I lost my engineering job with a major company in the Allentown, Pennsylvania in 2002. It was a time when many companies in the area were laying people off. The local economy was weak, so I reasoned that it was best to work on a career change rather than try to compete with people younger than me, for a limited number of job openings. I had a son, Tom who was enrolled in special education at the local Public High School, and since he was dependent upon me for help with his studies, I couldn’t fathom moving out of the area until after he graduated.
The best choice for me was to become a stay-at-home dad during the daytime and attend DeSales University in the evenings, while my wife, Jeanne worked as a customer service representative at a health insurance call center to provide food and medical benefits for the family. It was early spring of 2003 and I had already completed a full year of classes. I was working on a certificate in special education and partway through a class taught by Mrs. Green, a professor who earned extra money teaching college at night while she worked as a middle school special ed teacher during the day. I was relieved to think that once I finished her class, I had only one more to go, but I was also stressed to think that following my last class would be a year-and-a- half of unpaid student teaching. I hadn’t fully thought ahead about whether we could stretch the family budget for that long.
It had been a long time since December of 1976 when I graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering. I had accumulated twenty seven years of engineering experience and was compensated well, but despite this, I had barely enough money saved to attend college classes, so I had to set aside a portion of my retirement money. For me, starting a new career in special education was a way to give back to the community, with lots of satisfaction and knowingly little compensation. The key attraction for me was the giving back part, so when Mrs. Green advised the class not to put in more time than what was absolutely needed with our prospective special ed students, I began to question whether I had made the right career decision. Was it worth taking a fifty percent cut in pay to give back when Mrs. Green didn’t view it that way? Was she a typical special ed teacher? Did others in her field view teaching as only a way to earn money without the giving back part?
I was also feeling money getting tight and worried about the year-and-a-half ahead without compensation, as the money I set aside for education from my retirement fund was starting to dry up. I couldn’t risk not being able to provide for the family, so I regularly visited the Allentown Unemployment Office to attend job seeker seminars and to use their online resources. This time I was a both frustrated and confused as I sat at a computer workstation searching for education grants, and with no luck, I began searching for engineering jobs.
As I pondered what to search for next, one of the aides stopped by and started talking to two ladies of Latin descent sitting at workstations immediately to my left. She talked, and they listened. I had never seen her before, and although it was a one way conversation, I was impressed with the direction that she was giving them. I waited for her to finish and then asked if she would mind answering a few questions for me. She was a woman in her sixties with short gray hair, an average build, and a pleasant disposition. She wore a pale yellow sweater and that’s all I can remember expect for her more than willingness to help.
She said that there was a Pennsylvania grant program and called it by name. She said that I should refer to it by that name when I ask the aides at the front desk for an application. Then she said, “I see that you are searching for engineering jobs, so why are you asking about education grants?” I shared my story and then she touched my hand and said, “You need do what is in your heart.” Her hand was cold, as if she had come in from the winter’s cold even though it was early spring, but her words were warm and soothing. When she suggested that I do what is in my heart, the first thing that came to my mind was “engineering,” and just like that, the bitterness of being laid off was gone. I was instantly reunited with what I loved, the most.
I blurted out “engineering” and asked with thankful eyes, “Do you mind if I ask what your name is?” With a sincere look in her eyes, she said, “I’m Mary.” She didn’t offer her last name, just Mary. “That makes sense,” I said. Mary said, “Why do you say that?” And while she wondered why, I said “because that is the name of the Blessed Mother.”
At that, Mary said, “Go to Monster.com and there will be two jobs waiting there for you.” This woman was very well educated and seemingly experienced in helping others find a job, but I remember thinking that what she said was odd, because I had attended several seminars where the advice had always been not to go to the job boards like Monster. The jobs posted on those sites are usually filled before they post, and the chances for finding a job was less than one percent. Networking was the way to find a job; in fact, the unemployment staff drilled that into us.
When I looked up to question her advice, I noticed that Mary was gone. At the time I didn’t think any more about it and I had no more time to hang out in the unemployment office, so I skipped the front desk on my way out with the plan to call them as soon as I got home. On the drive home I kept thinking about the two options that she had given me. Mary had restored new hope. Maybe I could still make this work.
I was so excited that I wasted no time when I got home and quickly picked up the phone. When I called the unemployment office to ask about the Pennsylvania grant program, I wasn’t expecting the reaction that I was given. I don’t remember exactly, but the staff explained that either I wasn’t eligible for the grant, or that there would be a substantial wait. There may have even been family income restrictions. What I do clearly remember is the lady on the line saying, “How do you know about this grant? It hasn’t been advertised yet. Who told you?”
I explained that one of the case workers told me. “What is her name?” I hesitated for a second, not being sure that I knew her name, then I said, “Oh I know, her name is Mary!”
“Mary…, We don’t have a Mary, are you sure?”
“Yes, her name is Mary. I told her that she shares the name of our Blessed Mother.”
“What does she look like? Can you describe her?”
I told her that Mary was a woman in her sixties who had short gray hair and wore a pale yellow sweater. The voice on the other end of the phone mentioned Karen, one of the staff members who was a woman in her sixties with long wavey gray hair. I think she may have had blonde streaks in her hair. I knew Karen, but that wasn’t Mary. In fact, Karen was one of the staff who advised us not to use the job boards. Except for age and build, there wasn’t a resemblance to Mary. It was apparent that the women at the front desk didn’t know who I was referring to, so I made it my mission to look for this mysterious woman during my upcoming visits to the unemployment office. I never saw Mary again.
The words “Go to Monster.com and there will be two jobs there waiting for you,” began to resonate in my head as I hung up from my call with the front desk, so I got onto my home computer and looked on Monster.com for engineering jobs in the Specialty Compressed Gas Industry. I didn’t expect to find any in this specialized field, let alone two, but I had the inkling to look anyway because Mary told me to.
My search produced exactly two jobs, one in Ohio, and the other in California, so I applied for both. I knew from the lessons of unemployment that interviews were gotten by persistence and follow-up, so I tried contacting the companies directly. I landed an interview with the one in Ohio but had trouble getting the other to answer my calls which left me no option but to leave a message in a general mailbox.
Just as Mary promised, I got the job in Ohio and went to work on May 5th while Jeanne stayed back with Tom who was in his senior year of high school and set to graduate in a few months. Together, they put our house up for sale. I missed them but knew that we would be re-united by the end of summer.
In June, I got a call from Jeanne. She said, “The engineering hiring manager from the company in California called looking for you. I told him that you had already accepted a job, and that you had tried several different ways to reach his company but was not able to get through to a live person.” He said, “That is too bad because Joe would have been a perfect fit for this job. We would have hired him!” I smiled and repeated Mary’s words to myself, “Go to Monster.com and there will be two jobs waiting there for you.”