Blog Post: I am You... A Job Seeker.

... unemployed looking for work.

Over 15 months ago, I was an experienced 20+ year commercial real estate lending professional. I had responsibilities at my career and wanted more. I was climbing the banking corporate ladder making my way to be smarter than all my peers. I was liked by upper management and loved by all my co-workers. I devoted my life to being a professional; often times at the expense of my social life.

Financially, I was making a six figure income. Every paycheck I devoted the maximum 15% towards my 401(k) retirement and at minimum 15% of take home into my 'rainy day savings'. I lived frugally because I remember the recession of the early 80s and then 90s. I was feeling good because I had big money in the bank. The only vice I had was I was feeding my side business OneKeyAway.com because that was my real passion. I thought no matter what happens, I have cash in the bank to float me for anything that can happen at work. I was doing the right thing for ME personally.

Then on January 13, 2008 after weeks of uncertainty at the bank, I was called into the HR office with 6 other colleagues in the room and 6 others on a conference call. We were told the bank is changing focus and commercial real estate construction lending needed to shrink.

Yes. I was being laid off.

My first reaction was "Cool... Now I'll do what I've been wanting to do, which was to continue my side project as well as maybe relax from working for 'The Man'." Three months later, the project I was diligently working towards failed and my then-girlfriend said that I should really consider finding a real job.

She was right. I needed to find a job at that point.

In May 2008, I attended my first job fair in 18 years. I walked out of my car with suit and tie on, resume in portfolio at my side and great attitude buzzing to find a job.  This will be easy.  I know my profession and will land a job with one eye-to-eye handshake.  Employers get ready to hire me!

Upon entering the building into the job fair, I noticed young, bright-eyed professionals probably fresh out of "B" School, which didn't faze me at that time because I have experience. Then I walked into the cold convention room itself. The job event was a cattle call with hundreds of job seekers and a handful of booths (mostly education pushers or military/police/public service)

Lines and lines of people not talking but waiting in line to talk to the public service hiring manager or the insurance sales "recruiter". I observed that when a person finally had the opportunity to talk to a 'recruiter', they did their 20 second 'elevator pitch'. However, I don't think the recruiters were listening. I sensed that the recruiters didn't care and placed the candidates' resumes in a pile dreading the work they just created.

My instinct reaction was that the recruiters were "Rockstars" and this was their time to shine. The candidates were fans and stalking groupies that the rockstars wont remember after 4:45 pm that day.

I left the fair disappointed. I am not an entry level job seeker. Even though I live in La La Land, I don't believe in cattle calls. Job fairs just were not for an experienced career-oriented professional.

After weeks of agonizing and reliving my job fair experience, I had an appiphany.

• What could happen if we network with everyone in the room, job seekers and recruiters alike, to share resources?
• What are the possibilities if everyone talked with each other to find out who they know to who they know to find a job for each other?
• What can be accomplished if job seekers worked along side other job seekers and not considered each other competition but as friends to help one another out?
• How many people can we help if every recruiter helped out a job seeker even if that job seeker wasn't a commission check for them?

I called my other unemployed friends like Chelle, Kelly and Jen about my idea that we host events initially for job seekers to network with each other. Everyone thought it was silly because it didn't create obvious value to the job seeker.

I disagreed.

My vision of the event was to create a community where everyone will "Pay It Forward" and will think about someone else before they think about themselves. The value of my vision is that everyone will be each other's eyes to available jobs, published or not-yet-announced. We will act as a collective and everyone will benefit.  It's a crazy idea but I think it will work.

Thus, the birth of PinkSlipMixers.com.

Over the next few post, I will give my more insight as to what PinkSlipMixers.com events are, more elaborate explanations of the evolution of the events, share some tips to make job searching a more enjoyable experience and feature other job seekers I meet throughout this unemployment journey.

Remember... I am like you.

My name is Edwin Duterte.

About PinkSlipMixers.com:

PinkSlipMixers.com is a grass-roots organization who hosts free job networking events.