Bait And Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of The American Dream

Barbara Ehrenreich

The author of " Nicled and Dimed" returns to capture my intrest. I find her an intriguing author even though it doesn't make logical sense. What does a Christian, conservative, homemaker have in common with an atheist, liberal, professional?

In this book she attempts to enter corporate America. In her attempt she is exposed to it all from resume writing, to career coaching, job boards, job fairs and the all important, network, network, network....

Eventually she does end up with a job offer... from a variety of companies that are "commision only", Mary Kay, Melaleuca and AFLAC.

The book is enlightening in so many ways. The journal of someone in "transition" (since corporate workers are never unemployed). This may not come as a surprise to others but to me in my naive world it did. You can do everything right, go to college, get a degree, work hard for a company and still be let go at a moments notice for a variety of reasons under a variety of titles, "downsizing" "realligning" "restructuring", etc........ The average corporate worker is said to hold at least five different jobs in their lives. So scary......

I guesse Matt just lucked his way into the corporate world. He had wonderful training through our church employment office where they helped him with his resume, attire, and interview skills (considering he had never before in his life been to an interview above minimum-wage jobs). He was offered a job within two months with all benefits at a nice salary. The average worker in transition can expect to go at least eight months between jobs. This also makes me look at the situations of many people we know. Although our circle of friends is still somewhat limited to the military. One set of friends retired after twenty one years so the husband could go to work at Wallmart. He is now considered to old to enter corporate America and with only military experience there is not a thing he is "qualified" to do. Another set of friends includes the wife working for an agency that assists the elderly in getting to their appt.s and such and the hubbie working part-time at Lands End. The wife desperately misses the days when she was a stay-at-home mom and could be there for her children and my heart aches for them... They are all great people with good skill sets, but apparently that is not good enough. So what is there in life after the military?

The statistics don't reflect this in unemployment because many of them fall into the category of under-employed. Those people who went to college, have experience and relevant skill sets and are still reduced to working minimum wage jobs.

Far from a dry book, Barbara tells of her experiences with a lot of facts mixed in with sarcasim, witt and wisdom, who could not love reading her work? This one was especially fun to read because I read it outloud to Matt on a trip to the other side of the state to pick up my children from a visit with Nana. It was so much more interesting to read it with him and stop and discuss certain points along the way.