How Never to Find a Job: the Barbara Ehrenreich Career Network

I was on Barbara Ehrenreich's Web site (I'd heard she'd become a blogger), and I found it quite amusing that she's now launching a "local career networking" campaign in association with her new book, Bait and Switch.

Barbara's a talented writer, and I share her views on a number of issues. But Bait and Switch is a non-starter, as I explain in my Media Orchard post, "Barbara Ehrenreich Can't Find a PR Job; Therefore, the Economy is Crumbling."

For the book, Barbara assembled a fake resume documenting non-existent public relations experience; then, she spent months searching (unsuccessfully) for a PR job in the $60-100K range. She concludes that the white-collar middle-class has been sold a bill of goods, and that because of downsizing we'll soon all be working at Wal-Mart for $8 per hour.

The reality is that most fakers can be smoked out in a job interview. In fact, Barbara's whole search process is pretty laughable. As The Christian Science Monitor puts it:

"Is it any wonder that she can't find someone to hire her? Ehrenreich can't turn to a large network of former clients for job leads because her imaginary PR consultant doesn't really exist. In another potentially fatal flaw, it takes her forever to realize that it might be a good idea to hobnob with actual PR people instead of a hodgepodge of the jobless.

"Most amazing of all is Ehrenreich's naivete about the job market. She's surprised that white-collar workers massage the truth out of their resumes, that they focus intensely on what they wear, that they must deal with bosses who care more about people skills than job skills. She's even taken aback when someone suggests she delete the date of her college graduation from her resume so she won't come across as too old.

"This stranger-in-a-strange-land attitude wears thin, especially coming from someone who should be more aware. Where has she been?

So now -- after failing miserably to find a job, even with the benefit of a falsified resume -- Barbara's going to organize "grassroots support groups" for job seekers?

Isn't that kind of like O.J. conducting anger management workshops?

•  probably....

  Perhaps the comparison is more to "Brownie" starting his own disaster response consulting firm, if you really want to slam Barbara Ehrenreich. She had a good temporary gig one summer back or so as a guest columnist with the NYT, but of course that didn't last. (I haven't read either Nickel and Dimed or Bait and Switch; maybe later on.)

  by chingchongchinaman on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 03:27:01 PM PDT

•  Caveat: Haven't read the book,

  but if her point is that the relative value and utility of a college degree has decreased, I think she just might have a point.  You're right; employers can sniff out fakers (unless they're pathological) and it's not unimaginable that her prospectives knew instantly that she was full of it.  But again, there might be a larger point in there somewhere about college educated people still scrambling to make ends meet, or recent college grads facing a tough job market, in a way that they wouldn't have had to maybe a generation ago.

  by GN1927 on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 03:42:13 PM PDT

•  Re: Relative value of a college degree declining

  I agree with you.  I think she chose a poor device for making the point, though.  It's hard enough to change people's minds about class and race in this country without starting from a faulty premise. The silly "career network" just plays to the stereotype that "liberals are out of the mainstream and not in touch with the real world." That's what annoys me about it.

  by sbaradell on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 03:47:51 PM PDT

  •  Well, if anyone brings it up...

    ...do you think the average right-wing pundit would do any better? Imagine Jonah Goldberg or Peggy Noonan dispensing career advice.

    by m on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 04:00:23 PM PDT

    •  Noonan et al

      No, but I would never read a book by either of those people. I expect more from Ehrenreich.

      by sbaradell on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 04:04:04 PM PDT