JMS Kaplan Journal

By Faryar Borhani

Some mid-level managers in San Diego County may have nowhere to go but down because of the bad economy. With unemployment now at 9.3 percent in the county, applications at many fast food restaurants and other chain stores are higher than ever, but the applicants aren’t typical entry-level job seekers.



Ray Villarreal, general manager of the McDonald’s located on El Cajon Boulevard, has seen a steady increase in the number of former mid-level managers showing up at his weekly open-interview calls for applicants.



“We receive close to 40 applications on any given week at our open interviews,” Villarreal said. “In the past months we have seen a lot more (applications) than we ever have, many of them with experience outside of the food industry.”

One of those applicants is Nick Woolley, 22, who moved to San Diego three years ago from Arizona. Woolley was a manager at an electronics store in the Phoenix area for about two years, but he can’t find anything close to that title in San Diego. He has been rejected by more than 10 different big-name employers, including McDonald’s, Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Baby’s R’ Us and Chick Fillet. Even ice cream stores wouldn’t hire him.


“I knew it had nothing to do with me, but rather the economic times; it’s hard if you’re young,” Woolley said.



A college education is no longer the key to success in this economy. Some college graduates with professional experience might now find themselves flipping burgers. 

“Not all of them are (former mid-level managers), but I have definitely seen an increase in the past few months,” Villarreal added. “And they don’t always end up in manager positions here.”



Local employment agencies also are seeing an increase in the number of mid-level managers who are being laid off because of the economy. Diana Barnes, president of A-Star staffing, a local employment agency in San Diego, said these type of professionals are the hardest hit.

“They are finding it hard to find suitable positions with salaries comparable to the ones they had,” Barnes said.


Barnes added that many of those who can’t get jobs in the profession they trained for are choosing to go back to school to learn a new trade that may prove successful in the future.


But those who aren’t willing to retrain are taking jobs that require much lower qualifications than a college degree. Some of these jobs include receptionists, administrative clerks, and commission-only sales positions. 


“These are extraordinary times, and they need to do whatever they can do to learn a new skill or craft –– it’s a matter of survival these days,” she said.


Coming straight out of school into this economy is an even more difficult prospect. For Myriam Adel, a recent San Diego State graduate, the job market couldn’t be any tougher. With her film, theater and communications degree in hand, Adel set out to find a job that she had worked so hard for in college, but after a long search, those opportunities just weren’t there.



“I then started to look for internships, both paid and unpaid,” Adel said. “I sent out my résumé to so many different people that when I got letters of rejection, I didn’t even remember applying to that company.”


The search became a long, arduous process for Adel as she set her sights on industries that she hadn’t gone to school for, and wasn’t passionate about.


“I began to search for jobs as a receptionist on Craigslist, jobs as a hotel clerk or even just at restaurants,” she said. Despite leaving her career plans on hold, Adel hopes her current situation isn’t permanent. She is now working as a hostess at a restaurant downtown and is saving money for a theater internship in New York.


Adel, like many recent graduates, is learning just how tough the job-finding process is, however, a recent survey by the SDSU Career Services Center shows that more than half of all graduates are employed.

Out of the 1,455 responses to the survey, 54 percent of the December 2008 graduates found full-time employment straight out of college, with 75 percent of these individuals securing their position while still attending SDSU.


Although the numbers might seem promising, James Tarbox, director of SDSU Career Services pointed out that the majority of individuals who respond to these surveys are more inclined to do so because they already have jobs, which might skew the figures. Tarbox also noted that although these numbers help with the assessment of job opportunities, university surveys such as this one are primarily six months behind current economic trends, and an upcoming survey in May will give more insight into the current state of employment for graduates.


“Compared to last year, traffic at our center is up 30 percent and we are slammed with walk-ins,” Tarbox said. 

With trends in the job market changing because of the shifts in the economy, Tarbox and his counselors at the career center are pushing new methods of networking to graduating students and urging them to be more flexible with the jobs they initially look for.


“We have found that many of the people who are finding jobs straight out of school have primarily found them through friends and family,” Tarbox said.


Tarbox also said that although the May figures aren’t in yet, he has already begun to receive calls from students and colleagues who are telling him how hard it is to find a job these days – a statement those already in the workforce know all too well.