When the going gets tough, the tough grow beards. At least, David Cohen did.
Laid off from his senior web editor position in October, Cohen resolved to let his chin hair grow until he procured an interview.
Almost five months later, he had to concede. “It was my birthday,” he said last week. “I had to look good.”
Since his layoff, Cohen has sent out over 100 resumes and has yet to get even a single interview.
“Not even an exploratory phone call,” he said. “I’ve never had a run like this.”
Lauren Miller was cut loose from her job at Lehman Brothers on Nov. 1 and says she has applied for 176 jobs since. The former communication manager netted one final-round interview for a job that would have earned her $30,000 less than she was making before. In November, she was adamant that she would not take a job paying less than the previous job, but just like the beard grew tiresome for Cohen, so did the notion that things would go back to normal for Miller.
She recently expanded her job search to include major metropolitan areas around the country.
“I just don’t think the traditional job search is working.” – Lauren Miller
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She’s using Facebook heavily to network, and keeps on top of more than 50 job search websites. She’s considering making a YouTube video to give her face recognition with recruiters.
“I just don’t think the traditional job search is working,” she said. “Whatever gets me in the door.”
Support among the jobless
Miller recently created the Hoboken Networking Lunch. She had been getting antsy around the house after the layoff, and wanted to bring people in the same boat as her together to critique résumés and swap stories.
She enlisted the help of a friend, Stacey Greene, a former party promoter who was laid off from her advertising job as a senior account executive for Pepsi in January. Greene, in turn, reached out to a network of 500 people.
The non-regular meetings help Greene, Miller, and Cohen get out of the house. They also let them know that others are going through similar situations.
Miller said she was disheartened at first, but then convinced herself that unemployment was nothing to be ashamed about. “It wasn’t performance-related,” she said. “I understand where they were coming from.”
All three are collecting unemployment, but believe that the maximum of $584 per week in this area isn’t sufficient.
Breadwinner sidelined
Hector Lason though he was safe. He survived several rounds of layoffs at Goldman Sachs, but lost his IT job on Feb. 17.
“I though I made it past,” he said. “Those were big waves of layoffs, mostly managers making six figures.”
He said some of those managers who were let go last year are still looking for work.
“I saw some of them at the job fair,” he said. “They have mortgages. They’re more affected by this than I am.”
He has a wife and child to support, too. His wife has a job, which is a blessing and a curse, as he feels slight guilt.
“The idea that she’s the one out there making the money,” he said. “That’s tough.”
Life on hold
Miller is walking dogs to pick up some pocket change, and Greene is wearing out the treadmill at the gym.
They are both eager to get back to work, but Miller said she doesn’t completely regret the experience.
“Sometimes it’s not the worst thing to get laid off,” she said. “Think of the dynamic of the people left [in the workplace]. My workload has been dispersed among three people.”
Cohen said he probably would have been engaged to be married by now, if he had not lost his job.
He’ll wait for the right time, though. “I want to do it right,” he said. Probably not while sporting a beard.
Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.