When I chose Advertising as my profession (Junior year of high school - 2000) it was a booming profession, trendy and popular and touted as glamorized in popular culture. I saw movies like "What Women Want" and desperately wanted to be like Helen Hunt. I worked my way through college waiting tables, bar tending and tutoring elementary aged kids with the expectation that after the $40,000.00 was spent and the diploma was in my hand I would be gainfully employed and on my way to a mouth-watering career.
But times were a'changing. Little did I know that while I was grinding away at a degree from UT, a Harvard kid my own age was in the process of introducing a game-changer in the form of Facebook. Overnight advertising seemed to go from print, TV and radio to Social Media, interactive and buzz. In addition to those changes, the American people were beginning to learn just how empty the American Dream really was. I was shocked by the Enron scandal in 2001, but it seems that greed and corruption occurring in our society was just beginning to rear its ugly head. Scam artists like Bernie Madoff were emptying the savings accounts and retirement funds of thousands of people nationwide, while investment banks, such as Merryll Lynch paid out their employees billions of dollars in bonuses even as they anticipated being taken over by the US government. It has been a very disillusioning few years. As the economy drives the middle class to the verge of extinction it seems that many people are reverting to the old style of living most familiar to our grandparent's generation. One income families have become more commonplace, and the days of purchasing houses full of furniture and luxury vehicles on credit are swiftly becoming a thing of the past.
Obviously I have been fooling myself in thinking that I would only be unemployed for a few months and then get right back into the swing of the two income household. However, instead of being bitter about it (as I was for many months) I've started to realize not only the advantages of staying at home with my child but also the true facts about the economy. It's not my fault. I have sent out hundreds upon hundreds of resumes, applications and posted my qualifications on all the job boards I could find. I had dozens of in -person interviews and even more phone interviews to no avail. I had been thinking I must not be marketable, but I've realized that its the market that is not marketable.
I went to a job interview a few weeks ago for a position that I would not consider to be a big ticket, desirable position. It was just a Marketing Coordinator for a Chiropractor's Office. Upon speaking with the owner I learned just what I'm up against and have been up against since February 2010. "When we posted the ad on Craigslist," he confided, "we received over 150 resumes within the first two days." He went on to tell me how he had just called "a few select people to interview individually" and he would be conducting a group interview the next day. It made me feel good to realize that I was a "select person" who required an individual interview, even though I didn't get the job.
I am currently working from home as a Virtual Assistant for a Social Media Agency and writing SEO articles for Pampers.com. It doesn't create enough income to pay any real bills but I am contributing to the family while also getting the rare privilege of watching my (now 18 month old) daughter grow up. I would love the opportunity to work full time again, but until the market changes, I don't think my status as a stay at home mommy will change either. It is an interesting, eye opening time in American society. Maybe eventually we'll get a new American Dream, one that envisions self actualization through peace and familial harmony instead of the massive accumulation of material possessions.
