At age 50 I was out of a job and managed after 8 months, to
find a job in Skokie, Illinois for a small company. I knew I had no future
there and sure enough after 5 years I was again unemployed. My prospects looked dim because the
industries I had worked in were dying.
I had moved my possessions into a corner of the basement of
my girlfriend’s house. From there I
conducted my search which lasted 18 months.
I had a B.S. degree in Ceramic Engineering and a MBA in Management. I had skills, I was smart, and I never ever
had a bad performance review. I knew how
to write a good resume and developed several introduction letters that applied
to whatever the ad’s job description had in mind.
In those days, jobs were not found on the internet because
the internet was in its infancy; there was no email and no web sites
specializing in jobs. I religiously went
through the Sunday want ads circling those I could respond to and Monday I
spent preparing envelopes filled with a resume and introduction letter, which I
mailed before the day was over.
Sometimes I sent out 20 letters.
I also had some headhunters working to earn themselves a commission by
finding an employer that would hire me.
I was drawing unemployment and I
started to work at Jewel grocery store stocking shelves making sure I didn’t
make too much money to keep my unemployment check coming. Usually, I stocked the cookies and crackers
or worked in the cooler filling the trays with milk and other dairy
products. I also had the joy of getting
to clean up spills in the aisles caused by a glass jar smashing onto the
floor. The other main job I had was to
break down all the cardboard boxes and put them into a press and make a bale of
that were held together with baling wire. The result looked like a bale of
straw except it was brown instead of yellow.
I thought a lot about what jobs I
might secure that had nothing to do with my engineering degree. I like to drive. Maybe I could be a limo driver. Maybe I could get a job on a cruise ship
dancing with lonely rich widows who might whisper their room number in my ear. I
had enough labor intensive jobs before I graduated from college to know that
wasn’t for me.
I answered ads for quality control,
project engineering, process engineering, to no avail. Finally I realized I had to reinvent myself
and I honed my resume to respond to environmental positions. At my previous job, I took care of all waste
management issues and I was always successful in finding cost savings in any
job I had.
At the time, environmental concerns
were a hot topic in the country so this is where I concentrated my
efforts.
By this time, I had had a few
interviews so my interviewing skills were really pretty good. I put together a folder showing my career
accomplishments and copies of my past performance reviews. This helped me take an active role in the
interview process rather than sit back and try to respond to questions which
set the stage for me to ask more questions.
And most of all I tried to exude confidence and maturity.
I finally got an offer from UOP and
company based in Des Plaines, IL, with a factory in McCook, IL. UOP mostly made products for oil refineries
using a variety of chemicals. I found my
college chemistry book and boned up on gas laws dealing with temperature,
pressure, and volume. I was required to
wear safety shoes and a hard hat whenever I was out of the office. I established relationships and avoided
anything controversial. After 3 months
my boss left to take another job leaving me in charge of all things related to
the environment. He left behind all the
computer files related to annual reports that needed to be submitted to various
governmental agencies. Most of these
were Excel files and I had a modicum of Excel knowledge. I taught myself and soon was very
proficient. Figuring out where all the
numbers in the files came from was an effort in reverse engineering. I soon developed Excel files where all I had
to do was to plug in the amount of product made each year ending up with the
amount of emissions produced. My
experience at UOP was all positive except my salary which was $12000 less than
my previous job.
However, at the time I was so
grateful to be given a new career and to go to work every weekday. My 18 months without a job took every bit
inter fortitude to keep my spirits up.
To save money during this time I never went anywhere. I paid off all my debts from my savings to
eliminate interest payments, I had no health insurance, I cut food coupons and
only went to movies (my only outside entertainment outlet) before 6 to get the
early bird discount and had to give up my occasional toke of marijuana for fear
I would not be able to pass a drug test, should a job offer emerge. Even my relationship with my girlfriend was
strained. Thankfully, she never asked me
to leave. At times I felt alone, living
in a basement, my future uncertain; all the elements for a strong dose of
depression.
But somehow, I lived through this
terrible time and made it back into the middle class. I felt I had a future again. After 4 years I changed jobs to up my salary
significantly, allowing me to save enough for retirement.
How different my life is now. I am retired, happily married, and travel the
world and my future is as bright as old age will allow. I have no trouble telling myself, “I deserve
it”.
