"A Working Class Hero is Something to Be"

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. -- John Lennon

1,850 jobs will soon go by the way side for Clear Channel, Inc. Effective immediately, about 9 percent of the Clear Channel Staff will be losing their jobs, New York Times columnist Stephanie Clifford reported today.

This comes in the wake of Viacom and NBC Universal's recent layoff of approximately 1,300 jobs in December, 2008. Also affected by the recent economic decline is Media Company for the auto industry BBDO Detroit, which lost 22.4% of it's employee base after massive cutbacks were reported on November, 8th, 2008.

As a recent graduate with a mass media degree, I'm worried for my peers who are searching for work in these bleak times. It's difficult to see so many of them work so hard to acquire a very specific set of skills, only to find employers hesitant to increase their company's work force (and indeed, even releasing more-experienced professionals). What is a fresh-faced, degree-carrying job-seeker to do?

This leads me to an explanation of my own career path: A twenty-something with aspirations in the media business, I directly followed my graduation with a job in Media Litigation services. I was tasked with being a videographer for law firms requesting visual records of depositions. My career had begun! I was excited for a time, legal enthusiast that I am... This title, 'legal videographer' shifted to office drone searching the web and reorganizing our stacks of video records. The work had dropped off until I was finally told by the big guy, "I'm sorry, but I have to let you go. There just isn't enough work to justify carrying the number of people that I currently employ."

Bitter, but not jaded, I wallowed in my shock and grief for all of one week. I took the initiative to see this layoff not as (doom) but as a (Boon) for my life. I began assisting on a production for a local media arts company, and then followed that up with a three-month telemarketing experience. This eventually led to my current position, as a marketing coordinator and office representative of one of the most successful insurance companies in the United States.

Long story short... I took my skill set and morphed it to fit the available jobs in my market! I know it's very difficult to have the strength and resolve to adjust your way of thinking after losing your job--especially if that job is all you knew for 10-to-20 years. Within all of us, however, lies an understanding and belief that we will get through our trials. This faith in ourselves must also come with an awareness of our surroundings and skills. We must be resourceful. We must not only make the most of what we have to offer, but also of what is available to us. We must not close our minds or hearts to opportunity. We must not look at this cutback as 'shattered dreams' but as a puzzling future, ready to be skillfully pieced together.

Let's rise up and keep moving forward.