Surviving the Job Market in a Perilous Economy
A New Book That Provides Guidance, Spiritual Inspiration and Practical Tips on Employment In an economy where unemployment rates.
They are at an all-time high, advice on how to survive in the working world can be extremely valuable. In our new book, Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s Employment Survival Guide (published by AuthorHouse), my wife and I offer readers both practical and spiritual insight into how to effectively navigate unemployment and how to better develop an existing career. Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s Employment Survival Guide includes a broad spectrum of career-related advice, including tips on leaving your current job if necessary, how to get through unemployment with enriching activities, job-search tips, resume-building advice, unemployment benefits and information, essential skills to build or improve upon and interviewing pointers. Also included in the beginning of every chapter is a Bible verse that relates to the subject matter of that particular section. This spiritual inspiration gives a new perspective on employment advice that is not often highlighted in related pieces of literature. With this book, we impart our knowledge and professional guidance, assisting every reader in positioning themselves toward effective employment. Each chapter displays our experiences in both the employment highs and unemployment lows throughout life.
Odie Smith is presently the customer service manager and technical regional manager with CBIZ Network Solutions, LLC in St. Louis, Missouri. He has simultaneously held these positions for the past 5 years. Mr. Smith has performed hundreds of interviews for technical and non-technical positions and has traveled to most major US cities performing job aptitude assessments and interviews. His discipline in professional decision making has granted him many company awards and honors, and he is nationally regarded as a customer service specialist. Mr. Smith has assisted many unemployed workers in the past eighteen years and will continue to provide his professional guidance. Mr. Smith’s Business Administration degree and academic studies have prepared him for this direction.
Daval Smith is a certified pharmacy technician for a leading benefits management company in St. Louis, Missouri. She began her career through the St. Louis Community College system where she studied and excelled in child care development, which led her to pursue a career in the child care field. She worked several years as a youth instructor and helped to improve many young lives. In 1993, she and Mr. Smith established a non-profit company SmithCo, of which they distributed unemployment assistance information to workers in the St. Louis area who were casualties of layoffs. This experience led Mr. and Mrs. Smith to begin expanding their research and understanding of how to better serve those in need. Her leadership with assisting others has advanced her supportive direction to become an influence to co-produce the Employment Survival Guide.
Currently, Mr. and Mrs. Smith are working on a series of family enrichment books. They have been happily married for twenty-two years, and they are raising their two teenage children, Odie Jr. and Aubrey.
During our twenty-five years of working multiple jobs, we had always continued to improve our status on each job because we (like most employees) wanted to be a recognized employee who was the trusted and dependable go-to person. While on those jobs, we also tried to blend in to as many appropriate cliques as possible, but, as we discovered, this strategy did not guarantee nor protect our employment. When an employer decides that your time at their company is nonessential (through a layoff or termination), you may feel betrayed, as many of us would. We realized that every employee, regardless if they are a dedicated worker or not, is expendable. Both Mrs. Smith and I have lost many jobs during our careers, from layoff s due to staff downsizing, to the ill-famed statement; “We are sorry, but your services are no longer needed.” Either way, being unemployed creates an anxiety and concern regarding your family’s financial needs; and there is no easy way to receive a pink slip or accept the fact that you are about to lose your job. With our changing economy, it is difficult to know if our jobs are truly secure or if we are in safe hands with our employer. We are all replaceable. Before you part ways with your employer, be sure to have an exit strategy and potential reentry employment plan.