On a recent afternoon, five of my friends came over for an evening of Risk, beer and chick flicks. I don’t play Risk, and I don’t drink beer; but the boys of the group had decided it was time for an evening of world domination, so the girls of the group decided we needed movies that didn’t have to be heard over the yelling.
The first to arrive was Thomas, a 30-year-old former retail manager whose store had consistently been the top regional sales earner for his company – when suddenly he was laid off last summer. Although many of my past co-workers had been laid off just a month or so earlier, Thomas was the first casualty of the economy I knew who wasn’t two states away.
Hastily attempting to vacuum my front room, I saw him walk up the porch with two giant cases of beer. “Good grief, man! How long are you planning to stay?” I said, opening the door.
“Oh, we’re celebrating tonight,” he said, grinning from ear to ear. “I just got a job.”
Good news at last
“I’m so excited for you I can’t stand it.” I said as John and Sarah walked in with a Flying Pie pizza. The other married couple in our group – John worked as a systems manager for a large server company, Sarah an accounting clerk for a local firm.
Setting the pizza in the oven, I pointed at Thomas and told him to spill the beans. “That’s the best news I’ve heard in a month.”
Immediately, John’s phone rang and he left the room to take the call. John was on the first day of a week-long vacation; but like my husband, long ago accepted that he works for an industry from which there is never any vacation.
“This is the best news I’ve had in nine months,” said Thomas, as we stood around the kitchen, peppering him with happy questions. It’d been a rough road, no doubt. In less than a year, Thomas went from saving for a house to looking for a job, week after week, month after month. By the holidays he’d left his apartment, moved to Olympia and stayed with family.
Everything changed. He lost a lot. But he never gave in, and he never gave up.
Hunt with a boomerang
Sarah asked, “Did the headhunter pay off?”
He shook his head. “The headhunter didn’t find me anything. Not a single job. It was a good thing I didn’t have to pay him. A friend in Olympia sent me this posting.”
Referred by a friend. It made me think of all the unanswered applications I’ve submitted — over and over and over — since January, and couldn’t help but wonder: is it all a waste of effort? It’s hard to know where the next lead will come from. But, I do know this: if I don’t put it out there, it can’t come back.
“Sorry about that,” John walked back in. Sarah and I cleared the table and started setting up the game. “We’re going through a major turnover issue and I’ve got to fill these five positions…”
I shot my hand up. “Hellooooo.” Little colored Risk pieces scattered all over the tabletop.
He looked at me. I couldn’t tell if he was surprised, or humoring me. “Do you have expert-level knowledge with network devices, intermediate-level knowledge of SSL and DNS admin experience?”
“Uh. No.” Undeterred, I continued, “But I can learn it.”
“Well, you should check our Web site.”
“Count on it.” I turned to Thomas and reached for a bottle of wine. “Now help me open this thing and go take over the world.”
