Media Orchard was on Barbara Ehrenreich’s Web site today (we’d heard she’d become a blogger), and we found it quite amusing that she’s now launching a “local career networking” campaign in association with her new book, Bait and Switch.
Barbara’s a talented writer, and we share her views on a number of issues. But Bait and Switch is a non-starter, as we explain in our post, “Barbara Ehrenreich Can’t Find a PR Job; Therefore, the Economy is Crumbling.”
For the book, Barbara assembled a fake resume documenting non-existent public relations experience; then, she spent months searching (unsuccessfully) for a PR job in the $60-100K range. She concludes that the white-collar middle-class has been sold a bill of goods, and that because of downsizing we’ll soon all be working at Wal-Mart for $8 per hour.
The reality is that most fakers can be smoked out in a job interview. In fact, Barbara’s whole search process is pretty laughable. As The Christian Science Monitor puts it:
Is it any wonder that she can’t find someone to hire her? Ehrenreich can’t turn to a large network of former clients for job leads because her imaginary PR consultant doesn’t really exist. In another potentially fatal flaw, it takes her forever to realize that it might be a good idea to hobnob with actual PR people instead of a hodgepodge of the jobless.
Most amazing of all is Ehrenreich’s naivete about the job market. She’s surprised that white-collar workers massage the truth out of their resumes, that they focus intensely on what they wear, that they must deal with bosses who care more about people skills than job skills. She’s even taken aback when someone suggests she delete the date of her college graduation from her resume so she won’t come across as too old.
This stranger-in-a-strange-land attitude wears thin, especially coming from someone who should be more aware. Where has she been?
So now — after failing miserably to find a job, even with the benefit of a falsified resume — Barbara’s going to organize “grassroots support groups” for job seekers?
Isn’t that kind of like O.J. conducting anger management workshops?
Technorati tags: Human Resources, PR, Barbara Ehrenreich, Books
Tags: Barbara Ehrenreich, dallas pr, dallas public relations
In defenese of Ehrenreich I will say that the book really tries to also show that the middle class is being crushed. When you have someone who was white collar employee making 300k a year then ends up being a sales associate at The Gap that doesn’t sound right. Not only are the working poor suffering in this Bushworld economy but it’s hitting the middle class as well. They are being downsized and their jobs are getting outsourced.
Middle age men with kids are now finding that their careers don’t mean anything. The executive job they held for years is now being pulled out from under them too.
Civilus
I think she had some good points to make, but I’m afraid the device she chose had some basic flaws. The larger problem, for me, is that so much of what both liberals and conservatives have to say is never listened to by the other side. What is Barbara really accomplishing when her work can be so easily picked apart by those who don’t want to listen to it?