tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46884198421713445172024-03-13T21:40:57.817-07:00RECESSION GRADSNot working? Starting your own small business? Did you find that perfect dream job? Exploring how the Great Recession has affected our paths beyond college...Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-43460808454804676112013-11-17T16:03:00.000-08:002013-11-17T16:03:04.047-08:00Researcher Check-InRecently, I received an email from a reader asking what was going on with Recession Grads--in case others are curious, I am posting both the reader's email and my response below:<br />
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Hi, Melissa, I read your Recession Grads blog for awhile and thought it
was very interesting and revealing. You mentioned that you got
full-employment and got married, hence distracted. However, I see that the
last posting was in 2012. Is the blog still active and if not, does
that mean that "recession grads" are doing OK now?<br />
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Dorothea,</div>
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a reader in the greater Washington, DC area</div>
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Hi Dorothea,<br /><br />It's wonderful to hear from a reader! To answer your questions: <br />1.
My full employment job has been more demanding than I could have
anticipated, including many long hours and weekends--leaving little time
for anything else. Thankfully, I start employment with a different
organization at the end of the month and should be able to dive back in
to Recession Grads.<br />
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2. That said, I finished the interviews portion of the work over a
year ago. I have one last interview to transcribe and post to the blog
and then I will begin analysis of all that data. I'll be combing
through the full transcripts (not just the excerpts posted online) and
looking for trends and themes. This could take several months to a
year. I'm not sure yet whether I will be posting about the analysis
prior to completing the work. That is something I need to muse on a
bit.<br />
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3. Are recession grads ok? Depends on who you ask. The
surveys/polls and other research I've seen indicate that recent grads
are doing better, but the cohort of students who graduated in the first
few years of the Great Recession haven't really "caught up" and probably
never fully will. I was considering trying to do a follow-up five
years out (2015ish) and seeing how the folks I interviewed are faring. <br />
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Hope that answers your questions! </div>
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Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-12236901774611274382012-06-21T12:29:00.000-07:002012-06-22T17:46:29.876-07:00Bobby<i>Bobby graduated from the University of Texas, Austin with a degree in Geography in the summer of 2008. Perhaps atypical of recession grads, he already had a job upon graduation—which he willingly gave up in an ambitious gambit to further his career and deepen his experience. Things didn’t pan out according to plan, as they seldom do</i>.<br />
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<br />
I figured I would do as much as I could as an undergrad, working towards advancing a career in urban planning. I'd already established myself, at least locally, in planning having taken an unpaid internship which turned into a paid position, before I ever graduated. So to that extent I felt like I had already started my career in planning. My plan was to work for a couple of years and apply to a couple of graduate level programs in planning. And so when I finished, I was less focused on the immediate job search because I had a job and it was relevant. And so I wasn't as nervous. I had a lot of friends who were I think, a little lost. I think the advantage for me was that I returned to school when I was older and I had job experience. I was in my late 20s, I knew a lot of individuals who were graduating with me in their early 20s and I think they were a little bit more nervous and the outlook for job prospects seemed a little bit more daunting to them. And for me I just felt like I was in a good place and I liked what I was doing.<br />
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I'd finally determined more or less what I wanted to do with my life and it took me several years to go back and get my undergraduate degree. So I kind of wanted to like, I'm in school mode, might as well knock off the grad degree, right? And aside from that, I just felt like career-wise I wouldn’t be able to advance without a graduate degree to a level that I was comfortable with anyways. It just seemed like a foregone conclusion that I would have to go to graduate school. <i>He laughs</i>. And four years later I still haven't gone.<br />
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I moved to the [San Francisco] Bay Area, and then I became much more concerned with the practical applications of my undegraduate degree and working for a living. My headspace changed from being like where am I going to go to grad school to like, oh shit, I have to pay my rent. It's not a cheap place to live. I had planned to move [to the San Francisco Bay Area], because I thought it would be a good place to hang out for a year or two before I sent off grad school applications. It was kind of, from where I sat in Austin, perceived by myself and colleagues as kind of a planning mecca—progressive as far as local government and regional planning and also a lot of planning organizations had either headquarters or big offices in San Francisco. So it just made sense. Right before I graduated I came out here* and set up some informational interviews and they went really, really well. They pretty much told me, if you were to move here now, we would hire you immediately. The level at which they would hire me their hope would be that I would only be there for a year or two and move on to grad school. And so that excited me. And so I planned to move here, early 2009.<br />
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Then I met a girl. And she moved out here soon after we met. And I followed her, so my time line changed a little bit and I got here a little bit sooner than I thought I would. That was right around the time that the mortgage-backed securities crisis hit full bloom. I don't know if it was just late getting to me or late getting to Texas, as far as the visible impacts on local economies and job availability, but I just felt like, I'll be fine, I'll figure something out, I’m smart, I'm resourceful. And that wasn't the case when I moved here. It was much more difficult to find any work, let alone relevant planning work.<br />
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I just didn't have any fear or reservation about moving to a new city without a job. I came with a few thousand dollars and I was like, I'll figure something out, you know? So a typical day here quickly became—<i>he laughs</i>—it was the inside of coffee shops. I was poor, I was miserable. I lived in a kind of remote part of San Francisco that a lot of people forget exists and a lot of people have never been to, Bayview/Hunter's Point. Rougher edge of town and much more industrial. There’s only one coffeeshop near me and I didn't want pay to take the train or the bus further into the City. And I just thought that I'd be distracted anyways, so I spent a lot of time in one particular cafe near my place. So I felt a little isolated. I didn't see a lot of people during the day. I spent a lot of time online, just kind of perusing job sites and my first couple of weeks I sent a lot of cold call emails soliciting informational interviews or just straight up job interviews. I did that for several months. I just canvassed people I thought I might want to work with. At first, my primary concern was: I need to find a job that's relevant, because I can't interrupt this path I'm on. I went back to school, I did well, I got a job related to what I want to do and I moved out here to kind of maintain that path until I go to grad school in that relevant area. I can't interrupt that. I can't go work in a coffeeshop for two years before I apply to grad school—I didn't want that to happen. I just wanted some sense of relevancy before I applied to grad school. And so I thought, surely I'll find something, and if I can't, if there's absolutely nothing that falls under that umbrella, then surely I can find some job, any job, anything to pay my rent while I look for other work. And neither of those things happened for a long time. And that was scary because I didn't think it would be that bad. And it was. It was frightening. <br />
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The first couple of months that I was here, not a lot happened on the job front. I actually got very, very, very little in the way of return emails. I didn't get a lot of people to respond at all. But one of the few who returned an unsolicited email that I had sent responded the same day. Which was shocking and awesome. He said I don't have any work for you but I'm more than willing to meet you for coffee. We can talk and you can tell me about yourself and your career goals. So that was exciting. That was uplifting. It was good. And it was much different from the experiences that I had up to that point. So we met up, he told me—this I thought was fascinating—he said, "I get unsolicited emails from recent graduates every day, every day, a lot of them are recent grad school graduates from the City and Regional Planning program at Berkeley and then some from all over northern California. But the reason I responded to your's and agreed to meet with you was because your's was thoughtful and well-written and didn't contain any spelling or grammatical errors. A lot of these kids are churning out letters to prospective employers and they're just churning them out, just trying to get them out," and to my own credit, I actually did spend a lot of time on that email that I sent to him, because this wasn't just me wanting to get a job. I actually really wanted to work with him and for him and I cared about what he was doing and I thought he would be a great person to learn from. <br />
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It was a great conversation and it ended with him saying essentially, hey, look, I want you to send me a writing sample and forget I exist and I'll call you sometime if I ever need anything, but I don't have anything for you. So, I sent my writing sample and forgot about it and about a week later he called me and said, “Hey, I have something for you,” so I was like, AWESOME, because I was really broke and really hungry. So he gave me a small research/writing type gig. It was only 15 or 20 hours and I did that and then it was over. A few weeks later he called me again and said, “Hey I have something else for you.” And in the meantime, I'm not working at all. Living off of savings and the generous nature of my family. Little by little he gave me a little bit more work and then, meanwhile, because I reached a new level of desperation and not only was I not looking for relevant work I was looking for ANY work and at that point I was looking for temp work as well. And I wasn't even getting called back from temp employment agencies or account managers at temp employment agencies, which was shocking to me.<br />
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[The recession] sent local economies into a catatonic shock—everything seemed to stop. Best case scenario was that organizations were not hiring. Worst case scenario was that they were letting people go. It's two sides of the same coin, on one side you have this static population applying for jobs, but every day more people are added to that so it's no longer static. All of a sudden it's like that pool of people you're competing with, it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and the jobs are getting fewer and fewer. There was that sense of oh my god I'm never going to find a job. As time went on you heard more and more stories of people getting laid off. But to some degree, after a while, it's almost validating, because it's like, shit, it's not just me who can't find a job-- the problem isn't just mine. So there's some sense of camaraderie when you meet people who are really intelligent and very capable and maybe went to a better school than you did, maybe even have more work experience and are like fuck, I don't know how I'm going to make rent this month. Awesome, neither do I. So you don't feel like a complete failure.<br />
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I finally got a temp offer for a gig in the legal group at Wells Fargo. And that's where I spent the next, god, almost a year, I guess. I was there for a while—a temporary position as a paralegal in a Wells Fargo legal division working mortgage-backed securities which was a pretty interesting thing to…I don't know if there's, if that would qualify as literal irony, but the fact that mortgage-backed securities contributed so much to the failed economy and me not having a job, my first job was working to defend a bank against suits being called against them in mortgage-backed securities. So that was precious.<br />
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Because it was a temp position—it could end any week. And it ended with them offering me full time employment and I said, "No," at that point I was miserable being there. It wasn't at all what I wanted to do. It was a very generous salary and benefits and everything and I said no. <br />
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I left my job despite the economic climate, because I was ok being with hungry and poor again, so long as I went back to the path that I originally set out. It was more important to me that I do something aligned with my goals—my goal was never just to live in San Francisco. And that's all I was doing, I was living in San Francisco, I was making enough money to make rent, that wasn't an end in and of itself. My goal was to set myself up for success in my career. And so long as I wasn't doing that, there was no point in me being here. As much as I love the city, I was like, I'm going to give this one last shot. <br />
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I took an unpaid internship more closely aligned to my long term career goals. That was kind of my entre into the social justice world and policy at a local level with a focus on equity. And that set me off on a completely different path. I no longer have any aspirations of becoming an urban planner or going to a graduate program in planning. I'm much more focused on equity and on using public health as a currency to effect change. It's a very salient topic and a very pervasive way of talking about poverty without having to talk about poverty. It's something that people understand. It's something that speaks to people. I think it's a fantastic way of affecting change. Policy and public health just makes sense to me.<br />
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So my job now is…I'm a policy associate with a government public health agency at the county level. I was brought on after my internship [and am] essentially overseeing both the reactive policy work that comes to public health agencies—so any requests to provide testimony, write letters of support for community partners or allies for something that is aligned with our health equity goals—and then our more proactive policy work. I think part of the reason that I was hired was that I had that urban planning multi-disciplinary background, but I had also gained a tremendous amount of experience in my short time at the [internship] focusing on equity and helping to build a coalition. I think that marriage of government work and coalition building and social justice really helped advance my resume to the top of the pile.<br />
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To some extent the economic crisis that we've been experiencing over the last few years has certainly impacted my career path and my goals. Seeing how some communities were taken advantage of during the foreclosure crisis and wanting to do something about it, that's certainly changed my career goals. But a lot of it has also just been me growing up. You know what I mean? And they happened in parallels, I think. To some extent I would even say that it's a happy accident. I mean, it's unfortunate that so many people were hurt, myself included, in the last few years, but it's given me a sense of purpose and sometimes bad shit needs to happen for people to wake up. And so I love how I arrived where I'm at and I'm older now, so I don't want to experience any sort of like severe change like that on that scale again, but, you know, I might, and you just have to adapt.<br />
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*The San Francisco Bay Area. Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-34419795052608430992012-06-17T16:08:00.001-07:002012-06-17T16:08:44.257-07:00Researcher Check-InI know it's been a long time since there's been activity on this blog, but rest assured, research and analysis continues. In the fall of last year, I obtained full time employment and this past April I got married--both of which ended up dragging me away from Recession Grads. The good news is that I am back and a new recession grad interview will be up shortly. Stay tuned!Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-91983601614192066682011-10-27T21:28:00.000-07:002011-10-27T21:29:16.790-07:00Jennifer<p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i>Jennifer Howard wrote me after reading a comment I posted online, I think the email she sent is a suitable introduction:</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><i>Hi Melissa,</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><i> </i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><i>I came across your blog from your comments on the May 18th NY Times article. I just started reading it and I love it! I think that its a fantastic idea and I really respect that you are doing it on your own volition. I got my BA in History and Political Science from SUNY in 2005. I knew that I wouldn't get a job with a liberal arts degree from a state school so I enrolled in the MPA program there (sort of by accident). I interned with the Department of State and New York State during grad school and finished my MPA in Fall 2007. I was extremely fortunate to land a job with New York State in the beginning of 2008. It's not the most interesting job in the world, but the pay is very decent and the benefits are excellent. The only drawback is the 3 hour round trip commute - I moved back in with my parents last year at 27 so that I could stop treading water and start saving. I know that this experience is a little different from the other ones in your blog but I would be more than happy to speak to you if you would like. Thank you very much for your time and keep up the excellent work!!</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><i> </i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><i>Enjoy your weekend,</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><i> </i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><i>Jennifer Howard</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal; font-family: arial;"><i> </i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">Nine months before I graduated I was really panicking because I didn't have a job lined up and I was interning for New York State, but I knew that I didn't want to stay in Albany. My boss—she was amazing, she helped me so much—her husband was big in the Department of XX * for New York. <span> </span>So he was actually giving my resume out to different agencies in New York State. When I graduated and still didn't have a job, my boss asked me what I was gonna do and I was like, oh, I'll go back to waitressing or substitute teaching and she said no, you can stay here until you get a job. <span> </span>I did that for about a month and then in January 2008, I got a call to interview for my current job</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I work for New York State, it's the Office of the ZZ* at MTI, which is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, I'm the senior auditor there. I didn't apply for this job but was actually on another job interview and I got a call from this woman and she asked me to come in for an interview at the Office of the ZZ, so I was kind of just blind-sided. <i>She laughs. </i>I was really excited about the idea of working for New York State, but I didn't really know what an auditor was. </p><div style="font-family: arial;" class="im"> <p class="MsoNormal">I interviewed at the job on January 7th, which is my birthday and I started working on February 4th of 2008. I was a staff auditor and I kind of didn't really know about auditing and the person I was working with didn't teach me anything and so I wasn't that happy with my job. I felt like I wasn't doing anything, but actually my boss apologized that I had to work with this person and assigned me to work with other people. And I actually started to really get into my job. I worked with a variety of people and I felt like I was really accomplishing something. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">At the same time I felt like a lot of people at my job were kind of disgruntled, literally haven't gotten raises in 3 years, and they felt like things were really stagnant. So I kind of felt like I wasn't going to go anywhere, but I really liked my job, so I didn't know what to do. I actually started looking for other jobs, but then someone said, well, why don't you just talk to your boss?<span> </span></p> </div><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I went into her office, this was in the fall of last year and I told her that I really liked the job and I could see myself doing it for a long time, but I was concerned that it wasn't going anywhere, that things never really change at the ZZ and I told her that I wanted to take on more responsibility. I felt like it was time. I had been there three years. She said that she wanted to promote me, but it was hard with the finances with the State. So I didn't really expect anything else to come out of it. But then, actually in January, I got promoted. I was so happy I was crying.</p><div style="font-family: arial;" class="im"> <p class="MsoNormal">I'm a performance auditor. When there's a complaint or when we find out something is going wrong within one of—you’re from out west, so I’ll just tell you a little bit about MTI. They run all the subways, trains, buses—all the transportation in New York City and the suburbs. We go out and we analyze the problems, we find out what's wrong, we make recommendations, we bring it to the agency and hopefully they'll act on it. At first, I was just kind of writing memos, I was doing data analysis, but I wasn't really getting into the big picture. When I began working with more competent people, I really began to see how things worked together. I would get an idea of what was going on and I'd ask my own questions. It just got exciting because I could see what we were accomplishing. </p> </div><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i>I asked Jennifer how she thinks the recession has impacted her and her future.</i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">They're talking of consolidating our office into the bigger ZZ Office of State and they're only keeping 10% of the workforce. So there's been rumors about that. I don't see a lot of promotions within my agency. Things have been really stale since I've been there. I've been very lucky that I got promoted. I don't see anyone hiring. And I don't know if that's ever going to change because it's—I don't really think the economy is going to get much better. </p><div style="font-family: arial;" class="im"> <p class="MsoNormal">I hope my pension's around when I retire. <i>She laughs.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal">A big part of why I want[ed] to work in government is for the benefits and for the retirement and right now there's a lot going on in New York about being able to fund the pension and they're trying to change it for people that are coming into the State now. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I feel like I'm one of the lucky few. I feel very fortunate. I don't think the economy really affected me. My friends—they're all super bright, great people. They all went to college and it's just, I'm the only one with my master's, it seems like a lot of my friends are waitresses or they work in retail. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I think it has a lot to do with luck. Because I had people that really helped me out and if I didn't I don't know where I'd be. I do know that I worked really hard, I'm a good worker, I'm easy to get along with, but at the same time, I know that there are lots of people like me. I went to school with a lot of smart people and I just feel like I—It's not that I didn't work for it but if I didn't have the people backing me that did, if I didn't have my internship and my boss there helping me out, her and her husband, I don't know where I'd be. So that was lucky, just, you know, working for them, meeting them.</p> </div><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">*Department name withheld to protect Jennifer’s anonymity.</p>Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-71631134923711637622011-10-03T13:25:00.001-07:002011-10-03T13:30:44.515-07:00Chip<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:relyonvml/> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> 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mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Chip, speaking in a soft Southern accent, saw firsthand the cultural and economic changes wrought by the recession on his field.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He graduated from the Charleston School of Law in the spring of 2009.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">My dad always told us whatever you do as far as your job, be self-sufficient so that you're not relying on somebody else. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And for me, attorney seemed like a good idea. And it's always been, for the most part, recession proof because people are always going to be suing people. When I started that was still how it was. By the time I get to the end [of law school] it's a completely different atmosphere. It was kind of hard to grasp the change in the atmosphere, because with the way things have been over the last few years that theory that lawyers are recession-proof has gone by the wayside.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">When you finish your first semester of law school, you start looking for jobs and start some summer clerkships and then by your second year you're working for firms that are probably going to hire you after [you graduate]. But, halfway through law school, for me, was in '07 when things really started to get bad. At the firm where I was [clerking] in 2006, for example, we had a softball team for the summer clerks. The first year or so, after the softball game, they would take the entire team and all of the people in the firm and their family and we would go to a restaurant, bar, whatever and the firm would pay for food and drinks. By that second or third season it turned into, well, we're going to pay two hundred dollars and everything after that, you're on your own. And then by the third year it was, ok, we're going to buy dinner and that's it and only for the people that are involved with the team.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And by the last year, we weren't [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">laughs</i>] even going anywhere after the game. You know? And the same thing with work functions and parties. In the early days we'd have a happy hour every month. That kind of stuff started to disappear and not be around. And not happen as frequently or not as extravagantly as it did early on. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">I guess it's kind of a domino effect. People in general have less money which means they're less inclined to sue because it's almost an investment. It's risky most of the time to sue somebody because you're most likely going to be putting up a lot of money and there's a chance that you may get nothing back out of it. Just like everything else, people were less inclined to spend the money on it. When less people are spending money on lawyers, then [there is] less work for lawyers. Which means there's less lawyers getting hired because there's plenty of attorneys already out there that are already working and there's barely enough work for them to bill for as it is. They don't need to hire new attorneys when they don't have the work for them to be doing to bill people for. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">[At the time], they were hiring people when they graduated and then asking them to not start working for several months because they didn't have the money to pay them. So that's kind of how it was, even the people that had jobs didn't really have a job yet. They were just sitting around waiting. </p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal">I always wanted to be a lawyer, it was never just I want to make money, it's, that's what I want to do, be a lawyer. So, I didn't regret my decision [to go to law school], it was just the fact that what do I do now, <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I have no money. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I'm not making any money—when I started school everybody was making great money, people were coming out of school making 70-80 thousand. But, that's obviously not been the case as of late for the majority of people graduating—no more looking for something you want to specialize in or looking for what your bread and butter job would be—just find a job doing something. And the majority of that [means] accepting or applying for a job that is going to pay you something in the 30 to 40 thousand dollar range. You know, everybody goes to law school and dreams about six figure salaries, it's quite a shock for most people. </p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal">Well, I didn't have a job when I finished [law school], so I spent my days job-searching and trying to network, went to this person and that person, this politically connected person or that person, whoever, to try to make a contact, to find somebody who could give me a hand just to get a job. I did a lot of that. And applying in general, just for jobs, meeting with people... I was just living off of loans at that point, so I didn't have very much money. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I started looking for jobs, just doing anything that would pay me and not just law jobs. Most people I know were looking just for paralegal jobs. People with law degrees that had passed the bar exam were looking for paralegal jobs just to get something that gave them experience. And no firm wants to hire an attorney for a paralegal position because they don't want to pay you that much and they also know that you're eventually going to leave, because your ultimate goal is to be an attorney. It's, you know, I want to be an attorney and have that job, making a lot of money and then it becomes I just want to get a job as an attorney making minimum salary 30 to 40 thousand and then it drops to, ok I'll take a paralegal position just to get experience and then the next thing you know you're looking at jobs that just aren't even in the legal field. I ended up taking a job in this time share type thing, but it was—I took a job doing that for about a month or so, I just couldn't keep doing it. That's kind of what I got reduced to [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">laughs</i>] eight dollars an hour, but that was all I could find.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">Then I started working for the local social league, sports league, with dodgeball and kickball and stuff like that. I was officiating two nights a week, making twenty or thirty dollars a night. That was the only other thing that I did that got me any kind of money while I was still looking for jobs. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I was about to move home and move in with my parents, because I was down to maybe about $1000 left as far as savings and I couldn't keep paying rent and I didn't have any other way to make money other than the 60 bucks a week doing the dodgeball refing. A friend of mine had a business that had just taken over managing and he didn't want me to have to move back home.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>He wanted me to come work for him, kind of as a receptionist and right hand man while he was getting everything off the ground with his new office. So I came and worked for him for about a month, but he had to have somebody more permanent come in and I was going to have to get out of the way. Right about when that was going to happen I got the job offer for the job I have now. I ended up taking the job because there was no other options and it was an attorney job.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I'm an attorney for the Social Security administration. Basically, when people have disability benefit claims, they can have hearings in front of a judge and after the judge hears the case they decide whether they do or don't want to give the person benefits whether they think they're disabled or not and I write the opinion for the judge that issues the final decision. I write the decision for him.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">It's not what I want to do, just because, I mean, I just sit in an office, I sit at a computer and type all day. Actually, yesterday I was handling a private matter for somebody, doing a trial—that's what I want to do. That’s what I've always wanted to do. Seeing where I am now and what I'm doing it just isn't what I want to do, but the job is stable and the pay is pretty good.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So on one hand, I'm just happy that I'm employed. But on the other hand, I'm—it's just not what I expected.</p>Melissa K. 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mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Hilary was enthusiastic and cheerfully garrulous when I spoke with her.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was January 2011, a short month after she had earned her master’s degree in Geography from San Francisco State.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>She also has two B.A.’s from U.C. Berkeley—one each in English and Geography. </i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I had been working at a restaurant and not being very mentally stimulated. I felt like I wasn't really doing anything especially productive. I wanted to make a change in my life and I felt like having a higher degree is never something that you regret. Having that knowledge in your head is never something that you regret. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>[The master’s program] sounded like a really structured and interesting environment where I would be surrounded by other people who were interested in things and wanted to talk about things. I was really looking for some nerd hang out time. I mean, I don't think that I—I definitely didn't go back to school so that I would get a specific job. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">At that point, also, I'd taken an internship with the City and County of San Francisco for one of the Supervisors' Offices. I really enjoyed what I was doing, but I definitely felt like if I continued I would need to have a master’s.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">Now that I have this degree, as of not that long ago, I feel like it has opened up jobs— that I meet the minimum requirements. So I feel like there's more opportunity for me out there. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Now I'm being faced with the fact that I might be eligible [for a] position, but there's a lot more people with a lot more experience than I have. When I'm looking for jobs, I'm the least qualified person they could have, because everybody has to have that degree and everybody that's older than me has already been working. The pool is bigger for the jobs that I can get, but I'm a smaller fish. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I wake up and I spend about two hours online looking for jobs, looking over my email—and then I'll do that again for maybe another hour later in the afternoon. If I find something that I like, which happens, twice a week maybe, a job that I'm interested in and think that I'd be good at, then that's probably a two hour commitment to writing a cover letter and getting the resume submitted.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I've been looking since before I graduated even, and towards the end of the year I definitely noticed that there weren't as many jobs, which makes sense. And then as soon as January started, I saw a lot more. So I feel like there's jobs out there.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I wouldn't take a job that seemed "alright." <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I wouldn't take a $40,000 a year job working as reception at Gap, where it would be just good enough that it might be difficult to leave later. I rather take something like a restaurant job so that I could easily walk away. It would be such a flexible schedule, I also could be doing things like working for the City as an intern or working for a nonprofit. I just would rather do that than taking a full time job that's gonna stagnate right there. Does that make sense? Like a restaurant job seems like it might definitely be a means to an end at this point, because it allows me to work in the other capacity. Getting me the experience.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">Part of me worries because other people are going back to school. Nobody can get a job and people are getting laid off and may not be able to get a job as quickly. [They] are going back to school. So I'm a little worried that in the future there might be more competition.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I can't exactly afford to, for instance, just get a restaurant job again and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">not</i> do anything [in my field]. I feel like I have all of the schooling that I need, I feel like I need the physical experience behind me.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">Right now I work at the Food Bank on Friday mornings, at the church up the street. I've been doing that for probably four months.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">I ask her if she’s always volunteered.</i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Yeah, I've always done something. I mean, I wouldn't say I'm seeking out and have to have a volunteer job, but something just sort of seems to come up. I don't know. Just seems to come up and I'm like, yeah, why wouldn't I do that? I have time. Especially now, I'm not doing anything for many hours of the day, so if I can help somebody else, why wouldn't I? You know, it gets me out of the house to meet people...it's kind of fun.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">Basically I want to go into government work, so I feel like the recession has hit that a little bit later and I think it will last longer, but it seems to me from what I hear on the radio, it seems like things are doing better all of the time.<sup>1</sup> I don't know, even the government seems like it's hiring and there's enough positions and now I feel like I'm qualified enough. I feel pretty good about it. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I actually applied for what I would've considered my dream job. It was a nontechnical planning position for neighborhood design through the [City’s] planning department. I applied for that at the beginning of December. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">This is exactly what I'm really interested in and when I wrote that cover letter I felt like everything about my entire background really channels up to this one job. I never felt more like I was the perfect person for this position. Unless they're looking for someone with experience that isn't fresh out of school. Maybe people really fresh out of school are really annoying, I don't know. The man who is doing the hiring looks really nice though, I don't think he'd be annoyed by exuberance. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">She laughs.</i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><sup>1 </sup><span style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;line-height:115%">Note, this interview was conducted in January 2011.</span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> Melissa K. 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mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Andrew graduated with a B.A. in Political Economy from U.C. Berkeley in May 2010.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>When I spoke with him, I was struck by his poise and his intelligence.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It was hard to remember that he was fresh out of school and not a seasoned economist.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">I don't feel like my personal struggle in this job market has been particularly noteworthy or particularly interesting, really. Things have slowed down a little for me, but I still feel pretty confident. For my job searching ego, it’s kind of a nice time in a way, because you always have the built in excuse that it's not me, it's the economy. And I kind of believe that. I half-heartedly believe that it's really just a tough time for everyone. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">I feel like when I really jumped into looking at research type of jobs in environmental-type areas and development studies, I quickly found that I was under qualified. And the applications that I did put in for those type of positions, I was told that my application was competing against people with graduate degrees, people with, in some cases, PhDs and so I have had to be a little more flexible. In terms of qualifications, I haven't found any truly entry level positions that I would be content working in, that would be a challenge. The process has been much more drawn out and kind of frustrating in the sense that I thought my education would prepare me better to find something that I want to do when I've kind of found that has not necessarily been the case.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">I've been kind of selective, which I realize isn't the best strategy, in this economy, but I don't want to settle for something that doesn't feel like it's moving my career forward. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I hear back from somewhere around half of the companies I apply for—most of those being just form letters telling me that while they're very much impressed with my qualifications, I'm not quite what they're looking for.</p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal">There's just so many organizations that want you to have some experience. My friend described to me a recent job symposium held by UC Berkeley and the topic was how to get into the field of development studies and the students were asking "How can we get the jobs?" and the people were saying, "Well, you need a little bit of experience."<br />"Well, how can we get the experience?"<br />"Well, you kind of need to get a job."<br />It seems tough to break into a job that will give you a decent amount of responsibility when the only things I've held before are internships and student jobs. I worked almost all the time when I was in school. I worked at the student newspaper, first selling ads, then as, kind of an HR person, worked as a camp counselor one summer, I was a security monitor at the dorms, and I worked in the grad school of journalism doing administrative support sort of stuff, had an internship at the State Department in Taiwan…I feel like I have not a lot of real job experience, but I'm not inexperienced. I've definitely done all of the jobs where you have a certain level of administrative competency and I think I've proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt. It's just the research qualifications, the more kind of numbers-heavy stuff that they don't necessarily see jumping out of my resume.</p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal">I think [the economy] has impacted my job search in the sense that I'm competing against more qualified candidates who are, you know, looking down, looking at a lower level of positions than they might in a better economy. I think the competition is tougher.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Also, a good position will generate so much interest that I think the people reading applications are overwhelmed. A lot of times I don't hear back from people. I try to follow-up but don't get anywhere with it. </p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal">I applied to a pretty small consulting firm up in Seattle and I called like a week and half afterwards to check up on my application. I spoke to a very nice woman who is handling all the incoming apps and she said they had over 3000 applicants this year. Honestly, the company must've been under or around 50 employees. That's something like 25 a day. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>That put it in perspective for me. To be facing that much competition, I didn't know—they didn't have any way, I can't even imagine how they would process all of those and give everybody a fair look, much less pick mine out of the mass of qualified candidates. I knew that one wasn't gonna work out. I couldn't beat myself up too much about that, given the numbers I was facing.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I feel as if once I get that first job and I can challenge myself, I can prove myself, then, if in a couple of years the economy's better then the recession really won't have had too adverse an effect on my career. The only trouble is, that in all of my interviews companies have asked me, “What have you been doing with your time since you graduated?” <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I tell them that I've been traveling, job searching, reading, spending time with my family, but, you know, I haven't been doing anything to move my career or my skills forward, per se. If this job search drags on much longer that could really hurt me. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I did have an interview earlier this week. And I thought it went pretty well. I think I'll hear back today on whether or not they want me to come back for a second interview. They're a firm called XX Associates,* they do health care and pharmaceutical consulting and it would be a good first job. Probably not the sector or area that I'd really envisioned going into, per se. But, you know, a fascinating topic area nonetheless. My main areas that I'd love to do research in are development and development economics. I have a friend, a former classmate from UC Berkeley, who works for XX Associates and she encouraged me to apply. I figured it couldn't hurt given the rather sorry state of my job search.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>So I put in an application with her encouragement.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">At the end of the day, in whatever job that I end up doing, I want to be able to ask "Is this going to have a positive impact on people's lives?" and hopefully the answer is yes. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">*<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The company’s name has been changed to protect anonymity.</i></p>Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-31921860192697979652011-07-15T09:59:00.000-07:002011-07-18T17:37:34.629-07:00Recession Grads on the Radio! (Part 3)<span style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">What?</span> A fantastic story<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Where?</span> On Crosscurrents, an award-winning daily news program on 91.7 FM, KALW<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">When?</span> Monday, July 18th, between 5-5:30 pm*<br /><br />This is the third installment in a three-part series exploring the experiences of San Francisco Bay Area Recession Grads. In this final piece, we hear the story of one young graduate who is working. Kelly Cha is a graphics delineator for the City of Oakland—a position she earned after interning for the city for over two years. Cha graduated a semester early with a Bachelor’s degree from the prestigious architecture department at U.C. Berkeley. </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" ><br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: arial;font-family:";font-size:10.0pt;color:black;" ></span>Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-70027147851816442332011-07-09T10:51:00.001-07:002011-07-09T10:59:05.096-07:00Brian<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> 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mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">I keep hearing that the U.S. is in dire need of engineers—people are desparately looking to fill engineering positions, despite the economic hard times. Apparently, this is true.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I spoke with <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Brian Reeves, a civil engineering major who graduated in 2009 from Santa Clara University with a Bachelor’s degree. He loves his job—and it is exactly what he dreamt of on graduation day.</i></p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal">For the first couple years in school, I saw myself going to design firms to do engineering, but when I graduated I could see myself going into construction. </p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal">When I wanted to do design, it was just because that's what I was learning in school and I wanted to do that. Then my first impression of design companies was that the people that worked in them weren't any fun. The companies were all small. I heard that when you go to work for a design company you're not going to get paid a lot and you're not going to get to do design work like you learned in school. You'd be doing detailing, just small parts, not actually doing any of the engineering. Yeah. In construction everybody is, I guess, a little bit more fun to hang out with. </p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal">After graduation I hadn't lined up a job and my friends were building a <a href="http://www.refracthouse.com/">solar house</a> on campus at Santa Clara for a <a href="http://www.solardecathlon.gov/">competition</a>. And, my friend told me that I could stay in his apartment while I helped build this house. So I did that. I'd say that if companies were hiring then I probably wouldn't have gone and done this whole [solar] project. I probably would've gotten a job right out of school and begun to work. </p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal">During the project I met some representatives from Cupertino Electric, because they were a sponsor of our house and, they offered me an internship, so, I took that. And the internship lasted me about 3 months, and it was a cool experience –my other internships had been with general contractors, so to be working with a sub-contractor was kind of cool to get that other side of the business. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">That internship ended in March and I started looking for a job. A lot of going through old contacts, calling companies that I worked for before—they weren't hiring.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And a lot of networking through family and through friends. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And also going cold to these companies' websites and just puttin' stuff in. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Going to career fairs. And, you know, got to a point where, I'd kinda done everything that I could do, maybe after a month or two months and I was just kind of waiting on replies at that point. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">The first person that I contacted for a job was my friend Jaden Green who worked for Camden Construction.* Jaden went through the same Civil Engineering program that I went through. She graduated the year before I did. She forwarded my resume on and gave me a good recommendation and it so happened that they were reviewing resumes at that time. I went through other jobs, got a few offers all at the same time, one being Camden.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I was unemployed for about 4 months and started with Camden on July 1st. My job started basically, right on time—I would've had to borrow from my parents if it was any longer. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">This is kind of what I was looking for—a construction job in the Bay Area for a bigger company like Camden. So I pretty much got exactly what I was looking for. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I'm a project engineer at the airport. San Francisco airport. And I manage a couple contracts. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">If I'd gone straight to work for Camden, by now, I would've been there for a year and a half,—instead I've just been there for half a year. So, I'm that much further behind, I guess, in, you know, growing my bank account and trying to get my life together. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I have responsibilities that are similar to people that have been with the company a long time. 5, 6, 7 years. Yeah and they let you get into that right away. It's nice having responsibilities. When I was an intern at places—they're not going to give you a whole lot of responsibility. Typically you just get a task, I would do the task and then I would take it to them and get my next task. But now I have my own thing where I know what I'm wanting to do and I make my own work. And nobody really 100% oversees what I'm doing. You know, down to every detail. That's nice. To have that kind of responsibility. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A little stressful sometimes, but when you get everything done and you clear your plate off it's pretty rewarding.</p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">*Both the name of the company Brian works for and the name of his friend who also works there have been changed. </p>Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-43991088869658441352011-06-08T06:21:00.000-07:002011-06-13T22:01:57.585-07:00Recession Grads on the Radio! (Part 2)<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family:arial;" >What?</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> A fantastic story</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family:arial;" >Where? </span><span style="font-family:arial;">O</span><span style="font-family:arial;">n</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://kalwnews.org/">Crosscurrents</a><span style="font-family:arial;">, an award-winning daily news program on 91.7 FM, KALW</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family:arial;" >When? </span><span style="font-family:arial;">Monday, June 13th, between 5-5:30 pm*</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">This is the second installment in a three-part series exploring the experiences of San Francisco Bay Area Recession Grads. Marica Patchett graduated in 2009 with a degree in veterinary medicine from U.C. 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mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Before Marica pursued vet school, she was a self-described lab rat...</span><br /></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">At the time I was working for the USDA and we were doing an aging study on these particular species of fly and I would take up these dried up little flies from the desiccator and I would chop their heads off, grind them up, on ice, in the dark, using a variety of chemicals, and then inject my little solution into a machine and I would wait 7 minutes for it to spit out the results --and then I would do it again.</p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">Over and over and over again. I started to feel like I was going a little bit crazy, because it was just so repetitious and it was just, it was boring. It was really starting to affect me.</p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I had most of the requirements ready to go into vet school, I just had a couple classes that I needed to take, but the big hurdle was that I'd never worked in a veterinary clinic before. I didn't have any actual animal handling experience. Aside from handling insects, which didn't really count.<br /></p><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I had to start at the bottom and I got a job scooping poop at the local humane society. And so here I was, I had this degree in molecular biology and I was scooping poop and walkin' dogs. But that was the only way to start and get my foot in the door in order to become a technician and to log some veterinary hours, in order to even be considered for application for vet school. So that's sort of where it started.<br /></p><span style="font-family:arial;"> * It's only a 3 minute piece--I'm not sure where it will be placed in the program's line-up. But, the program (i.e., Crosscurrents) is always a treat--it didn't win a bunch of national awards for nothin'!</span>Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-19590103988898585522011-05-27T10:02:00.000-07:002011-06-01T18:27:03.409-07:00Project Update<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> 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mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">Although you haven’t seen much by way of posts recently, things have been hopping behind the scenes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>For the past month, I’ve been producing Recession Grads stories for the radio.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I will let people know as each piece airs this summer.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">I am continuing to interview Recession Grads from around the country—if you’re interested in participating, please drop me a line.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Worry not, I will return to posting people’s stories during the next few weeks.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">In other news…Stories about how the recession is impacting recent grads are popping up everywhere and I’ve been trying to add my two cents.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If you’re curious, read this NY Times piece: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/business/economy/19grads.html" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/business/economy/19grads.html</a> .<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I <a href="http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/business/economy/19grads.html?permid=394#comment394">posted my own story</a> in response and tried to <a href="http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/business/economy/19grads.html?permid=471#comment471">get the word out</a> about the Recession Grads project.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A few days later, the radio program Your Call explored a similar topic and used an e-mail* I sent as a conversation starter. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Listen to the show (which was excellent) here:<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><a href="http://a4.g.akamai.net/7/4/27043/v0001/kalw.download.akamai.com/27043/YourCall/052411yc.mp3">http://a4.g.akamai.net/7/4/27043/v0001/kalw.download.akamai.com/27043/YourCall/052411yc.mp3</a></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">*My e-mail: </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I am one of the lucky few who graduated with a B.A. in '09 and a Master's in '10 and have a job, albeit, a part-time internship. However, in my free time, I've started a research project to see how the recession is impacting recent graduates. In over a dozen interviews around the country, I've heard the same basic themes echoed time and again: recent grads are competing for entry level jobs with people who have years of experience, recent grads who get jobs are either taking service industry jobs or low skill low paid part time work not in their field, and many are drowning in student loan debt and worried about the future. Where is the job relief for our future leaders? What has happened to the American dream for us?</p>Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-42485041557918834762011-05-03T17:23:00.000-07:002011-05-06T09:41:48.928-07:00Recession Grads on the Radio!<span style="font-weight: bold;">What?</span> A fantastic story<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Where? </span><a href="http://www.kalwnews.org/audio/2011/05/04/recession-grads-when-higher-education-cant-get-you-hired_970687.html"><span>Here</span></a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span>on</span> <a href="http://kalwnews.org/">Crosscurrents</a>, an award-winning daily news program on 91.7 FM, KALW<br /><br /><br />Remember <a href="http://recessiongrads.blogspot.com/2010/10/kadie.html">Kadie</a>? I went back and learned more of her story (this time, with fancy radio-quality recording equipment) and crafted it into a short piece-- which aired Wednesday May 4th as the first in a three part series exploring the stories of Bay Area recession grads...<br /><br /><br />Please check out the result and leave comments for the wonderful folks at KALW!Melissa K. 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mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Alice is quietly and efficiently brilliant.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>I knew she was an immigrant but didn’t know the how, when or why, so I asked.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 1in 10pt 0.5in; font-family: arial;">I was born in Korea. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>My dad likes adventures and my aunt knew about my dad, so my aunt applied for the green card for my dad and my dad decided to just apply for the whole family. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">She laughs.</i> And after 10 years, we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">got</i> the green card. I didn't know anything about it at the time... I didn't even know that [we] applied for it. And we just kind of moved in 1998, when I was in middle school.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 1in 10pt 0.5in; font-family: arial;">I naturalized a couple of years ago. All my connections, all my friends are here. I knew that I was going to stay here no matter what. I always wanted to vote—<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">she laughs—</i>and that was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">time</i> to vote too! 2008, you gotta vote. And right before that, I got naturalized.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Alice has a Bachelor’s degree—she majored in Architecture and minored in City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley.</i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I was the oldest kid and my mom and dad—they had their own expectations for me. I just kind of followed whatever they wanted. You know, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school and high school and then you go to college and university. After graduation, I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I thought there was something for me to follow. But, you know, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">you</i>'re supposed to decide and I was kind of lost.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">It's not like I can talk to my aunts or like some other people that are already graduated. They're all in Korea. If they were [here], it would've been a little bit easier for me. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">She laughs. </i><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And I'm kind of like, "Oh, I need to do it by myself." I need to do it. I can't ask anybody a favor for me. That kind of mindset. So it was just kind of difficult to approach other people than my family... </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">Basically, I didn't know what to do. I was completely lost. I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">moved</i> in with my family in San Jose after graduation and I was totally not expecting that. Myself and my parents either. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And then I just started searching for job in City Planning.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I thought I would get a job, right after college. I graduated college, I have a degree, I should get a job.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But that wasn't the case. And my parents thought I would get a job, be independent and those kind of things. But I moved in with my parents and my parents were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">very</i>...upset, in a way, and very disappointed. They didn't say it, but, because I was the oldest kid, they were expecting a lot more…Sorry <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">She begins to cry</i>.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">They were frustrated. And then I get frustrated, because they were frustrated. You know, you search for a job, you apply, many different places and you get interviewed a couple different places and you kind of expect <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">one</i> would call you back. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">She laughs.</i> And, that doesn't really happen.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">And [my job search] lasted more than six months. And, then your parents start to say, you know, you shouldn't just look for planning and architecture, why are you just doing that? You should just work somewhere else. And they just kind of keep telling you. And it's kind of annoying. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">She laughs. </i>Because I do have a goal to get some experience in planning and eventually get a full time job. It was very, very stressful. And, you know, you have your younger siblings with you too. It's kind of like...they're looking at me like I'm a bad example, you know? <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Crying.</i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">Mostly I was applying to city government, because I thought that was the only field that planning can have a job, but then I was kind of discouraged because I don't hear back from them and if I do, after the interview, I don't get the job or the internship. So it was kind of discouraging. I <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">had</i> to work, to live. Even though I was living with my parents, I had to have some kind of income. Just work at Starbucks or just work at Peet's or something, do something, just start working. I didn't want to do those things, because I know if I get comfortable, I would just be there. My education, the whole tuition that I paid for over four years and all the courses I take, that would just go away. It would be totally useless. So, I tried to avoid those kinds of things as much as possible as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">long</i> as possible and then, you know, you kind of have to start working.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">That's when I went outside of planning and architecture. I just applied to any administrative positions and then I got a legal assistant position at this small law firm. I worked there about a year. I didn't really expect to work there that long. I thought within at least six months or so, that I would leave and start working in planning, but it didn't work. I think working and searching [for a job] was a lot difficult than just searching. But it was a lot better in psychological way, because I was working and doing something instead of just looking.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Alice began taking classes in urban planning and geographic information systems (GIS) in the evenings, working towards a professional certification.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">When I was taking the urban planning GIS course, a classmate actually got an internship [and then] left right after, because she got a full time position [elsewhere]. So I applied, got to interview and then got the [intern] position, started working. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that I should get an internship while I was in college, but I didn't, ever. I guess I didn't really have concept of getting job, in order to get the job and start earning income, you need to have some experience, not only the education part.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I thought, <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>you go to elementary, middle school, high school, college and get a job. I thought that was the whole thing and you don't really have to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">try</i> to do it. I thought if you get good grades in college then you automatically get a job, but that wasn't the case. I'm a pretty positive, optimistic person, so I was like, 2 to 3 months, I'll get a job. You know? I'll get a job. I was pretty optimistic. And then that kind of diminishes every month. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">She laughs.</i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">There weren't many full time positions opening. Most of the positions were either internship or part time or temporary positions. So it was really difficult, but even if it was just internship, part time, temporary positions, competition was amazing. Like, I apply for [assistant planner] and they call me for interview and I went there, there were like, 20, 30 people waiting for the interview. If you think about how many people already applied and they selected those people to interview, I was awed. I was awed.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Alice’s parents have moved back to Korea. She continues to look for full time employment, while taking care of her two younger siblings.</i></p>Melissa K. 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mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><i style="">Recently I had the opportunity to do <a href="http://storycorps.org/">Story Corps</a> and was interviewed by my partner about my experiences as a Recession Grad.<span style=""> </span>I thought it only fair to share them with you.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">For me as a kid, I dreamt of college, because I was a dork and I loved reading and I was very smart and I felt like, some day, I'm going to be in this magic place of [<i style="">laughs</i>] higher learning, where everyone will be like me.</p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal">I dropped out of school the day I turned 18, which was two months before I would've graduated. And to me, it wasn't even worthwhile graduating. I had been the perfect student all of my life, up until [family problems in] my junior year in high school. I missed a <span style="font-style: italic;">lot </span>of school...<br /></p><p face="arial" class="MsoNormal">And what was the point? It wasn't like I was going to get into a good school now. Everything seemed like it wasn't worthwhile. It wasn't worth even trying. Or even finishing. At first I tried to get a social worker and I tried all of these different normal things to make my life better. And when that didn't work, I bought a plane ticket and the day I turned 18, I planned to fly out. To California. [<i style="">laughs</i>] I was from just outside of Cleveland.</p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal">When I first came to California I found minimum wage jobs. I worked a variety of strange things. Eventually I landed in a bookstore. And I loved it. Because everyone there was like me in a way. They loved books, they were very witty and smart and creative. And we could have these intellectual conversations that could go on for hours and I would forget that I didn't have a degree and that I was making minimum wage and that I didn't know what was going to happen in the future.</p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">Almost a decade passed, while I worked in the bookstore.</i></p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal">Everyone that I worked with was shocked that I didn't have a degree. I thought I'd lost my opportunity, that I wouldn't, that no school would want me, that I couldn't afford a school, that I was too old, that it was too late but, [my partner] convinced me to apply to one school and I applied to that one school and was completely blown away when they called me up and said you're accepted and here's a scholarship.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">I completed a bachelor’s in public policy while working on credits towards a master’s. </i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">When I was in school I was part of an award-winning radio documentary, I made one of my dreams come true and won a scholarship to study in Egypt—[<i style="">sighs</i>] I did so many—I won an award for my thesis—so I expected when I got out of school, I'd at least be able to get a job. And instead I'm filling out resume after resume, different cover letters, I'm applying for jobs that I wouldn't have applied for before, because the job market's tough. There’s jobs out there, but you're competing with people that have ten years of experience and that are willing to take an entry level job. So you don't have a chance as someone fresh out of school without experience in that field or with only internship experience when someone who's an expert in that field or several someones who are experts in that field are interviewing for the same job. I've had some interviews, but it's pretty grim. It's been almost a year. And I still haven't found full time employment.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">It makes me really question whether I can make it in the real world. It really crushes your self esteem. I don't know where I'm going to be ten years from now. I have no idea. And I thought I'd at least, I used to think that I would be a researcher somewhere, but now—or that I'd have, you know, my own independent firm or something, but now I hope that I'm at least able to pay a little bit towards my loans.<span style=""> </span>I mean that's sad, but that's as much as I can hope for right now. Or as much as I can expect, given what I've seen so far.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I'm applying for all of these jobs and most of them are jobs I don't even want and not once, not in all of these months, not in all of these searches and networking, have I found a single career or job or opening that's doing what I love—which is collecting stories. I love doing interview-based research. And I haven't found anything like that. So, at some point, I decided, what the heck, if I'm not going to get paid to do it, there's no reason why I just can't do it on my own. And at the same time, I've been wondering how other people feel who went back to school. If anyone else is having a tough time and what their experiences are or maybe other people are seeing this as an opportunity to do a whole new thing with their life. So I started, back in October, an independent project researching how the recession is affecting recent graduates. And I've been interviewing people all over the country to see what their experiences are like.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I'm hearing so many different stories. And it makes me feel—not alone and it also makes me feel like there's a generational thing that's happening. That there's an actual historic thing that's happening. There's a subgeneration of people who are essentially being left behind because of the economic downturn. You have all of these fresh young minds—or people that went back to school to retool their careers—that are now left in this nebulous nowhere zone of unemployment or underemployment.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I feel angry that we had this promise, you know, this unspoken promise, that you go to school and you get a job. That's what happens in the United States, right? Wrong. And, and it's not being addressed. We're addressing the value of the dollar, we're addressing this and that—or we're creating jobs, but we're creating <i style="">retail</i> jobs. That's what I went to school to <i style="">not</i> do anymore. And it's not being...It's not being discussed, not really. And our voices aren't being heard. I feel like I'm collecting the stories of people that really have no other forum.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-28650975800511265382011-03-14T18:12:00.001-07:002011-03-14T18:12:56.082-07:00Laura<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:version>12.00</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:relyonvml/> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> 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mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">Laura graduated from a well-respected public university with a B.S. in civil engineering.<span style=""> </span>She has a vivacious personality and is enthusiastic about her work at a large national construction management firm. She genuinely loves what she does and where she does it. </i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I kind of fell into the industry. I wanted to be able to work on large projects that would impact society and change people's lives for the better. I really wanted to do something with bridges. I thought they were fascinating. Whenever I saw a really complicated structure, I always would think, oh man, there's so much physics behind it! It's such a static thing—like a highway overpass or a bridge, but there's so much math! <i style="">She laughs.</i> And my friends would just roll their eyes as I dorked out. That's kind of where I saw myself. I didn't really understand the specifics of what it entailed. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">XX Construction came to a civil and environmental engineering career fair—they have a large recruiting effort among civil engineers. I interned with them for two summers and all of the last academic year part time. After I worked for XX Construction the first summer, I decided to only interview with construction firms, so everywhere else I interviewed with, they were also similar general contractor/construction management type companies. They only differed in company culture and the types of project they took on.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I would say after the first year I had an internship with XX Construction, I didn't really feel the strain of any economic hardship, but when I was looking for an internship again, I talked with a lot of other companies and at that point, it was getting a little tighter and a little more competitive. In retrospect, it would've been nice to intern at other companies and see what their management style is like, how they do things differently than XX Construction.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>XX Construction was really the only place that I wanted to work. I really enjoyed the project I'd been interning on, I really enjoyed the people that I worked with. And I felt like the type of people that XX Construction likes to hire was the type of people I like to hang out with. <i style="">She laughs.</i> So, for me, I felt like it was a really great fit. And I was really excited when they made me a full time offer.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">It's different once you start working—when you intern, you're doing things that are helpful, but at the same time, nothing is that heavy in terms of accountability and responsibility. That's what's different, being full time. Realizing that the things you do and say always circle back and you have to be accountable for it. It's been really different…just not being in a setting anymore with a bunch of people my own age. It's kind of weird, 'cause most of my friends I still hang out with, they're either still in college or they're looking for jobs right now, but they don't really share the same experiences I have in that forty-fifty hour work week.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I really enjoy my job right now. I think it's a good mix of something that's practical and I can support myself pretty well doing what I'm doing and also it's something that keeps me challenged and keeps me interested.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">The recession is like this thought in the back of everyone's mind—especially since XX Construction has done multiple rounds of layoffs within the company. I guess I feel like I have a little bit of security in terms of being a new hire, because I know that I'm the cheapest worker that they have. If they want to lay me off or...I mean they could, but I'm not worth that much in the first place. <i style="">She laughs.</i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">In terms of how the recession <i style="">has</i> impacted me outside of my job, I do feel like a lot of my friends are unemployed or they're working a job to make ends meet or kind of a temporary job while they apply to law school or some kind of graduate school. For me, it's a little bit of a dampener. Right now, I'm trying to move to an apartment in San Francisco. And, I'd like to live with more than one person, I prefer a more social atmosphere. But it's been really difficult finding people to live with, 'cause all of my friends don't have jobs, so they can't afford to move out of their parents' place.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">Once you're off work you have all of this free time before you go to bed and sometimes it's frustrating—I <span style=""> </span>shouldn't say it's frustrating because that makes it sound like a life crisis. <i style="">She laughs.</i> But, I wish more of my friends were making some type of income, 'cause it's hard to go out and grab a drink when your friends say they can't afford it. Sometimes I feel bad about having a job. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">When I can, I help my friends out with resumes and stuff. I recently got put on the recruiting team—they put us through behavioral interview training. I try and pass on the knowledge to my friends who are going through the interview process and submitting resumes. I know what companies are looking for on a pretty basic level, so I can assist in some way. It's weird to feel bad. I guess I shouldn't, but when you're in a better situation than everyone else, that's kind of what happens. I wish all of my friends had jobs. That would be great. I could go out all of the time, there wouldn't be really any restrictions on what we could do.<span style=""> </span></p>Melissa K. 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mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">Valerie lives in a lovely Southern resort town, but speaks with only the minutest trace of an accent. Her resume boasts both an A.A. in criminal justice and a Bachelor’s in Psychology. She has a reputation among her co-workers as being tough as nails, as she said laughingly, “They call me Ginger at work, because they say I have no soul.” <span style=""> </span>In her defense, Valerie’s current job matches neither her talent nor her temperament, which arguably, might do damage to anybody’s soul.</i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">When I first started college I pictured myself doing exactly what I'm doing now. I always thought I wanted to do transitional living. I do case management for a nonprofit transitional living program. I work with homeless, runaway and at-risk youth, ages 16 to 21, helping them with getting jobs and housing and government assistance. Doing life skills. Kind of teaching them to be independent adults. I did a year of Americorps, which is a government program, you work a year in a high needs area. And that was with an outreach center which is part of the organization that I work for now. About six months into that, they offered me my current position. So I was doing full-time Americorps and part-time case management. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">It's not at all what I thought it was gonna be.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I don't have the right degree for it first of all, you don't get paid a lot, you don't get benefits, it's...it's basically being a mom to a whole bunch of kids that don't really want to be in the program. It's just not for me. Some days we're really busy and some days the kids don't want anything to do with me. It just kind of depends. I've got mostly <i style="">pregnant</i> girls in the program. And so I'm taking them to doctor's appointments, taking them up to apply for Medicaid, apply for food stamps, apply for WIC. Kind of just meeting with them. Sometimes we go out and go to coffee and I listen to their problems, which is hard, because they want to tell you about their problems, but then they don't really want to <i style="">fix</i> any of the problems. I'm not good at just listening and being like, "It's gonna be ok." If you want to tell me what's wrong, then I'm going to tell you what you need to do to fix it.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I don't think I want to work with kids. <i style="">She laughs.</i> I work with them now and some of them are great, some of them—I just don't like it. I don't know how to explain why I don't. Some of the kids are great, but the majority of them, I just dread. Just not my personality.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">In my job I don't get any benefits. I knew going in that we didn't have any benefits, but what I didn't realize was that—apparently for years—maybe once or twice a year, my boss bring[s] up getting benefits, to get everybody to get kind of excited. And it never happens. And she eventually did it while I was [there], “Would anybody be interested if we were to get health insurance?” And I was like, hell yeah I would be. And then after talking to some of the other employees, they were like, no no no, she says that every year and it never happens. I didn't realize how important benefits were 'cause I'd been under my parents’ plan for so long and it just never really occurred to me. So when I lost them, I'd never <i style="">not</i> had health insurance. I didn't really realize it was such a big deal until I got sick and had to pay a hundred dollars out of pocket to go to the doctor.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">[Also], there's absolutely no where for me to move up. There's only two positions above mine and they're not going to leave and it's also grant funded, so there's no possibility of a raise. We're on a five year grant cycle and the grant’s allotted this much money for my salary and so for the next five years, that's how much I can get paid. And there's not enough room in the budget for me to ever get more. So I've been looking at more corporate jobs, office administration jobs…<i style="">She laughs. </i>Which I did before and I could easily do again.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I feel like I wasted a lot of time and money. I've got a lot of student loans to be kind of taking a step backwards to something that I did when I first started doing college. When I first started college, I was in an admin position at a law firm. That's something I did <i style="">while</i> I was in college and now I've spent all of this time and all of this money to do the same thing I was doing <i style="">without</i> spending all of that time and all of that money. My current job is frustrating because the case manager that they just hired has <i style="">no</i> degree and <i style="">no</i> experience, so even the <i style="">current </i>job I'm doing can be done by somebody that has no degree and no experience. I spent fifty thousand dollars to get this degree to get this job that somebody that didn't go to college, that didn't volunteer for Americorps or do an internship got the same job.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I feel bad complaining, because I <i style="">do</i> have a job. But then again, I thought, “I've spent all this <i style="">time</i> and this <i style="">money</i> and finally I've graduated and I'm not going to have to <i style="">struggle</i> anymore.”<span style=""> </span>I don't have a savings account. It's kind of paycheck to paycheck. <i style="">She laughs.</i> I've graduated and absolutely nothing's changed, except for now I'm a little broker because I have to pay student loans back. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I've always worked full time. I worked most of the time even in high school, I've always really like going to work. <i style="">She laughs.</i> And I've never had problems getting jobs. In my <i style="">head</i>, in July, as soon as I was done [with school], I was gonna get another job. I was like, I'll start applying, I'll have a new job by August. I just never—I mean I've never had a problem <i style="">getting </i>jobs. I don't think I've ever really <i style="">really</i> interviewed for a job even. Like Americorps, I had a friend that did it. So she introduced me. And I got it immediately. I didn't interview for my current position because I was just kind of promoted.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I started looking [for another job] before I graduated. I started out strong. Sending out lots of resumes all over the country. And it's kind of tapered off. <i style="">She laughs.</i> You know, I haven't gotten any responses. And so I still look.<span style=""> </span>I try to send out at least one a day. Some of the websites are easier, if I already—like Boeing, already has all of my applications, so all I have to do is get on and click apply, apply, apply to whatever comes up. But then some of the other ones you have to have not only a resume and a cover letter, but you have to fill out an online application, which is basically just retyping your resume and that takes at least an hour. It's just really frustrating that you spend all of this time doing cover letters and resumes and then you go to apply for the job and it's just basically retyping everything that's right there on your resume, only to never get called. You know it's <i style="">hard</i>. You don't want to be pissed off but at the same time, you're like, I've just wasted an hour on something that resulted in not even an interview. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">When I started looking I was like, “Oh, well, there's <i style="">tons </i>of jobs out there, I don't know what they're talking about.” I start applying and I'm not getting any response and then I talked to a friend—I just applied for this job at the company she works for and she's like, “Oh yeah, we had 160 people apply for that, you might have a shot.” I was like, <i style="">holy crap</i>. She's like, “Oh that's nothing, we had six thousand apply for this other job.” That's when I kind of realized that it's not that there aren't jobs, it's just that there's <i style="">so</i> many people applying for jobs out there. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">Psychology's kind of a broad degree. Nursing, you go to school and you're a nurse. You can't go to school four years for psychology and be a psychologist. There's not really a lot of jobs for a four year psychology degree. If I could pay my student loans, then I would go do my master’s degree.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">There's a master’s program not far from here, but the only thing is, if I did the master’s program, I could only work part-time. There's no way I could work part-time and pay all of my bills. But if I could save up enough money to pay my student loans for those two years, then I would go do a master’s degree. And then I also worry, because even if I <i style="">do</i> do a master’s degree, is it really going to get me anywhere further? You know, an associate’s degree didn't get me anywhere, a bachelor's degree didn't get me anywhere, so am I really gonna take the chance and go do another two years of school and take out all these extra student loans for something that may <i style="">or</i> may not get me a job?</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>Melissa K. 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mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">When I first contacted Jason, he was hesitant to participate and didn’t think he was the “best candidate” for the project or that his experience was “indicative of the zeitgeist.” But as someone who spent six years in the Navy and then started working with a major defense contractor after his tour, I think he represents a very important part of his generation.<span style=""> </span>Jason finished his bachelor’s degree while advancing quickly through the ranks of his civilian job.<span style=""> </span>Currently, he is pursuing an MBA, penning his second novel, and in his ever-diminishing spare time, teaching his daughter how to read.</i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">It's so hard when you come from a background without money to go to school. Or at least that's the perception of a lot of people. You know, I didn't know anything about financial aid. I didn't know how it worked. I didn't even think it was a <i style="">possibility</i> to go to college. College never really seemed like something I was gonna be able to do. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I joined about 9 months before 9-11, which I think, I really think that a lot of our problems stem from there and from our nation's reaction to those events. But when I joined it was all these kids, Gen Y, the tail of the Gen X, who were essentially saying, "I cannot go to college unless I do something and join the military." And a lot of people were joining at the time. And then 9-11 came. <i style="">We</i> weren't the ones that joined because of patriotic reasons or whatever, we didn't want to go to war, we wanted <i style="">college.</i> We wanted school. It was about going to school and bettering yourself. There seemed to be no other way for a lot of people living in rural communities and inner cities.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">First and foremost, obviously, was always school, but travel was always a big incentive too. <span style=""> </span>And the fact that I essentially burned a lot of the other bridges that I may have had. <i style="">He laughs.</i><span style=""> </span>You get out of high school with bad grades in what I considered a bad economy, without family with means, you don't have a lot of options. And the military was that option. I got to see the world, I got to work in a job that was just completely mind-blowing to someone without any higher education. I ended up taking, what, 70 credits with me from all of my military schools and not all of them got applied towards my degree, but I got a 4.0 on my degree. And then I finished out my degree at an online college, a state college that's based out of Connecticut. They work with military people coming out. <span style=""> </span>And right now I'm enrolled in grad school.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">I ask what made him decide to pursue further education.</i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I read incessantly. I read nonstop. I don't ever want to stop. I want to pursue more education even beyond my masters of business that I'm working on. I want my kids to have the life that I didn't have growing up. I don't want them to have to join the military. I don't want them to have to go through a lot of the things that I did. I didn't have a very good life before the military. I had some very strong people in my family, very <i style="">good</i> people in my family, good role models, but I was in a bad place before I joined the military. And I gained a lot from it, but I don't want my kids to have to go through any of that. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I think I had kind of a unique educational experience. <span style=""> </span>I'm this 32 year old guy and there's all of these kids, like 23 year olds, with masters degrees, because their parents had a lot more means than mine did. While I was essentially sitting in a crammed little boat in the middle of Asia, getting screamed at every day by officers. I had two years of technical school in the military. Twelve hours a day in front of a desk, learning electronics. I mean, it literally was a terror but it also made me fall in love with the career roles of electronics. They're essentially puzzles, right? And a big electronic system, most people have no idea what it is. It's like the military, unless you've been there, you have no idea.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">It's like—I'm not sure if you're familiar with the writing of Robert Heinlein. He wrote <i style="">Starship Troopers</i> and quite a few other novels, but he had an idea in a lot of his science fiction that they weren't really citizens—it was kinda like the Romans, you didn't really get your citizenship unless you joined the military. And it's almost like that today. You know, if your family doesn't have means, that's pretty much the only way that you can finance a future. Otherwise, you're kind of a prole, right? You're kind of delegated to the working class. I've seen too much of that. I know too many people with too much potential who essentially work factory jobs for their whole lives because they didn't have a lot of opportunity for education. I came from a very, very, small town where <i style="">every</i>thing was manufacturing. That was the expectation from the time you were a little kid was that you would be working in a factory. And I could <i style="">never</i> see myself fulfilling that role. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I've come a long way. A lot further than I probably thought I would. <span style=""> </span>I worked every single kind of menial labor before I joined the military.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I don't know anybody else that has a stable job. <i style="">He laughs.</i> And I have a fantastic job and a fantastic company and I'm moving up and I don't know anybody else that's in that sort of situation. I'm in a kind of unique position, my company is defense, right? <i style="">He laughs.</i> So, we're doing well because of the war. But, technology is changing, the way we wage war is changing. The stuff we're doing now <i style="">saves </i>soldiers' lives by having unmanned planes in the sky, satellite feed the soldier can look at in their hand—that kind of technology, the kind of position my company is in, is very good. So, as defense goes up and a lot of the rest of the economy goes down, my position and my company have actually been doing rather well. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I do all of the test engineering and the tests for communications systems. When I was in the military that consisted of radios, radars, computer systems, now we test the communications systems that go on the unmanned planes, ground stations, all that stuff. Before I was a technician that was actually running the tests, now I'm an engineer that designs the tests.<span style=""> </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I [also] sit in on interviews. And we see <i style="">so</i> many resumes. I've never seen a job market like this. It's really insane. We're inundated with so many resumes. And, you know what, with all of these people who have been working 20, 30 years in the technical profession, it's really, really hard to hire someone that's fresh out of school. They've got almost <i style="">no</i> chance. Just because everybody else is downsizing so much. People are coming looking for technician jobs that, just for an example, may have been designing microprocessors through the 80s, through the big tech boom. And if you're fresh out of college, with no experience, how do you compete with that? I was lucky. Before the economy collapsed on everybody I got my job. Defense contractors still hire military, because it's a unique experience you can't really get in college. That's pretty much how it is. If I saw two people, one with military experience who'd actually been doing the job for a number of years and somebody with just a college degree, I would probably hire the military person in a heartbeat. Because the market is flooded with so much experience right now. If you just have a degree there's...you're <i style="">really</i> not competitive right now.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">Joining the military, every step of the way I tried to do what was right and every step of the way things kind of worked out for me. And most of the people in the military, the friends I made there, didn't end up doing nearly as well. And most of the people I went to school with didn't end up doing nearly as well.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">People starting careers now, <i style="">don’t</i> get pensions anymore. I started in 2007 at my company after I got out of the military and I was right after the pensions. And I even think they were starting to feel the downturn in the economy then. I mean we hadn't had the big housing crisis yet, but—I mean the economy was really weird at the time and a lot of people didn't know why. It seemed strange and shaky to me. Because that was right when everybody cancelled their pensions, some of the stocks were all over the map. So I've taken a lot of hits, but everyone I know has taken bigger hits than I have to their retirement. But I'm so early in my career I don't think that the impact is as big as it would've been, like some—my parents. You know, I've got a lot of relatives that they can't retire now. They would've retired a year or two ago.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">My company hasn't had layoffs in probably 20 or 30 years. That's probably a pretty good indicator. We're kind of in a niche market without too many, without any real competitors. And we're in a field that's growing. That again is kind of a unique situation. I don't know anybody else. I mean even in defense, people at Boeing are you know, taking pay cuts every year nowadays. Nobody else is getting raises. Nobody else except for my company is giving raises. But we're getting to the point where we're kind of scared were not going to get one this year. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"> </p>Melissa K. 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Kaila graduated with a B.A. in Spring 2009 after receiving multiple awards for her scholarship and academic work in anthropology. When I met her we sat in a room full of boxes—she was in the middle of moving from San Francisco to Berkeley, seeking lower rent. Kaila has worked for a shoe shine and repair business in San Francisco for over six years.</i></p><p face="arial" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">WARNING: SOME EXPLICIT LANGUAGE<br /></i></p> <p face="arial" class="MsoNormal">I felt like I needed a break from all intellectual pursuits after [college]. I was like, "Ok, fuck it, I'm shining shoes now.” I work for a company that my friend started in downtown San Francisco. We made it through the whole economic downturn pretty well. Shoe repair is a good—people want to get their shoes repaired <i style="">more</i> in a bad economic climate, right? Because they want to take care of the stuff they've got, rather than buy new shoes.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I'm the repair manager at the stand. I let the repair guy, who is off site, know which shoes need to come back that day, you know which are really time sensitive or whatever. And then, start busting out shining the shoes that have been repaired. Processing them. I work at the shoe shine stand that's sort of the hub, so all the repairs come back to that stand and then we have multiple stands and they go out to the stands. So that's what I do all day, is shine the shoes that need to be--the repair shines that need to be shined and then take them out to the other stands. And in between I'm shining shoes, dealing with customers, ringing up shines. Ringing up repairs, etc, etc. Up until I think it was about January 2010. And then I got bored with that. I was like, "Ok, I want some more stimulation for my brain."</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">So I immediately went to M--- A---, who is the archaeology professor at [my college]—he has become a good friend of mine. And I said, what do I do, how do I go about getting a job, here's my resume, look at this. So, he looked over my resume, corrected it a little bit, got me some contacts I talked to. I interviewed with this girl that he knew in CRM, Cultural Resource Management, and then sent my resume out to a bunch of CRM firms. Cultural Resource Management. It's corporate archaeology. In California, before you build you have to make sure there isn't cultural remains underneath a building site. You need to go in and have contract archaeologists check it out. And make sure there's not stuff there. And if there's stuff there—which, there's <i style="">always</i> stuff there because people have been walking around in California for a lot of years and you know, leaving their cultural deposits behind. <i style="">She laughs.</i> Then, you know, you have to deal with that stuff there.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">To make more contacts I went to Riverside, which is, they had their archaeological <i style="">convention</i> there, the Society for California Archaeology. So I went there and I met some people, made some contacts, M---introduced me to a bunch of people, but nothing really came of that. I mean—well, some things. Like job leads came of that. But, nothing, really. I got some bites, but I got no fish basically. <i style="">She laughs.</i> I was bringin' it to a certain extent and I got the contacts, but oftentimes I didn't follow-up on it. I was like, if this happens, if this is meant to happen, it's gonna happen, but I wasn't really, really, really, hardcore pursuing getting archaeological work. So I got <i style="">nothin</i>'. I mean...I put <i style="">some</i> work into it. And so, I was frustrated that no prospects came of it. Archaeological fieldwork pays about the same as shining shoes—if I'd done fieldwork I would've done it just for the enjoyment of it.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">The firms were <i style="">not</i> hiring as much...new people. They always, CRM firms always have a tendency to want to hire people that have already worked for them, but I think, you know, more so, with the economy being bad. A few of the places that I applied for jobs at and a few of the people that I had talked to had said that they're going to go with the people that they have. Because basically they want good solid workers that they know <i style="">know</i> the job, they don't want to lose money on training new people.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">A lot my job contacts who couldn't offer me jobs, said,”Go to grad school. Get your MA.” I've had the plan to maybe go to grad school and learn—there's two ways you can learn how to be an archaeologist, you can go through grad school, get your MA, and a CRM firm will most likely hire you. I could go that route or I could go the route of getting field work. I kinda like the idea of that, because it's more blue collar, you get your experience in the field.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">There's definitely hesitation about going to grad school. It's a <i style="">commitment</i>. I'm not, I don't feel <i style="">fully</i> ready. Which is why I've been hesitant about it. Which is also why I wanted to get some fieldwork experience.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">And actually I love my job. I <i style="">love</i> shining shoes. I'm working with all my friends. I'm a recovered alcoholic as you know and everybody that I work with is a recovered alcoholic and it’s a totally fun job. It's a really fun gig. That's part of it. Leaving that, leaving what I know and love for something that's unknown, that potentially might not make as much money or is a little bit iffy, I don't necessarily want to do that.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">Fieldwork is, it's temporary, it's sporadic. <i style="">She laughs.</i> The great thing about the shoe shine job is that it's somewhat flexible. So I could <i style="">leave</i>, go do some fieldwork for a month or a couple of months and come <i style="">back</i> potentially. But, maybe not. Maybe they hire more people...I mean, I'm pretty solid there, I know the job really well and most likely I'd be able to come back. But I might not get as many hours when I come back, something like that. So, that—that's iffy.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>I didn't expect to be shining shoes for this <i style="">long</i> after I graduated, but I didn't really have—I didn't have a really clear idea of what it was going to be like after I graduated. I think if the economy was better, it would've been easier to find field work and with the amount of effort I did put into it, I would've been able to find a job no problem. I actually did find—M--- offered me a job, he said he could get me this particular job, but it was in L.A. and it was labwork. <i style="">She laughs.</i> Which, if it had been fieldwork, I probably would've gone for it, but labwork is <i style="">bor</i>ing. And then, the economy plays into that too, because I didn't necessarily have the <i style="">money</i> to move down to L.A. to get the job. It costs money to move, in order to do the field work you have to be mobile, it costs money to get a plane ticket and stuff like that. And I don't have a car here, if I lived in L.A. and worked in L.A. I'd definitely have to have a car and have all of the expenses associated with that car. So I didn't want to do <i style="">that</i>. So, yeah, the economy's definitely affected me. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">My sister actually just—she's in Canada so it's a little different climate. But she just graduated, she just got her Phd in English and <i style="">she</i> had trouble getting a job right off the bat. She's brilliant, she got really good grades, did TA the whole time, so she's got all the job experience teaching and everything like that. She didn't have a job for months and months. She finally ended up getting some teaching work, but it's not what she wants. She got some community college work. Even a Phd isn't what it once was, you know?</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>I think if I was to stay at the shoe shine <i style="">forever</i>, I would be sad and restless about that. I want to get out and do something. I <i style="">do</i> want to use my degree at some point. The question is whether I can use it as a undergrad degree or whether I have to go to grad school to use it…I might have a bit of a positive outlook on the economy, I don't think it's going to stay this way forever.</p>Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-77539046074741806182010-12-29T16:48:00.000-08:002011-01-21T12:02:22.819-08:00Layla<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:version>12.00</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> 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mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" face="arial"><i style="">L<span style="font-family: arial;">ayla is in her mid-twenties and recently earned her Masters in Public Policy.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">For now, she lives in Oakland.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">She spent much of her undergraduate pursuing education issues and is passionate about engaging youth in the policies that affect them.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Throughout the interview, Layla descended into wry laughter about her current job.</span></i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" >When I first decided to go to grad school, I thought that I wanted to be writing curriculum or designing a program for young people to be connected to policies. And then by the time it was time to graduate, I felt like I didn't know anymore what I wanted to do.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" >I knew that I didn't want a job to be specifically research-oriented. <span style=""> </span>I still wanted it to be interactive with people. <span style=""> </span>And I knew the idea of connecting people to policies is really important to me.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal" face="arial">So I did this whole “ideal/less than ideal” job search thing. The idea was that I would spend a whole lot of time crafting my cover letter and being really, really deliberate on my ideal jobs and then crank out as many less-than-ideal jobs as possible. ‘Cause, you know I was getting broke.<span style=""> </span>I kept feeling like...Job searching sucks, right? It's hard to feel successful when the outcome that you want is still not happening.<span style=""> </span>No matter how many resumes you send out it's still hard to feel like "Oh, I did something."<span style=""> </span></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal" face="arial">Now, I work at this start-up nonprofit. This one was a less-than-ideal job. They're actually the only people that ever called me back. [When they called] I was kinda confident. <span style=""> </span>I was looking at the less-than- ideal job, reading the job description and then I convinced myself that it was a really awesome job and that I really wanted it and that I'd <i style="">mistakenly </i>written less-than-ideal on it. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;">The phone interview went pretty well. I totally crammed for it. The woman who interviewed me is a weird phone person. So I'd talk and then she'd go, "Yeah, thanks for sharing." <i style="">She laughs. </i><span style=""> </span>And I was like, "Sorry?"<span style=""> </span>It was really weird. We did that and then, I obsessed about how it went. But, pretty quickly after, she e-mailed me. Maybe a day later, "Oh, we're going to invite you in for an interview."<span style=""> </span>They did the interview at this super posh cute place. It was actually up the street from the real place where I really work now. <i style="">She laughs. </i><span style=""> </span>So I went and it's all fancy and I met the board president and saw the board member and I remember thinking like—I’d <span style=""> </span>assumed that I was going to meet the <i style="">staff</i>. <span style=""> </span>So the interview itself went really well. And they asked me to do a timed writing. Which is crazy. It was 30 minutes to write an op-ed piece and an outreach plan for an event. <span style=""> </span>I left there feeling shitty. I didn't do either of those well. I had 30 minutes and I'm dyslexic<i style="">.</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;">I've been reflecting on what they were trying to get at recently.<span style=""> </span>Hindsight's twenty-twenty. <span style=""> </span>Because now so much of my job is working under pressure, I feel like <i style="">that</i> was actually the test—as opposed to getting anything right, getting something <i style="">done</i>. It's a way that I hate to work and a way that I work a lot.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;">I'm really surprised that I got a job so quickly, but I think that a big piece of that is because it doesn't require the skill level that I have. The person who was doing this job before me was a sophomore in college. <i style="">She laughs. </i>I was like, "Ooooh! You guys are making me feel <i style="">good</i>—tell me more."… I don't think that there's as much opportunity to hire people that are overqualified when the economy is booming.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal">I think I definitely—I had to do it. The day I found out that I got the job? I was at $5 in the bank account. So I needed to. I feel mildly duped about how excited I was about it.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal">It's the exact right organization, which is how I think I confused myself. <i style="">They </i>do what I wanna do. <i style="">I</i> don't do what I wanna do. You know? It's that. It's decently close, in that it's the right kind of place. Just the wrong kind of position.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" face="arial" class="MsoNormal">I get to work about 8. I do a lot of little stuff that fills my day entirely—I <span style=""> </span>don't know that I could tell you what I do. Everything just takes a lot of time. I do mostly website stuff. I’m stupidly over-qualified for this job. I'm more or less an office manager who blogs and tweets. You don't need a masters degree for that, right?</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" face="arial" class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>And I get paid crappy. Yeah, I thought that would be different for sure.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" face="arial" class="MsoNormal">Usually I leave, like physically leave work at about 6:30, 7. I just come home and maybe make dinner, sit down and immediately do work. And then I stop that at around 10, eat food, hang out with [my boyfriend], complain about work.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" face="arial" class="MsoNormal">I feel like what they stand for is cool and I hate working there. Which makes me sad. <i style="">She laughs.</i> It's really, really busy. My position is <i style="">actually </i>two and a half positions. So they needed an office manager, they needed a communications person and they needed support for all of the [community] work. So they balled it up into one position. I should <i style="">never</i> be an office manager. On the best of days, I'm <i style="">no</i>body's office manager. <i style="">She laughs.</i> I <i style="">suck</i> at that. The communications part is what I was interested in. When I worked at the P----- , I did all of their outreach and all of their newsletter blog, all of that kind of stuff. I would go to community meetings and connect to people. I feel like that is the least of my work now, but that is what I was most excited about, right? So that's kind of whack. The [community] work, even though it's really, really frustrating, is really interesting. I like watching it unfold, but hate being in the room while it's unfolding. That said, my role for that work? Is notetaker at the meetings. So I'm not doing anything interesting, I'm just watching things that are interesting.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>The one cool thing is that I found out that everybody <i style="">else</i> that works there feels the same. Which sucks, but makes me feel not-so-bad. We ended up having this long discussion about how unhappy we all are...It all came spewing out at this team retreat where I was like, "Oh, P.S., I hate my job.” It was really bad. We were talking about all of these organizational problems—the fact that we move too fast, the fact that there's no consistent vision for us all to work toward, no decision-making process for us all to work together…Those I think are [all] very true and I would've said them, but somebody got to them before I did. So, I was like, "By the way, I hate it here." <i style="">She laughs.</i> And now they just think that I need constant praise</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">I ask her why she hates her job</i>.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I'm the <i style="">only</i> communications person and I had assumed because I am the only communications person that I <i style="">helped</i> make decisions around stuff. Not the case. I got told extremely bluntly that my job was doing the bidding of other people that do the thinking. And I've been really trying to push back on that and do thinking anyway, <i style="">but</i> it's hard when that' s the place where I start at every day. I worked really hard to become a critical thinker. To be doing something and to just be a gopher—to be a complicated gopher…I put up websites, I do things that require a skill set, but I don't <i style="">think</i> and I don't feel like it's valued when I do, I feel like it's a little bit put up with. <i style="">She laughs.</i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>I don't like it at all. I'm trying to like it more. I'm trying to get zen about it, honestly. I don't think that I'll ever really like it. Even before I got disgruntled [<i style="">she laughs</i>], I realized the first day that half of my daily tasks are things as a dyslexic person that I struggle with…Everybody needs me to do something and are genuinely appreciative of the work that I do. It's just that it's really stressful to do something that you <i style="">know </i>that you struggle with.<span style=""> </span>So, there's that piece.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">And then there's just like…I'm not feeling successful in the work that I'm doing—I'm busy all the time, but it's not the same as having something to be proud of.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">This is the point in my life where it is time for me to work a whole lot. I was totally ready for back sweat and crazy working, right? But I wasn't ready for this much work without feeling fulfilled. I expected to feel a lot more confident in myself and my abilities—I have a cool new piece of paper and I have all of these new skills, but I feel <i style="">way</i> insecure now. I'm really stressed and I'm—because I'm doing work that is <i style="">so</i> not my bag, it's all organization and catching other people's typos? I don't catch <i style="">my</i> typos! <i style="">She laughs.</i> </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I'm always nervous and I don't feel confident in the stuff that I do.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I really thought I'd have more autonomy in whatever it is that I'd be doing. I thought that I would have the opportunity to be a lot more creative and do work that I thought was interesting. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I would hope that the next place that I look for a job, that they would understand that we've been going through a recession and that I wasn't necessarily in a job that was my maximum potential. But it doesn't look super great on a resume, fresh out of grad school, [to] be a glorified office manager. The only good thing is that it's a startup and that I do lots of little things. So I feel like I have some good resume spin. </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">My boyfriend just graduated in 2010 too and it's been even harder for him ‘cause he got a masters in fine arts—more nuanced than that, he does video art. He's been having a really hard time finding a job. He's been applying for a bunch of jobs that he's overqualified for too. One thing that he really wants to do is teach. At this point, we made a deal, I'm putting off my job search until he finds a job.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">And even though I love Oakland and I love the Bay, we'll probably have to move. We're just, more or less, gonna go anywhere that doesn't suck that he can teach. This is probably the right area for me to do some interesting nonprofit work and reform work and stuff like that. This is probably not where I'll end up, at least not in the next couple of years. We're gonna live somewhere not as interesting, with not as many opportunities. It will be hard for my whole future trajectory.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">Postscript: Less than 3 months after this interview, Layla was laid off—the nonprofit ran out of funding for her position.</i></p>Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-85058063685508000862010-12-04T14:45:00.000-08:002010-12-04T15:38:47.381-08:00Claudia<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:version>12.00</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> 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mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><i style="">Claudia went back to school as an adult and transferred to a four-year college after attending community college.<span style=""> </span>She designed her own major in Criminal Psychology and graduated in Spring 2010. She speaks passionately and demonstratively—leaning forward in her chair, animated and intense, but quick to laugh. </i></p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal" face="arial"><i style="">WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE</i></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;">My original picture was that I was gonna go straight to law school. But...that didn't happen for a coupla reasons. I suffered a pretty severe break in my ankle. I sat for the LSAT cold because I had already paid for it. So there was that. However, even with the low LSAT score that I had, I would've actually gotten into law school anyway because of my personal statement, my letters of [recommendation], the fact that I designed my own major. But, when the economy goes bad, the first thing people do, is they [go] back to school, that somehow we have this idea that if I go to school—that degree equals success.</p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;">I applied to 8 law schools. What happened when I applied for UC Berkeley, the entire institution, both undergrad and all their grad school programs, they received 83 <i style="">thous</i>and applications. Ok?<span style=""> </span>And they took a very small percentage of—maybe 20 thousand applications, a quarter of the applications they got.Two-thirds of it was out of state students. This is a public university, they receive both state and federal funding, which is null and void because of the economy. And so they're asking for out of state students to come in because they're going to pay out of state tuition fees.</p><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: arial;"><span style=""> </span>I saw the impact of the economy <i style="">directly</i> in trying to get into [law] school. And now that I'm applying to law school [again], I'm applying to schools outside of <i style="">this</i> state, because those schools will probably be more apt to take me because I'm gonna pay their out of state tuition fees. It's ridiculous! What was disappointing was that as hard as I worked at school that I couldn't get into law school because so many out of state students were getting in. Because those are the people paying the fees that they want.</p><br /><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal">The day after I graduated, <span style=""> </span>I began looking for jobs. I looked for a job for how long? Four and a half months before I landed a [<i style="">clapping to emphasize each syllable</i>] SER -VING-GIG. I've finally landed a job—waiting tables. So, really fabulous—my original career that I was trying to get away from... I had to, I actually had to take that. [I had been] tailoring every single cover letter, to every single company and just <i style="">not</i> getting responses. I mean it took me a long time to get a <i style="">serving</i> job. I was applying all <i style="">over </i>the place, going to the interviews and not getting any of the jobs. And the reason is <i style="">my</i> resume, because I'm educated, because I can complete a sentence. My resume says I'm probably more qualified than <i style="">you</i> manager to do your job [and] I'm extremely experienced. The less qualified you are, the more they want to see you and deal with you.</p><br /><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>And then for the other jobs that I was applying for it was <i style="">no</i> response or de<i style="">lay</i>ed responses. And then, to add insult to injury, when I'd get there, they'd be like, "This position pays eleven dollars an hour." "This position pays twelve dollars an hour." "We don't actually have shift work, it's an on-call." Ok, well, what does on call mean? They wouldn't even have set days, like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday you're on call. It's like you're on-call 24 hours a day 7 days a week. So, if they call you at 1 a.m. on a Friday night, hopefully you haven't been at the bar getting drunk [<i style="">laughs</i>] because they need you to come into work.</p><br /><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><i style="">I interject, “You're talking about service jobs, right?”</i></p><br /><p style="font-family: arial;" face="arial" class="MsoNormal">No. Now I'm talking about <i style="">real</i> jobs. They can afford to be super-super picky right now. They can afford to do this, because there's no—there are no jobs...So, what's the applicant pool? Three <i style="">thous</i>and people?<span style=""> </span>For one job?<span style=""> </span>No kidding, seriously!<span style=""> </span>It's crazy.</p><br /><p style="font-family: arial;" face="arial" class="MsoNormal">I still engage my mind. I totally actively engage my mind, because serving is so brainless. I mean, once you know how to do it and you're really good at it. I've been finding it hard to discipline myself . But, hey, it [<i style="">applying to law schools again</i>] has to get done, so…The problem with serving at night is that you're with a bunch of other people mostly who <i style="">don't</i> have college degrees who <i style="">don't</i> have these kind of lofty ambitions.</p><br /><p style="font-family: arial;" face="arial" class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>I make ten dollars an hour plus, like two hundred bucks a shift. That's a livable wage. It's ridiculous. You know? That I can't use my college degree. So I laugh about it. Like, "Ooo, that [diploma] came in <i style="">real</i> handy."</p><br /><p style="font-family: arial;" face="arial" class="MsoNormal">I've been really disappointed and I've been really angry that this is the world that I've inherited. From these <i style="">fuck</i>ing buffoons, these bankers and these think tanks and this system of government…and no jobs for us and the shitty economy. Just super disillusioned. You think you're doing the right thing, “I'm gonna go to school, I'm gonna get my degree, I'm gonna move forward.”</p><br /><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I really enjoyed [school]. I'm <i style="">so</i> glad that I was able to do that. The value of learning how to think critically about what I'm reading, the value of being able to compose letters or documents—it's enormous. But do I need to be seventy thousand dollars in debt now? Seventy thousand dollars of debt that I can't pay and not just that, I mean, with the private loans, I can't even fucking afford the interest payment right now!</p><br /><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">How the <i style="">fuck </i>are we supposed to pay back all of these damn loans when there are no jobs for us. And the only way that we're going to be able to make it—really make it, is to invent work for ourselves. And that's going to be something local and sustainable. Whether you make clothes or you grow food or you <span style=""> </span>make soap or you do this kind of stuff, where you're writing and trying to get published and can get speaking engagements and stuff like that. Those are gonna be the ways that we're gonna be able to make money in this economy. The old way of doing things is not going to work for us anymore. But what's really shitty is that we're all operating under the old mode of thinking, “I'm gonna go to college, I'm gonna educate myself, I'm gonna get my degrees, I'm gonna get my job.”</p><br /><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">It's just a <i style="">disillusionment. </i>A total disillusionment that, you know, we're all sold this whole thing, that if you go to school and you get your degree, that there is a place for you to be a productive member of society in your field. <i style="">She laughs.</i> That whole thing? I really believed that—I really <i style="">believed</i> that. And today, I'm totally, totally fucking disillusioned from that.</p><br /><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I just sat for the LSAT again. I did better than I did last time. I still didn't place where I need to place. <i style="">She sighs.</i> Law schools are tiered. You have first tier law schools, second tier law schools, third tier law schools. Basically, the lower a tier law school that you go into, the more <i style="">common</i> you are, <i style="">but</i>, the more practical your education. So, when you go into these first tier law schools—Harvard, Yale, Berkeley—they turn the law into a very academic pursuit. The law is not supposed to be academic—law school is a professional school. You tell me how to interpret statute and case law and what the hell I need to do in the courtroom—<i style="">that</i> is what law school is for.</p><br /><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">I think it's really <i style="">good</i> that I didn't go into law school right away because it gave me a better perspective on what school is really about, and what law school is gonna be about. I'm gonna apply to Tulane in New Orleans as a first tier law school, but I'm also going to apply to Loyola in New Orleans, which is a third tier law school. Why waste the money? I spent like $1500 applying last year. Tulane, I'm above their GPA but below their LSAT. Loyola, I'm right on target and I probably could get in to Loyola. [Loyola is] going to be extremely procedural. They're not going to expect me to be sitting on a bench somewhere, wrestling with the human condition, ethics and the law. It's been like a reality check about what school is. And it's also brought me down to earth as far as the school search in that, you know what? I don't need to go to these expensive schools and stuff. I can go to a cheaper school. To understand that going to school now is not about having money and being able to buy into the system. That by going to school I get a degree to do work that I enjoy. Serving is fun, but it's not engaging at all. I wanna do work that I enjoy and if that is what going to school is going to allow me to do, then that's why I wanna go to school. So, I'd say that this recession has impacted the way I think about school. I'm not thinking about [school] in that old way that I used to think about it. I'm thinking about [school] in a different way, a more practical way.</p><br /><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>I'm not even gonna call it a Great Recession, I'm gonna call it a Depression. We're in the beginnings of this right now. We're in the beginnings. We are going into the <i style="">Greatest </i>Depression. I've really gotten into this mode of reuse, recycle, repair, stop buying, stop consuming. If you consume less, you require less money. To use my money for what my money is for.</p><br /><p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">There's something about it that seems like so...<i style="">not fair</i> somehow. It definitely has politicized me.</p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span></p>Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-54596366123897262852010-11-18T11:12:00.000-08:002010-11-18T12:42:47.953-08:00Researcher check-in<span style="font-family:arial;">It's been about a month and a half since I first launched this project and I thought this would be a good time to check in and tell you how it is going. I've spoken with 10 recession grads, some holding bachelor's degrees, others with master's in hand. 8 women, 2 men. 4 states, 5 universities. 7 have jobs, only two are employed in a job related to her field of study. Of those two, one has been laid off since the interview.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">So, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >where</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> are these stories? Well, once I've conducted an interview, I then </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transcribe">transcribe</a><span style="font-family:arial;">, </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coding_%28social_sciences%29">code</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> and edit it into a short narrative. This process can take a great deal of time. I do promise to keep posting stories as soon as I have them typed up. I imagine that as the holidays approach, I will spend less time interviewing and more time getting these stories to you.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: arial;">About you. Since October, this project has been viewed 494 times in 8 different countries. However, since that very first post, no one has commented. So, if you're really out there, and you have comments or opinions about the issues raised by the folks I interview, please add your two cent</span>s!<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Additionally, I </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >need </span><span style="font-family:arial;">your help</span><span style="font-family:arial;">. I don't have any interview candidates who graduated from community college. I have few interviews with men. Most of my interviews were with people who went to school in northern California. Do you know anyone who graduated from community college or university in the U.S. since 2007? Please send them my way--recessiongrads@gmail.com. Spread the word! I want all sorts of stories and experiences. I can only do this with </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >your </span><span style="font-family:arial;">help. I look forward to hearing from you.</span>Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-46995169085987274002010-11-06T16:49:00.000-07:002010-11-11T14:59:05.902-08:00Jeff<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Jeff is in his late twenties and has traces of a regional accent in his voice. A native of the Great Lakes region, he earned a Bachelor’s in Psychology in the fall of 2008. A troubled young adulthood saw him in and out of school for almost a decade. As I speak with him, I am struck by his heartfelt empathy and deep sense of gratitude.<br /></span><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">See I was in school for so long, you know? Cuz I was in there and out since I was 18-19. In the beginning, I didn't know what I wanted to do…my parents just told me [that] I need to go to college. I always just went, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was always tossing around ideas. I wanted a psychology [job] and I took a job, just to learn, in a drug rehab. So I was working in the field and I thought it was really interesting for a while. I thought, "Maybe I should do that" and then I think my senior year was when I finally thought to myself, "I need to make money." <span style="font-style: italic;">He laughs.<br /><br /></span><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">I think I grew up and began to take a look at living expenses. What it costs to raise a family. You wanna have a house. You wanna have a car. Kinda realizing how much money my parents made to live the life they lived. If I wanted to live something like that, this is what I'm gonna need. Also, talking to people in the psychology field and finding out how much they really do make and whoa, it was almost insulting. When you get down to it, for all that education. And for what you do. You really have to get involved, it's really emotional, you know? It kinda messes with you, being around people all the time that are struggling. That was kinda what changed me. Also, I'd worked so hard for this degree. For me it was really hard. I had to go back a buncha times and it took forever cuz I, you know, had a coupla issues and had to restart...All that hard work, I wanted to make sure that it was worth it.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">I changed my life. For a while there, [my father] didn’t think I was good for nothin.’ I was getting my life together…and my dad told me that maybe he can maybe get me a job in his field somewhere. A starter job.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">His father is in medical equipment sales.<br /></span> </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I think I was like, "Hey, do you remember that job you were talking about? So...Is that real? Can I really do that?" And then he started telling me. And he started preparing me. And telling me what it was going to take. And I can remember being in my last semester at [college] and taking psychology classes and thinking, "This doesn't matter. I'm not doing this. I'm going into sales."<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">I was lucky. I had the inside scoop. I knew that I was going to be given a shot—my dad was good friends with the vice president of the company and it lucked out that the Ohio sales rep was tanking it for a good year or two. They decided that I was coming up and they had to fire the kid anyways and so I kind of walked right into it. It's a beginner sales job—it's typical that they hire kids fresh out of college with no sales experience. I was told I would've had to go in there and basically, like, swear at the guy or something, not to get the job.<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">I can remember graduating and I was very excited. It was one of the most exciting times of my life. I mean, because I finally achieved this and everybody was proud of me and it was also like, "Well, better put your suit on and get ready for the business world. Here we go!" I was so nervous. I didn't study sales, I didn't study business. You know, I studied <span style="font-style: italic;">psychology</span>, so...<span style="font-style: italic;">He laughs.</span> I really didn't want to fail, so I was really nervous, you know? Because, obviously my dad's reputation got me in here, I better not fail.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">So, it turned out, it was fairly easy. I mean, you're basically going to people who, they're not spending their money, they're spending the hospital's money. So, they buy from people they like. You know? And if they don't like you, if you're a jerk or you're mean or whatever, they're not gonna like you and they're not gonna buy from you. If they like you and you keep coming around, eventually they're going to buy something. It really is that simple. And in this particular field—it’s been fairly recession-proof. But you have to go out and work.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">I ask what it was like when he first started the job</span>.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">It was really, really exciting. For the first time in my life I was making grown up money. <span style="font-style: italic;">He laughs.</span> I mean, it was a really, really extreme pay increase for me. The money right away—it just changed everything. I could pay my bills, I could afford to go out and have a dinner on the week night. To buy clothes. I mean, it was...And then it was also, like, I was learning all of this new stuff. Like I was out there doing a job that I actually enjoyed. I enjoy talking to people, meeting people, sales is kinda competitive, so I like the competitiveness of it. It was just really good in the beginning. It still is. I'm still having that much fun.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">There's not a day goes by that I don't feel kinda blessed, if you wanna use that word. Sometimes you almost feel guilty. Especially the way things are goin.' And I travel, so I see people that are struggling.' And I'm doing pretty good. Especially for <span style="font-style: italic;">me</span>, coming from my background. I've had issues and made a lot of mistakes. I look at some of my friends who didn't do a darn thing at all their whole life and <span style="font-style: italic;">I</span> got a great job today. So. I personally feel lucky every day. I love my job. I like doing the work, it doesn't bother me. It's not work when you grew up hangin’ from the sides of buildings and cleaning 'em and fighting in clubs and being a bouncer. <span style="font-style: italic;">He laughs</span>. It's nothin’ like that.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Jeff has now been with the company for two years and is about to be promoted</span>.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Seems like there's going to be a future in this as long as I continue to be successful. But my feeling still is I'm trying to ride this as best as I can. Don't want to fall off it. Don't want to lose it. You definitely feel the pressure. If I lost this job what would I do? Is there another one out there? It could take a year, you know? Who knows how long it could take to get another job even close to this? I feel like, I have a great job, I need to work hard if I don't want to lose this. Because I see every day how many people are out there trying to get jobs like this one.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">If things were better, I've often tossed around ideas. One idea I had, was being a personal trainer. Because I was big into health and fitness. You know, trying to go out there and do my own thing. But it's a very tough market right now. People are just not gonna pay a trainer when they're broke. He sighs. I had tossed around ideas like that—a really good trainer can actually make a pretty good living. You can demand a pretty high dollar per hour. But, naw. Right now, I wouldn't do that. It's just too risky, you know?<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">I feel like when you have a sure bet, you’ve got to go after it right now. Versus, maybe if things were better and it was easier to make a living or if there was more chances out there, maybe [after graduation] I would’ve chosen to pursue some of these other ideas I had. When I saw one avenue that was a sure bet, I was like, “You have to go for it,” because I don’t see anybody else getting any opportunities like that.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">[M]y girlfriend is the one you really want to talk to, where I'm kinda like the one who got lucky. She calls me almost every day, upset, cuz she can't get a good job. She just graduated college too. You'd probably really like talking to her, cuz, <span style="font-style: italic;">definitely </span>she's been affected by this. The girl got straight A's in college and really worked her butt off to get that degree and it's just frustrating… I give her the speech. At least once a week. You know, "You're doing fine." She has two jobs right now. But she's so frustrated because she can't find that full time position. That was a girl that had her mind on a certain idea of what was going to happen and it hasn't happened that way. Hey, it's only been 6 months, I told her. I predicted it's gonna take a year. In this economy. I feel like if she could even get in for the interview, they'd love her. She is very talented. Very good at what she does. I know she's going to be successful. It just going to take some time, I think. She's got to get a break. Like I got a break. I think everybody's got to get their break. Something's got to happen, you know? Give them a shot. Then it's up to you to make it.</span><br /><br /></span>Melissa K. 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mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="">Kadie has a master’s in public policy and recently founded the <a href="http://www.oaklandsingleparents.com/">Single Parents’ Network</a>. She is a young divorcee—kind and caring with a bright smile; she greets me with enthusiasm about this project. <span style=""> </span>The morning we meet, her apartment is in a state of disarray. She was in the middle of moving her and her two sons’ things into one of the two bedrooms. To save on rent, she recently decided to take on a boarder</i>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">My typical day is getting up in the morning, taking care of my kids, getting them off to school...I didn't have a job right after graduation, so there was down time for me to be looking for work, but I was also managing my kids—I‘m a single parent.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">[After graduation] I was really proud of myself, like "Wow! I actually finished this!"<span style=""> </span>It was a huge turning point in the way that I perceived myself and kind of like... Having my master's degree?<span style=""> </span>That was a big, big deal. And so I thought that, of course I'd be able to get a job. You know?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /><span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Finding a job?<span style=""> </span>I felt like, I...there were times that I told friends, <span style=""> </span>“I went to school and I got indebted and forewent”--if that's the right way to say it—“working experience.” So, I didn't have that cuz I was in school and taking care of my kids. When I came out, my resume was "student."<span style=""> </span>I remember saying, "I should've just gone to work at Wal-Mart and worked my way up and been into management." <span style=""> </span>Because, where I'm at now, I have all of this debt...<i style="">Yes</i>, I have this degree, but there's really no value in the economy for it and not only am I out money but the time that I spent doesn't—<i style="">isn't</i> helping me. It's not <i style="">helping</i> me get a job—having been a student for the last three years.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I went back to school as a single mom—I had an 8 month old and a two year old, I didn't have a degree and so, I was thinking, I’m gonna get myself into school and then it'll be fine. I just looked at it as like, when I'm done, I'll be able to get a job and then I can <i style="">live</i>. At least just live on basic living expenses—I envisioned coming out and making a starting salary of $35,000, $40,000 and working up from there. Having opportunities to advance where I'd feel like I could safely provide for my family. And so, to not have the opportunity to do that... To be either overqualified—I've been on so many job interviews where I've been overqualified and undesirable for a number of reasons. And one is, you have more education than the person who is your supervisor. To feel like people don't want to bring someone on who in some way has more expertise built in or more potential to—I don’t know. So that was working against me and also working against me was my lack of experience because prior to going back to school I had part-time not really serious jobs, um, I had been more of a stay at home mom type for my sons' first three years. So I didn't really have a lot to offer...</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="">I ask Kadie to describe some of her jobs after graduation.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">
<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style=""><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style=""> </span>I started out as just like a consultant, like a twenty hour work week and then I was hired on as staff part-time and then I was brought on full-time and then I was promoted. But all of this in the course of a year. And then...I lost that job.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">[ I]t was great to have employment, to gain experience. Working in that environment and having some kind of small successes under my belt. Projects and feedback—that was great. But, I—my biggest issue is like, even though I was working and making a decent amount of money, I still couldn't even afford everything, because of my childcare expenses. My expenses still exceeded my income.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">My situation is difficult because, at the same that I lost my job, I lost my car. I had some tickets that I was probably going to be able to handle paying, but I went out of town and I left my car with somebody who got six more tickets on it and I didn't know about it. They didn't tell me. Um...and then when I found out…<i style="">She sighs deeply. </i>You can't negotiate, you can't ask for a lower floor or fee. After a certain point, it's too late. So I couldn't manage that. It was growing, because I couldn't afford to pay it and the city started really cracking down on expired registration. My registration was expired and so my car was towed. And I was one payment away from it being free and clear. I've been paying for it for five years and because I couldn't come up with the two thousand dollars, I-I didn't have a car anymore. I've been without a car now for over a year. And, like I said, when I was working, I was making about $47,000, but I have two kids and one was in preschool, so that means you have to pay for them to be anywhere during the day and I had negotiated a really reduced rate for him and I was still not able to pay it every month and I still owe them two thousand dollars in back pay. Yeah. So then I lost my job, lost my car and really was like, why even try?<span style=""> </span>I can't make it when I <i style="">am</i> working. Now I don't have a car, now how am I going to manage all of these logistics that were complicated before, on top of this?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I worked at a cafe for a bit and I worked cleaning a massage school. Making nine dollars an hour at the cafe and twelve dollars an hour at the massage school, vacuuming and dusting and cleaning bathrooms. And...while I was doing that I was just exhausted, too exhausted to really put much into my job search. And so I quit those jobs. I have some child support money...my tax return helped me pay my rent for a few months.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I've had food industry jobs before, but not for a long time. I thought I was pretty tough, because I have two sons and they're really energetic. But I was <i style="">so</i> exhausted. I was so exhausted from working there. My first day I was like sick, I can't handle this...and they yell at you!<span style=""> </span>And it's just another bad work environment, not getting paid enough to even...I mean. I was getting paid <i style="">something</i>. You could buy some groceries with it, but...<i style="">She sighs</i>...it felt really...it felt bad. Yeah. It felt bad.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="">I ask her what it was like to be waiting tables and cleaning bathrooms—with a master’s degree.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">
<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style=""><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">That just ruffles people's feathers. Because once they know you and they're getting to know you and they know you have all this education—the office manager [at the massage school] suddenly had this ego about how I was doing things. I was doing them <i style="">wrong</i>. I walked out on that job. He just kept nit-picking at stuff—the way I folded towels. Or I left without saying good-bye one day. He wasn't even really my supervisor, but he was kind of manning the place, because the boss was having a baby. So he was just complaining, complaining about how I was doing things. It didn't make any sense to just keep doing it. It didn't seem worth it to have it out with him. So I just walked away and I was like, "I can get a ten dollar an hour job somewhere else probably." <i style=""><span style=""> </span>She laughs.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">
<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style=""><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style=""> </span>So, I kind of was looking for work, but I had another project that I was really feeling a great need to act on and had some supportive people around me to develop it into a business plan. So I did. I kind of tested the water with that and didn't really know if it was going to be my thing. But I didn't have a job, so, I just decided to experiment with it. And continue job searching, but not really wholeheartedly at all.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I started a project for single parents—a business. Because for years…going to school, trying to get somewhere where I could support my family and my kids...it's always been the things in my personal life, having to do with my single parenthood that is like the stick in the spokes of the wheel. Every time you get going, something happens and it's all over. So I've had a lot of time to think about what I would need to feel able to...overcome those obstacles and what that would look like and you know, aware that I'm not the only person, actually, a lot of people are in that same situation. I put together an idea, a way to sell it and started selling memberships for the Single Parents’ Network. And providing some benefits, involving some local business owners in offering discounts to my members. And just having a place for people to convene, to meet face to face with other people who are having similar life circumstances without really having to go out of their way to create that for themselves—cuz who has time to do that? And it just generated a lot of interest and became, you know, "the project" but also like "the business" and has been a way for me to use the skill set that I went to school to get. So I feel satisfied with that. It's still in the getting traction—I mean it's been like 9 months.
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">[A]fter I saw the response [to the first Single Parents’ Network event]—that was probably one of the best moments of my life. All these people. <i style="">All </i>these people came to my event and I just posted it on Yahoo groups and Facebook and East Bay Loop and just free little places where you can make your post. And <i style="">all</i> these people came out of the woodwork to come to this event. And they were paying me money. <i style="">She laughs.</i> Wow!!! Oh my gosh!!! This is great. I was surprised. At the same time it didn't come together because anything was easy, it came together because a lot of things were really hard. And it's still a work in progress. I'm still gaining traction and not really financially stable, but...my path is feeling more and more, not just feeling more and more, it <i style="">is</i> more and more a sustainable option for me to have this as my job. And other things have come out of this—I've gotten an offer to teach at a university as a guest lecturer several times during the semester and then also, some consulting gigs have come out of it for other nonprofits who want to raise their visibility and want to raise money...That is the <i style="">only</i> way I've really gotten job leads is this thing that I've created. I haven't gotten them in any other, from any other places—the cover letters, the resumes. I'm seeing a lot more progress and movement doing my own thing.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I think I just got to the point where I just didn't have it in me to bang my head up against that brick wall anymore. And that's what it felt like every time I tried to work for somebody else. It just felt like—something's going to come up—in the first 30 days of my probation, or 90 days—my kids are <i style="">going</i></span> to get sick probably about five times, I don't have three backups to...You have to have people you can count on—most people are flakes, they have their own commitments and priorities, their commitment is not your kid. So, how are you supposed to get a good reputation, be a reliable employee? There's just something always coming up and with the school system, a lot of times there's furloughs, days off. There's no childcare. It's just a battle I'm not going to win, that's how I feel. It's just—I’m not gonna win that one.
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<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">[And] a lot of people aren't really hiring. It's been difficult even finding jobs that I'd want to apply for...A lot of times, I'm just searching for something that looks palatable, which maybe sounds really...bougie, like "people go to work every day, Kadie, just suck it up," you know?<span style=""> </span>But I just feel like my energy, because I have all of these other concerns, for me to even be able to focus and do a good job and for anyone to be happy with me I'm gonna need to kind of like what I'm doing, have some kind of affinity for it or something. Otherwise, it's just gonna add to my stress and I'm a parent and being a parent is my first thing. It feels like...I mean in the fundraising world, in the nonprofit world…every week the budget would be getting cut because of the different scandals, like Madoff and that was happening when I was working at the nonprofit. And funders were not giving as much. I had a year of experience in fundraising and it was so hard to be competitive because there <i style="">were</i> a lot of development jobs, I think was the feeling, but like, Stanford people, their whole development staff got cut, so people much more experienced were in the job market and were able to secure the jobs that I probably would've been totally qualified for but they were willing to take for less than they were worth, so I didn't have a chance to—I think that had a big impact. The big employers cutting people, making it harder for a recent grad to get a job.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style="">I ask Kadie if she thinks the recession has impacted her career trajectory and lifestyle.</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;">
<br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><i style=""><o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">If I was employed I wouldn't be doing this other venture by myself and really have nothing for the last year and in a school where my kids are being bullied. We're not happy with where we're living and all of this...Our standard of living is definitely different. And if I could afford—if I had a secure income and all of this, like, a lot would be different for my family. And I would probably [be] treading along—be an executive director of a nonprofit organization that I feel is powerful and impacts society in a way that I want, in a way that resonates with me. That's probably what I saw myself doing. That's what I saw myself doing. So...I guess in a way, I'm kind of not that far from what I thought. So I feel like things are working out, but it's been like trudging, trudging, trudging, a <i style="">lot</i> of trudging. A lot of trudging. And a lot of hardship that I probably wouldn't be experiencing.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">[Before] I could have never psychologically gotten to the point where "I'm gonna move my kids and me into one bedroom and we're gonna have a roommate." That would not have happened in a million years, because that just feels like, what are we?<span style=""> </span>It's just too tight. It just doesn't feel like something I would've come to... Solutions that I wasn't or couldn't come to before are now—I'm now ok with them for some reason. While before that wasn't—I was just trying to like "Well maybe I'll get a job soon enough and it'll happen and we'll get on our feet."
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<br /></span></p> Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-89416080668563894132010-10-16T12:09:00.000-07:002010-10-27T11:27:23.013-07:00Janet<p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>Janet graduated from a small, women’s liberal art college on the West Coast in Spring 2010 with a Masters in Public Policy. She has all the hipster accoutrements, from her short, funky hairstyle and retro clothes to where she lives in San Francisco, but none of the patronizing attitude. Currently, she is drafting a business plan for a friend’s startup. We meet at her Victorian in the Mission District and chat in her kitchen as sunlight streams in on an uncharacteristically clear and warm day.</i></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >I was just thinking <i>fellowships</i> right as I was [graduating]…I wanna do something with the expectation that I just graduated.<br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >I did [an] internship with the XYZ Market and that lasted for three or four months. I did that internship full time...for the summer...which didn't really feel like summer.</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >It was paid. Yeah, it was a really good internship too...I mean, like, we were—we were everywhere. <i>She rattles off a list of people and places: government officials, agencies, nonprofits and city departments. </i>I mean, that was a good experience, cuz I was like, wow, there's a lot of jobs I don't <i>ever</i> want to do, this is like, some of these are <i>terrible</i> jobs and these people are so stressed out and they're rude to each other and they're just, you know, I'm pretty sure they're making good money, but, it comes with a price...Like I said, they were just all...old. There was not a <i>single</i> person who was <i>under forty</i>. And it was shocking to me. Cuz it was like, you get into these jobs and you are <i>in</i> them. Forever. It seems like that. So...and they have such <i>attitude</i> about them. Some of those people.</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >I initially applied [at XYZ Market] cuz I was hoping it had more to do with food policy and I had to beg to get into the food policy stuff with them, I had to be like "please take me to any meetings" and eventually they did start taking me to those but that wasn't the point of the internship, the point of the internship was to do this project management real estate development...[It] wasn't really related to my education, but there is a lot of policy involved when you're working with the city, so...They definitely crafted an internship that was policy-related, but the overall project really didn't feel like policy things, so..In the end, I did get a lot of food policy exposure and got more interested in it.</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">I ask Janet to describe a typical day now that her internship has ended.</span></i></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >I guess [my] typical day is that I wake up and I immediately get on my computer and I do start looking for work. I also check, all the blogs...and like, you know, go through everything that's bookmarked…and then I actually do practice my cello for quite some time, clean the house, walk the dog—sort of domestic stuff...Cook a big huge lunch and then I go hang out with friends and it's weird, cuz it's like, exhausting, cuz I'm not really like producing anything, but I'm also—I really feel like a housewife right now. Like I clean so much and then I leave for two hours and come back and it's all messy again…it's not my favorite cycle right now, but that's, that's pretty much it.</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >Right now I'm applying to a lot of different FDIC jobs. And I kind of—cuz I was also envisioning an MBA eventually, after, you know, working for a little bit. I don't like the way people's money is managed and I don't like how women's money is managed and so I kind of feel like maybe that should've been something that I investigated more, especially with the Recession going on...I feel like there's just a lot of irresponsible people dealing with our money and my money and that's sort of started to bother me, especially as I'm getting to the point where I’m like, oh, I don't have all the money in the world, I'm going to start running out, how can I invest this to make it grow.</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >I think I might've told you about this before, but, I applied for that food policy—there’s like a food policy job open and I applied for it and actually talked to them –and the deadline hadn't even hit when I was talking to them—and they said they already had <i>150</i> applicants. And so, they were like, “Hey, you better be competitive”—I was like, “AAAH! Way to rub it in.” So, I think that was really the slap in the face. I was like, “I better be good.” And it's hard to compete with people who have ten more years of experience than you do. Or even five more years. So… you're crossing fingers and you're hoping they like the sound of your name...</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >[I]t has made me extremely fierce and competitive and willing to like, harass people. Especially if I know they work someplace that I know I want to work. I have no fear in just straight up contacting them—like, “hey, what do you think about this?” You know, I think maybe in a better job market I wouldn't have to rely on that as much...I mean, everybody's talking about it all the time, how you have to be more fierce, you have to be more present too. You have to remind people that you actually exist and you're not just a piece of paper.</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >If anything, I'm totally milking the fact that I feel like I can do everything and I'm really glad that I studied public policy cuz I can totally play it and be like, “yeah I know stuff about technology and finance” even though I just don't have the background or expertise that someone with a P-H-D in a specific topic would have. I'm applying to health care jobs, to arts program things—everything. I think if the job market was better, I'd be like, “look, I'm only going to do food policy and that's it.” There's only like two jobs open in the whole nation for that, so...</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >I thought [the job market] was gonna be a little worse. I thought that the job market was going to be terrible and that there wasn't going to be anything, but the reality is there are lots of things open, they just have five thousand applicants and so you have to be able to create these <i>beautiful </i>cover letters and they take <i>for</i>ever and everything. You have to change all the wording in your resumes, like everything has to be ex<i>treme</i>ly perfect because otherwise it's not even worth your time, because you're just throwing things into this abyss of people. And so that's different, I guess.</span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">Janet has been considering an MBA since she was still in graduate school. She thinks it would help her better understand finance and the nuances of the private sector. I asked her what would influence her to start applying for business school.</span></i></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></i></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >You know, if someone would give it to me for free, that would be like the best thing possible. If I could work for a company that would either subsidize, you know, further education or if I got some sort of funding, grants or something, but for me right now, I feel like I can't financially take on that without having a little backup. I don't really want to be living like a student for that much longer too. That's another big consideration. I don't want to have to feel like there's some things I shouldn't buy or can't buy, but not that I'm acting like that….<i>She laughs.</i></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >I think that long term I’m gonna be more, like, “do my own thing.” Which is strange. Because you'd think I'd be scrambling to get in somewhere and get health insurance and be part of an organization. But I think I'm actually more willing to be like, “hey I could make money playing my cello for people” or like, maybe I will sit in the BART station with my cello. <i>She laughs.</i></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" ><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:100%;" >But I think I'm more open to doing small business stuff. Um, I'm also, I hate to say it, but willing to take less pay… willing to work for free if it's, like, some awesome position—which I thought I'd never do again.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="font-family: arial;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4688419842171344517.post-74574987797964135652010-10-01T15:56:00.000-07:002010-10-27T11:12:02.385-07:00Making Dreams Reality<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link style="font-family: arial;" rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CMelissa%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link style="font-family: arial;" rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CMelissa%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link style="font-family: arial;" rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CMelissa%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> 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mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" >So, after a summer of looking for the perfect job, or frankly any job, I have decided to <span style="font-style: italic;">pretend</span> as if someone was paying me to do what I love. Simply, I love collecting stories, (i.e., qualitative research) answering questions and uncovering truths by seeking out and listening to people's experiences. My hero, <a href="http://www.studsterkel.org/">Studs Terkel</a>, a nonacademic, went out with a tape recorder a generation ago and collected stories about people and </span><span style="font-family: arial;font-size:100%;" >their jobs. The result of his work, a book called <a href="http://www.powells.com/s?kw=working+terkel"><span style="font-style: italic;">Working</span></a>, also ended up being about a lot of other things: the Great Depression, the malaise felt by most working Americans and the gap between social classes. I don't see why I can't follow in Terkel's footsteps now.
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<br />It seems like almost every day for the past few years I hear the current recession being compared to the Great Depression. It sure feels like it. People are relearning how to grow, cook and preserve food for themselves. The numbers of the official unemployed only ever seem to grow or remain steady and the typical length of unemployment stretches to a year or more.
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<br />Some of my friends and I--most of us "recession grads"--aren't doing what we thought we would be doing after graduation. Some of us are still looking for both a dream job and anything to pay the bills. Others have settled for something unrelated to their discipline. Some have taken jobs with less responsibility and compensation. One or two have landed on their feet and are at their dream jobs. A few have created jobs for themselves--starting a nonprofit or a small business.
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<br />I want to collect these stories...So if you have or know anyone who has graduated from college or graduate school since fall 2007, please contact me at recessiongrads@gmail.com. I will edit and post some of what I learn here and invite comments and analysis. Ultimately, if I get a large and diverse enough sample, I will code and analyze the transcripts and write my own analysis of the data.
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<br />Wish me luck!
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<br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span><a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/7-9780345325693-4"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"></span></span></span></a></span>Melissa K. McDonough, M.P.P.http://www.blogger.com/profile/00888312442513151886noreply@blogger.com3