Article July 7, 2003 Issue

Surviving in a tough job market

By Eric Nager

The United States had recently ended an armed conflict with Iraq, and the economy had yet to emerge from a recession. Joblessness was on the rise.

No, I'm not referring to the present. This was early in 1992. I had just finished a master's degree in business administration and was hoping to get into a junior executive training program with a large company—but there were not many such programs to be found. I attended a job fair. Another dead end—there were many more applicants than offers.

Then a new mall opened near where I lived, so I took a retail position there in a luggage store at a low hourly wage. While I was pleased to have a job, it was less than I'd hoped for coming out of graduate school. In addition, I was only the third-level manager for the store. The assistant manager was a few years younger than I and had no more than a high-school graduation equivalent.

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