Truth, they say, is stranger than fiction, but marketing and communications manager James Baraldi is turning to fiction to cope with the truth -- that after 27 years of service to one company, he was laid off in January 2010.

"Most writers have a book in their drawer," said Baraldi, who worked for Bunzl Philadelphia, a food service distribution company. This one is officially fiction, but it talks about the experiences of a man who works in a company for years and then loses his job.

Baraldi, of Drexel Hill, started his career as a journalist, working for trade magazines, but then moved into marketing. In Bunzl and its predecessor company, he found very satisfying work. He built up the company's marketing department from nothing, designing sales materials, brochures and catalogs where none had existed. Then as the web came into play, he helped move these same materials online, even helping to set up dedicated sites for the company's largest customers, among them Rita's Water Ice and Wawa. 

Luckily, his wife is employed as a teacher, so he continues to have health benefits. He spends 80 percent of his time looking for work, and has had a dozen interviews. But, he said, his previous salary seems to deter employers from hiring him, even though he'd be willing to work for far less. "I've been applying like crazy," he said. "I can't even get under-employed."

One day, he was in Center City at a wedding and he and a relative were looking at the skyline. Baraldi said he pointed to every skyscraper -- he had applied for jobs in each one. Picking up on the wedding theme,  he said, "I guess I'm always the bridesmaid, never the bride."

Besides his own situation, it depresses him that so much talent is going unused as the nation's economy simply doesn't create enough jobs.

These days, he keeps looking for work, but he admits his novel writing has slowed.

 "I'm trying to get a happy ending to this story." 

Update as of late December, 2011: Baraldi is still looking for work.

• James Baraldi
• Hometown: Drexel Hill
• Profession: Marketing communications manager
• Experience: Developed corporate and customer e-commerce sites and trained external and internal customers on ways to utilize e-commerce. Developed sales brochures, catalogs and other marketing materials. Wrote newsletters. Eliminated inventory through special marketing program. Created a vendor support program.
• Education: Temple University, bachelor's degree in communications
• E-mail address: jhbaraldi@verizon.net
• James Baraldi's resume.
• James Baraldi's Linkedin profile

Read past profiles in the Looking for Work series. The series continues here on Fridays. 

_{The Inquirer is not endorsing this individual as a job candidate; potential employers should do their own background checks.}

Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.

Having spent most of his career in purchasing, Kevin T. Anderson knows how to negotiate a good deal. "It takes stubbornness and being nice," he said.

 "I don't want to talk about golf. I don't want my green fees paid. That's not my job. I don't want to go out to lunch, and I wouldn't say this,  but I wouldn't want to go out with you anyway. I don't want to wine and dine and I hate golf," he said. "It's the price. I just want better prices."

Anderson knows how carefully sales people try to find out what the purchasing agent likes, anything to give them an edge over their competitors. "Eagles tickets," he said. "That was hard to turn down, but I did it."

Anderson lost his job in 2009, but he hasn't forgotten the key elements of doing the work -- elements that apply even to personal purchases. For example, he helped someone shop for a flat-screen television that was being offered at a tremendous discount, significantly more than any place else. That raised questions for Anderson. "You have to pay attention to the specs," he said. Sure enough, after persistent questioning, he discovered that the product being offered was different by some obscure detail, except it wouldn't be obscure once the television was installed.

 "I knew something was wrong," he said.

Being a purchasing agent means becoming expert in many obscure subjects. In one job, springs, castings and fasteners need to be purchased, with a knowledge of ferrous and non-ferrous materials. In another job, it's valves, electronic components and piping connections. In all jobs, particularly in those involving the government, attention and adherence to contract specifications are extremely important,  Anderson said.

In his last job, Anderson switched gears entirely, becoming a computer technician and driving all over the place repairing computers for huge companies such as Wal-mart. He'd work all night sometimes to have the computers up and running before stores opened. "I fixed everything under the sun," he said. To him, his ability to pick up that job when he had no prior experience in it is proof that he can learn anything.

That being said, though, he'd like to return to purchasing where he adopted the professional goal of always trying to save his company the equivalent of his salary -- either by working a price break or by pursuing better terms for shipping or delivery. He has also found it very satisfying to improve company purchasing systems, so that items purchased are attributed to the right projects.

"Otherwise, how do you know you are going to make money on the job?" he said. 

Update as of December 25, 2011: Anderson is still looking for work.

• Kevin T. Anderson
• Hometown: Langhorne
• Profession: Purchasing agent, computer technician
• Experience: Purchased many different types of products. Revamped purchasing systems, computerizing them and developing new systems for inventory control and just-in-time delivery.
• Education: Philadelphia Community College, course work. American Production and Inventory Control Society, certification
• E-mail address: jgka@verizon.net
• Kevin Anderson's resume
  

Read past profiles in the Looking for Work series. The series continues here on Fridays.

_{The Inquirer is not endorsing this individual as a job candidate; potential employers should do their own background checks.}

Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.

Karen T. Watson is so organized that she alphabetizes her spices, and that, she says is the trait that makes her such a good executive assistant.

Growing up, Watson used to visit her mother on the job. Her mother was a file clerk in City Hall and Watson was so impressed at how well she did her job. "You gave her a name of a file, and she'd give you a number," Watson said. "She was that sharp. She was a very orderly person and she never forgot anything."

That kind of organizational ability was an inspiration to Watson, who pursued the same career.

One of the pleasures of the job, she said, is turning a mishmash of notes and paperwork into a readable, clear document. "I love the idea of creating a new document," she said. 

Beyond that, she loves the physical sensation of typing. "Typing calms me," she said. "They say music calms the savage beast. When I'm typing, it just calms me." 

A common theme in Watson's story is an ability to adjust, despite an initial feeling of being overwhelmed. During the first week on any job, everything seems confusing, but soon names, places and procedures click in. "Once I'm acquainted, everything runs smoothly," she said. Her favorite jobs involve a feeling of mutual respect between her managers and herself. Given that, she's willing to do anything to help.

Since she was laid off in the spring of 2010, she's been grabbing whatever temporary assignments she can from Manpower Staffing Services, including one four-long stint at Citizens Bank. She also offered her services to private clients.

Her last fulltime job was as an administrative secretary to a real estate company. When the housing market collapsed, she was laid off -- not because her administrative skills weren't up to par, but because the other secretary had more years of experience in the field of real estate and the company could only keep one of them. It was a decision Watson understood, even though it hurt her.

Over the years, most of Watson's bosses have been men and many of them have been excellent managers. But at a recent Manpower assignment, Watson worked for her first female boss. What surprised and delighted her was her boss's willingness to bring her coffee, instead of vice versa. But that coffee thing isn't an issue for Watson. "I like to cook," she said and she's more than willing to put on a pot of coffee. "And I'm a stickler for cleanliness. I like to make sure everything is where it should be."

Update: As of December 2011, Watson is still looking for work. 

• Karen T. Watson
• Hometown: Philadelphia.
• Profession: Executive assistant
• Experience: Prepared reports, spreadsheets and presentations. Organized mailings, Arranged meetings, handled administrative tasks, prepared contracts.
• Education: High School graduate.
• E-mail address: karen.theresawatson@yahoo.com
• Karen Watson's resume
  

Read past profiles in the Looking for Work series. The series continues here on Fridays.

_{The Inquirer is not endorsing this individual as a job candidate; potential employers should do their own background checks.}

Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, "Looking for Work" does not appear today. Please be thankful if you have a job, and if you can help someone else get one, please try. Read the past profiles by clicking on the link below. Maybe today could be the day that you can help one of these people get work.

Read past profiles in the Looking for Work series.

_{The Inquirer is not endorsing this individual as a job candidate; potential employers should do their own background checks.}

Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.

In February, Aramark Corp. lost the contract to provide commissary services to the inmates of the Philadelphia correctional system, and when that happened  Jeffrey Scott's livelihood was threatened. Scott was the manager of the commissary, supervising 17 civilian workers and 30 inmates in what amounted to a major warehouse and fulfillment operation designed to deliver toiletries and other sundry items to the system's 9,500 inmates.

Scott, who lives in Overbrook and attended Central High School, began working for Aramark in 2004, recruited directly from the military. Over the years, he either managed food services or commissaries in several different prisons before finally being transferred back to his hometown of Philadelphia. When Aramark lost the contract, it kept Scott on the payroll as a fill-in manager in hopes that something would come up, but it didn't. So on Oct. 4, Scott was laid off.

Working in a prison system was a new challenge for Scott. "The most surprising thing to me," he said, "was how important the commissary is to the safety and security of the prison. The commissary, the food service and medical treatment are the three things that will cause inmate uprisings. As long as you provide good service, that keeps the inmates calm, which keeps the officers safe."

Scott knew very little about prisons when he started there, but knowing very little about his job at first is nothing new. He didn't know how to operate a warehouse, but he learned that on the job. Food service and running an institutional kitchen? Also new, but again he learned. Recruiting and human resources (he even recruited for the military at Central) was also new,  but he learned and then took that same knowledge and used it again to recruit a more specialized force of doctors, nurses and medical technicians for the military.

When Scott joined the Air Force in 2004, he was in the middle of studying chemistry at St. Joe's University. That wasn't much of a credential for air traffic controller, but, in what turned out to be a life pattern, he soon completed training and took on that responsibility, moving up the ranks to become a supervisor and later assistant chief of standardization and training.

"The Air Force has given me a great management skill set," he said.  Even though he's now been a supervisor of air traffic controllers, military entrance processors, cooks, dishwashers and warehouse workers, he thinks his management philosophy works anywhere. "If you give workers the respect they are due and you give them a clear line on expectations, it's all the same," he said. "As long as you take care of your people, they'll take care of you."

 Scott says he's looking for any job managing operations. "The technical skills I can pick up," he said. "But management style can't be taught. It's something you have to develop over time." 

Update: As of December 2011, Scott is still looking for work. 

• Jeffrey D. Scott
• Hometown: Philadelphia.
• Profession: Manager, recruiter, trainer
• Experience: Managed food services and commissaries for prison systems, increasing profitability and safety. Developed a safety plan used by 41 commissaries and 17 food service organizations. Improved profitability in one commissary from $830 a week to $3,600 a week over a two-year period. Handled recruiting, training and supervision in the Air Force. Served as an air traffic controller.
• Education: Community College of the Air Force, associate degrees in personnel administration and airway science. Course work at St. Joseph's University.
• E-mail address: jscott2523@comcast.net
• Jeffrey Scott's resume

Read past profiles in the Looking for Work series. The series runs here on Fridays.

Read my Jobbing blog for other news and views on the work world.

_{The Inquirer is not endorsing this individual as a job candidate; potential employers should do their own background checks.}

Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.

In the military, Phillip Yale, of Bensalem, accomplished things that should make him highly sought after as an employee. For example, as a supply support projects officer, he developed a metrics and charting program to identify excess material and saved $4 million in unnecessary material procurement.

He directed an ISO 9001 audit preparation, leading to certification and moved the U.S. Navy into a Lean Six Sigma program as part of his supply chain analysis. He also managed an 80 room hotel in Iceland, supervising 56 military and Icelandic personnel.  And, on board the USS Cleveland, as a food service officer, he supervised a crew of 40 to prepare meals for 1,200. He oversaw the installation of a plastics processing system that eliminated all overboard discharge of plastic waste as well as 60 percent of food waste.

His accomplishments were impressive enough that he fielded several offers in manufacturing when he left the Navy in March 2006. A few months later, he settled on a California company that manufactured heavy equipment used in construction and manufacturing. That was before the recession. But when the recession hit, both sectors tanked. "A third of our revenues went away," he said. So did Yale's job. After he was laid off in August 2009, he got some consulting jobs, but they dried up after a time. He has since moved back to Bensalem where he has family.

Yale said that when people look at his resume, they see a diversity of jobs. That's normal for the military, but not so normal in civilian life. "That's one of the issues," he said. "Hiring officers don't understand that and we don't translate it for them."

His ideal job would be in some type of operations management.

Update: As of December 2011, Yale is still looking for work.

• Phillip Yale
• Hometown: Bensalem
• Profession: Operations manager
• Experience: Specialized in eliminating waste in supply chains. Oversaw all logistical services to support a warship. Handled all logistics for naval air station in Iceland, including managing a military hotel there.
• Education: Heidelberg College, bachelor's degree in chemistry
• E-mail address: Phil.Yale@gmail.com
• Phillip Yale's Linkedin profile   
• Phillip Yale's resume

Read past profiles in the Looking for Work series.

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_{The Inquirer is not endorsing this individual as a job candidate; potential employers should do their own background checks.}

Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.

Growing up, Sean Tucker dreamed of playing professional basketball, but life and tough circumstances had a different plan. As the oldest of six children of a single mother, he had to spend his after-school hours working so he could afford to buy himself clothes.

"Basically, it was a sacrifice," he said.

Tucker found himself in a tough spot in his last job -- as a patient caregiver in a nursing home. He actually loved the work and prided himself on his ability to get along with the patients. "If anything, I was the problem solver," he said. "I helped them get acclimated to their new lifestyle."

The problem arose when he was asked to provide personal care for female patients -- something he was willing to do -- but not when he was alone with them without a female staffer to chaperone. Yes, short-staffing was an issue, but the situation was too risky. What if an unfair accusation was made? Tucker lost his job in February.

In the past, Tucker picked up side cash as a DJ, but compensation has spiraled down. Several years ago, the going rate was $250 for four or five hours of work, he said. Now it's $100 for the same time period. "That's not enough to maintain the equipment and cover travel costs," he said.

These days, Tucker has been applying for any kind of job, including one last month unloading railroad cars. "I would really like to be a nurse," Tucker said, but that's out because of criminal convictions in 1999 and 2000 that led to probation sentences. "I have to apply to get the record expunged," he said.

"I'd really like to work with my mind, more so than physical labor," he said. "For me, looking for the job is not the problem. It's getting the job." 

Update: As of December 2011, Tucker is working fulltime unloading railroad cars.

• Sean Tucker
• Hometown: Chester
• Profession: Nurse's aide
• Experience: Waited tables, worked in a record store, worked as a disc jockey and nurses aide.
• Education: High school diploma
• E-mail address: Seantucker15@yahoo.com
• Sean Tucker's resume

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_{The Inquirer is not endorsing this individual as a job candidate; potential employers should do their own background checks.}

Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.

Making sure something is done exactly right -- getting the i's dotted and t's crossed -- gives Philadelphia administrator Keith Conrad tremendous satisfaction.

"I'm a very organized person," said Conrad. "I stick to what I'm doing until I get the job done."

Until July, Conrad worked for the city of Philadelphia's Office of Housing and Community Development as upper-grade administrative assistant. Prior to that, he had been an administrative services supervisor in the same department. Before that he worked for the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Philadelphia and before that a well-known Philadelphia bank.

What all the jobs had in common was involvement in housing and mortgages. That's why, in some ways, it's ironic that Conrad is out of work. Many economists attribute the current downturn to problems with bad and bundled mortgages. Probably, if Conrad would have been in any kind of position to work those deals, the mess wouldn't have happened. He would have simply been too conscientious to allow it. But his government work had nothing to do with what happened in the private sector and his job didn't end directly because of the mess in the housing industry.

Instead, the problems rippled through the economy, ultimately affecting tax revenues. As tax revenues dried up, governments began to lay off, with the largest layoffs at state and municipal levels. 

Before he landed in government in 1996, Conrad worked at Corestates Bank, now Wells Fargo. His job involved mortgage administration. "At that time," he said, "there were a lot of mortgage refinances." A problem was keeping track of the mortgage companies as they changed names, which they did frequently. He developed a system that allowed him to process 50 mortgages in an hour instead of 15. He also recommended a change in the documentation that resulted in fewer forms to sign, thus saving paper and manpower.

Conrad said that he gained particular pleasure in helping people who had paid off their mortgages but didn't know how to get that fact recorded. "They were proud that they had finished their payments, but they didn't know what to do." 

These days, he wonders how people will ever be able to afford homes. "Everyone should be able to have affordable housing," he said. "Who can afford a $300,000 home? I can't. And now some of the homeless shelters are closed. You see so many people out on the street."

Conrad hopes he can get another job that puts his organizational and project managing abilities to good use -- maybe in housing, maybe in human resources. "I love to work," he said. "I can't stand having nothing to do."

• Keith A. Conrad
• Hometown: Philadelphia.
• Profession: Administrator
• Experience: Acted as a liaison among departments, oversaw contracts, developed work standards and procedures, administered petty cash. Supervised staff. Communicated with others concerning facilities issues. Handled research projects. Serviced mortgages for government agencies and for a bank. Handled home improvement loans, documentation, record-keeping. Various office software expertise.
• Education: La Salle University, bachelor's degree in political science. Penn State University, paralegal certificate.
• E-mail address: conradk76@aol.com
• Keith Conrad's resume

 Update: As of December, 2011, Conrad is still looking for work.

Read past profiles in the Looking for Work series. They appear here on Friday.

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_{The Inquirer is not endorsing this individual as a job candidate; potential employers should do their own background checks.}

Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.

Beth Monahan has done her time in the corporate world, handling internal and external communications for major companies, including Aon Corp., Cigna Corp. and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.

But she wants something different now. Laid off for a year, she yearns to use her photography and writing skills for what matters to her. “What I want to do now – now that I’ve had time to gaze at my navel and think it through – is to use my communication skills in a field that matches my beliefs,” she said.

“I’ve written about all different things, but they’ve never been tied to my passions as a human being and a person.”

Her dream job would involve working in animal advocacy or in something related to vegetarianism, farming or women’s health. Monahan came close to the perfect job, among the final three candidates, for an organization called “Farm Sanctuary,” a group that tries to educate the public about the downsides of industrial farming. “I was really excited about that job,” Monahan said wistfully. “It was custom-made for me.”

These days, as she looks for a job, Monahan serves on the boards of Philadelphia Animal Care and Control, and also Citizens for a No-Kill Philadelphia. Part of her expertise involves messaging for these groups. She tried to foster rescue animals, “but I’m what you call a foster-failure,” said Monahan, who lives in Philadelphia’s Mt. Airy section. “I get them home and end up falling in love with them. That’s good for those dogs, but it stops the process, because you can’t take in any more dogs.”

Her current crop of four dogs includes two beagles as well as Gracie, a puppy who was found in a house just before it was demolished, and Judy, a German shepherd and former junkyard guard dog who turned out to be too gentle for the job. “I have a soft spot for animals,” Monahan said. 

Among her corporate stints, her first job, for Goodyear, was the most fun. It involved hosting politicians and reporters on blimp rides. “It’s surprisingly slow,” she said. She met George Bush, the father, when he was a vice president, and also actor Dennis Quade. Another fun part of the job? Hanging out at the race track with Nascar drivers showing off their Goodyear tires.

As she advanced in her work, the tasks became more complicated. At both Cigna and Aon, she became responsible for all the communications for two start-up ventures, both involving the integration of various company services and products. At Aon, she developed marketing tools, including a slide library, catalog of services and industry backgrounders that led to a doubling of sales each year the group was in existence.

“Companies get restless,” she said. “They try new things and then they move on. There were a lot of start-ups and changes all the time. That’s what made it interesting as a communicator. There was always something new to talk about.”

In her last five years at Aon, Monahan served as an assistant vice president and editor and publisher of all communications and marketing materials for its 6,300 employee consulting business. She launched a series of microsites on human resource topics in response to the economic downturn, producing content for Aon’s internal blog, plus internal and external websites. She also crafted speeches for senior leaders and executives, capturing the individual voice of each speaker.

While she was proud of her work at Aon, she grew weary of the constant layoffs. “There were layoffs every year and sometimes twice a year,” she said. “You always knew your turn was coming and you lived in constant fear.”

A year ago, it was her turn.

 “I was there for 10 years and there was salary creep and age creep,” she said. “The long-term corporate employee has become a thing of the past. I’m proud I lasted as long as I did.”

Update: As of December 2011, Monahan is doing odd jobs while looking for work. She recently received the following rejection letter from a corporate employer: "We genuinely appreciate you taking the time to apply online. Unfortunately, due to anunusually high volume of applicants for this position, we were not able to review your application before filling the position."

• Beth Monahan
• Hometown: Philadelphia.
• Profession: Communications executive
• Experience: Writer and photographer who launched websites, devised corporate communications, ghost-wrote speeches, built sales materials and marketing tools and placed stories in the media.
• Education: University of Missouri, bachelor's degree in journalism. George Mason University, graduate course work.
• E-mail address: Bmona21@verizon.net
• Beth Monahan's resume
• Beth Monahan's Linkedin profile

Read past profiles in the Looking for Work series. The series runs here on Fridays.

Read other news and views on the workplace in my Jobbing blog.

_{The Inquirer is not endorsing this individual as a job candidate; potential employers should do their own background checks.}

Contact staff writer Jane M. Von Bergen at 215-854-2769 or jvonbergen@phillynews.com.