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44 144

4 p.m. because "after one hour talking
f it weren't for
with you, I need a drink," she once
JVS, you
said.
wouldn't be
I gave up on her, found a job that
reading this.
paid
the bills and quickly dispelled
Our cover story
any
notion
of finding my dream job
this week is on the
of writing a column.
unemployment sit-
Around 1997, forces beyond my
uation and stigma
control led me to Detroit and another
in the Jewish com-
job shlepping drinks behind another
munity.
HARRY
bar. My cousin, fed up with my ran-
Writing it con-
KI RS BAUM
dom
walk theory of employment, not
jured up some
Columnist
only
urged me to sign up at the then
pretty unpleasant
based Detroit JVS, but I think she
memories for me
drove me there and waited in the
— career changes, months between
parking lot until I brought a note
jobs, underemployment and walking
back from the secretary.
under the rain cloud that never
In six weeks and a battery of tests,
seemed to go away.
the
results were about the same. I had
I've been a jewelry salesman, a bar-
the
aptitude to be a journalist, a
tender, a running-shoe salesman, a
columnist or a surgeon.
real estate salesman and bond trader.
Skipping the obvi-
I've managed desks
ous
— how comfort-
at the Chicago
horo
by
BrettMountain
M
b
able would you be
Board of Trade and
seeing a 72-year-old
the Mercantile
surgical resident
Exchange, and I've
holding
a scalpel —
lived in three dif-
they gave me a
ferent states in the
quicker plan on how
past 10 years.
to get a job at a
The Wandering
paper.
Jew is my favorite
It took a couple of
plant.
post-graduate
classes,
Until now, being
a
stint
as
the
world's
a bond trader was
oldest intern at a
as close as I've ever
local paper, and a
gotten to having a
long, involved inter-
"career," but if all
view process to get a
you do is lose
nameplate on a
money trading,
Jewish News cubicle,
how much of a
but here I am.
career could that
Beshert. If it weren't
be?
for JVS and the
During one long At my desk on deadline day
patience of my fami-
period of unem-
ly, there would be
ployment in
one less columnist, and one more bar-
Chicago, I went to a career counselor
tender serving you a drink and mut-
to figure things out.
tering under his breath.
I filled out a few forms, we sat
I know there are people out there
down and she started to counsel.
right now in situations similar to
After a few sessions we agreed that
what I went through — jobless, clue-
something in the writing field would
less and that persistent cloud over-
be a strong possibility.
head.
And after a few more sessions, I
Some have more at stake, with fam-
realized how difficult it would be to
ilies
to care for.
break into a career with no real expe-
My
advice is not to go through it
rience, and no education in journal-
alone like I tried.
ism or advertising. I couldn't even
There are phone numbers at the
type.
As the weeks wore on, my counselor end of the cover story. Use them.
And those people you talk to on the
started scheduling our sessions at
other end of the line? It's their dream
Harry Kirsbaum's e-mail address is
job to help. There's no shame in tak-
hkirsbaum @thejewishnews. corn.
ing it. 0