ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 10, 1996 TAG: 9603080048
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: G1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: DOWNSIZING
SOURCE: JOHN LEVIN
He has grown up with a single company, rising over 30 years from warehouse manager to director of operations to executive vice president while the national distributor's Roanoke operation doubled its work force to 400 employees.
Now, thanks to corporate downsizing, this Roanoke Valley man is looking for work. He's like thousands across America and more than you might guess in Western Virginia, said Sherry Revell, whose REI Management in Roanoke, is helping him polish his resume and direct his job search.
Revell declined to identify her client, but said he's a real example of what companies' reorganizations mean to this region's workers.
"It's an employer's market," she said. "There are good jobs out there but there's a lot of competition for them." This outplaced executive has two choices, according to Revell: He could find an identical job with a similar company, preserving his $75,000 a year salary, by moving to another part of the country. Or he could stay in Roanoke, preserving his home, family and lifestyle.
That's his preference, but to do that, Revell said, he'll invest four to six months in a job search that likely will yield a position with a smaller, more entrepreneurial company. He'll take a pay cut but end up with a job that stretches his abilities in new directions. A young, growing company will tap what he knows about purchasing, distribution and customer service rather than simply duplicate his previous duties.
While layoffs and downsizing in health care and textile industries have grabbed the headlines lately, workers in many fields are beginning to consider the possibilities of being jobless.
Many of her current clients tell Revell "I'm not actively looking but I want to be ready when the right job comes along," she said. "They're thinking I'd better be looking for a job; 99 percent of the professionals I see aren't out beating the bushes. But they want to be ready."
"People are looking, pulling out and updating their resumes," said Evelyn Bradshaw, director of Hollins College's Career Development Center and a consultant to companies that want to help castoff workers find new jobs.
It is not an easy task, she said, because many have not had job interviews in 20 years or have worked in one field so long they resist or fear making changes and don't want to ask for help from friends and contacts.
"They want to send out 200 resumes and we all know that's not how you find a job," Bradshaw said.
And in many cases, displaced workers are not prepared to compete for jobs. "Many companies would rather hire right out of school - young workers who come cheaper and are quicker to get into their corporate culture." The newly fired often must change their minds about what kind of work they can do and refocus their resumes on skills rather than previous jobs.
On the theory that downsizing is creating new demand for job searching, Revell this month is launching Career Connection Resume Bank, a computer database to match resumes of Southwest Virginia professionals and people who want to work in the region with job descriptions from companies that need to fill positions here. She anticipates quickly building a file of about 3,000 resumes.
"Anyone looking for a professional in Southwest Virginia can use it and any individual in Southwest Virginia can be on it," she said.
Companies in the area - spanning roughly from Bristol east to Lynchburg and Natural Bridge south to Martinsville - can post jobs without charge. Outfits outside the region pay $25 to $65. Individuals pay $45 to $65 to include their resumes in the databank for six months and more if they require confidentiality.
"My idea was to look out for Southwest Virginia," Revell said. "So many people want to stay here and there are so many who want to come here."
When a company calls seeking someone to fill a position, she anticipates matching resumes with very exacting parameters that client companies set for jobs.
Mostly, Revell said, it's the timing that may be right for such a search and referral service. "You can see the instability" of American business in her clients, she said. "There's a lack of loyalty on both sides. Corporations generally aren't as stable as they used to be.
"Nobody is set for life."
LENGTH: Medium: 79 linesby CNB