Income has been stagnant for a really long time. The cost of living has skyrocketed during that time. The end result doesn't take someone with a doctorate to figure out. When people make less money they find ways to cut back. This means they are buying the cheaper and usually equivalent quality versions of products. If you make expensive products, there is less demand for them then there used to be. Simply because it's not in the budget.
He worked with the owner of his old company. That man was rich but unlike most of the 1% he understands what life is really like for his employees. One example is that everyone got a raise in January. When Josh was let go, they made it very clear that it was a layoff and told him to use them as a reference. Josh still talks very positively about them and his time working for them.
So what did Josh do? He did a lot of things but his primary job was "Quality Control Manager". He inspected the cheese to make sure no one will get sick from it. He had some interesting stories through the eight years he worked there. But no one got sick from anything he inspected! 100% success rate!
They must have been positive references. He was only unemployed for three weeks. During this past week there were three jobs in which he made it to the top candidates. We talked a lot about those jobs during his time interviewing. We talked about the responsibilities, the salary, and how he felt about them. We talked about this for hours!
We agreed early that this is God putting his plan in action. Everything about it from the moment Josh brought the news of the layoff home just felt like it's God's plan. So we agreed the day he was laid off, He'd take the first reasonable offer. God knew our plan before the search began.
Josh was careful when sending out resumes. He only applied to a job if the description fit his experience. I think that contributed to his success at drawing interviews in the first place! He's always been lucky with job searching. I have talked about my unsuccessful 18 month job search that led me to follow God's plan to my current job. But, I haven't talked about Josh's.
When we were engaged we were working for the same company. A retail store that sold teaching supplies. We had worked there for years. Close to the wedding, the company started the process of closing all of the stores. By the end of January, I was about to start working at Sylvan. Two weeks later, Josh got a job. When that ended, he worked at an Outback Steak House for two months before starting as a Temp in the warehouse of an electronics company. While working, he was head hunted by the sister of a company owner. That company is the one he was just laid off from.
His resume boosts the following:
Assistant Store Manager
Store Manager (the one that closed)
Assistant Manager (major chain)
Host Manager (Outback Steak House)
Customer Service Rep (temp job)
Quality Control Manager (last job)
Skills (highlights):
Had TSA clearance at his last job
Fork lift operator certification
BA in Business
Strong Leadership, Teamwork, and Supervisory skills
Shipping and Receiving
We weren't expecting this:
Assistant Marketing Manager
Josh isn't a strong creative thinker. When I first heard he got this interview, I asked the obvious question. Are you going to be the boss of the people creating advertisements? No, he isn't. Most of his job is going to be on the road. He'll be communicating with customers about what they are looking for then passing that along to the person who is ACTUALLY the boss of the creative people. He'll be making sure that their ideas match what the customers said they wanted.
I think this career will be an excellent match for Josh. He has a lot of experience with customers. He started in retail in April of 1999! He likes people. He is a strong Manager. When the company we worked for closed, Josh was the manager of a different store. I was the Assistant Manager of the location we both had worked in. For a long time, he was above me. When he worked in Quality, a major part of his job was to make sure the product was what the customers want. They had to be labeled right, packaged right, and be kept at the right temperature in addition to safe to eat. Part of that, required trips to different store location for their biggest customer. He liked those trips a lot. Now, that will be the biggest part of his job! He also had to take very careful and complete notes. That will be critical to success in this new career!
It's a new career. It has a path. If he succeeds, there are jobs above this that he can be promoted to. His immediate boss will be the owner of this company. It's a mid-sized company like the last one. They have some impressive customers. Josh's assignment is a large company that both my Mom and his Dad worked for. It's not a funny coincidence, it's God's plan. Josh didn't expect to get this company starting off.
With new careers the Employee and the family are usually nervous. I LOVE how this company handled the interview processes. Before making Josh an offer he had to do the training. He was doing the job with the supervision of another Marketing Manager who was part of the hiring team. They saw how he did the job before making the offer. It means he is much more likely to succeed in this job. If he couldn't handle it, that would have come out in the training part of the interview process. With my anxiety I needed that comfort of knowing how thorough they were before the offer was made.
He got the first interview on Tuesday. He trained on Wednesday and Thursday. On Thursday, he came home with the offer. We talked about it a lot that day. When he woke up on Friday morning, he KNEW without a doubt that THIS was the job he wants! That THIS was the CAREER he wants!
God knows me best and knew I would be obsessively anxious, worried, and frightened with a new career without the training coming first. I did rough budget calculations using that income tax calculator from my "Budgeting on the Average Household Income" blog post, my health care exchange research, and our expenses. If my math is right, there are a few big things we used to have to rely on tax refunds for that we can now plan on as part of our regular budget! Hopefully, I can finalize that on Monday when Josh meets with Human Resources.
Marketing was my strongest non-Dance subject in college. I thrived in that environment. I am excited about hearing how his day was each day. He's excited to tell me. One thing I have been enjoying over the last two days is that he's my Ken doll. He has to wear a suit to work! I have had a BLAST getting him ready for this job! It's a good thing JC Penny is having a great sale on Stafford suits and dress shirts! He LOOKS GREAT!!! Don't worry, I called the dry cleaners we use. They are next to that store we both worked in before we were married. I Budgeted in each week the cost of dry cleaning.
I talk a lot about putting my trust in God. We did that with Zach's pregnancy. We did that with this job search. We will continue to do that in every area of our lives. I pray for everyone looking for a job. I hope you find something that is the right match for your skills, experience, and personality.
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