In 1992, Andy Swanfeldt let go of his small business and returned to the corporate world. The 15-year banking veteran wanted the security and career advancement that a job with a national data processing company seemed to offer.
Eight months later, his company closed its Dallas regional office, and 38-year-old Andy Swanfeldt was out of a job.
Talk about culture shock.
“I got depressed at times, sure,” says Swanfeldt, who lives in Lakewood and was out of work for three months before finding a job. “But at the support groups I ran into people I knew who were also looking…Chief Financial Officers and Vice Presidents of Finance. Being able to interact every week with other pros was comforting.”
Swanfeldt’s story is typical of what the experts say could be thousands of people in our neighborhood.
Glenda Shearer, supervisor of placement for the Texas Employment Commission office that serves the North Central/Richardson/Plano high-tech corridor, says the stereotype of the unemployed – undereducated and lazy – has changed. Shearer says as many as 90 percent of the people registered in her office are white-collar professionals.
Since July 1992, the Richardson-Plano branch office of the TEC, where many Lakewood residents register for unemployment, has averaged about 1,454 new claims a month.
“They used to say, ‘Get a business degree, get a business degree and you’re covered,’” says Shearer. “That’s not true anymore.”
Swanfeldt is an example of this advice gone awry. His bachelor’s degree in marketing from Notre Dame and master’s degree in business administration from the University of Dallas, plus extensive experience in treasury management and financial software, would lead one to believe he was set professionally.
Yet when the data processing company let him go, his credentials were only good enough to put him among the pack of the white-collar unemployed going to support group meetings and stopping by outplacement offices.
“I started looking when our office was closed due to decreasing revenues, on April 1,” he says. “April Fool’s! I was quite surprised. It was the first time that happened to me.”
For people like Swanfeldt, Resource Dallas, a support group for financial professionals at Wilshire Baptist Church in East Dallas, was started two years ago. Attendance remains constant, says moderator Drew Dorsey, himself unemployed for nine months.
“It’s definitely as bad as professionals as it’s ever been,” says Dorsey. “Middle managers have been the hardest-hit group and have seen little to no improvement in their job market. Ninety-five percent of the jobs referred to our group are classified as entry-level as far as salary offered.
“It’s extremely difficult.”
That’s the first thing Swanfeldt learned.
“I did two things,” he says. “I played Mr. Mom (while his wife continued to work) and concentrated on finding a job. Finding a job is a full-time job – the cliché is true.”
Swanfeldt says he sent out “at least five resumes a week, but didn’t have that many interviews – maybe 15. But I kept at it, because you’ve got to get out and sell yourself. You’re the product in this situation.”
Persistence paid off when Swanfeldt answered an ad in The Dallas Morning News business section. He found himself among 2,500 others who answered the ad, placed by Nation’s Securities, a joint venture of Nation’s Bank and Dean Witter. The company needed banking and data processing people for a retail brokerage business.
“I was lucky,” he says. “I was one of the 10 percent who find re-employment by answering an ad.”
And what does the future hold? It’s going to get better, says Rick Wilson, an economist at the University of Texas at Arlington. But Americans have to stop depending on big corporations for employment, unemployed professionals will have to take salary cuts, go with smaller companies and be more mobile and flexible in order to work. But over time, the smaller companies will grow and the professional will be better off, Wilson says.
“It’s hard to start over when you’re in your 30s and 40s,” says Shearer. “Where are you going to go?”
Back to work, if hard work and persistence means anything.
