Good news and bad on unemployment front in U.S.

By Kathleen Kenna and Hadi Dadashian

To paraphrase Charles Dickens, it was the worst of years, it was a better year.

It was the worst year, because we’re both still unemployed, despite hundreds of job applications, job fairs, informational interviews and more.

It was a better year, because we resumed full-time job searches after growing our own company, Ocean’s Edge Media.

Good news: Our small business made more money in 2012 than in 2011.

Bad news: Our revenue still puts us below the poverty line — even before expenses.

Best news: We landed our first cover story for a Canadian magazine, and Kathleen landed her first major magazine story (Condé Nast). Our newspaper and online assignments ranged from mental health research to travel stories in California, Arizona, both Washingtons, and Canada.

Our public speaking and photography gigs increased.

It was a better year for three reasons:

1.  We expanded our reach with writing and photojournalism, tapping new markets and making a lot of new contacts. Already, our advance assignments portend a better financial year in 2013.

2.  We cut costs by moving to a smaller city.

3.  Kathleen finished her training as a CTP (Certified Trauma Professional) and became a U.S. citizen.

The latter is key, because she began to get interviews from dozens of job applications after her citizenship ceremony. In the previous 18 months as a Green Card holder, Kathleen had only a couple of interviews in her rehabilitation counseling field, despite more than 200 applications.

Investment in lawyers, paper work, etc. for Green Card and citizenship: About $7,000.

How we know the economy is really recovering

We both had more serious job interviews in the past four months than we’ve had during job searches in the past two years.

Kathleen was so excited after an Oregon state interview for vocational rehabilitation counselor, she posted at living in gratitude that it was “the best job interview in my life.”

Hadi is encouraged that there appears to be more growth in his field, optical, possibly because Americans are feeling confident enough to spend money on their health and eye care again.

(While some analysts were heartened by a dip in consumer spending on health care during the recession, we suggest it’s because people who are unemployed stop spending money on doctors, medical tests, dentists, and filling optical and other prescriptions because they’ve lost insurance. Other essentials — like food and shelter — claim any household funds before health care. It’s astonishing that 47 million Americans survive on Food Stamps, a U.S. record.)

The White House soothes some Americans with the news that the economy is recovering, and our success in landing more interviews confirms that it’s improving.

But it’s such a slow improvement that we believe the U.S. is still in a recession — a psychological recession. GDP growth of 2-3% makes us, as President Barack Obama likes to say, “cautiously optimistic.”

At job fairs this fall, we spoke to other job seekers in our age group (40s, 50s), and realized that long-term unemployment is, sadly, far too common still for people who have worked decades without ever being jobless. (In Hadi’s case, that’s working decades without any sick days or “personal time” off!)

So we’re encouraged that the national unemployment rate has dropped to 7.9% after starting 2012 at 8.3%. As we’ve written many times before, however, those stats don’t mean much to people who haven’t collected unemployment benefits and aren’t on national rolls.

Those stats don’t reflect so-called “discouraged workers”, who aren’t conducting full-time job searches either. Washington defines discouraged workers as people who have stopped looking for work. Since the Labor Department also defines discouraged workers as people who haven’t looked for work in four weeks, we don’t fit that official definition either.

Judging from the comments of other job fair participants, we’re all discouraged — no one is filing job applications full-time when they land freelance work (like us) or temporary, under-the-table work (like many engineers, carpenters and others finding sporadic work as housing starts improve). Even 23 million unemployed Americans have to pay their bills somehow.

Unemployment has decreased to 8.4% in our state of Oregon, so we’re at #40 in the U.S. All the new jobs are in the midwest, from the Dakotas to Iowa and Wyoming. North Dakota has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, at 3.1%, followed by Nebraska at 3.7%.

Worst unemployment? Nevada still leads the country at 10.8%, followed by Rhode Island at 10.4%, California, 9.8%, and New Jersey, 9.6%. Our state, Oregon, is ranked #40 out of 51, with an official jobless rate of 8.4%.

Corporate cash stockpiles at $5 trillion

Given the severity of this country’s continuing high joblessness (it was only 2008 when the U.S. rate was 5%), we had hoped the November election would help calm markets and spur corporations to start creating jobs with their estimated $5 trillion in cash stockpiles.

But “fiscal cliff” negotiations have agitated markets and affected consumer and business confidence. At Hire Your Neighbor, we want to be certain that unemployment benefit extensions are approved for those who need them most.

We’re optimistic that 2013 will be a better year for us and other under/unemployed workers seeking real jobs. We’re not so optimistic about Washington overcoming its partisan divisions to tackle the real issues affecting job growth in this country: deficit reduction, government spending, and significant tax reform.

We are certain that the next debate, about the U.S. debt ceiling, will do little to calm fears of Americans, employed or not.

NEXT: The good news about full-time work after 3 years of unemployment

Down-sized but not down: ‘Better days are coming,’ says Boston medical librarian

By Kathleen Kenna

Peter Droese was “down-sized” last spring, but he’s not down.

Peter Droese

The 39-year-old medical librarian has overcome so many challenges in his life, that he’s viewing unemployment as an opportunity.

Droese has returned to school to get a degree in vocational rehabilitation counseling, to work with returning veterans and other people with disabilities.

He’s had a strong career as an information resource specialist as the University of Massachusetts Medical School, senior faculty at Cambridge College‘s grad school of management, and health policy librarian at the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

“I need a real job, just like everyone else,” he says from Boston. “It’s been tough these last few months. My unemployment will run out … and I don’t know how much longer I can drive.”

Yet, Droese emphasizes, “Better times are coming.”

There’s no particular reason for this optimism, except Droese’s strong resilience.

Born premature, he had open-heart surgery at only 10 months of age. He was very ill before he learned to walk. His family was cautioned that cerebral palsy would prove so limiting, that Droese wouldn’t be allowed to go to school.

“My mom led a campaign for educating children with special needs,” Droese recalls.

Such tenacity is obviously in his genes. As a youngster, Droese dreamed of becoming a Boy Scout, despite multiple incidents of detached retinas that threatened his vision, and an early diagnosis of hydrocephalus, a potentially brain-damaging condition.

“My only dream was to see Eagle Scout,” he says.

Droese reached that goal by Grade 7, the highest honor for any Scout.

“I did it because I wanted to prove I could do anything,” he says, adding that his greatest high school achievement was going to Russia as an exchange student.

Considering his family was warned that Droese wasn’t worth educating as a boy, he went on to earn degrees in human studies and human services (Bradford College), then a Masters in library and information science (Simmons College).

Yet college was interrupted by a traumatic brain injury and infections as a result of the hydrocephalus, and Droese had to learn to talk again. His solution? Toastmasters.

“I went to Toastmasters as part of my rehabilitation. I used public speaking to retrain my brain,” Droese says. “I used it to practice for job interviews.”

His determination paid off: Droese became so skilled at public speaking, he was asked to deliver the keynote address at a national library science conference.

“It is what it is,” Droese says matter-of-factly. “You just go forward.”

After losing his job at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in April, Droese says he applied for the Masters program in vocational rehabilitation counseling at Assumption College because “I’m ready for my next challenge.”

He adds, “I view it as a protective measure, to deal with the layoff.”

Droese recalls meeting someone professionally who had been involved in one of his brain surgeries, and realizing what a difference that one specialist had made in his life.

“There are so many veterans returning from war with hydrocephalus,” Droese says. “If I can make that kind of difference in just one life, it would be worth it.”

He’s seeking work in vocational rehabilitation as a result, that combines his skills in case management and project management, information services and career counseling.

Droese admits that a job search can be discouraging in a market like Boston, despite sending out resumes and cover letters, and tapping his network daily.

“It’s been a roller coaster these last six months,” he says. “This recession we’re in now is just as bad as the last Depression. My students would tell me there are no bread lines, and I would say, ‘it’s just hidden.’ ”

Job searching is more difficult now, “especially because employers are looking for the perfect candidate,” Droese suggests. “They don’t know what they want — maybe the last person in that job. He doesn’t exist anymore.”

Droese credits his optimism to a good support network of family and friends. Married eight years, he has one son, six-year-old Luke, and says having a close family “has really been amazing.”

See Peter Droese’s profile at LinkedIn.

Hire a veteran — get a tax break, fuel America’s recovery

If the United States is to recover from its worst unemployment crisis since the Great Depression, Americans must get serious about giving jobs to veterans.

Almost one-third of veterans from Gulf War II to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are out of work, according to a new report by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The official jobless number for vets aged 18-24 is 29.1%.  For civilians in the same age group, it’s 17.6%.  These numbers don’t count those who don’t register for unemployment or other benefits, so the actual rate is far higher.

Officially, unemployment among veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is 11.6%, higher than the 8.3% national average for civilians.

Ask job counselors working with veterans and they’ll tell you Washington’s numbers don’t come close to accurately counting the jobless vets they’re seeing.  Many fear Americans will turn their backs on these warriors, just as the country did to Vietnam vets.

This is a moral issue:  We asked troops to risk their lives to protect Americans from another terrorist attack.

It’s a financial issue:  If we don’t provide employment for more than 1 million returnees, we will pay in higher medical and social costs, and incalculable costs in human suffering.

It is also a fundamental issue for American safety and prosperity.

NBC’s Anne Curry, in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, notes that getting veterans back to work “may well be the most selfish thing our nation can do right now.”

Selfish because the “best and the brightest”, who had the training and courage to fight in multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, have skills and leadership that can fuel America’s economic recovery, she emphasizes.

“Whether today’s military men and women—the best-trained and most experienced military force in the history of our nation—can similarly drive our economy largely depends on whether we remember our history,” Curry writes, referring to the post-war economic recovery spurred by World War II vets.  She’s the daughter of a veteran too.

NBC News today launched a “Hiring Our Heroes” campaign, starting with military job fairs across the nation. Its emphasis is on Corporate America, because the national campaign is twinned with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

(Check for upcoming job fairs in 400 communities across the country.)

Many corporate heavyweights have signed on, from Microsoft to Home Depot. Mid-sized firms have made pledges too, leaving the heart of the country, the nation’s small business owners, to quietly do what they always do — hire their neighbors.

Hiring vets is “good for the bottom line,” the White House says, touting academic research showing the benefits to business.

It helps employers to get tax credits up to $9,600 for each worker, signed into law last fall by President Barack Obama. More government aid is available for training too.

In an election campaign year, veterans are the poster heroes for the estimated 20 million unemployed workers in the U.S.

We hope this will spur employers to begin hiring again, and for consumers to get more involved in this nation’s recovery.

‘It seems we’ve decided a middle class is a luxury we can’t afford’: Unemployed and skeptical about retirement

Jim Berrie took a buyout from his newspaper in 2008, discovering the U.S. had changed even more dramatically than he had imagined:  Retirement is stretching out of reach.

“Even after the stock market crash, I fully expected I would get another job right away,” he says from his New Jersey home.

It wasn’t a voluntary buyout, but at least Berrie kept benefits and a small pension, after almost 20 years as a copy editor-paginator.

“They kind of had the gun to our heads,” he recalls.  “They said if we stayed, we could get re-assigned, as security guards at a warehouse. Or the paper would be sold and the new buyer would fire everyone and we would have to re-apply for our jobs, at lower salaries.”

Berrie wasn’t unemployed long before he was invited to return part-time. His $1,700 weekly salary was cut by two-thirds, and the only shift offered was at night, adding a 70-mile commute that was “rough”, partly because the extra miles meant a monthly surcharge on his leased car.

It’s ironic that the newspaper section Berrie was helping produce was called Good Times.

Soon, he was promoted to arts and entertainment editor, doing all the editing, layouts and pagination for two sections, working with five freelance writers.

“I was making a fraction of the money I used to make, but then they set me up so I could work at home, and only commute one day a week. I like what I’m doing, and the hours are more flexible.”

The financial hardship, however, was tough to accept.

Berrie’s wife, a speech pathologist, was working from contract to contract, as social services were slashed. She often went without income for weeks.  Then their son graduated from college and the family had to start paying back his loans.

“It was tough,” Berrie acknowledges. “There have been times ….” His voice trails off.

“Times when we fell behind on the mortgage a month or so,” he adds, admitting the three-career family didn’t expect that. “We’re caught up now.”

At 60, Berrie is scrambling to continue applying for jobs in public relations and advertising, “just trying to get my foot in the door.” But the skills of a copy editor — “people who know language” — are diminished “when there are no standards on the Internet.”

Berrie boosts his income by proofreading and copy editing at a community newspaper one day a week, and proctoring tests for the Princeton Review.

Baby Boomer nostalgia:  ‘America’s most prosperous time’

“It’s certainly scary.  There’s a kind of disconnect in the U.S. now,” he says. “The economy doesn’t seem to be rebounding the way it should, and a lot of people are losing their homes and jobs. I’m a Baby Boomer and I grew up in America’s most prosperous time. It doesn’t look like it will ever be that way again.

“It seems we’ve decided a middle class is a luxury we can’t afford.”

Berrie, 60, figured he would be retiring at 65, and now admits he can’t plan for retirement, financially or psychologically.

“We spent all our 401Ks keeping up the mortgage,” he says. “I might be desperate enough to start collecting Social Security at 62” if family income doesn’t improve.

“I fully expected I would be at (my paper) until I retired, so we feel very threatened,” Berrie says. “That stock market crash in ’08 really killed.”

Still, he’s boosted his pessimism with exercise, losing 60 pounds with the help of a personal trainer.  Berrie was so successful in maintaining a strong workout routine, that he aims to become a certified personal trainer too.

After interviewing a contestant from his town who appeared on NBC’s The Biggest Loser, Berrie is keen to turn private weight loss success into financial gain.

It’s not about us and them, it’s about sharing — just ask Mark Zuckerberg

By Hoover Wind, Kathleen Kenna and Hadi Dadashian

It’s not about us and them.

As much as we honor the peaceful intentions of the Occupy movement, it’s not just a simple formula of 1% versus 99%.

It’s about all Americans, as Sarah Palin reminded us at the CPAC convention this weekend.

Let’s look at Mark Zuckerberg, sometimes reviled, sometimes beloved founder of Facebook.

It sounds outrageous that the social networking giant could raise $5 billion in its public stock offering.

We want all American companies to raise that kind of cash in their IPOs.

We want all American companies, all Americans — from the wealthiest to the lowest-income  — to share.

Zuckerberg, hopefully, is about to show us how this is possible.

Say Facebook raises $5 billion.

This means as much as $1 billion for the rest of California.

How? That five-letter word in the current election campaign: T-A-X-E-S.

The non-partisan legislative analyst’s office in California estimates this single IPO — the largest ever for an Internet-based firm — could bring California millions, and perhaps even $1 billion, in taxes.

This has so excited California’s governor, the sometimes reviled, sometimes beloved Jerry Brown, that his staff has offered to mow Zuckerberg’s lawn in exchange.

“If it is as big as it is being billed, then on behalf of a grateful state, I will go to Mark Zuckerberg’s house and either wash his windows or mow his lawn,” says H.D. Palmer, Brown’s finance spokesman.

This is the great part:  The non-partisan legislative analyst’s office and the Democrat governor’s office have both put one of California’s richest entrepreneurs on notice.

Pundits are crowing that Zuckerberg will pay the most taxes of any American in history.  This is good news, no matter where you stand on tax reform, tax breaks for the rich, or tax hikes.

California is broke.  With a deficit of more than $9 billion, its schools are falling apart, and its streets and highways are filling with garbage.  Social services — for veterans, elders, people with disabilities, children and low-income families — have been squeezed and squeezed and squeezed.

Slashbacks across all levels of government have hit all public services, from policing to economic development, like a tsunami.

To international visitors, it appears that California’s homeless population is growing, in major cities and small towns.

Politicians will fall all over themselves with a windfall like this. Watch for national politicians to argue about how Zuckerberg’s tax contributions should be spent — more prisons/less prisons; more affordable housing/more campaign contributions.

We’ll be watching Zuckerberg and his Facebook workers, many of whom are counting on becoming millionaires as a result of this IPO.

Will they park their new profits outside the country to avoid taxes?

Or will they share, by paying full taxes — however that is defined — to help California’s most vulnerable?

Will they, as Republican minority leaders in California insist, use this newfound tax wealth to “protect our public school students … and pay down the state’s debt service.”

You know — the debt that everyone shared in accumulating during the so-called “good years”?

Layoffs, recession show ‘we’re living in a new world’

Dan Witter was confident a Bachelor’s degree would help him pursue a career.

Dan Witter

A survivor of layoffs and a recession that has crushed career hopes, the 43-year-old from Bellingham, WA, says his experiences have taught him an unsettling lesson: “I’m not convinced things will go back to the way they used to be.”

That means the days when a solid resume, good references and a B.A. meant something better than minimum wage.

Witter, working two jobs for more than 45 hours a week, just filed his taxes and concludes, “I didn’t clear $16,000.”

He says this with some amazement, as if he still can’t believe he’s back to retail after two years of unemployment, following a layoff.

“I’m disappointed that things aren’t working out the way they should,” he says. “I realize I’m living in a different world. It’s so sad to see this happen to our country.”

Witter says it’s not enough to be committed to a job, and work hard to get ahead.

“I work hard, I take pride in my work, I’m a detail-oriented person,” he says. “That doesn’t mean anything anymore. Everyone puts that on their resume.”

After applying for 300 jobs in the past two years, Witter was relieved to get a part-time job as custodian at his church, first at five hours weekly, then 10.  That was followed by a full-time job as produce assistant in a new department at Target.

“At least I have medical,” he says. “Between two jobs, I can’t afford $700-a-month rent. I pay room and board to my parents, but I have this guilt trip — I’m supposed to be out on my own. I’m supposed to be supporting myself. I should be independent, yet here I am.”

He’s quiet for a moment and adds, “There are so many people worse off than me, who have lost everything.”

Witter joined the Occupy protests in Bellingham, and removed his savings from the Bank of America to protest the bank’s role in the recession.

“We hear about all these bailouts of Wall Street … so I stood outside the Bank of America (in Bellingham), to say, ‘you got bailouts and I lost my job’,” he recalls.

“A lot of the time I was out of work, I was angry. I just didn’t show it. I was really, really angry — I had nowhere to put the blame.”

When Witter was unemployed and lost his health insurance, he got injured and was advised to get surgery at a cost of almost $20,000.

“I was livid,” he says. “I was scared.  “That would have wiped out all my savings.”

Witter sought opinions from two more doctors, who advised against surgery, so he still tries to add to his savings.

“There are so few making so much money in our country, and so many suffering,” he continues.

“It leaves you with a sense of helplessness. I don’t feel like I have a whole lot of power. There’s a certain acceptance of things — but I’m not giving up.”

Witter is writing a book about his church, Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship, as a way of channeling his writing skills.

“Writing gives me a sense of contentment,” he explains. “This a real, printed book — I can’t wait to get it in my hands.”

Witter leaves with a Mark Twain quotation he finds inspiring: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Second of two parts

Long-term unemployment ‘changed my whole worldview’

Dan Witter has the kind of passion that spurred him to take 2,000 photos of a construction project and produce a self-published book.

The project was an addition to his church, Bellingham Unitarian, in Washington state.

Dan Witter

Witter, a former journalist, wanted to capture history for the congregation of 300, so embarked on what he calls “my honeymoon book.”

The title, Building A New Hope, could be a sub-title for Witter’s own life.

At 43, Witter says he didn’t imagine he would be living with his parents again, after long-term unemployment.

Witter got a BA in journalism, worked as a reporter in California for almost eight years, then returned to Washington “burnt out” in 2007.

“I moved back with my parents, figuring I would stay a month or two, and find work,” he recalls.

When the job search took longer than expected, he got a retail job at Target and continued searching.

By fall, 2008, he landed a job that paid twice as much as retail, at Cargill Animal Nutrition, a feed mill near Anacortes, Washington. Witter became a production technician, stocking and sealing animal feed in bags on a production line.

“I asked myself, ‘Do you really want to get into this? Are you sure you want to do this?’ ” he says. “It was the worst job I ever had.”

Long hours, difficult working conditions and a tough work culture finally led to a layoff, and Witter acknowledges, “I was the wrong match for the job.”

Witter began another full-time job search, confident it wouldn’t take long.

“At first, I was happy because I knew that wasn’t the right job for me,” he says. “But it was getting tougher. Days turned into weeks turned into months — I told myself, ‘I won’t go six months’ (before finding work), but then a year goes by.

“I was sending out resumes and applications all the time and I was getting only rejection letters, most of the time, no response. It was like these resumes and applications were just going into a void, some black hole.”

Employers complained they were getting 200 to 300 applications for a single position, and soon, Witter started hearing about other recession victims.

“I knew other people were losing jobs and they were worse off than me because they were losing their homes — at least I had a place to stay,” he says.

As the recession deepened, so did Witter’s depression.

“I was getting depressed because I just knew it wasn’t getting better. It changed my whole worldview,” Witter says. “I didn’t know if I would ever find a job again. It just seemed so impossible and so time-consuming, so frustrating. I knew, at the back of my mind, it was useless.”

Witter said he applied faithfully for jobs while collecting unemployment insurance, starting with media-related positions, then government jobs, then back to retail.

“I did what I was supposed to do,” applying regularly for jobs while getting UI, he says. “I didn’t lie. I would apply to Costco nine times and never get a response.”

Considering Target his default, Witter finally re-applied and learned there were no positions. At least that employer offered something few bothered — a response to his application.

College degree ‘just a useless piece of paper’

After applying for 300 jobs, Witter says he investigated education options that might help.

“I couldn’t see what would lead to work in this economy,” he says. “It seemed a college degree was just a useless piece of paper.”

Witter’s church offered him a custodial job at five hours a week, then 10 hours, helping lift his confidence.

When construction began on an addition for the church, Witter says he just started shooting pictures of the work, becoming engrossed in the process.

“It was a labor of love,” Witter says, explaining that it was a volunteer project he undertook to show appreciation to the congregation.

“It was a pivotal moment,” he concludes. “It was a great accomplishment — I didn’t know I could do a book.”

Witter sold copies to church members at print-on-demand cost, estimating he earned about $40.

That seemingly minor success was followed by a phone call from Target.  The retail giant was opening new produce departments, and offered Witter a full-time job, based on his previous excellent performance.

“I finally got a job,” Witter says. “I was just elated.”

TOMORROW:  Post-recession worldview

 

 

No dinner with the Obamas, but letter from the president helps

 

We wanted dinner with President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

Wanted to share our experiences talking to unemployed people across the U.S., and ask, Where are the jobs?

No White House dinner for Hire Your Neighbor, but we did get this form letter from the president:

Dear Friend: Thank you for your kind note.  Your thoughtful words join a chorus of millions of Americans who are eager to lead our Nation towards a brighter tomorrow. Each day, I am inspired by the encouraging messages of hope and determination I have received from people across the country.  With the magnitude of challenges we face, we will only overcome them if our imagination is joined to common purpose. The future we leave to our children and grandchildren will be determined by our willingness to shoulder each other’s burdens, take great risks, and move forward as one people and one Nation.  With your help, we will build on what we have already achieved and lay a new foundation for real and lasting progress. Sincerely, Barack Obama

What to do when a layoff seems like the end of the world

Marcus Tolero is about to graduate.  Again.

He was full of hope after graduating with a BA in journalism from San Francisco State University in 2003, landing a full-time job at a community newspaper after a three-month internship.

That led to another internship at one of his city’s most prominent, glossy magazines, then a full-time public relations job at a small, boutique firm.

Tolero was pursuing his passion — writing — and polishing skills, such as fact-checking.

Then the 2008 recession hit; the p.r. firm lost clients; and Tolero was among a few young workers laid off.

“Everything got turned upside down,” he recalls. “It was the first time I had been laid off in my life.”

It was such a blow, Tolero acknowledges now it was difficult to know what to do, when unemployment was climbing in San Francisco.  All his friends had jobs, were getting married, and starting families.

He was 28.

“I took a year off,”  says Tolero, now 31. “I surfed and biked, stayed healthy and active.

“Financially, I knew I had to start over again. But I just didn’t want to go back … that was the toughest part.”

Tolero spent so much time searching for work, and tapping social media, that he took a lesson from former client, digg.com.

“They were doing some really cool stuff — they were pioneers in social media — and I was looking at all these websites, to see how they function,” Tolero says. “That’s how I decided to go back to school.”

Tolero registered at City College for a certificate in web design, plunging into a field he admits was daunting.

“It was a big leap,” he recalls. “I was nervous. Could I do it? It was something I’d never done.”

While other friends were enjoying the gains of early careers, Tolero started over again, learning humbly how to be a returning student.

“I had to make a lot of sacrifices, financially and time-wise,” he says. “But my mentality was so much different. At 18, you don’t really know what you want to do. You’re at school for the scene.

“But this time, I knew I wasn’t there to party. My mentality was much different. I don’t consider myself a computer whiz. I never knew how to design anything.”

Tolero’s answer to this struggle?  “If you’re faced with something tough, you just have to do it. I’m studying really hard.”

He’ll graduate this spring with a two-year certificate in web design and multi-media graphics, in a city where dot.com jobs have led the surge in end-of-recession employment.  San Francisco’s “beta city” economy is known for such successes as Wikipedia, Twitter, craigslist and Salesforce.

“It’s exciting, but a little nerve-wracking. I’m wondering how I’ll do, up against the guy who comes out here from Harvard with a (web design) degree,” Tolero says.  “I’m optimistic because everything is mobile — there’s such a big demand for mobile applications.

“There are definitely more opportunities in the Bay Area now. A lot of companies are looking for designers for mobile (apps), and the Bay Area is in the forefront of technology and social media.”

Tolero says his post-B.A. years have taught him to be flexible and network more, and keep building marketable skills.

“I’m still debating whether to go for more training after I graduate. Am I qualified enough? You never stop learning,” he says, with enthusiasm.

“I’m having a lot more success networking — more than I did the first time at school — and I’m hoping, I would love to, get a job in a small design studio, an intimate studio where you have a little bit more on your plate.  I want to be able to design a website, from functionality to typography …

“I pride myself on my work ethic,” Tolero emphasizes. “If I don’t understand something, I’ll try to figure it out myself. If I have a deadline, I’ll work hard to finish it early, then I’ll refine it, do the follow-up.”

Tolero’s networking already has paid off in a pre-graduation community project that has big potential beyond San Francisco.

It’s called Chinese Whispers, about disenfranchised workers who built the railroads that spurred American industrialization, and were a huge, yet unrecognized part of the Gold Rush that transformed San Francisco.

Something like young workers just getting their start in San Francisco — a city so rich, the average annual income is estimated at $115,000.

“I’m not overly optimistic,” Tolero insists. “After everything that’s happened to me, professionally, I would say I’m optimistic, with some skepticism.”

His goal, after a second graduation?

“Just get a job.”

It’s Martin Luther King Day, a day of public service

By David M. Lieberfarb

Why volunteer? For the under-employed, volunteer work can be a life-saver. While I did lots of volunteering while I was fully employed, it’s even more meaningful and fulfilling now. Mainly because it gets me out of the house and away from the computer on which I’m typing, a stealthy thief that steals huge blocks of my time playing games.

As a volunteer, I play to my strengths. Always facile with numbers, I once wanted to be an accountant, like two of my favorite cousins. As a young homeowner, I felt the need to be able to prepare my own tax returns. So one year I took an H&R Block course. That led to a part-time job during the 1983 tax season, but I hated working for H&R Block.

After my buyout three years ago, I wanted to learn how to prepare taxes on the computer instead of by hand. Rather than buy a commercial tax program, I volunteered for the AARP training. I met some dedicated people whom I really admire and am now on their team for about eight hours a week during tax season. Our clients often offer gifts, but AARP is very strict about accepting gratuities, and the gratitude we receive is enough.

As for Meals on Wheels, I enjoy driving and doing anything that has to do with food — except dishes. Years ago, I drove cancer patients to their treatments and was a volunteer and board member of an organization called SHARE (Self-Help And Resource Exchange) that provided low-cost food for people. The deliveries take up even less of my time: about two hours twice a month, but it’s very gratifying.

Since I’m not earning as much money as I did when I was working full-time at The Star-Ledger, I’m being somewhat less generous with my monetary donations to charities this year. I might have sent $100 before, but now I’m sending $25 or $50, so therefore volunteering makes me feel better about pinching pennies.

David Lieberfarb is a freelance writer, based in New Jersey.