I Remember This Same Type of Horrific Job Climate in 1980

I graduated from college with a BS in Biology in 1980.  Entry level jobs in biotech at that time were few and far between.

There were few jobs available back then doing anything, just like now.

From 1980 to 1982 I worked as a social worker on the graveyard shift, a manager for a convenience store chain, a QC Technician for an arthroscopic instrument manufacturer, a lab technician for a contact lens company, then back to QC as an inspector for a pipe insulation manufacturer.

Then I got laid off one time too many. I’d had 5 dead end jobs in 24 months.  It was the spring of 1982.  I decided to collect for a while.  Don’t tell anyone, but while I was collecting unemployment, I also did yard work.  I was rolling in dough.

I was a college graduate, going nowhere.  But nobody I’d graduated with was.  Unless they were going to grad school, they were waiting out the recession just like me.

Finally, that August, a friend of mine who had graduated with a music degree, and was working as a cashier in the cafeteria of a biotech company, wheedled us both entry level jobs in the manufacturing division.

That was almost 27 years ago.  I’m still employed with them today. Pretty unusual these days, don’t you think?  I was fortunate enough to move into the research lab after about 6 months, then to technical support.

I really like the company, and I really like my job. I’ve managed to stay under the radar, avoiding the inevitable layoffs so common and matter-of-fact these days in any growing and successful company.  Many of my friends/colleagues could not.  Divisions were relocated, upper management changed, we had a bad quarter…etc.  All of these things contributed to people being let go.

But I can tell you that every one of them is doing well now, has survived the painful trauma of the pink slip.

And me, I  will someday write a book “How I Survived 14 Layoffs.”

But that’s not the point of this article.

The point of this article is that the economy turned around then, and the economy will turn around again.  So hang in there, compadres.

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