hot out here

I’ve thought a lot about how to approach this subject, and I think the best way to do it is just to lay my cards on the table like this:

I need a job as soon as possible. Can you help me find one?

I am the sole wage-earner for my household.  I have two young children, the youngest of which celebrated her third birthday today.  We had a minimal Hanukkah this year, but fortunately our kids are too young to know the difference.

I have not worked a steady full-time job since March.  For four years, I worked as a paralegal at one of the big downtown firms by day, and I went to law school at night.  Law school was a struggle at times; I had a rocky beginning and some bad grades in my first couple of semesters.  As I went along, however, I started getting As and Bs, and identified certain areas that I enjoyed.  It turned out, for instance, that I had a knack for civil litigation, no doubt helped by my day job preparing discovery and assembling witness binders.  And although I enjoyed IP law, I was also able to handle a wide variety of business and personal injury law.

As I entered my last semester, however, it became clear that I couldn’t work a busy day job – and it was very busy at this point – and expect to pass the bar exam.  So I left the day job.  For the first few months, this wasn’t such a bad thing; I was able to collect unemployment, earn my J.D. degree, and spend the entire summer preparing for the bar.  At the same time, I kept looking for work, interviewing, and trying to secure employment for my post-bar life.  As soon as I passed the bar, I figured, my job opportunities would expand and I’d be able to start my career in earnest.  Passing the bar was key, and I worked harder on it than anything in my life.

I took the bar exam in late July.  I spent the rest of the summer working on a temporary document review project, and then the fall filling in for a paralegal at an East Alton, IL manufacturing company.  (I ended up loving the second job, and would like to pursue in-house corporate counsel work.)  At the end of my first day at the manufacturing company, I found out that I passed the bar.   It was an incredible relief – certainly the happiest moment of 2008.  After a brief moment of celebration, I went back to the temp job and pounding the pavement.

The temp job ended in early November.  I went back on unemployment and redoubled my job search.  But things had changed.  Between the bar exam and November, the entire economy imploded.  People were getting laid off and companies were not hiring.  As a result, the legal temp work has dried up for now.  My RFT work is good for some cash here and there, and my wife maintains a part-time job doing library research, but neither is enough to cover the loss of my full-time salary.

I’ve had exactly one lawyer interview since passing the bar.  At the interview, I was told that they would be interviewing 170 other candidates for two open positions.  (Later I found out that 170 was an exaggeration; there were actually only 143 other candidates.).  I’ve done some volunteering and enjoyed it, but really need to be bringing in a salary right now.

I’ve done almost everything that the legal advice books tell you to do: take charge of your career!  Identify your strengths!  Go on informational interviews and dazzle the hiring partners! In reality, none of it has worked.  Most of my law school peers are too busy trying to hold on to their own jobs.  I’ve had a few informational interviews, but most lawyers (at least the ones I’ve contacted) are busy people who don’t have time during their work days to answer questions.  I’ve expanded my job search to include other related work – paralegal, compliance manager, insurance examination, title abstractor, legal secretary.  So far, nothing.

So I’ve begun to set my sights lower and focus on what we recent J.D.s call “bridge jobs.”  This month, I finally got a couple of nibbles.  One of the clerical temp agencies came through with a customer service position; that starts in two weeks.  I also had an interview with a call center that’s interested in having me start in February or March.  Either one is better than unemployment, but neither will be enough to pay for our mortgage, car, bills and the kids’ preschool, to say nothing of the $100,000+ in student loan payments that I’ll have to start paying off someday.  I’m planning to get a second job to supplement the above – a Starbucks-type thing, perhaps.  That’ll help, and I’m definitely not too proud to sling coffee.  However, it still won’t cover my expenses completely; plus, I’ve had a hard time getting interviews for even those jobs.

I continue to apply for jobs and attempt to network, but time is running out and our savings are almost depleted.  If I do not get a real job within the next couple of months, one or both of the following may happen:

1)  We might have to declare bankruptcy.
2)  Our mortgage company may foreclose on our house.

I’ve tried everything in my power to keep them from happening.  I’ve dealt with layoffs before and always bounced back, but this time I’m having trouble finding any work at all.  And the idea that I’m putting my wife and daughters through this is killing me. The night Esther was born, I held her in my arms and promised her that things would be different in our family, that I would never put her through what my brother and I experienced.  We grew up in a working-poor household where it was not uncommon to have the power turned off. Getting the J.D. and passing the bar was supposed to help me avoid that fate.  That’s why, between work and school, I put in four years’ worth of 16-hour days to make it happen.  Instead, we are collecting food stamps and looking at the scary specter of foreclosure.

So it’s time to appeal to you, my valued blog reader.  I’ve always had a small but friendly readership, be it in print or online.  Perhaps we know each other from the St. Louis music scene, or we went to synagogue together.   Maybe we met when I lived in Seattle, or we used to see each other around NYC.  It might be that we traded fanzines or I reviewed your record.  I think of most of you as friends, and it’s in this spirit of friendship that I get on a virtual knee and ask you:

Are you hiring?  Do you know someone who’s hiring? Can you help me help my family?

I am a hard worker and have almost entirely good references.  I dislike office politics, but thrive on tight deadlines and don’t mind healthy competition. I’m definitely used to multitasking and dealing with complex information after the past few years.  You already know I can write relatively well, but it turns out I can capably speak in public, too – one of the revelations that law school brought me.

A lawyer job (including contract attorney work) would be ideal but not necessary.  I can do all kinds of paralegal/legal secretary work, including trial and appellate preparation.  My four years at the big law firm has prepared me to be flexible and efficient in my work.  However, it doesn’t have to be legal work right now.  IT help desk.  Call center.  All kinds of writing and editing, both feature-oriented and technical.  (You probably know me through music, but my first editing job out of college was at a business magazine.)  All the stuff listed on this site under “Resources.”  I’ve done a lot over the course of my career, most of it well.

I’m used to mastering a steep learning curve.  When it comes to white collar work, I can take on basically anything and learn it quickly.  I will dazzle you with my eagerness to take on new projects, willingness to work overtime and consistent ability to meet deadlines.

Let me say as well – and I’ve discussed this with my wife – that the job doesn’t have to be in St. Louis.  We’d prefer to stay here: we’ve lived here since 2003 and consider it it our home.  But if it’s a choice between starving and living somewhere else for a few years, we’ll live somewhere else.  We’ll move elsewhere in Missouri or I’ll take the bar in another state.  Whatever it takes.

If I sound like I’m panicking, I’m not.  OK, I am a little.  But I’m mostly anxious to get on with my career and start paying off bills.  And I’m hoping, dear Hot Out Here reader, that you can help me in this endeavor.  Know of something promising?  Want a resume or writing sample?  In the same position yourself, perhaps?  Email me and let’s talk.

This has been a hard post to write, but hopefully some good can come of it.  These are desperate times, and I’m not above confronting them with desperate measures.