Job Searching

It's the old rich-get-richer story: If you need a job, you can't get one. But if you already have one, you get offers of more. Most executive search firms are besieged by out-of-work executives, said Paul Hawkinson, who publishes the Fordyce Letter, a newsletter for the executive recruiting industry. "But generally search firms aren't interested in those people. Those are the people who answer ads. Their resumes go everywhere on their own."

The job market for this year's college graduates appears to be on the upswing as economic forecasts show seniors will have a better shot at employment than in past years and more businesses are recruiting at campus job fairs this spring. Those positive signs were present at Cal State Long Beach recently when an event attracted more than 90 potential employers, about 50% more than last year. About 5,000 students, many of whom had swapped their T-shirts and sandals for a more formal look, handed out resumes and hoped to replace anxiety about their post-graduation employment prospects with the growing optimism that recent national reports project.

It's been a grim year for layoffs and job cuts with nine straight months of job losses, worsening in September when U.S. employers handed out the most pink slips of any month since 2003. All told, 760,000 people have lost their jobs this year. The picture probably won't grow brighter any time soon. The job outlook for the near future is dismal, according to John Challenger, chief executive of the job outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

Question: I thought the sky was the limit for my shares of Monster Worldwide Inc., but apparently I was wrong. What are the prospects now? Answer: Despite robust international growth and the powerful role of the Internet in job placement, the stock of this Internet job-search pioneer is pressured by the uncertain economy. The strong employment network the company has assembled faces obstacles such as high unemployment and a growing number of online competitors. Shares of Monster Worldwide are down about 70% from their 52-week high.

This is the tale of three towns that got milk but no men's basketball coaches at their colleges. For a few more days, anyhow. It's also a story about their approaches to finding suitable people for the jobs. The process should be fair and equitable, as required by federal and state labor laws, but one of the three schools seems to have forgotten that.

With corporate recruiting down 30% on college campuses in the most enduring recession to hit Orange County since World War II, this year's graduates at Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, Chapman University and other area schools are frantically seeking jobs--many without success. Brian Collins, a business major at Cal State Fullerton, finished his classes in January and began an intensive job search in his marketing specialty in March.

After New Yorker Laura McCormick did well in a phone interview with an executive at Kinko's Inc.'s headquarters in Ventura, she was invited to have a second interview--at Kinko's videoconference center in Manhattan. "It was very exciting," McCormick recalled. "I could see the person I was speaking to on one video monitor and could see my own face on another, so I knew how I was coming across.

It wasn't long ago that corporate America couldn't stop fawning over dot-commers. They didn't need resumes or interviewing skills. Recruiters chased anyone with the least bit of Internet experience. But now that the fairy-tale job market has collapsed, many of these start-up refugees are learning what it takes to find work the "old-economy" way. They are studying up on business etiquette, what to wear on an interview and how to describe their skills.

In the latest marriage made in cyber heaven, many traditional employment recruiting services are finding that Internet jobs boards can be more friend than foe, as both seek to cash in on the tight job market. So far, jobs boards like Monster.com and Careerpath.com have raked in substantial amounts of revenue from employment agency job postings--for both temporary and permanent placements.

When Mark Winkler decided last month that he wanted a new job, he made a couple of telephone calls. Within 48 hours, the 41-year-old executive had more than 700 e-mails from headhunters representing everything from "dot-com" start-ups to Fortune 100 corporations. Some asked for a resume. Others invited him to interview, and one offered a job--sight unseen. Within two weeks, 15 job offers had been express-mailed to Winkler's home.

President Obama used his executive authority to announce a few small steps to help military veterans find jobs, part of a campaign to show that he is fighting unemployment while Congress remains in political gridlock over how to boost hiring. Standing in the White House Rose Garden with veterans at his side Monday, Obama also called on lawmakers to pass tax credits for businesses that hire veterans — part of his $447-billion jobs bill that has largely been stalled on Capitol Hill for nearly two months.

In a bizarre game of musical chairs, nearly 1,000 Los Angeles teachers — who are guaranteed jobs somewhere in the school system — have been hunting for a school that wants them. And hundreds of them have to counter a stigma that they are undesirable castoffs, because they previously worked at low-performing schools that are being restructured. These teachers are from eight schools that are undergoing shakeups intended to bring in new talent, shed previous instructors and administrators and fundamentally change the academic culture.

Karl Schafer says he has tried for hundreds of jobs since he was laid off from a truck factory more than two years ago. Still waiting to get hired, the 52-year-old Ohio man has suffered the indignity of applying for food stamps and asking his elderly mother for help. Weary of her own job search, former customer service representative Wagma Omar, 40, of Mission Viejo is thinking about applying for a dangerous civilian job in Afghanistan. And in California's wine country, Kay Stephens, 56, is frantically looking to cut her living expenses so her unemployment doesn't become a burden to her 30-year-old daughter.

Pat Leahy's resume is sprinkled with relevant skills and achievements. Although he doesn't note his blindness since birth, he often wonders when to disclose it to potential employers. Should he tell them before the in-person interview or simply walk in with his guide dog? "I'm still finessing it and trying to figure out what works best," said Leahy, 35, who lives in Washington, D.C., with his yellow Labrador retriever, Galahad. After 11 years in public policy, Leahy is seeking a management position in the nonprofit sector or government operations.

Employers increasingly are using credit checks to screen job applicants, a practice critics say is making it tougher for many unemployed workers to find jobs in the midst of a grinding recession. That could change by the end of this week, when a bill that would prohibit companies from pulling credit reports on most job seekers is scheduled to reach Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk. AB 943, introduced by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza (D-Norwalk), would narrow the category of jobs for which employers could investigate the financial background of applicants.

Jeanne Eslinger Branthover leans in and listens intently as a laid-off Wall Street executive describes how she's coping in a miserable job market. The woman, blindsided by her layoff from a big investment bank, tells how she puts on a business suit every day and diligently commutes into Manhattan to look for work. "Good girl, good girl," Branthover says. "At the end of the day, things are going to get better. You're going to get employed. It's just when, and don't give up on it."

Putting on his "moon suit" during a make-believe chemical disaster was only part of the fun for Gary Remson when he took an eight-week course on handling hazardous materials last year at West Los Angeles College. The teaching seemed first-rate. Experts from the Police and Fire departments sat in as guest speakers. But most important of all, the laid-off aerospace worker looked forward to his prize "at the end of the rainbow"--a job with a future.

Amber Medina has been looking for a job for five months, ever since her father, a metal-worker, was laid off and her mom began struggling to support the family of seven on her $15-per-hour job. But the 17-year-old has yet to find anything permanent, despite sending out resumes and visiting dozens of potential employers, including the clothing stores Old Navy and PacSun. "I'm looking for any job to help my parents," she said.

Amber Medina has been looking for a job for five months, ever since her father, a metal-worker, was laid off and her mom began struggling to support the family of seven on her $15-per-hour job. But the 17-year-old has yet to find anything permanent, despite sending out resumes and visiting dozens of potential employers, including the clothing stores Old Navy and PacSun. "I'm looking for any job to help my parents," she said.

Their savings in shambles from the economic downturn, jobless seniors are dusting off their briefcases and trying to head back to work. Many, like Jim Mitchell, a 63-year-old former sales executive, are finding a merciless job market where decades of experience aren't necessarily an asset. The Long Beach resident rises daily before dawn and dresses neatly in business attire to keep himself motivated.