Thursday Throwback--Getting a Job in 1975

When I first became a single mom in 1975, I knew I needed some type of training so I could learn skills to get jobs.  I had two young sons and could therefore have stayed on welfare until they went to school.  But I didn't want to.  Sometimes looking back, I wonder if I should have instead of leaving my kids with my neighbor.  But I digress.

Looking for that job...trying to find the thing I was good at doing and makes me happy and pays me enough to feed the kids.  Not an easy process.  All the jobs listed in the paper seemed to be asking for someone who wasn't me.  I didn't want to go door-to-door selling things on commission.  I had tried selling Avon and Tupperware in the past and knew I wasn't cut out to do that type of thing.  

But I was determined.  Luckily I found a goverment-funded program that could help me move forward: The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, or CEDA.  CEDA was a law enacted in 1973 created to train workers and provide them with jobs in the public service. The program offered work to those with low incomes and the long term unemployed as well as summer jobs to low income high school students. Full-time jobs were provided for a period of 12 to 24 months in public agencies or private not for profit organizations. The intent was to impart a marketable skill that would allow participants to move to an unsubsidized job. It was an extension of the Works Progress Administration, or WPA, program from the 1930s. I was offered a one-year position  as a teacher's aide in Special Education at Portland Public Schools.  I was then hired by PPS as a full-time teacher aide. 

I loved the work.  For the first two years I worked with kids with Language Disorders at Creston School with the wonderful Dorris Pooley.  The third year I moved to Boise School where I helped create a Special Education Resource Center with the incredible Reba Parker.  I had the fun of driving to all the schools to deliver resources.  I also created meetings for the aides so we could share resources and information. By the end of that year, a new job was created for me to be coordinator of the teacher aides. 

At that time, I was making about $7000/year.  Even given it was in the mid-seventies, it was low pay.  The top salary for an aide was about $10,000/year.  I noticed that teacher starting salary was $10,000...I did the math...I looked at our future and saw college was needed.  So I jumped into Portland State University with both feet.  My goal was to become a Special Ed teacher.   Meanwhile, I started working part time at the little store across the street from our house.  These were two of the best decisions I ever made--attending PSU and working for Bill and Candy.

My second term in college, I taughta lab class for the Speech Communication department.  The idea of teaching college was planted in the back of my brain.  But when I graduated, I wanted to be a writer, a journalist, a PR writer....  

Jobs were hard to find in 1982.  The economy was down and the joke was "How many Oregonians does it take to change a lightbulb?  Only one but 400 applied for the job."  So I continued to work at the little store across the street and took any part-time work that came my way, from sweeping the parking lot to gathering up and turning in newspapers for recycle, to tending to an elderly neighbor, to taking care of my boyfriend who was a quadriplegic.  We managed the best we could.

When I was called to apply as a grad assistant in the Department of Speech Communication at PSU, I jumped at the chance.  The rest is Educational History.  Well, at least my educational history.

After graduation, I went on to teach college part-time for maybe five or six years.  I would take any teaching job available (I called myself "an educational prostitute;" I have always been a classy gal), would drive 50, 60 or so miles a week between schools and campuses (thus became "roadbabe").  I built up experience and networks.  I continued to teach part-time at Portland Community College when I was offered a full-time grant-funded teaching position at Portland State.  And when I was offered a one-year temp position at PCC, I was told that PSU would hold my full-time job for me in case I didn't get the full-time position at PCC.  I did get the job.

It sounds like I magically got the jobs throughout my career.  But it wasn't magic.  I worked hard in each area to build up experience, networking, and trust.  I loved all my jobs (well except that one Christmas when I worked for UPS...oh gawd I hated that driving/delivery job!) and if I wasn't making enough to keep my family fed and clothed, I took on another job.  I applied for positions just like everyone else.  I was turned down for many a job.  I just barely eked into the full-time position at PCC because the committee really liked this one man a great deal and almost went with him instead.  But I did persevere.  And I got lucky.  And I was good at what I did (well..except that UPS job :/), loved the customers and students and colleagues wherever I worked. 

Getting jobs, starting careers in the 1970s, 1980s was a whole different animal than it is today.  It was personal with walking into stores and meeting the owners or asking and returning job applications.  It was having friends or colleagues telling you about jobs and helping you figure out the ropes.  It was no easier but it was different than today.

And so it goes.
peace~~~