From Layoff at IBM to an Author
A new book, Escape from Unemploymentville, tells the comeback stories of twenty-two people as they struggled through unemployment and returned to earning a living. The book includes advice from four continents and begins with author Anne Emerick’s own experiences of being in the wrong place at the wrong time – twice.
Laid off by IBM in the fall of 2013, Emerick quickly landed a position to begin January 2014. But that job offer was cancelled a few days before she was supposed to start. She landed another programming position, to start in March 2014. The Friday before she was supposed to begin, the company said they had to push off her start date by one week. One week later they said they were still awaiting a final signature on the hiring. When another week passed, she was told she “should no longer continue to hold for the position.”
“I felt like someone had said, ‘the rules of how things are supposed to work, don’t apply to you, Anne.’ Everyone else when they got a job, they actually got a job. But when I got a job, somehow, I still ended up not actually having a job. While what specifically happened to me, is unlikely to happen to other people who are out of work, it’s very common to feel a gut-wrenching realization that you can’t control your paycheck or your life, which is depressing.”
Emerick hopes that Escape from Unemploymentville will act as both a comfort and a guide for others in the same situation. “When you are out of work, you don’t have co-workers, so you are missing the support system that helped you get through a lot of issues in your life,” she said.
The book includes advice from four continents and people who chose many different paths from traditional job searches to radically different careers. Entrepreneurs are also represented including one who began a now multi-million dollar company. Emerick states, “Originally, I thought I’d ask other people to contribute their experiences as a way of creating a book faster. With a full-time day job my writing time is limited. However, I realized that the real benefit of adding other’s experiences is that the book can help a larger range of people. Some of the stories people told blew me away and I can’t thank them enough for sharing them.”