NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) -
Seventy-two hours. That's the longest Eric Green had ever gone without a job. Until last June, that is, when the Phoenix start-up he'd been with for two years announced it was going belly up.
"I'd known for some time the company wasn't doing well financially," he says. "My résumé was up-to-date."
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
Eric Fulmer - He credits his new job to his energy and enthusiasm -- and his networking.
|
 |
 |
Brenda Carter - Though unemployed, she stayed current in her field and learned new skills.
|
|
 |
Connie Guglielmo - A job-hunting and support Web site helped her impress the man who hired her.
|
|
 |
Eric Green - He cinched the new job by moving 700 miles in three weeks.
|
|
 |
Rebecca O'Mara - Volunteering for a Hispanic group led to her meeting executives.
|
|
 |
Gilbert Wilson - He used his technical skills to get his foot in the door.
|
|
|
|
Green, an information technology guy with experience in the data-storage industry, posted his résumé online, sent it to members of his industry trade group and perused the trade magazines.
When he filed for unemployment, his résumé also went into America's Job Bank, an online resource for employers and job seekers developed by the Department of Labor. The lowdown on the job bank is what you'd expect of a government enterprise -- you put your name in because you have to. But do people really get jobs this way? Nah.
But Eric Green did -- as a software engineer at StorAd, a start-up in San Jose, Calif. that is building a next-generation data-storage product.
"I think the No. 1 reason I got a job is because I cast a wide net and I was willing to move," he says. "I didn't stick to one geographical location."
| THE JOB OUTLOOK
|
|
|
|
|
What's more, the company wanted him to start in three weeks, and Green was not only willing but eager to meet StorAd's deadline: After being unemployed for three months, he was in debt. But could he really get to San Jose that quickly?
The biggest problem was the house he owned in Phoenix. He knew he couldn't afford to carry it for long. He considered renting it but soon found out that because the Phoenix rental market was soft, he couldn't charge enough to cover his costs.
His real estate agent came to his rescue, he says, by underpricing his home just enough to bring in a reasonable offer in less than a week.
Green's a little ambivalent about his new rented digs -- he misses the open spaces of Phoenix but loves the ethnic restaurants around San Jose. He's decidedly less ambivalent about the work.
"It's challenging. I didn't have to take a job I didn't want." And the biggest attraction: He believes he actually has a chance to take a product to market.
Continued...
|
