Help - Former USAID contractor -- zero interviews in a year

[Anonymous]

Consider having him retrain in medical. Those jobs have the highest growth rate in the US.

UMES on the eastern shore has a physicians assistant program. With a couple years of retraining, he could be a physicians assistant, which pays really decent money.

He could drive home on the weekends while he is retraining and pick up sidework in Ocean City.

Consider retraining an RN also. There is a big demand for male RNs and an RN position can lead to other jobs.

[Anonymous]

Check into franchises. The UPS franchise stores seem to be extremely lucrative.

[Anonymous]

Get your health insurance through Obama care the ACA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Get your health insurance through Obama care the ACA.

They probably already are, which is very expensive. Hence the reason why OP's DH is seeking FTE with health insurance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Consider having him retrain in medical. Those jobs have the highest growth rate in the US.

UMES on the eastern shore has a physicians assistant program. With a couple years of retraining, he could be a physicians assistant, which pays really decent money.

He could drive home on the weekends while he is retraining and pick up sidework in Ocean City.

Consider retraining an RN also. There is a big demand for male RNs and an RN position can lead to other jobs.

Aren't these programs quite difficult to get into? I think it's very competitive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with the PPs saying relocate. It's not at all that simple. Companies outside of the DMV 1) want to pay him way less. Like less than 50% of his previous salary and 2) want him in town to start today. So to do that idea he'd need to relocate ahead of you to interview.

Hard agree. And don't forget the cost of moving (movers, truck, first month's rent/security deposit, supplies, furniture, etc). Lots of stories of people moving cross-country only to lose their jobs within days-months.

He has been unemployed for a year! He can move by himself to get started, settle into job, and just rent a room somewhere. It's also much easier to get a job when you have a job, so he can immediately start looking to move back and applying to jobs in the DMV once he is gainfully employed.

Many families have bi-coastal arrangement, and his kids are older so much less of an issue (and his wife seems to have gig work she does remotely so can visit easily as well)

+1 alternative is to remain unemployed, which makes getting a job that much harder as time goes on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Consider having him retrain in medical. Those jobs have the highest growth rate in the US.

UMES on the eastern shore has a physicians assistant program. With a couple years of retraining, he could be a physicians assistant, which pays really decent money.

He could drive home on the weekends while he is retraining and pick up sidework in Ocean City.

Consider retraining an RN also. There is a big demand for male RNs and an RN position can lead to other jobs.

Aren't these programs quite difficult to get into? I think it's very competitive.

Not at UMES located in Princess Anne Maryland. I would not live in Princess Anne to do the program I would live in Salisbury or West Ocean City and drive south to Princess Anne. Salisbury to Princess Anne is about a 15 minute drive.

UMES is part of the University of Maryland college system. It is a former historic African-American college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband, like thousands of others in the area, has been out of work for over a year now. He has literally not gotten ONE interview from the hundreds of jobs he's applied for. I'm at my wits end. Will he ever work again? I think after 25 years in the same job, his network is all in his field. He's highly skilled, willing to go down in level, salary, all of it. But ... are there any jobs out there? Are there recruiters that would be good for someone with skills in program development management, grants, social impact? He has experience in South American, Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean. He's managed portfolios of hundreds of millions of dollars. Do they care about people that have this amazing government experience doing the work internationally? How do you make it transferable?

We've done all that work to adapt the resume, put in the key words, etc. etc. I've networked as much as I can with my network. Does the rest of the country realize how bad it is for these people thanks to Elon Musk?

I'm ranting... thanks for letting me rant... Most days I keep my stress in check, but this year plus mark is really getting to me.

Any advice welcome... especially about local networking events even.

Age discrimination is real ... and sobering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband, like thousands of others in the area, has been out of work for over a year now. He has literally not gotten ONE interview from the hundreds of jobs he's applied for. I'm at my wits end. Will he ever work again? I think after 25 years in the same job, his network is all in his field. He's highly skilled, willing to go down in level, salary, all of it. But ... are there any jobs out there? Are there recruiters that would be good for someone with skills in program development management, grants, social impact? He has experience in South American, Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean. He's managed portfolios of hundreds of millions of dollars. Do they care about people that have this amazing government experience doing the work internationally? How do you make it transferable?

We've done all that work to adapt the resume, put in the key words, etc. etc. I've networked as much as I can with my network. Does the rest of the country realize how bad it is for these people thanks to Elon Musk?

I'm ranting... thanks for letting me rant... Most days I keep my stress in check, but this year plus mark is really getting to me.

Any advice welcome... especially about local networking events even.

These are all fake skills

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Consider having him retrain in medical. Those jobs have the highest growth rate in the US.

UMES on the eastern shore has a physicians assistant program. With a couple years of retraining, he could be a physicians assistant, which pays really decent money.

He could drive home on the weekends while he is retraining and pick up sidework in Ocean City.

Consider retraining an RN also. There is a big demand for male RNs and an RN position can lead to other jobs.

Aren't these programs quite difficult to get into? I think it's very competitive.

Not at UMES located in Princess Anne Maryland. I would not live in Princess Anne to do the program I would live in Salisbury or West Ocean City and drive south to Princess Anne. Salisbury to Princess Anne is about a 15 minute drive.

UMES is part of the University of Maryland college system. It is a former historic African-American college.

McKenzie Scott (Bezos ex wife) has recently donated 58 million to UMES in unsolicited donations over the last several years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband, like thousands of others in the area, has been out of work for over a year now. He has literally not gotten ONE interview from the hundreds of jobs he's applied for. I'm at my wits end. Will he ever work again? I think after 25 years in the same job, his network is all in his field. He's highly skilled, willing to go down in level, salary, all of it. But ... are there any jobs out there? Are there recruiters that would be good for someone with skills in program development management, grants, social impact? He has experience in South American, Middle East, Eastern Europe and the Caribbean. He's managed portfolios of hundreds of millions of dollars. Do they care about people that have this amazing government experience doing the work internationally? How do you make it transferable?

We've done all that work to adapt the resume, put in the key words, etc. etc. I've networked as much as I can with my network. Does the rest of the country realize how bad it is for these people thanks to Elon Musk?

I'm ranting... thanks for letting me rant... Most days I keep my stress in check, but this year plus mark is really getting to me.

Any advice welcome... especially about local networking events even.

What skill is social impact?

When managing portfolios, were they investment portfolios, like huge funds trying to perform Microfinance or something with a goal of return of investment (or at least preservation of capital)

[Anonymous]

To the OP, I’m so sorry that you and your husband are going through this! I was at a nonprofit in this space and know many people who lost their jobs last year due to USAID’s closure.

If you can afford it, I’d highly recommend supporting your husband to get paid professional support to review his materials and help him revise and update his search strategy.as others have said, the quality of this support varies greatly so check references before signing up with anyone.

While many people I know remain unemployed, I don’t know anyone who is applying at that volume and not getting any interviews. This is not to be harsh, but to reality check with what I know based on talking with dozens of former colleagues and being in an active professional support group of about ~200 people who previously worked in international development or as feds.

My guess is that your husband may need to rethink the sectors and roles he’s targeting, or significantly overhaul his application materials.

Best of luck to you both!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I say this with respect because I know there’s a lot of affected people here (in addition to the OP), but could someone please explain how/why the people at this org were paid so much before when it seems like their actual skills just didn’t warrant that high level of pay? Is this typical in government orgs? I knew government positions paid a lot more than I originally expected, but I was told that they need to pay those salaries (in addition to the security that has historically also come with government positions) in order to staff the positions.

I worked for a USAID contractor. For sure the management skills are transferable, but the challenge is that what I did was super specialized and no longer exists. Do you need someone to design and implement a low-cost program to get women in Nigeria or Malawi to take their prenatal vitamins and give birth in a birth facility with a trained midwife? Or maybe you need to figure out how to reduce the biases among midwives that lead to infant and maternal mortality. I’m your woman. I’ve done it and have the studies to prove the programs reduced death.

But the jobs here in the US that reduce infant death are few and far between. Who funds them? Some counties and states, but they are not funded to the level we funded these sorts of programs abroad. Sad, isn’t it? And I would understand and even sort of approve if we pulled all that money from USAID and instead used it for health programming in the US. But we didn’t. And now we are losing not just the work, but the expertise. I was a known, respected expert in my field. I’m now doing something different, and can’t mentor the next generation should we decide maternal health is important again. Poof. A generation of knowledge is just gone.

I don’t want anyone’s pity - I’m doing fine. But I would like people to understand that the skills USAID people had were real and valuable and necessary for the work we did. We just don’t seem to find helping poor people a needed skill anymore.

Your work sounds interesting and fulfilling but I’m not sure that you answered the question. Why were you paid so much money to do that work?

I don’t know that I was paid that much. I was in senior leadership, managing programs and budgets totaling $100 million/year and overseeing a staffing structure of 800 people. I made $140,000. I’m always told here on DCUM that makes me poor. I thought it was very fair pay for a job that meant a lot to me.

It was fair. I work for a corporation in a white collar analytical job. I make $ in that range. I have no direct reports. My manager has me and another person. We coordinate technical teams working on a product worth in the $100s of millions. I always think it's crazy that I make more than an elementary principal. An elementary principal has more positive human impact.

There are people here that believe that jobs tied to profit motives are inherently more deserving and virtuous. That's completely ridiculous. Basically you're saying that a marketing manager job for a vape company is more deserving of societal approval than a government manager for an international wellness program. Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

USAID was all one big scam and contractors/politicians have been using it to milk US taxpayers of billions of $s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:USAID was all one big scam and contractors/politicians have been using it to milk US taxpayers of billions of $s.

You have no idea what you are talking about. Over 1M have already died due to its illegal dismantling with an anticipated 14M by 2030, 4.5M of those children under 5.