large home improvement retailer) that was part-time, so I am used to living with a tightened belt, but I do miss having the money to spend if I desired. I guess I have come back to the idea of staying a conservative spender. But I have cut back on bus passes unless I really need them, some foods, coffee, impulse buys, clothes, and limited to rent, bills and odds and ends.

 How many jobs have you applied for since you were laid off? At least 7 or 8, I lose count.

 What kind of job will you apply for next? Will it be in the same industry or a different industry? I would love to get into television production, simply because I love it and have been exposed to it and went to school for it, but out of practicality, I will seek jobs in fields similar to print, design, data management, project management, signs, banners, etc.

Katy, 22, art and neuroscience graduate

Where do you live? Minnesota

When did you graduate from college? May 2009

What was (were) your field(s) of study? Art and Neuroscience

How long have you been actively job-hunting? Since May

What sort of job are you looking for? Anything in the art, music, education, environmental industries — or just the food/beverage industry so I can support myself and my art.

Any interviews? No.

What are your biggest obstacles? Moving back in with parents in the remote suburbs.

What are your biggest frustrations? Living with my parents again, completely isolated from peers. Having to drive a half an hour to visit with my only two high school friends still in town. Not being able to meet new people in non-bar situations.

What are your biggest fears? Becoming a failure and wasting my youth.

Do you have any big financial worries? Loans you're supposed to pay back? A growing credit-card bill? My biggest worry is I'm going to take a mind-numbing job I absolutely hate just so I can get out of my parents house and support myself.