New domain, same great site

The Bread Line Blog now has a new domain name. It might have been all the GoDaddy.com commercials with Danica Patrick (or maybe it was her DNF at Las Vegas) but this blog can now be found at www.thebreadlineblog.com. The original blogspot hyperlink will still work, but this should offer fewer taps at the keyboard.

I have been amazed by the positive -- and sometimes negative -- responses to this blog over the past eight months. It has offered me an opportunity to reach out to other unfortunate victims of this recession, while also receiving great advice from people who lost a job years ago. Thanks again for reading and responding to my often mindless rants.

Mangled math

I find it interesting that the soon-to-be passed "bi-partisan" jobs bill is being hailed as a victory for the unemployed. This bill is supposed to offer tax exemptions and incentives to companies that hire the unemployed, along with a grab bag of $250 bonus checks for "cash-strapped" seniors on Social Security and more highway dollars.

Unfortunately, I can't wrap my head around this $15 billion package that is supposed to send only 250,000 people back to work.

Get your abacus out while I run through a little math with you. First, take $15,000,000,000 and divide it by 250,000. What do you get? The answer is $60,000. That's how much money it takes to create each job. Sounds like an awfully expensive and wasteful package.

Now, I understand there is a lot of money in there for seniors and highways, but it still doesn't make sense. Why doesn't Congress just give me $60,000 a year to plow my elderly neighbor's driveway (which I've already done three times this winter) and I'll give him $250 for some pocket change to buy some groceries and hard candy.

That sounds like a jobs bill I can believe in.

The Black Hole of Resumania

Just a few months ago, I blogged about being concerned that my resume wasn't even making it to a supervisor's desk for consideration. It's rare you receive a correspondence rejecting you, and it's bizarre that such a response would actually be relieving. Unfortunately, it seems this is the case for just about every unemployed worker out there.

CNN has immersed itself in the unemployment issue and followed a number of people who have been without a job for longer than six months. They are going through the same thing as us, and it's becoming increasingly frustrating as our resumes are being sucked into the Internet's black hole...

Ever applied to a job online only to have your résumé seemingly vanish into a void?

From crafting a winning cover letter to acing an interview, landing a job is tough enough in this market. But millions of job seekers can't even get a foot in the door as they apply to countless positions and seldom hear anything in response.

The story goes on to talk about how most employers are bombarded with e-mailed resumes and usually click through the first 20 or so before discarding the remaining 400. That's messed up. What's the point of trying to find work anymore? There really isn't a reason. Instead of searching for sustainable work, I think it's time to to start pulling job applications from Shop 'n Save, Home Depot and Kmart.

It seems there's no need to waste any more time looking for a job.

The Web footprint

Less than two days after losing my job, this blog was flowing inside the tubes of Internet. With the ability to write, but nowhere to write, it gave me the ability to share my feelings about the newspaper industry and other topics. Apparently, I wasn't alone, as a New York Times op-ed pointed out this weekend. They took the words right out of my, well, blog...

Have keyboard, will travel

By SHEELAH KOLHATKAR
NY Times Op-Ed
Feb. 20, 2009

You can tell when a print journalist has lost his full-time job because of the digital markings that suddenly appear, like the tail of a fading comet. First, he joins Facebook. A Gmail address is promptly obtained. The Twitter account comes next, followed by the inevitable blog. Throw in a LinkedIn profile for good measure. This online coming-out is the first step in a daunting, and economically discouraging, transformation: from a member of a large institution to a would-be Internet “brand.”

Dozens of Web sites have correspondingly sprouted up, posting articles written for free or for a fraction of what a traditional magazine would have paid. Into this gaping maw have rushed enough authors to fill a hundred Roman Colosseums, all eager to write in exchange for “exposure.” Paul Smalera, a 29-year-old who was laid off from a magazine job in November 2008, is now competing with every one of them. And after months of furious blogging, tweeting and writing for Web sites, Paul has made a career of Internet journalism, sort of.

Read more...

Local doctor hits the slopes with Team USA

By Michael Jones
For the Tribune-Review
Jan. 28, 2010

Josh Szabo grew up dreaming of one day becoming an Olympic skier.

But while training for competitions a notch below the World Cup level in 1988, he suffered a severe knee injury that effectively ended his career.

So Szabo turned to orthopedic medicine, which has allowed him to remain close to the sport that he loves. Earlier this month, the 38-year-old Gibsonia resident found himself on the slopes in the French Alps working as a physician for the U.S. Ski Team.

"If you participate in their sport, there is a bond that is immediately established," said Szabo, who works for Tri Rivers Surgical Associates, headquartered in McCandless, in the North Hills. "I think I form a better relationship with them. I can ski with them, and it does provide some perspective with the athletes."

Szabo accompanied the ski team for three days while it competed in the World Cup at Les Contamines-Montjoie in France -- a competition that helped determine who will represent the United States in the Vancouver Winter Olympics next month.

He worked closely with the athletes competing in ski cross, a new Olympic event that involves four skiers racing down a course with jumps, bumps and banked turns. Lindsey Sine, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Ski Team based in Park City, Utah, said ski cross involves a lot of passing and even some bumping.

"It's an exciting head-to-head battle down the course," Sine said.

That battle can lead to tough injuries, Szabo said.

"They're big, strong athletes that can push each other off the course at any time," Szabo said. "People talk about football and soccer players being tough. When these guys get a bad injury, it's a horrific injury."

Read more about the new Olympic sport...

Jerking us around

When I thumb through the newspaper or search online job boards for openings, I'm beginning to wonder: Are they really hiring?

And that question is being raised by the shell game WDVE-FM played with its morning radio show. Three weeks ago, morning radio personality Randy Baumann mysteriously disappeared from the show. Hours later, Clear Channel Communications advertised an opening for his position, asking for resumes and demo tapes.

I wonder how many suckers actually applied for that job. It was all for naught, because Baumann returned to the show this morning. The reason for his departure apparently was over a contract dispute.

So it seems that anyone who sent their portfolio to Clear Channel was used as nothing more than a negotiating pawn by the radio station and Baumann in a contractual game of chicken. So how many of these companies are advertising job openings -- and wasting our time -- just because they have to?

I can't help but think that the majority of the resumes I send out are for positions being filled internally, or not at all. And that is just wrong.

Not qualified?

I consider myself a professional in whatever task is handed to me. You want me to write a story? Just tell me the deadline. You want me to deliver important documents across town? When do they need to be there. You want me to perform as The Wild Thing? Well, OK, but I'm not doing the flip at the end of the Wild Thing Workout.

So it was just a little bit surprising when I received an e-mail this morning from the federal government saying I am not qualified to be... a secretary at Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Fayette County.

"This is to notify you that your score/rating was not within reach for referral. Therefore, your name will not be referred to the employing agency at this time."

My rating? I'm not a dishwasher being reviewed by Consumer Reports!

I can hardly say this is a major setback, but it does make me wonder what you have to do to get an interview for a job. On the other hand, at least they wrote me back to tell me I wouldn't be brewing coffee and recording meeting minutes just a few feet away from George Washington's only military surrender.