finding a job – Coast Contact

The rich and lengthy history of Joan’s career is well-known. She began appearing in 1961 with Second City comedy in Chicago and at comedy clubs in New York. She joined Candid Camera in 1965 and performed on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in February 1965. Then followed regular appearances on The Tonight Show, as well as other television and movie performances, including this performance on the Ed Sullivan show in April 1967.

Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, her popularity grew and employment opportunities were steady. Then in 1986 came the split with Carson, and the cancellation of The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. Other rejections followed, but Joan never became too proud to work small clubs in Cleveland or upstate New York or suburban Wisconsin.

In the 2000s, she is back at the center of popular culture: appearances on Celebrity Apprentice (she won), The Simpsons, In Bed with Joan, and Fashion Police, to name just a few. (copied from What California Job Specialists Can Learn Today from Joan Rivers by Michael Bernick and posted on Fox and Hounds)

My Dad was another great example of finding work when many would have given up. He was a civil/structural engineer. Jobs were projects and once completed a layoff would quickly follow. On the day he married in Winnipeg, Canada. He boarded a train with his new bride, going to Vancouver, Canada. When that job ended two years later he landed a road construction job in north eastern Ontario, Canada. When that job ended he found a job in Erie, Pennsylvania. While none of it was exciting as Joan Rivers’ career he was doing exactly the same thing. Going wherever the opportunities existed.

Today some people are moving to North Dakota where oil has been found and the winters are miserable. The unemployment rate is 2.8%. In a country where jobs are in short supply those making that move are showing their ability to survive when the going gets rough.

Business Week June 11-17, 2012 offered a new consideration for everyone searching for employment. Have you ever considered employment outside the United States?

Americans are most likely to look for work in their home country. Even though you hear about many people traveling overseas, the number of Americans working elsewhere is relatively small. Consider the fact that many people in other nations immigrate to the United States. I know my father considered moving from Canada to England to obtain work in 1939 (near the end of the Great Depression).

Today the USA has a large population of Filipinos who still consider their home the Philippines. Many Latin Americans still feel loyalty to their home country even though they have been in the United States for years. I base these statements on empirical evidence. It’s the Filipino care givers and the Hispanics who fly their home country flags.

So where does Business Week suggest Americans move to obtain those jobs?

Brazil:

Why: Last year, Brazil became the world’s sixth largest economy. And according to a 2011 study by Manpower Group, 64 percent of employers there find vacancies hard to fill. Plus it may soon ease visa requirements.

Jobs: bankers, executives, hedge fund managers, lawyers, and engineers.

India:

Why: Outsourcing has led to a burgeoning tech industry, which has in turn created pockets of economic opportunity. The number of Americans moving is still small, so be first among your friends!

Jobs: tech, mostly. But there are also positions at English language newspapers and schools.

Australia

Why: The Chinese demand for ore spurred a mining boom in Australia. Because of its isolation, the country has an inflexible supply of workers, which means that outsiders are needed. The cost has been rising, but still beats theU.S.

Jobs: mining.

Canada

Why: With a healthy economy, no language barrier, lower corporate tax rates, and free health care, Canada is drawing more Americans than before (though still far fewer than during the draft-dodging heyday of the 1970s).

Jobs: whatever you’re currently doing.

Russia

Why: Exxon Mobil’s newly expanded access to the country’s off shore Arctic.

Jobs: oil.

You could think of these places as more of the pioneering spirit that induced so many Americans to travel to our own western frontier in the 1800s.