The Creative Life

On the weekend, gentle readers, your MatchGirl was listening to Studio 360 on WNYC. Part of the program was about arts funding in public schools (check it out here). Or, more to the point, if a turnaround arts initiative could save schools.

Your MatchGirl only knows what this piece told her about the initiative. But she knows this. Art saves students. And that will be what saves schools.

When your MatchGirl was a kid, she went to several schools. Being the shy, bookish girl before that was a hip thing to be, it wasn't easy to make new friends. But the art room was always a place of solace.

I never would be the smartest kid in class. I would never be the prettiest and I most certainly could never have been, no matter how I longed for it, the most popular. But I could go into the art classroom and feel smart and talented and like I could do anything that I wanted to. I could be accomplished. And I could feel admired.

That was just the self-esteem part of things.

Having the opportunity to participate in arts programs also made me aware that there is seldom one right answer. It made it clear that one could use creativity to arrive at the truth. 

I was never one who did well on standardized tests, probably because of this. My world was always in shades of grey. There was always something that could be the right answer, if only I knew more of the puzzle pieces. 

The thing is, dear readers, when we get out of the classroom and into the real world, it's not so black and white as bubbles filled in with a Number 2 pencil, either. We need creative thinking to make our way in the world - in personal relationships, in the work place, too. Think where we would be without creative thinking. 

And I don't mean think where we would be without the painters and the poets and the composers. Creative thinking is what drives the greatest innovations in our world. Engineers, scientists, mathematicians ... all of these disciplines rely on people who can think outside of previously drawn lines to come to new discovery. 

And they can't land on these discoveries if they've never been taught to wrap their head around problems from a different perspective.

Your MatchGirl, for one, hopes that this initiative proves its worth. And that expands to other schools. She hopes that the school system realizes how many children "No Child Left Behind" is truly failing. 

Who knows, a little creative thinking might help ...

Image: Life

Unemployed Need Not Apply

There is a disturbing trend, gentle readers. One that quite upsets your MatchGirl. There is a trend that employers, people who are hiring, are saying that the long-term unemployed, those who need the jobs the most, need not apply.

Your MatchGirl, who, herself, was among the long-term unemployed, before landing her current spot, has some thoughts on this. Bear with me.

The employers want people who still are up-to-date and current on all that applies to their posted position. They want people who have been in the working world and have networks and contacts to rely on. They want people they won't have to spend money to train - ones that can slip easily into the position.

The long-term unemployed are eager, no desperate, to work. They are at the end of their financial rope. They will take jobs they are over-qualified for. Once 9 to 5 office workers will happily sweep floors. Scientists will become cheesemongers. These people have no income to speak of and they need this job. The economy needs for them to have it.

Your MatchGirl, gentle readers, see the problem as this: The employers are not educated about the state of the unemployed person today. The average unemployed, much as I did when I was unemployed, is putting themselves out there as much as possible. They are educating themselves, in classes or online or through friends, on anything they think will be able to help them get a job. They want to get hired and they want to be ready when that finally happens.

And, the biggest misconception, of course, is that unemployed people are lazy. Gentle readers, we know this is simply untrue. But perhaps the onus is on us to educate these employers...

Make sure to add anything you have been doing to your resume. Volunteered two days a week at a shelter? Add it! Take classes at a community college? Add it! Babysit on a regular/semi-regular basis? You're a nanny. Add it! Prove to the employers that unemployeds are not lazy. And that they deserve, at least, a chance a that posted job.

If you have a moment, listen to this interview on WNYC's Brian Lehrer show:

Malemployed

malemployed:
When what you do for a living makes you want to kill yourself.
I re-edit text that has already been edited in India; I am so malemployed.
-Urban Dictionary

I heard this word the other day, listening to The Takeaway on WNYC, while getting ready for work.  This, gentle readers, was not a word that your MatchGirl had heard before.  Apparently, according to reporter Beth Kobliner, it's a word coined in the 1970s, during that decade's high unemployment levels.  And with unemployment rates, on record, at nearly 10% country-wide - and actual unemployment teetering at closer to 20% - because the record does not take into account those people whose unemployment insurance has run out and those people who are no longer actively searching for jobs - what is there, realistically, out there, besides malemployment?

While I may have never heard the term before, being malemployed is something with which your MatchGirl is very very familiar.  And, while I studied art and that is the kind of things that educated artists often are - waiting tables, working retail, pouring coffee - all while having fancy degrees, it is not something that most people should be.  It is not something that most people expect to be.

The word malemployed is interesting to me, though, in its difference to underemployed.  I've been using them interchangeably for months upon months.  But they are two distinct things.  Underemployment -a term that I, and many like me, have been using to define both those people who are working jobs that are "below" (for lack of a better word) them and those people who are working, but not enough - refers simply to the fact that the person does not have enough work.  It doesn't matter what that work is.  Malemployment, on the other hand, defines those people who are working, but are working at jobs well under their eduction or career level.

When I was unemployed, most of what I thought about was getting a job and, at the beginning, dear ones, getting a job that was better and more interesting than the one from which I was laid off.  Towards the end of my unemployment, dear readers, is when your MatchGirl started giving serious thought to giving in to malemployment - to taking a job that would be well below her education and her work experience, simply to sustain - barely at that - some semblance of life.  Because at that point a job - ANY JOB - would have done.  I'm glad that things did not come to that, but I am also very aware that they could have very easily gone down that path.

For those of you unlucky enough to be among the malemployed, some links you might find interesting:

Our soul-crushingly indistinguishable jobs are the Darwinistic extension of Henry Ford’s assembly line.  Our jobs are interchangeable parts designed to be quick, cheap and easy to replace even by an HR person.  All to keep labor costs down and drive profits ever higher to satisfy investors and Jim Cramer’s Mad Money crew.  And we know why we stay – we need the money and there is nothing else out there.

Please Fire Me

Malemployment represents the inability of a college graduate to find a job that effectively uses the knowledge, skills and abilities acquired in college and relegates them to employment in low-skill and generally low-wage occupations that don’t utilize college-level proficiencies. Since the skills of the malemployed remain largely unused by employers, they experience considerable wage losses.
The New England Board of Higher Education

Recent college grads are facing underemployment  or “malemployment,” meaning that they are working at jobs that do not require a college degree.  Professor of Economics at Northeastern University Andrew Sum estimates that during the first half of 2010, more than 50 percent of young B.A.-holders were employed at jobs not requiring a college degree.
Edu In Review

What do you think, gentle ones, are the jobs you are finding - whether ones you've take on or ones your applying to in dire hopes they'll call you back -do these job represent the crisis of malemployment in the country today?  Do you think there is anything that any of us can do about it?

Benefits Getting The Boot?

Listening to On the Point last night on NPR, gentle ones, your MatchGirl was stunned that so many still think that those collecting unemployment benefits are lazy.  Happy just sitting on their asses while "collecting free money" and making fools of those who are working, paying for their cushy, unemployed lifestyle.

As someone who was unemployed for a year and a half, who worked my ass off looking for jobs, working on my resume and trying to find new and different things to do and new directions for myself, I am offended by people who say these things.  While there are lazy people amongst the unemployed, they are, in my experience, not the norm.  Just like any government program, there is always the assumption that the majority of the people benefiting from it are taking advantage - milking the system - and not those actually in need.

And, this, dear readers, is bullshit.

Below is a an overview of On The Point and links to some of the guests.  No surprise that the most offensive of them is Stephen Moore, of the Wall Street Journal.

Give it a listen and see if you agree...

Census Bureau Says One in Seven Americans Lives in Poverty 

The National Bureau of Economic Research said today the Great Recession that started in December 2007 officially ended in June of last year.  But don't tell that to the 43.6 million people who are trying to live below the poverty line.  That's 14.3% overall, or one in seven Americans and includes 20% of all children, 25% of blacks and Hispanics.  It's the highest poverty rate since 1994, and the Census Bureau says it would have been worse except for government safety nets. Food banks, shelters and job-opportunity centers around the country tell us they're serving a new and different class of people, the recently unemployed. What's the reaction in Washington, six weeks before the November election? Will the private sector start hiring or should government create new jobs?

Guests:

• Deborah Weinstein: Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs
• Jason Perkins-Cohen: Executive Director, Job Opportunities Task Force
• Frank Spencer: Executive Director, Stewpot Community Services
• Beverly Damore: Chief Communications Officer, St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance
• Stephen Moore: Member of the Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
• Heidi Shierholz: Labor Market Economist, Economic Policy Institute

Links:

• Census Bureau on poverty in the US

• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Fund

Think Tank Pot Luck

Save the date, Saturday June 26th to come out and support my dear friend Joann and the awesome vendors of the Greenpoint Food Market.  The DOH has already done away with bake sales at schools and the true spirit of the Red Hook Ball Fields and now they want to hurt our neighborhood market...

Your MatchGirl will be there.  Please check out the info on the GFM website and come out to support this amazing community.

You Talk Too Much

Ah, gentle readers, your MatchGirl is not known for keeping her tongue.

In fact, some may say she talks too much.

And, it's true.
Guilty as charged.

I talk too much.

On dates.
When I meet new people.
When I am at a party.

It's not that I don't want to listen.  I do.  I want to know what you have to say.  In fact, unless you are a total bore, I really want to know your thoughts on things.  I want to debate.  I want to get to know you better (again, unless you are a total bore).  I might not ask the right questions, but I mean to.

I have a lot to say, too, however, and, spending so much of my day alone on a regular basis ...  I can't seem to help but run at the mouth when I am in an environment with actual people to talk to.

It's something I'm working on.  I promise.
And a skill that will come in handy should I ever get a job interview.

Last week on Brian Lehrer on WNYC, a gentleman named Scott Peek, who volunteers at a Dallas career networking organization about the two minute interview.

This is smart.

Because, if I remember correctly, when you sit down across from the interviewer, they will say "Tell me about yourself" and then ...  nothing.  You need to know ow to answer that question, in a way that will keep their attention, show your interest in the company and how much you'd like to have that job.  and you have to do it in two minutes.

Here are some tips from Scott, as posted on the Brian Lehrer Help Wanted Facebook Page (and, yes, everyone is suddenly getting unemployment Facebook pages, feel free to fan mine):

Remember this is a well prepared response to the first interview question that you will always get that states... "Tell me about yourself..." or "I've haven't read though your resume... can you summarize it for me?"

The future employer is trying to translate the potential value you might bring to their organization, rather than hearing all about your past experience...

Here are the four steps (and it has to be brief - within 2 minutes)
1. (15 sec) Restate your name (if needed), and ensure you describe your role (or desired role) for which you are seeking.
2. (45 sec) Highlight your work experience and be specific about the accomplishments (business results) you have been a part of.
3. (45 sec) "Talking about the future" Project how you'll take your past and translate it into terms of that person's company, the role you'll play at that company and/or the potential results you see yourself creating for that person as you get hired.
4. (15 sec) Ask an opened ended question of the interviewer that relates to their business. This step starts to turn the interview into a conversation.

A few guidelines:
- You have to comfortably be able to describe what your next career will be.
- Spend a lot of time researching the company. You want to learn as much as you can about: Companies Goals, Challenges, mission statement, vision, culture, product portfolio, client base, how the clients might view that company, what their org chart might look like, who are the key players in the company/department, etc.
- Most of your research can be found within their website, on Linkedin pages, talking to others in the industry.
- Bottom line is you have to see yourself in the position talking their language as you enter the interview.
- The worst thing is to not know who you are talking to, what the company does, how long they have been in business, and who some of the main competitors are.

I remember from my days of being the interviewer (as opposed to the interviewed) that it's hard to keep all those resumes straight. Of course the person interviewing you will go over it before you walk in the door, but remember that they have received hundreds of resumes and it's just difficult to engage with the person you're interviewing and look at the paper in front of you. Instead of being perturbed that they don't know who you are, use those first two minutes to shine.



Also, in the comments section on the Brian Lehrer page, someone wrote that they felt that a handwritten "Thank You" note seemed desperate. Pshaw. Gentle readers, your MatchGirl (and Miss Manners) would disagree. A handwritten "Thank You" note is simply good manners.

Time Management

Corporate types spend a lot of time, dear readers, talking about time management. It's important,after all, for the busy corporate executive to manage their time wisely and efficiently - or, perhaps, manage their employees time wisely and efficiently so that they can spend more time on the golf course or with their liquid lunch. But what about us, the unemployed?

Your MatchGirl thinks that it's quite important to manage one's time wisely when there is absolutely nothing but time on one's hands. Personally, I have a schedule that I set for my Monday through Friday and, though I fall off it from time to time, I find that sticking to the to-do list, getting the satisfaction of crossing off even the smallest detail (buy stamps, CHECK!, wash hair, CHECK!, fold laundry, CHECK!) definitely helps me keep my day on track and in sync. I mean, sure, the order may be out of step from time to time, but it's more a matter of accomplishing things - and for the unemployeds, setting an agenda of things that need to be accomplished.

Today's to-do list had time stamps on it - yoga at this time, breakfast at this time, check e-mails and troll Craiglsist and the other job boards at this time ... This, my dear ones, is not the kind of list for your MatchGirl. While your MatchGirl needs some structure to her day, she also needs to ba able to switch-task if something comes up - it's one of my main skills as a manager (which was what I used to do, back in the long ago employed days) - without a time set to something. That said, there is a lot to be said about concentrating on one thing at a time, and then checking your e-mail or Twitter or Facebook, as opposed to checking your e-mail every time that little red MacMail icon appears at the side (or bottom) of your screen.

This morning on The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, Sue Shellenbarger of the Wall Street journal offers tips on managing time more efficiently, based on three tested methods. Shellenbarger tried each one out for a week and on the show, she discusses which worked best for which parts of her life and offers advice on where to find out more about the methods.

Sure, these methods, and the article in the WSJ, were really devised for important, management types, but who is to say that unemployeds couldn't use a bit of it as well? I know the days that I have a ton of stuff to do and I make a detailed list, I get a lot more done than I do on those days when I have a lot to do (or could do a lot) and I just let the list roll in the back of my mind.

How do you spend your lazy, unemployed days? Are you lazy? Or do you fill your days with a million and one things and never seem to finish any of them?

Recovery

For the past couple of days, the radio has been telling me that the recession is over.

Gentle readers, this is news to me. A (near) year of unemployment. My savings dwindling down. No real idea as to what will happen in the next few months. The countdown to my unemployment running out is on.

But the recession is over.

The government has launched a website called recovery.gov where you can see where all the stimulus money is going. You can even search the country by zip code - cool for New York, as you can really see how it's affecting your neighborhood - but. But. But.

The radio also keeps telling me that this will be a jobless recovery. How can we be expected to spend money to stimulate the economy if there are no jobs for us?

It's all well and good that they are trying to create jobs. Wonderful. But they are only in a few sectors, and, unfortunately, in New York City they are not necessarily in the sectors that are hurting.

During the Great Depression, FDR created the WPA, which stimulated the economy by creating real jobs. In fact, pretty much everyone who was unemployed was eligible for some kind of job under this bill - they restored old buildings, artists created giant murals, the pool at McCarren park was built during this time and it even eventually offered job training. The thing that the WPA did that our current stimulus program is not really doing was offer relief to white-collar workers. I think it's great to offer training to people who previously didn't have that kind of education and building infrastructure through construction jobs is important, too. I'm not really knocking the current stimulus. But, for an already educated person, living in NYC, it doesn't really do anything to help me in my job hunt.

The fact of the matter is that a lot of jobs lost in NYC were jobs in the fashion industry and the arts and on Wall Street - and not the high paid jobs, but the assistant designers and the secretaries and the office managers and event organizers - and those are the people that are currently being overlooked (those are the people whose jobs are being turned into internships). That's the kind of job I had. That's the kind of job that I know a lot of people who read my blog and follow me on Twitter and are a fan on Facebook were laid off from and are currently looking for. But it's not the kind of job that's being helped by the current stimulus. There is a lot of talk about the rich Wall Street people that lost jobs. And there is a lot of talk about people who were living below the poverty line who lost there jobs. And every now and then you see something about the middle class. But not much. And, in my opinion, those are the people who are going to be out of work the longest, because there is just not that much that is being done to help them.

But, ring the bells and throw a freakin' ticker tape parade, dear ones, cos the recession is over.

It's A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

“I have an affection for a great city. I feel safe in the neighborhood of man, and enjoy the sweet security of the streets.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I was listening to the Brian Lehrer show the other day, with guest Thomas Beller of Mr. Beller's Neighborhood and editor of the book Lost and Found, a collection of "slice-of-life" stories about New York. While the book sounds interesting, and while I encourage all of you to check out Mr. Beller's blog, what really piqued your MatchGirl's interest was something that guest host Mike Peskin said.

I'm paraphrasing here, as it was late at night while I was listening and the notes I made are scribbled. But he said something to the effect of how it is easy to feel insular in a major metropolis. And that one of the best things about New York was the neighborhoods.

It's so easy to feel like you're the only one out there when you're slogging through the world of unemployment. It's too easy to hole up on your couch and watch some crap TV, looks for jobs (and men) on the internet ... and even if you go to a coffee shop or a park, all the other people in the coffee shop are just like you, typing away on their MacBooks, iPod ear buds in their ears. Eye contact is barely made. And that sucks. Because one of the best things about New York is the neighborhoods.

I know I love mine.

I've lived in Greenpoint for five years and it's taken a while to make inroads. The old school people in the neighborhood are always questioning of the new people. I'm sure they look at the way Williamsburg has changed and it makes them nervous. It makes me nervous, too. But I love that, after a few years here, that the bodega guys say hey when I see them on the street. The woman at the laundromat recognizes my laundry bag. And, now that I have met a few of my fellow unemployeds, I'm very happy when I run into them around the neighborhood.

So, my lovelies, let's meet again.

Several people have e-mailed me with ideas as to what would be useful to them in their networking efforts. Several people have sent me blurbs with what they are looking for in a job. And I love that. And I want for us all to network more.

Let's not keep ourselves so isolated in our own neighborhood.

9 to 5

Gentle readers, you may have realized by now that your MatchGirl is a big fan of NPR and, living in Brooklyn, spends loads of time listening to WNYC on her lonely days off (which, being unemployed, is pretty much every day).

At the moment, I am catching the end of today's Leonard Lopate show - a fascinating conversation about women in the workplace, as depicted in film from Baby Face from 1933, to Woman of The Year (Katharine Hepburn is always one of my favorites, especially when matching wits with Spencer Tracey) from 1942, to 9 to 5 from 1980. In between there are bits of conversations between Leonard, Molly Haskell and Barbara Ehrenreich about the leading women in more current (timely?) movies such as Knocked Up and The Devil Wears Prada, always realizing that their man, no matter how wimpy or dorky or doofus-y, is worth more than the career they have been striving for their whole lives.

Now, my dear ones, please do not misunderstand. I am a single girl, but I am definitely looking to meet Mister Right - I just think (raised by the strong, yet very happily married, mother that I have) that any guy who asks you to give up something, without compromise, that is so very important to you - that you have worked so hard to achieve - cannot be Mister Right, can he?

Buddy System

Listening to The Takeaway this morning, I heard a woman speaking to the benefits of using the buddy system in one's job hunt.

This is a pretty interesting concept - pair up with an unemployed pal, or create a network of them, to urge each other on in your hunt for a job. As, gentle readers, I have written before, I do not have too many unemployed friends. But I like this idea. Instead of a career counselor or a job coach - to whom one has to pay huge fees - grab your nearest unemployed friend and brainstorm your strengths and weaknesses and where you will be able to use those skills. Brainstorm the type of job you want and the type of job you can realistically get. Brainstorm the companies you should apply to and the companies that you want to apply to. The best part, the hardest thing to do when you're unemployed and have nothing but time on your hands, is that you and your buddy assign goals to each other, with a time-line - a to-do list that you actually have to complete.

One aspect of this that I really like is the brainstorming your strengths and weaknesses. Especially if you have a friend as your buddy. Because, let's be honest, my dears, we are not always honest with ourselves - about our strengths or our weaknesses. And another set of eyes is a valuable tool in your hunt for employment.

Just a thought.

Brian Lehrer And The Question Of Unemployment

This is a shout out to Brian Lehrer on WNYC. On yesterday's show he had a call-in for people who were recently unemployed and also asked people to comment on the show's page on the WNYC website - especially if they were part of the new 9 1/2% unemployment rate announced for June.

When I was laid off, in November (way before the biggest wave of layoffs, and before the handful of friends I have who are also unemployed), I had more time to listen to NPR and even then, when the rates were lower, I realized that Brian Lehrer was spending a lot of time on his show reaching out to the unemployed in his audience. From "UnCommon Economic Indicators", a series that he asks people to call or write in with things that are signs of the failing economy that are perhaps missed by mainstream media, to the fact that he regularly speaks to the unemployed in NYC, it's nice to know that someone is paying attention. And reaching out to all sorts of laid off people, despite ethnicity or industry.

I've gotten some really nice comments on this blog from a lot of other unemployed people here in Brooklyn. And I thank you so much for them. Because as nice as it is to know that there are other people out there in my situation (or close enough), it's really nice to know that what I put out into the world about my situation might give someone else a boost.

So, I thank Brian Lehrer for keeping it on the tips of our tongues and at the front of our minds. Even though one may spend most of their unemployed days alone, it's really good to hear that you are not entirely alone.

Forward Thinking

On this morning's Leonard Lopate show, Buzz Aldren was on, promoting his new book, but also, speaking about the space program, and the race to the moon in the 60s. In his conversation with Leonard, he was speaking about planning for the future and looking ahead and, to paraphrase, he said that the world would be better if people spent more time looking far into the future, instead of only into what they could get out of the here and now.

In these tough times, when so many people are unemployed, I couldn't agree more. Sure, we're all looking for a job. Sure, we're all wishing we made more than what we can on the unemployment rolls. But we need to look ahead. Far ahead. Not to where tomorrows job will be but to what tomorrow's career may bring. I write this as I peruse Craigslist and Monster looking for a "for now" job to bring in the bacon, but I also write this as I enroll for classes at FIT, looking to a career that I could really love.

I think we should all listen to Buzz and look far to the future ... not just to the here and now.

Recession Stories

Some journalism students at Columbia have put together a website about how the recession (ahem, depression) is affecting a variety of New Yorkers. Interesting interview on the Leonard Lopate Show.

Their website, video interviews with lots of affected New Yorkers, here.

Robert Reich on The Economy

Very interesting interview with Robert Reich on the state of the American economy on today's Leonard Lopate show on WNYC.

Not necessarily uplifting for the unemployed amongst us, but very interesting, nonetheless.

On the Cheap

On tomorrow's Leonard Lopate show on WNYC, Ruth Reichle, editor of Gourmet magazine, will be talking about eating well during the recession. This is great not only for the unemployed amongst us, but for those who's hours have been cut, bonuses have been chopped or pay has been reduced.

You can go here to post a comment about how you eat well on the cheap. I'll be tuning in tomorrow to hear what she has to say ... we can all use a few hints in these trying times.

And, with that, I'm off to the grocery, with my careful list in hand and my menu for the week planned ...