LGBT Center's Out To Work Job Fair

By Sr. Correspondent, Antoine Craigwell

(New York, NY) - Men and women dressed in business suits formed two long lines as they waited for the doors to open for the 3rd Annual Out To Work Career Fair at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Community Center on West 13th Street on Sept 17. The lines snaked in opposite directions - one stretched eastward and curved around the corner at Seventh Avenue, the other westward toward Greenwich Avenue. As the rain fell, some who were prepared popped open umbrellas, a few others begged shelter, and some chose to brave the rain, their business suits becoming soaked.

 
At about 11:00am, volunteers flitting about the main lobby and reception area looking like waiters except for the headsets with boom microphones and name tags welcomed the many who came to the Center to see if they would be noticed by someone from human resources or a hiring manager from any one of the 40 companies who had set up tables in the main room on the ground floor and in the large room on the third floor.

The career fair, hosted and sponsored by the LGBT Center in collaboration with the Chelsea Village Chamber of Commerce as a fund raising event, was outsourced to a private consultant who organized and obtained the company exhibitors, each paying $1,500 to participate, which included A&E Television, GO Magazine, Gay City News, McBurney YMCA, Chase, the Office of the Comptroller of the City of New York, the NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority, Pepsi Co., VESID, and The New York Times Company.
It became quickly apparent to the men and women, mainly African American and White, looking for employment that this "career fair" was like many which have occurred around the City in recent times: not as much about companies looking to fill open positions, rather companies looking for people to sell products - sales.
Even from before, looking at the men and women standing on line waiting to enter the Center, and when they had gathered in Room 101, it also seemed that young people between ages 21 to 30 were largely outnumbered by people in their late 30s, 40s and in their 50s.

In an Aug 2009 article, Patrick McGeehan wrote "City's Unemployment Surpasses National Rate" in the New York Times, quoting the state Department of Labor, that the number of the unemployed in the state jumped from 9.4 percent in June to 9.6 percent in July. This means that with the additional 18,000 private-sector jobs lost, the number in New York City rose to 402,200 people, the highest in the city for 33 years, who are unemployed.

For George Cochran, a 54-year-old man from the Hell's Kitchen section of Manhattan, the dearth in employment opportunities had taken on a singular significance: In the 10 months since leaving his job as a financial director for a theater organization last November, he has been surviving on his savings, which have been depleted, hence his presence at the job fair, looking for a job.
"I have to eat, next is to start living off credit cards, and that is what I don't want to do. I've already used up my 401 (k) since it's not worth very much today, and given my age, it's not coming back any time soon, so I might as well have used it," Cochran said.

 

 
When Cochran left his job, he was making about $75,000 a year, but now he's looking for a job, he is willing to take any position paying a minimum $40,000.

Another job-fair participant, Annie Brown, 39, from Brooklyn, said that while she did not fit the typical image of the unemployed - those who have been looking for a job for several months - she left her job of 10 years last month feeling it was time for a change after being in one place for such a long time. Unlike Cochran, Brown said she earned about $65,000 a year, and while she is not desperate for a job, she prefers not to wait too long to begin looking.

"I'm looking for a position in training and development in the customer service oriented industry," she said. "I don't have a direct salary range and I'm open to any as I recognize we're in an economic recession."

But, she pointed out that even with the job fair, everything is on the Internet, where one is expected to email resumes, which seem to disappear into an electronic vortex of other resumes, wondering if someone actually looks at them.

When the Center began hosting the job fair three years ago, the economy was in better shape, said Shameek Bose, a former J.P. Morgan Chase investor turned event organizer, in charge of the job fair. The Center, through this effort, is trying to be a conduit for its constituents and sponsors, and with the numbers of people who are unemployed, the exhibitors wanted to demonstrate that they were not only there to recruit, but to show that they are open to people who are coming out of the closet, Bose said.
 
"We're providing a business opportunity to our corporate partners with a philanthropic component which translates to corporations being able to give back. Companies are paralleling the experiences of people by showing solidarity with the community. Brand loyalty making the community attractive and from a consumer's standpoint, it is about building brand loyalty," he said.

In planning the fair, Bose said, when he contacted many of the exhibitors he was told that there were no open positions. Using hard sell tactics, he was able to successfully convince them of the face-to-face approach. As of the start of the career fair, he said, more than 2,000 people had registered, with an additional estimated 1,500 unregistered coming in. In the organization and planning, Bose said he utilized the services of many non-profits and the 50 volunteers came from teams associated with companies such as Ernst & Young and Wachovia.

While there were long lines at several exhibitor tables, such as at the Prudential, McBurney YMCA, A&E Television, there were two occurrences served to mar an otherwise uneventful event. According to Abby Tallmer, a writer, editor and former NYC public school English teacher, the New York Times representative who arrived 30 minutes late to set up his table, while he conversed sotto voce with someone on his cell phone seemed to ignore the line of job seekers waiting to speak with him. When she enquired of him about job positions, she was told in a curt manner to check online for jobs and that he was there as a sales and marketing representative and not accepting resumes. As if to prove her point, she pointed to the base of the Times table, which was laden with tote bags, water flasks and other miscellany, a sign offering 50-percent discounts to anyone who signed up for New York Times subscriptions and which supported her assertion that the "career fair" wasn't as much about hiring, but about selling.

 

At the New York University table, the representative enquired of job seekers whether or not they were alumnus of the university, if not, she clearly stated, that she could not speak with them, only with alums. To the non-NYU alums, she advised that the extent of her involvement would only be to take their resumes and pass them on to the university's Human Resources Department.