I've got a new job, I started a week ago. I've been out of work for about 10 months, ever since I closed my business last summer. Another small business that couldn't survive one of the deepest recessions in my lifetime. I spent the first couple of months resting, trying to figure out what to do next, and dealing with the details of winding up the business. Then I started my job search, and let me tell you, things have changed in the past few years. The process of looking for a job has become more drawn out, more humiliating, more frustrating than ever before. Fortunately, I'm done with it now.
I actually interviewed for my new job several months ago, but didn't get the job. There was another candidate that had direct experience in the industry, and while the guy I interviewed with liked what I brought to the table, he went for the industry experience. I probably would have, too. He was upfront about everything, and I came away from it all with a good impression, which is so often not the case with job searches. A couple of weeks ago, I'm looking at jobs on Craigslist, and I see the exact same job listed. I sent an e-mail to the guy I had interviewed with, letting him know I was still interested, and he called me back within 10 minutes. He said the job was open because the guy he had hired got hit by a bus. I kid you not -- hit by a bus. It's awful, but it's also such a cliche I couldn't help laugh a bit. Anyway, he's not dead, but he got a big settlement and he's not up to working again. So now I have the job.
I'll step back in time to fill in some background. I had opened my business in 2006, mainly because I was really frustrated with the lack of jobs following the dotcom crash a couple years before. I had come to San Francisco in 1999 to take a new job, and that ended in late 2003. The company pulled out the US, and left us high and dry. I spent about a year looking for a job in a pretty bad economy, watching my savings dwindle away. So after a year, I decided to make my own job, and I opened a picture framing business. I enjoyed that quite a bit, but the new recession struck just when I was expecting my business to hit its stride, and I never could get any traction. In January 2010, I started to think about closing it down. The Christmas season was dismal, to say the least, and I had a couple of really disastrous months in the spring. I spent some time looking for a new location, but didn't have any confidence that a new location would help. Retail in the area where my store was has been absolutely decimated over the past few years, and it will be years before that area recovers. It may never recover.
I knew the right decision was to close it down, and I was OK with that. For one thing, I had been pondering it for months. It wasn't a sudden decision. In addition, I had tried everything to bring in business. If there had been something I could have done, but which I had neglected to do, then I might have felt worse, I might have had regrets. That wasn't the case. By the end, even the most successful tool for bringing in new business -- my Yelp page -- wasn't generating anything. I had the strongest reviews of any framing business in the area, and it wasn't enough. I'll share with you my favorite review, written by my first yoga instructor (I call her The Astonishingly Beautiful Yoga Instructor):
i was a professional framing virgin. Paul deflowered me at the great frame up.
he was kind, gentle, patient, and sensitive. it was a beautiful experience.
haha but in all seriousness, this guy knows his stuff. he showed me a few different options, and helped me pick the best frame for my needs. the pricing was very reasonable, and when i compare this picture to those i have framed myself at cheap pete's, i can see why paying a little extra to let the pro do it makes total sense. also, the photo i had framed was really old and he had it professionally restored for me! the turnaround time was speedy, even though it was holiday season and i'm sure he was swamped.
i'm very happy i came to paul for my first time.
Yeah, I love that review!
It was hard closing down something I had worked so hard for. I invested all my money, and worked 6 days a week for 5 years. I came away poor and in debt, but I learned a hell of a lot. And I did something most people only dream about.
I've found other ways to keep my spirits up. In April, C.K. Prahalad passed away. Bear with me here, his death isn't what cheered me up. Prahalad was one of the most respected business professors at the University of Michigan's business school, and a leading expert on global business and corporate strategy. What cheered me up was this line from his obituary:
Even though Dr. Prahalad served on corporate boards and was regarded as an international management guru, his lone venture into business, a technology firm he founded in San Diego in 2000, failed to turn a profit and was sold several years ago.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
If someone as brilliant and respected as Prahalad can have a business fail, then hey, I'm in good company.
I mentioned before that the demise of my business left me poor and in debt. I decided to file for bankruptcy. I wasn't forced to do it. Rather, it was a strategic decision. I had more than $130,000 in business and personal debt (mostly business debt) hanging over my head, and I didn't want to spend the rest of my life trying to pay it off. The biggest chunk was my SBA loan. I knew the bank would come out of it just fine. The loan was guaranteed by the federal government, so the bank would be repaid in full. But the feds would come after me, and I'd never see another tax refund. At least. I talked to others who had gone through bankruptcy, and spoke with a couple of lawyers, and it really seemed like a no-brainer. For about $3000, I could wipe out more than $130,000 in debt. Yeah, my credit rating would suffer, but it was already suffering. Yeah, I couldn't file for bankruptcy again for 8 years, but I went almost 49 years without filing once. I'd be an idiot not to use such a powerful tool at my disposal. And what about the stigma of filing for bankruptcy? Well, ask Donald Trump. He's done it four times. Or you could ask United Airlines. Or Borders. Or Chrysler. Or GM. Or Abraham Lincoln. Or Ulysses S. Grant. Thomas Jefferson filed for bankruptcy several times. William McKinley. Henry Ford. Walt Disney. Milton Hershey (the chocolate guy). Burt Reynolds. H.J. Heinz. P.T. Barnum. Really, it's no big deal anymore, and I have a fresh start. I'm debt-free. I have no credit cards, and I pay cash for what I need.
The job search experts say that someone should spend about 40 hours a week looking for a new job; that you should treat a job search like a full-time job. Clearly, these "experts" have never spent time looking for a job in a recession. When there are so few jobs being offered, there isn't that much to do. The "experts" also say that most jobs are found through networking. I don't buy it. I've never gotten a job through networking, and I'm not sure I can think of anyone who has. I think it's an urban myth. Also, companies are so risk-averse about hiring these days that no mid-size or large company is going to hire anyone without doing a full-on search, and interviewing multiple candidates.
My experience doing this job search has been really sobering. Companies are getting hundreds of resumes for each opening. Many have these online application forms that you have to deal with, so your resume may never be seen by human eyes. If it is seen by human eyes, those eyes are in the head of an HR person, who quite often doesn't know jack-shit about the job. I used to work for a company in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I had an HR person ask me once what my salary at that company would translate to in dollars. When I got my jaw off the floor, I just responded "I was paid in dollars, so it's a one-to-one ratio." These are the gatekeepers. If your resume sparked any interest, you will get the wonderful chance of a phone interview with an HR gatekeeper. If you pass that test, you may get bumped up to that HR person's boss for another phone interview, or maybe a phone interview with the person who's actually in need of an employee. If you make it through that second phone interview, you get to come in and meet with someone in person. Probably it will just be one person. If he or she likes you, you'll be invited back to meet with more people. Getting through that may not be enough, though. You might have to do a third round of face-to-face interviews. During this whole process, they will want to run a credit check and a criminal background check on you, and they will want to call every employer you've worked for to verify that you aren't lying. Yes, it's the beginning of a beautiful relationship. Did I mention that the offer is contingent on passing the drug test? It can take weeks, maybe months. One thing I recall reading recently in the Wall Street Journal is that employers are taking longer to hire people than ever before. What happens is that an employer goes through all that nonsense, narrows it down to one candidate, and then wonders, "what if there is someone even better out there? I better put this guy on hold and do another search."
Unemployment is a terrible thing to go through. You have the loss of your savings, and possibly your home. You have the loss of self-esteem. On top of all that, your career development is on hold. You stagnate, while others move on without you. If you're out of work for a year (increasingly common), you've lost a year of development and learning. Your industry or field might move on without you. There's a regular contributor here who graduated from law school two years ago, and still doesn't have a job. He's a brilliant guy, and he's found some temporary work -- document review, etc. But he's nowhere near where he ought to be in his development. This is happening all over the country. There was a column in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago about the changes in workplace loyalty. The writer pointed out that nobody is expected to devote their career to one company anymore, but while someone is at work, someone does have an obligation to do his or her best work. OK, I buy that. The author also pointed out that on the company side, the employer has an obligation to provide its employees with challenging, interesting work that will enhance their career development. And that's crucial, because just as the unemployed are getting left behind, the underemployed are also getting left behind. If you're at work and have time to blog at DailyKos or play Mafia Wars at Facebook, you're underemployed. Your company is failing in its obligation to you, and letting you stagnate.
Thankfully, I'm done with all that for the time being. I've got a new job, and while learning everything is a bit overwhelming, I'm ready to work. For all the people out there who are looking for work, I hope you find something truly rewarding soon.
Thank you for reading.
UPDATE: If you have a story, please share it. Many of us are going through similar struggles, and it's important to know that you aren't alone.