Sunday, August 1, 2010

“Career Calendar” plus 3 more

“Career Calendar” plus 3 more

Career Calendar

Posted: 01 Aug 2010 11:54 AM PDT

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IRS: Tax breaks for previously employed job seekers

Posted: 01 Aug 2010 09:14 AM PDT

DALLAS – Many people may be unaware that it is possible to deduct some job search expenses on their federal tax return, though you cannot deduct such expenses if you are looking for a job for the first time.

"Even so, this is good information for folks who have lost their job and who spend time updating résumés and attending career fairs," said Clay Sanford, an IRS spokesman in Dallas. "If you are searching for another job this summer, the related expenses could mean some tax breaks when you file a tax return next spring." 

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Temporary census workers resume job search

Posted: 31 Jul 2010 11:08 PM PDT

In Print: Sunday, August 1, 2010

In April, census employees such as Joseph Mintz, seated, and Lesley Rubinger, right, started gathering information. Now that their census work is over, many of those workers will be knocking on doors, looking for a job.

 In April, census employees such as Joseph Mintz, seated, and Lesley Rubinger, right, started gathering information. Now that their census work is over, many of those workers will be knocking on doors, looking for a job.

[Associated Press]

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — It was a finely honed machine, this U.S. Census team, and it had a good run. But in the coming days and weeks many of its members will experience the pain of unemployment — once again.

Christine Egan, a 31-year-old massage therapist, says her census job offered shelter from the economic storm last year. "The economy was terrible; there was nothing," she says. "I've already gone through 'horrific,' so I'm immunized." She smiles, optimism almost extending to her eyes. "It must be better now, right?"

When the Census Bureau hired upward of 700,000 Americans over the last two years — most in the last six months — it landed more experienced workers with more sophisticated skills than any time in recent memory. This was the upside of the nastiest recession of the past 70 years.

Now, its decennial work largely done, the Census Bureau is shedding hundreds of thousands of workers — about 225,000 in just the last few weeks, enough to account for a jot or two in the unemployment rate, say federal economists. Most of those remaining will be gone by August; a few will last into September.

Workers in no hurry to leave temporary jobs

In past decades, the bureau faced a challenge just keeping workers around to close up shop, as most dashed for new jobs that might pay better. Not this time around. Jobs remain scarce.

As most census workers have nowhere to go, rushed farewells are rare. Self-reflection, and a touch of anxiety, mark the mood.

"Typically at this point in the process, we're losing a lot of people because they're taking jobs," said Kathleen Ludgate, the regional director in Boston. "I wish we had that problem now."

Ludgate receives notes from departing workers, some by e-mail, others in ink. They thank her for the chance to learn something about themselves and their country. They write to say their confidence had picked up, that they can again meet the gaze of friends and neighbors.

These are the missives of hard-working people who found themselves in a tighter spot than they ever expected, and who came to view census work as a lifeline.

Bureaucratic quirks make life in this recession a nerve-wracking ride. Many departing census workers will be eligible for unemployment, although by no means all of them.

Some census employees, particularly those who knocked on doors — known as enumerators — worked in fits and starts. They were dispatched intensively, then laid off, then rehired. Unemployment rules are a crazy quilt, with no two states quite the same.

"If a worker was in the last tier of long-term unemployment, they might not be able to go back to unemployment," said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project. "They may have been better off not taking this job."

Perhaps so. But in the Providence office, workers speak of a certain joy that comes with applying their minds.

Watching for opportunity in a tough economy

What's left of the Providence team works out of a ground-floor office that overlooks a cemetery, and on a recent morning workers checked tallies and researched vacant buildings. Bob Hamilton, the director, introduced his staff.

Egan, a massage therapist with a degree in history from the University of Rhode Island, was his assistant field manager. Vada Seccareccia, an architect with an undergraduate degree from Bryn Mawr College, is his payroll manager. And the soft-spoken young mother who oversees the clerks? Yasmin Mercedes has years of retail experience and, if she can't find work, plans to go to college this fall.

"You look for people who had certain skills in a previous life," Hamilton says. "It's not hard to find them, not with this god-awful economy."

Wages vary by regional cost of living and responsibilities. A census worker might get $17 an hour in Providence, $23 in Boston or $12.25 in Jackson, Miss.

Hamilton has only to look at his Red Sox calendar to see the days ticking down. He would like to find a job back in retail management. He has a sneaking suspicion that his age — he's 59 — works against him.

"That's my goal," he says. "Whether I get there or not is something else."

Every member of his team sounds reshaped, by their experience and by the recessionary storm howling outside.

Egan smiles and says she knows she can survive. When she was jobless and counted quarters to pay for groceries, she took a job as a boat deckhand and a bartender. She does not want to go back to giving massages full time though; she found she is a natural at motivating people.

So she has polished her resume. "We all understand, if you have another opportunity, take it," she says, more cheerfully than you might expect. "We're on a sinking ship."

Hamilton walks a visitor to the door. He turns and looks at his domain, and says, more to himself: "You could start a hell of a business with these folks."


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Career programs help unemployed get an edge in the job search

Posted: 01 Aug 2010 04:11 AM PDT

By Caroline Goldstein

When Patrice Zimmerman of Coatesville found herself out of a job, she vowed never to go back to the corporate world.

Instead Zimmerman, who was in finance and banking for more than 20 years, decided to make a change and start her own business.

She said she had long felt the need for more clothing options for taller women such as herself and could not think of a better time than now for her to design and market that type of product.

"It's just like now all of a sudden I have this driving force," she said.

But not everyone finds their unemployment as inspiring.

Some, like Nancy Roggen of Philadelphia, are expecting to take a major pay cut when they finally find employment. Roggen said she foresees earning $25,000 less than she did at her last job.

Zimmerman and Roggen were among the 25 women who came together on July 14 at the Saturday Club in Wayne for a career seminar focused on finding and using one's strengths.

The program was held by the Women's Resource Center in Wayne in conjunction with SEI, a financial-services company, and Right Management, a career-management consulting firm.

Women participated in one-on-one coaching, a group-strengths exercise and group-networking practice.

"Sitting in front of your computer applying to jobs just doesn't cut it anymore," said Suzanne Levitch, career-services program coordinator for the Women's Resource Center.

And so many people are turning to seminars to gain insight from professionals.

Ford Myers, president of Career Potential, LLC, a career-coaching company, said at a July 20 seminar in Radnor that networking is the most important action to take in looking for a job.

Myers stressed getting help in one's job search. "Don't try to do this by yourself," he told the group. "It's too hard."

That is what many, like Bob DeHaven of Lansdale, have found – frustration.

DeHaven, who became unemployed 13 months ago when the pharmaceutical lab he worked at closed, said that companies rarely contact job-seekers after the submission of a résumé or an interview.

"It's a victory if you get a letter saying that 'we've already filled that position,'" he said.

A man attending the Career Potential seminar, who requested his name not be printed, said in a former job he had been in the hiring seat.

"All that stuff they say about people looking at résumés for 10 seconds, it's true, but worse," he said.

He shared some advice, such as not using small writing or a strange font on a résumé and making sure that the grammar is correct.

"You want to have a reason to get rid of it as fast as you can," he said about résumés received for an open position.

Those who led the Women's Resource Center and Career Potential seminars also had some advice for job-seekers.

Samantha Sheetz, working in workforce development for SEI, suggested making a specific résumé tailored to the company to which a person is applying, and said that asking good questions and following up after interviews show interest and enthusiasm in the job.

A handwritten thank-you note is another way of following up that makes a job candidate stand out, said Alice Lindenauer, group leader for workforce development at SEI.

While the unemployed are searching for jobs, public officials are often working at creating jobs.

"We should, I think, make a conscious effort to pursue policies that will make jobs for people in our area," said Pennsylvania state representative and Democratic congressional candidate Bryan Lentz during a town-hall meeting at the Wayne Art Center on July 24.

Lentz said he believes that businesses need the ability to write off capital investments, which would then allow them to hire more workers.

To specifically help with job creation in the region, Lentz said that there must be an investment in education, particularly community colleges and secondary education, with an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Investing in infrastructure, such as structurally deficient bridges and rail lines, is another way Lentz said he wants to bring jobs to the area.

In the meanwhile, Myers said that because the average tenure for white-collar workers at a job is two years or less, people should always be networking and practicing interviewing and negotiating skills, even while still employed.

For the unemployed, he believes that one question can triple a person's chances of being hired when it is asked during an interview. That question is "How can I help you?"

Laid off about one year ago, the man at the Career Potential seminar puts the current job market in perspective.

"You think about your immigrant ancestors... they didn't love their jobs; they just wanted to feed their families," he said.

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