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Unless you’ve been through it, I don’t know that most of of us can grasp the frustration of sitting in an interview and hearing the question “With your background, do you think this is really the job for you?” Why in hell do you think you're there interviewing? Could it be because you need to pay your bills or maybe it’s because you like having a roof over your family’s head?
You know what they’re thinking because once upon a time, you were in their seat. But today is different from any other span in your lifetime. You know they think you will quit as soon as you find something better. You know that they don’t understand that you have been unemployed for months and if an employer takes a chance on you, you will be forever loyal. But, when you tell them that in the interview they just nod their heads.
They say, “Thank you for the interview; we have a few more candidates to interview and we’ll get back with you." A couple of days later,you get a letter in the mail notifying you that another candidate was hired.
Imagine having worked since you were 14 years-old. You graduated from high school, joined the military and got out to return to school. You worked your way through college with the help of the GI Bill. You graduated and went to work for a good company, got married and had two children. Just to think, a few months ago your life was near perfect--things were going really well. You loved your job and the people you worked with. And then it began; what you had been reading and hearing about in the news for months came to your doorstep, knocked and walked right in. Many of your co-workers left before you—you were one of the last to be laid off becauseyou were such a good worker. You didn't leave because you were a loyal employee and truly believed your company would recover. Not only that, your co-workers who were already in the job hunt were finding nothing. Your day finally came. You remember asking, “God, what am I going to do?” Although scared, you still believed you would find another job. Why wouldn’t you? You wanted to work and you are qualified.
Many of your co-workers were still struggling to find a job. They’re unemployment was running out. These were good workers and proud people. Some of them spent half their savings before they went down and applied for unemployment benefits. They couldn’t find work and finally had to go through a process they loathed.
And, now here you are looking at the guy who got the job. He’s obviously fresh out of high school, but he beat you out.
How do you look your family in the face? It doesn’t matter that you know that they are there for you—they love you; You're not working. Oh yea, you're hustling trying to do small jobs to help ends meet, but the ends are not touching. How do you keep looking in the mirror? Every interview, every turndown letter, everyday you lose a piece of the you that you once were. You're one of the folks that people are angry about because you're getting those entitlement payouts—no matter that you really want to work and no one will give you a job, no matter that you paid into the system for years and never used a dime.
“God, what am I going to do?”
With our unemployment rate is over 9 percent, this is the story of so many Americans.
We must figure out a way to get our citizens back to work. The debt ceiling, spending cuts, credit downgrades, China's commentary and all the other things going on in this country must take a backseat to job creation. If we get the jobs back, we can get our country back on track. Until we get the jobs, people will remain in a tizzy--even if people are working, someone in their family is unemployed. And, that resonates. Some things must dealt with immediately, but some of the distractions have been man-made. We cannot afford for the distractions to continue. Focus: Job Creation.
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