A while ago, I wrote a post about an email I sent to Ms. Trunk asking her thoughts about a certain sandwich board wearing job seeker.
Interestingly enough, Mr. Nawrocki responded. I thought, however, it would also be appropriate to post Mr. Nawrocki’s comments in the same fashion:
I am the man in the sandwich board. I don’t know who Penelope Trunk is but I would be curious if her “3 startups” are still in business.
In any event, I can assure you I do not have a personality disorder, nor am I depressed. angry or lacking the knowledge of what to do when looking for a job.Penelope said “He’s been unemployed for nine months, which means he could not get a job when there was nearly 0% unemployment for people under 40.”
Apparently she is unaware that I am not under 40, not under 50, but in fact 59. I made a conscious decision to put on the sandwich board while dressed in business attire because I knew it was a provocative image and could not go unnoticed.
I am daily getting E Mails and phone calls from people my age who are in exactly the same position I am. They are constantly doing all the things they are told to do and getting absolutely no response. They feel invisible, and my image has made an invisible group suddenly visible.
Since my interviews on CNN I am now getting interviews and calls. My resume is now at the top of the pile. I suggest that Penelope take a good look at her own personality and realize that she could actually use one. Maybe in 25 years if we have another recession and she suddenly finds herself out of work, feeling invisible and ignored, and confused about why she is where she is, she may actually discover something she sorely lacks right now and that is empathy.
But then wisdom is something that only comes with age, something those “under 40″ people have yet to learn.
I think Mr. Nawrocki comes on a little strong regarding the under 40 set. There’s no one size fits all technique to finding a job – sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
And, in Mr. Nawrocki’s case, this obviously works for him. I just don’t think that being so extreme or “provocative” can work for everybody – and it gets a little old after awhile (no pun intended).
If you are feeling invisible, maybe it’s because you’ve screamed the same message so much – others have become deaf to it.
And, it’s not that people don’t want to listen, but the same complaint can start to sound like whining. If you are going to whine about being unemployed – make it work for you.
Instead of spending his money and precious time handing out mass resumes and constructing a sandwich board to don in Times Square – Mr. Nawrocki could’ve better spent his time working on the fledgling website (and perhaps his own blog) that was created for him to broadcast his current job plight.
Whether or not Mr. Nawrocki has a personality disorder, he’s getting some great publicity nonetheless – if only we could all be so lucky.