Distribution of Annual Household Income in the United States in 2009. Based on US Census/Bureau of Labor Statistics data from the March supplement of the CPS:
http://www.census.gov/...
I had a job interview this week. On Wednesday at 10 AM, I showed up looking sharp, hair perfectly, freshly cut, wearing business casual as advised, a nice color coordinated sport jacket over new slacks and polished shoes which fit and accentuated my newly rebuilt, honed down, buffish bod like a glove. Hey, I worked out hard and lost some serious weight, so I'm a little proud!
The company is a solid, respectable outfit, great benefits, super neat story of how it developed and grew. The thing I like the most about them is, unlike so many corporations in the world today, this company has a great business; they actually help people. They make people happy. The company designed and maintains a stable online platform that allows people from all over the world, the well-off and the poor, the young and the old, the handicapped and the terminal, you name it, to buy and sell items of all kinds. Collectible items, hand crafted ones, very rare or poignant things that make people smile and bring back great memories.
They allow folks searching for a bargain a shot at getting great products at a price that person can afford, and in some cases people of all ages have become so adept and the platform so scalable, that users have learned to buy and sell and trade all kinds of items, making themselves a few badly needed dollars in this tough economy. Obviously any giant company will have its detractors and occasional clusterfucks, but compared to some other corporations I've worked for over the years, they rate very high in my business model-ethics department.
So I knew going in this was a good company. But during the extended job interview I was even more impressed, by everything I saw, the building, the people, and the policies. On the latter, I can't into detail because I signed a disclosure agreement. But I listened to calls from people who were disappointed about a product or transaction in some way, and I can say with complete confidence I feel much better about issues like privacy protection, how they back up their customers, how they honor and resolve mistakes that aren't even the company's fault, how they protect their customers from scammers and data thieves, how focused they are on making the honest customer whole again at the company's expense if possible in any way, even when the customer might and probably should have used better judgment.
You've probably guessed by now, the company was eBay, and from what I saw eBay isn't a good company, they're a great company. A company I would like to work for. The sky could be the limit for someone with my work ethic, background, and number crunching extroverted idiosyncrasies at a winner like eBay. In a few years I could be making a living wage again, after more than three years of scrapping by on near poverty pay, and rejoin the lower middle class. I might be able to once again apply for a home loan or get a car on credit and enjoy all the things I once took for granted and now can barely remember, the memories that feel more and more distant, more more and more surreal, like it all happened long ago in a youthful dream.
The Austin eBay campus is truly an impressive work environment with on site access to a four star gym. Best of all they are just now fully staffing this new, modern, spacious center, now almost fully built, just a few blocks from my apartment, I would be within walking distance to the local ground floor of my department. Being a college grad, a former stock broker who has a long, successful record of dealing with emotional people on critical financial matters, coming in with years of fresh customer service experience including the numero uno top performer out of hundreds of people in my current online customer service job for all of 2012, it looked very promising.
And I am a CSR bad ass: I've been doing this so long I can now respond via live web chat by text while listening to a second customer on a live call and still scan over and close out a third web ticket all at once. I am greased lightning, no one can catch me on speed and my other metrics have consistently been way above average. Add in to that they are hiring dozens of people for a very large contact facility and that led me to believe, if I wasn't a full-blown shoe in, I was at least facing way better odds than the 50-50 chances that keep defying the law of large numbers and rolling against me in past interviews.
Make no mistake, this is not a high level job, it's not a dream job, it's not a six figure job, or a job opening where only one or two of the best out of many applicants get hired. But even if it was I have to figure I'd still be strongly in the running, because I am one of the best qualified, most experienced applicants they're likely to come across for that kind of starting wage. The job would have started at only 16 bucks an hour, but joining the working poor after being comfortably middle class has taught me the difference between the $12/hr and change I make now after three years of stellar performance and no chance or ever moving up, and the $16/hr this would pay with room to grow. I mainly worried about being over qualified -- if there really is such a thing.
Did a skills test, it was super easy, there was only one techie issue and it was basic, something I probably walk customers through 30 times a day in my current position. I carefully counted the number of words in the typing test and made sure I exceeded the threshold with zero mistakes -- I had a sprained wrist and jammed middle finger at the time, plus I'm picky about my keyboard, so I had to play it safe. There were four of us taking the skills test, I finished way before anyone else and they told me I did great, that I had made it to the next step, a short interview with a team manager. That's when the wheels came off. I got the distinct impression that person simply did not like me from they moment they walked in the door. It was ice-cold and barely lasted ten minutes. I was quickly told I would be contacted soon and shown out.
And they kept that promise, barely two days later, on Friday morning, this was in my email from a no-reply address:
Thank you for taking time to apply for the Customer Solutions Teammate position. We appreciate your interest and the opportunity to review your background, qualifications, and eligibility.
We have reviewed your resume and have carefully considered your qualifications. While your skills are impressive and you have met the basic requirements of the position, we will be moving forward with other candidates who exceed the basic and preferred qualifications for the position. We also encourage you to take another look at our current openings and consider other opportunities within eBay as they become available.
I'd like to take them up on that. I got a really good vibe from the people and the place up until that interview. I have to assume eBay is smart enough not to engage in age discrimination as a policy. But the signs were clear enough that one person may have fallen prey to something like that, that I am going to talk to a lawyer on Monday about a DoL complaint and possible suit. Because everything was fine, all feedback was extremely positive, up until that weird, brief interview with a very, very young person. Otherwise, I'll never know for sure, so I'll never be able to correct it for future interviews, if it is correctable.
I've had a lot of let downs like this over the last few years, where I knew I was super qualified, where everything was going great, until a face to face with a very young manager. Then suddenly I either heard nothing back at all or got a form letter indicating I was cut out of consideration early on. It's become common place and I was prepared for it here.
But before you pity me, don't. You should fear me and those like me. If you've been at your position for more than five years and you make over 70k, your job is next on the chopping block. You're where the big savings are.
Some guys fold up and die when this stuff happens to them. That happened to a friend of mine, he just couldn't cope with being laid off and being unable to find a job paying close to what he made as an architect. He woke up one morning a few months ago, sat down, and died. I suppose it could still happen to me. But it doesn't happen to everyone. I've lost 50 pounds in the last eight months, if you saw me a few years at NN you wouldn't even recognize me now. I have big pumping guns on my arms and a wicked six pack. I can go several days without sleep or food and function pretty well, in fact I don't even have an appetite any more and have to remind myself to eat. I'm no longer afraid of homelessness or hunger or being poor. I have no kids, no relationship, no vices, no distractions of any kind. All I do is work and workout, and when I'm in the gym knocking out that last set on an empty stomach, what keeps me going is the singular goal of taking your job. What should scare is I am just one of millions.
There's not much left that can be taken from people like me. You won't find anyone in the US willing to do my job for half of what I make. But someone who has become hard and mean and lean and voracious, like me, will absolutely take your 90k job for half of what you make. Sure, you think you have it sewn up, maybe you think you have friends who will get you another job if you lose yours. Trust me, you don't, they won't.
If you haven't hit the job market in the last few years and don't work out every day of your life, you are utterly unprepared to go toe-to-toe with a million people like me who will work rings around you for a fraction of what you make. And before you think your employer is one of the good ones, this is big part of how companies make money now, not only are you vulnerable, someone at your company is already daydreaming about ways to replace you with someone way cheaper and make it look like a legit termination. The more you make, the more vulnerable you are. If the economy stays like this, it's just a matter of time for you.
No matter how irreplaceable or loved you think you are, unless you are throwing TDs in the NFL or packing concert halls on tour, you're easily replaced. Your boss will smile and lie through their teeth straight to your face right up til the day they show up with an armed guard and box for your stuff, and replace you with someone like me.