Raysa Williams is a Paseo grad who studied theater and dance. She's been the victim of two layoffs in two years.
She was laid off from her work as a closer for Nations Lending, a title loan company, in October 2007 but was out of work for only a month when the company suddenly offered her old job back. She took it, but in the month's span that she was out of work, she'd gone on several interviews. One was at Zep Manufacturing, where she interviewed for a job as an executive assistant. When Zep called her to offer the job, she quit her position at the title loan company and moved to the higher-paying job at Zep.
"Zep sells cleaning products and chemicals," Williams says. "I got the job as executive assistant to their general manager for Kansas City. I'd run errands if he needed me to. ... I really liked it a lot. ... I did everything. I did all the HR for our sales reps in Kansas City, ordered stuff for the entire branch, planned sales meetings, parties, holiday cards for everyone to send out. Whatever anybody needed, I was it."
But last October, Zep gave Williams some bad news: They were reorganizing and only keeping one executive assistant for the entire region. "So, bye," she says they told her. "I miss it."
Williams lived off unemployment while on her next job hunt. She also made money doing freelance makeup for photo shoots and runway shows around town.
"That was the only thing I could survive on," Williams says. "My mom would help out a lot, 'Here's my gas card to get to interviews.' That helped, because making unemployment in Missouri is not that great. ... Some people I know, their companies are fighting it because they don't want to pay (unemployment). It kind of sucks for some people. ... I know one girl who filled out 300 applications and only got three interviews."
Williams was out of work for four months without a single interview. "I was filling out like 10 applications a day, sending out resumes all day long. Even for stuff you don't want to take," she says. "It's been tough. I live by myself, so there's only me to pay the bills and the rent."
She was cheerful about the whole thing in the beginning -- there was time to catch up on books, to watch movies. "I wasn't (depressed) at first," she says. "I got a severance package so that helped. In the first two months I was kickin' it, relaxed, on vacation. Still looking for a job but taking a little break. After the third month, I'm like, that's it, I'm bored. Now I'm getting depressed because my severance is gone, and I'm relying solely on unemployment and it's killing me."
Here comes the lesson in not burning bridges: A friend at Williams' old job with Nations Lending heard Williams was out of work and told her to come re-apply. "They're busy now. Everyone's doing refinancing right now. I went back and had a meeting with them on the 11th of February, and they'd already closed 300 loans that month. So I figured, I'll go back and do this. It's not the field I wanted, but I wasn't finding anything in the field I was looking for. ... So I've been back at the title company for three weeks. It's not what I want to do, but it works."
Williams' advice to anyone who's out of work and gets an offer from a job they're lukewarm about: Take it. "For some reason, it's easier to find a job when you have a job," she says. "I had to take a pay cut with this new position, compared to what I was making, but it was more than unemployment, and it was a way to help pay the bills."
Today, Williams says, she had an epiphany: Doing makeup is what she really loves. "I took an early lunch from work, went out and did makeup for a photo shoot, and then went back to work," she says. "Now that my makeup's taking off, I'm thinking more of New York. My friend goes to Parsons and she says, 'I can get you work for a week so you can see how you like it.' I think I'm going to try it. I have a place to stay with her, eat at her apartment and just work that whole week as vacation, instead of an actual vacation. I think it'd be fun."
Meanwhile, now that she's employed again, Williams is able to visit an old friend: Wal-Mart. "I spent $144 dollars there last week," she says giggling. "My friends were like, WHAT? But I was like, you don't understand, I haven't shop-shopped in months. I got everything restocked. That did feel good."
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