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Job Front: Treat Your Search Like It's Work
The Sacramento Bee
Together in a quest for jobs
Susan and John Ridilla won’t soon forget the day: Jan. 28 – the day John, 51, and Susan, 54, lost their jobs after six years at the Silicon Valley offices of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Inc.
“It’s a new phenomenon – more husband-and-wife teams are being laid off,” Susan said.
“And times aren’t going to get any better soon,” John said. “It’s scary.”
The couple, a pair of former Army majors, made the trip from Gilroy to Rancho Cordova for the job fair.
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“When we got laid off, the bad news was that we got laid off and the good news was that we got laid off,” John Ridilla said. “You make lemonade.”
Since February, the two have been attending job fairs, combing through Web sites, drafting dozens of letters tailoring their skills in information technology and supply chain to specific openings.
The challenge is that “every day is Saturday,” John said. But they have a routine.
“We check our e-mail in the morning. You get up, work out, then do your job search – two, three hours a day,” he said.
They break up the Web searches by networking with old colleagues and attending free and low-cost job seminars.
“You find ways to network – there is time to contact people. We spend more time with (networking Web site) LinkedIn,” he said.
Most important, both said, is mapping out short- and long-term needs.
“You have to take stock of where you are financially and medically, so we made a to-do list,” John said. “What do we need to do quickly? What do we need to do six months from now? In the next three weeks?”
A social worker scours the health care network
Karen Choate, 51, of Orangevale lost her job as a social worker for a local foster family agency in August, but she flashed a bright smile as she chatted with recruiters at the job fair booths.
It was early afternoon, but she’d been on the clock for hours.
Her day starts at 5 a.m. on Internet job sites. But “I can’t stay at the computer too long. It’s too depressing for me,” she said.
