Archive for the ‘Careers’ Category

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

Around 6 p.m. on Oct. 27, two men entered a Houston business establishment and robbed the place while holding a pregnant employee at gunpoint. The robbers made off with an estimated $500, plus $50 and a cellphone from Karina Monita, the expectant mother.

“It was really scary,” Ms. Monita says. “I was shaking.”

Ariel Zambelich for the Wall Street Journal

“Visitors can’t take two steps without someone greeting them,” says Gordon Fowler of 3Fold Communications, which was robbed last summer.

The location wasn’t a bank or convenience store—cash-heavy businesses that typically attract thieves. It was Don Francisco Insurance & Services, a quiet insurance company that generally keeps little money on hand, according the owner, Francisco Diaz. Local police say the perpetrators, who remain at large, are suspected of robbing at least 29 other insurers in the area since May.

These days thieves are really reaching. As traditional targets for theft have beefed up their security and the recession has driven people to desperate measures, robbers are infiltrating corporate offices. Many of the incidences involve small companies with ground-level offices that offer easy access. And sometimes the perpetrators are armed, heightening fear among office workers who thought their sleepy cubicle farms were safe.

While the total number of robberies in general decreased slightly in 2008 from 2007, according to estimates from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, there was an estimated 10.1% increase from 2004. In 2008, there were an estimated 2.2 million burglaries—an increase of 3.6% when compared with 2004 data.

During the third quarter of this year, Crisis Care Network Inc. provided crisis counselors to employees at 206 workplaces—including offices and retail stores—following incidents of armed robbery, up from 185 during the same period in 2008.

“A little heightened vigilance could be helpful,” says Bob VandePol, president of the Grandville, Mich., company.

In the past year, ComPsych Corp. , a provider of employee-assistance programs, has seen a 21% increase in the number of requests for crisis counseling at offices that were robbed while employees were present; requests from banks rose 16%.

But the crimes may be more widespread than that since counselors typically are called in only following incidents in which employees’ lives were actually threatened, says Richard Chaifetz, chairman and chief executive officer of the Chicago firm, which services more than 11,000 organizations and 29 million workers world-wide.

Employees at 3Fold Communications LLC, a Sacramento, Calif., marketing firm, declined counseling after a burglar made off with $6,000 of office goods and personal items in August while they were meeting in a conference room. Gordon Fowler, president, says video surveillance didn’t capture footage of the crime because it covers only the rear of the firm’s office building. He says he filed a police report online after local law enforcement declined to investigate the matter.

A spokesman for the Sacramento police says nonviolent thefts may not be investigated if the perpetrators can’t be identified in any way.

Meanwhile, 3Fold’s 13 staffers are making sure its three entrances are monitored at all times by employees. “Now visitors can’t take two steps without someone greeting them and asking why they’re here,” says Mr. Fowler.

Office thieves may be hard to detect at first glance. In the past year and a half, intruders got into Crosby-Volmer International Communications LLC’s Washington, D.C., office three times during normal business hours.

“All of these people had on ties and were wearing dress pants,” says Robert Volmer, president of the public-relations firm. “People in offices tend to give [strangers] the benefit of the doubt. Whether it’s caterers, deliverymen or people who water the plants, there are always news faces coming in and out.”

Rifling Cubicles

Crosby-Volmer’s D.C. office is on the fourth floor of a large building five blocks from the White House. Mr. Volmer says two of the intruders were caught and escorted out by employees who saw them rifling through colleagues’ cubicles; one successfully made off with a laptop computer. He suspects the intruders snuck in through the parking garage or a side door by closely following someone with access to those entrances. Mr. Volmer emailed a letter of complaint to the building’s owner, Blake Real Estate Inc., in July but says he hasn’t seen any signs of increased security. (Offices of The Wall Street Journal are located in the same building.)

Two months later he says he stopped a person trying to enter a side door and asked what he was doing there. He says the man claimed to be making a delivery but couldn’t name a recipient, so he escorted the stranger off the property. Mr. Volmer admits he didn’t consider the possibility of the intruder being armed and says he wasn’t worried for his safety. “I just went on instinct,” he says.

Stephen Lustgarten, Blake Real Estate’s executive vice president, says, “The crime in that building would be no higher than any other urban environment in Washington. [Crosby-Volmer employees] left their back door open and unattended which is why they had a problem.”

After receiving the complaint email, Mr. Lustgarten said the company briefed tenants on how to prevent future incidents by reminding them to be prudent, and avoid leaving personal items and entrances unattended. He said the property manager replied to Mr. Volmer’s email as well as visited Crosby-Volmer’s office, but Mr. Volmer wasn’t there so the manager briefed his assistant instead.

Mr. Volmer says he used to keep the back door to his office suite unlocked during the workday because the building has a security desk at the main entrance on the first floor for greeting visitors. But he’s been keeping it locked at all times ever since the intrusions occurred.

Face to Face With a Thief

Of course, confronting a workplace thief can be dangerous. “The worst thing you can do in a robbery is resist,” says Dr. Chaifetz.

Earlier this year, he says, his firm dispatched crisis counselors to an office where an employee was pistol-whipped after trying to talk a gunman out of doing harm. “He had a pretty damaged face because of it,” says Dr. Chaifetz.

If you do find yourself face to face with a robber, avoid looking the person in the eye, says Bruce Blythe, chief executive officer of Crisis Management International Inc. of Atlanta. “Keep as much distance as possible,” he says.

Federal law and most state laws require employers to provide safe workplaces, says Jennifer Rubin, an employment lawyer for Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo P.C. in New York.

In general, worker-compensation laws prohibit employees from suing employers for workplace injuries except in circumstances involving gross negligence or recklessness, she says.

“It’s hard to make the connection between employer recklessness and injuries sustained during a robbery,” she says.

But even if no employees are hurt during a break-in, the experience can have a lasting impact on a work force, says Debra Holland, a crisis counselor in Los Angeles. Victims often experience symptoms such as anxiety, nightmares and difficulty concentrating for several days.

“People can’t go back to work like normal because they’ve been traumatized,” she says.

One strategy for coping is to pick something positive to focus on for whenever crippling memories of a robbery surface, says Kate Harri, vice president of workplace interventions for Behavioral Medical Interventions, a national post-trauma-counseling provider in Minneapolis. This might be a favorite song or scene from a movie that you’ll play in your head to change the image and the memory, she says. In the past year, BMI has seen a 20% increase in demand for its services following robberies that took occurred in workplaces of all kinds, Ms. Harri adds.

Employees also can feel scathed even if they weren’t present when their co-workers were robbed since what happened occurred in a setting that is typically assumed to be safe, adds Ms. Holland, the crisis counselor. “They’re imaging all the things that could’ve gone wrong,” she says.

Managers can help employees by asking how they are doing—without mentioning deadlines, quotas or other work pressures—to show they care, she says. “It has to be done with delicacy and empathy,” she says.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com

By TODDI GUTNER

Sandra E. Peterson, 50, likes to fix things—companies, specifically. Bayer HealthCare tapped her as president of its diabetes care group in 2005 to turn around the struggling global division. Ms. Peterson, now CEO of the company’s medical division and the highest ranking executive woman in a German public company, is credited with propelling the diabetes business from a market laggard to a market leader in diabetes monitoring. Ms. Peterson recently received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Name: Sandra E. Peterson

Age: 50

Hometown: New York City

Current Position: CEO of Bayer Medical Care

First Job: Worked a variety of jobs–from chambermaid and short order cook to ticket seller and waitress at Bolton Valley ski resort in Vermont

Favorite Job: This one

Education: B.A. in Government, Cornell; M.P.A. in Applied Economics, Princeton University

Years in the industry: 12

How I got here in 10 words of less: Embraced new challenges, took risks and enthusiastically developed others

Q: How has your career path prepared you for doing turn-arounds?

A: I worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co. for six years. While I was there, I worked with many different industries [and products]—from cookies to jet engines. In many cases, I was fixing their problems. Merecedes Benz was one of my clients. [By the late 1980s], Mercedes had sold more cars in the U.S. than ever before. Then the Japanese came and bottom fell out. We did a strategy review and reorganized the way they did business in the U.S.

Q: What led you away from consulting?

A: As a management consultant, you get an opportunity to see everything. I realized that I liked managing as opposed to advising others how to manage. From McKinsey, I went to Whirlpool and then Nabisco, where I was executive vice president and helped to jump-start their research and development and innovation [groups]. Before I came to Bayer, I helped to spin off Medco Health from Merck & Co.

Q: What strategies do you use to help jump-start a struggling division?

A:. I ask a lot of basic questions, always keeping in mind, what does the customer need and how do I need to think about those needs from a marketing and business standpoint? Then I supplement my team from the outside. I don’t hire experts from the industry, but rather look for people who have functional skill sets and leadership and management skills that translate to the industry. I then figure out how to put a team together and have them work in a very collaborative way.

Q: You’re the highest-ranking executive woman in a German public company. What was your first connection to Germany?

A: My parents lived in Germany. My brothers were born there and my parents always spoke fondly of [their] time there. We also hosted German students in our home. In college, I [studied] German and did my thesis on Germany. In graduate school I worked in Germany as a Bosch Fellow with the German Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federation of Germany Industries. [Then], I married a man from Germany.

Q: How has often being the only woman on a senior management team affected you?

A: I have always been a strong advocate for women. Wherever I work, I try to create an environment where women can achieve. Since you spend half your life at work, I figure it is important to create a work environment that you enjoy.

Q: What leadership advice would you offer young professionals?

A: In school, we’re taught to always have the right answers, but in the workplace you don’t always need to answer first and be right all of the time. Always give other people credit even if they don’t deserve it. As a manager, that will make them want to work harder for you. It is better to showcase those who work with you than to separate yourself from your team. And, be careful about what fights you pick—and keep things in perspective.

By ALEXANDRA LEVIT

Q:
I’m an intelligent, talented and creative person, but I’m lacking motivation to perform my job to the best of my abilities, and it is starting to show. I’m planning on leaving my firm for graduate school next year, but in the meantime, do you have any ideas on how I can regain my motivation at work? There are no upcoming projects which even hold the remotest level of interest for me, and based on my recent performance review, I would not likely be assigned them to begin with.

A: The first step in getting your motivation back is admitting that it’s missing in the first place. My next suggestion is to try to focus on the big picture of your career instead of the daily frustrations of your current job. If you’re on your way to getting an advanced degree, then you have already realized a very important goal. Give yourself credit for this! Also, realize that nothing and no one have the power to control your attitude but you. For some help here, I recommend picking up Dale Carnegie’s “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living,” and “How to Win Friends & Influence People.” Also, sign up for any personal development or leadership courses your company offers, and stay busy so you don’t have time to sit around and think about how much better your job situation could be.

Q:
A question I haven’t seen addressed in your column is whether or not it makes sense to pursue an M.B.A. at age 54. I am currently working overseas as an expat, so most likely I would have to enroll in a Web-based M.B.A. opportunity. Is that a good value and will it be accepted by prospective employers? If it takes me two to three years to complete, will it have value for me outside of personal satisfaction?

A: Online degree programs are becoming increasingly credible, especially if geography prevents you from attending a particular university in person. At 54, you could be working around 15 more years. This is a good bit of time, so you’re right to think about what’s best for your career in the semi long term. The question you should ask yourself is, what will the M.B.A. buy you in terms of expanded career prospects and income potential? Do you enjoy the field you’re currently in, and will an M.B.A. help you move up there? If you feel that your trajectory will be similar whether you get an advanced degree or not, then you might want to skip it (unless personal satisfaction is enough of a reason for you, which it very well might be).

Q:
Back in the late 90s when tech was hot, I left college after three years to make money at a start-up. Now in my early thirties, I am looking to make the transition from managing a technical team to real management. I am concerned that the lack of a degree may be a roadblock when competing with people who have a bachelor’s degree or M.B.A. My college credits are no longer valid so I would have to start over to get a degree. To date, I have simply listed my time at school without listing a degree on my resume (which hasn’t been an issue since my skills are more important than a degree at my level). Any suggestions on how to deal with this?

A: I think if you want to make the leap into general management, your lack of even a bachelor’s degree is going to hold you back in most organizations. I can see why whether you graduated or not wouldn’t be as relevant to IT departments, but I have a feeling that management is going to be a different story. Have you thought about taking classes part time while you continue to work and enhance your technical skills? The good news is, if you’ve already had three years of college, a lot of the courses should be pretty easy, and perhaps your company provides tuition assistance. An argument can certainly be made that more schooling would increase your value in your current job as a tech team lead.

Write to Alexandra Levit at reinvent@wsj.com

By LESLIE KWOH

Some companies are adding a new executive to their C-suite lineup: Chief Diversity Officer.

Tasked with creating an environment where women and minorities can flourish, CDOs generally have a hybrid job description that includes recruitment, human resources, marketing, ethics and legal compliance.

Having a diverse work force no doubt helps a company’s image, and some say it can also impact the bottom line by reducing employee turnover, boosting innovation and attracting new business.

Some companies are adding a new executive to their c-suite lineup: Chief Diversity Officer, Leslie Kwoh reports on Markets Hub. (Photo: Getty Images)

Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, a Philadelphia-based law firm with 400 employees, says it created a CDO position in August after recognizing it had a problem retaining minority talent before they reached top-level positions.

Some were wooed by bigger law firms trying to build up their own diverse work force, but others simply saw no opportunity for advancement within the organization, says David Smith, the firm’s chairman.

Without any rigid structures in place, the firm’s majority—white male attorneys—were unconsciously choosing to partner with other white male colleagues on assignments, says Mr. Smith.

The firm tapped one of its own partners for CDO, an African-American attorney specializing in securities law, whose responsibilities now include recruiting new talent, spearheading mentoring programs, and monitoring the firm’s workflow to ensure assignments are being doled out fairly. Mr. Smith expects the recruitment to translate into higher representation at the firm by the end of the first quarter.

Other firms look to diversity to help drive innovation. Heating and ventilation equipment maker Ingersoll Rand PLC created a head of diversity role earlier this year to help cultivate more minority leaders within the organization, with the hope that their ideas would spur growth in foreign markets.

CDO Neddy Perez is preparing to launch employee networking groups for women, African-Americans and veterans in North America. In Europe, she is rolling out a one-year leadership training program for 12 handpicked female employees.

Ms. Perez says she occasionally comes across skeptics, but “there’s always going to be a nonbeliever in the audience.” She reports her progress to CEO Michael W. Lamach every two months.

About 60% of Fortune 500 companies currently have a CDO or executive role designated for diversity, according to a recent study by Heidrick & Struggles, an executive search firm. Among them, 65% are female and 37% are African-American. They come from a variety of backgrounds, from human resources and marketing to finance and operations.

Many CDOs earn salaries equivalent to other senior roles like chief marketing officer or chief legal counsel. Depending on the size of the company, they may also manage their own staff and budget, which can range from $1.5 million to $5 million at larger firms, says Heidrick & Struggles partner Billy Dexter, who was formerly CDO at Viacom Inc.’s MTV Networks.

“The C-suite label gives it more stature, certainly, but the real message is that this is a critical initiative to the company,” says Mr. Dexter.

But not all CDOs are created equal. Just one-quarter report directly to the CEO, while the rest answer to human resources or another department, according to a recent study by the Institute for Corporate Productivity, a membership-driven research organization. Having that direct line to the corner office can give a CDO more power and visibility, says Kevin Oakes, who heads the institute.

When Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLC appointed its first CDO nine years ago, the executive worked under the umbrella of the human-resources department. Now the CDO reports directly to chairman and senior partner Bob Moritz. PwC rotates its own partners in and out of the role every two years. The structure gives the position accountability and credibility, says Maria Moats, an audit partner who recently became the firm’s fifth CDO. “Everyone in the firm knows who the CDO is,” she says.

While acknowledging that a CDO’s results can be difficult to quantify, Ms. Moats, who is Mexican-American, credits her predecessors with the recent increase in female leaders at the firm. In the past six months, the number of women leading major markets has doubled, to four, out of a total 18.

Credit Suisse Group AG CDO Michelle Gadsden-Williams, who works closely with the firm’s four regional CDOs, last May kicked off an 18-month leadership program matching 30 female senior managers with top executives, most of them male. It was the first of its kind for Credit Suisse.

Ms. Gadsden-Williams says she plans to track the progress by examining data in hiring, retention statistics, promotions and exit interviews. Still, there’s much that can’t be measured in metrics. “You can get talent in the door, but how are they experiencing the firm?” she says.

By ALEXANDRA LEVIT

When the oldest members of Generation Y (born roughly 1978 to 1993) began graduating from college several years ago, a collective groan was heard in offices throughout Corporate America.

People said many Gen Y-ers, also called Millennials, had an excess sense of entitlement and were arrogant and lazy. They wanted to do work on their terms and it seemed they wanted feedback on that work every five minutes.

But then the economy tanked. Now, millions of Gen Y-ers are reinventing themselves to show how much, and how quickly, they can add value to their organizations.

The Millennials I’ve met recently are aware of the changes taking place in the work world, and they perceive themselves — and their jobs — as vulnerable. Bruce Tulgan, author of “Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y,” says he has seen the same thing.

“There is a growing sense of casualties, [along with] the fact that you have to work double time to earn the credit and rewards you need,” he says. “Gen Y-ers are thinking it might be a good idea to keep their thoughts, words, and actions a little more cautious, especially since they are facing less support from parents who are busy scrambling to keep their own lives afloat.”

Adding More Value

Holly Hoffman, a 27-year-old market-research manager at a national newspaper corporation in Texas, was accustomed to simply doing the work that was handed to her — until the recession hit. “As the bottom person, I knew that I would be eliminated unless I could directly tie my position to profits,” she says. “So instead of just using the sales program I was given, I interviewed our field reps to see how we could improve it.”

Ms. Hoffman’s revamped sales program was expanded to three additional newspapers, earning her a promotion even as many of her friends were being laid off. Now that she is supporting four times as many people in the advertising and circulation departments, she’s flourishing in the current downturn.

“Instead of looking for what you can get out of your company, focus on what you can put in,” Ms. Hoffman advises fellow Millennials.

‘Good Citizens’

Many Gen Y-ers are also becoming what Mr. Tulgan terms “good workplace citizens.” That is, rather than demanding to be catered to, they’re instead becoming prompt, dressing more appropriately, following up on obligations, and using better judgment. “They’re also shifting their attention from peer relationships to building rapport with managers, customers, vendors, and other decision makers,” says Mr. Tulgan.

Savvy Gen Y-ers are using forums such as social networks, professional associations and company gatherings to gain access to valuable contacts. They are ready and willing to volunteer any assistance they can in exchange for information or mentoring.

Strengthening her ties with other internal departments has been a key element of Ms. Hoffman’s survival strategy. “I found that once I was able to get buy-in for my initiatives, I was applauded and rewarded,” she says.

Please send your career questions to reinvent@wsj.com. Alexandra Levit will answer some in the paper and online at wsj.com/careers
.

Write to Alexandra Levit at reinvent@wsj.com

By LAURA SANTINI

HONG KONG — Lawyer Brett King recently had a reunion with a U.S. private-equity fund and the Chinese toy maker it took over in 2004.

Back then, Mr. King drafted financial documents for CCMP Capital Asia’s leveraged acquisition of Sanda Kan Industrial, a maker of model trains. This time, he was advising on restructuring the debt-burdened company, which resulted in a distressed sale to a Hong Kong rival.

All around Asia, leveraged finance professionals like Mr. King are reinventing themselves as restructuring specialists, a survival strategy amid layoffs and a slowed pipeline of splashy public offerings, mergers and acquisitions. Investment banks and law firms here also are rushing to put together teams for dealing with what bankers are predicting will be a wave of business in the region in the second half of this year.

“Whenever there’s a downturn, transaction lawyers become restructuring lawyers,” says Mr. King, a lawyer at U.S. firm Paul Hastings’s Hong Kong office.

In the U.S. and Europe, bankruptcy and restructuring specialists tend to focus on those situations for entire careers. But in Asia and some other emerging markets, it isn’t unusual for bankers and lawyers such as Mr. King to wind up unraveling deals they put together, or restructuring debt they previously helped arrange.

‘Negotiated Workout’

Workouts in some important Asian jurisdictions, such as Hong Kong and Singapore, often take place with little direction from the courts, giving finance professionals greater latitude in finding solutions, often behind closed doors.

“In Asia, it’s is much more a negotiated workout,” Mr. King says. In mainland China, where bankruptcy laws were passed only a couple of years ago, a lack of precedent makes the private discussions between creditors and corporations even more crucial.

Sometimes, the bankers who worked on deals previously find the investors they dealt with then aren’t too happy to see them in their new roles.

In February, a closely held Chinese aluminum manufacturer, Asia Aluminum Holdings Ltd., tried to coerce owners of its offshore debt into selling it back to the company at huge discounts. Its offer of as little as 13.5 cents on the dollar spurred an outcry from debt holders. Their resentment spilled over toward the company’s adviser, Sheldon Trainor, a former banker at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley who helped Asia Aluminum issue its debt while at his previous employers. Mr. Trainor declined to comment.

A Growth Business

The restructuring business here is expected to continue growing as sharp declines in exports and industrial production hurt corporate earnings, making it difficult for Asian manufacturers to maintain their debt levels.

Merrill Lynch, a unit of Bank of America Corp., has just replicated in Asia a restructuring team that it already has in place in London and New York. The team — headed by Andrew Cooper, who formerly ran the equity-linked derivatives division — has plucked internally bankers from a variety of areas, such as mergers and acquisitions, leveraged finance and debt capital markets.

One recent addition came from Merrill’s technology-banking group. Credit woes of Taiwan chip maker ProMOS Technologies Inc., bailed out by the Taiwanese government, have alerted investment bankers to more widespread problems simmering in the sector.

Many of the team members at Merrill have worked in Asia long enough to have had experience during this region’s 1997-1998 financial crisis. “People in our group tend to have gray hair,” says William Clay, a Merrill restructuring banker who several years ago worked on a restructuring of Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor Inc. while at Bank of America.

Deutsche Bank also has carved out a “task force” to tackle restructuring work in Asia. British law firm Herbert Smith LLP just launched a restructuring practice, hiring a partner from law firm Appleby. “Everyone is looking at how they are staffed up to meet what people hope will be a wave of restructuring work,” says Trevor Clark, partner at the U.K.’s Linklaters LLP in Hong Kong.

To lock in assignments, bankers say they are busy talking with companies about existing debt loads and whether they will need to tap the markets later this year. Some companies are already trying to head off problems by raising money through rights offerings, which allow current shareholders to purchase additional stock, often at a discount to the market price.

This year, the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, has seen a greater number of rights issues than any other geographic market globally, according to Thomson Reuters, although those transactions tend to be smaller than in the West. Asia has raised $11.4 billion in rights offerings, placing it by value behind Europe, which raised $21.4 billion so far in 2009.

Buying Back Debt

Debt buybacks also are occurring more frequently in Asia, as companies seek to take advantage of depressed bond prices to repay their debt more cheaply.

One example is Chinese packaging-products company Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Ltd., whose chairwoman, Zhang Yin, was once ranked by Forbes as the wealthiest person in China but whose net worth has since fallen sharply along with her company’s stock price. Nine Dragons recently bought back 58% of its debt outstanding from bondholders, who accepted a 47% discount to par.

Companies also are expressing interest in doing bond exchanges, which might extend the maturity date, giving a borrower more time to repay the principal on a bond. For convertible bonds, an exchange might seek to lower the strike price at which the bonds convert to shares, allowing the company to reduce overall debt.

Write to Laura Santini at laura.santini@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page C3

By JUSTIN LAHART

Getty Images

Veterans and family members wait on line to attend a job fair Nov. 23, 2009, in New York City.

Even when the U.S. labor market finally starts adding more workers than it loses, many of the unemployed will find that the types of jobs they once had simply don’t exist anymore.

The downturn that started in December 2007 delivered a body blow to U.S. workers. In two years, the economy shed 7.2 million jobs, pushing the jobless rate from 5% to 10%, according to the Labor Department. The severity of the recession is reshaping the labor market. Some lost jobs will come back. But some are gone forever, going the way of typewriter repairmen and streetcar operators.

Many of the jobs created by the booms in the housing and credit markets, for example, have likely been permanently erased by the subsequent bust.

“The tremendous amount of economic activity associated with housing, I can’t see that coming back,” says Harvard University economist Lawrence Katz. “That was a very unhealthy part of the economy.”

Reshaping the Job Market

Read more profiles of workers in different industries.

Tim Winter

Tim Winters, Aspen, Colo. Age 39

Hotel Director Forced to Give Up Own Home

After getting laid off in March from his job as operations director at a small hotel, Tim Winters could no longer afford his $1,200 a month apartment. He has been living at family members’ homes, an ironic twist for someone who often used to stay for free at hotels when he traveled. “It takes a lot of understanding and time to get used to living with other people again,” says Mr. Winters, who started his career in hospitality in 1996. Mr. Winters says he has applied for approximately 170 hotel-management positions and has had 14 interviews, but no job offers yet.

Daryl Jones

Daryl Jones, Tulsa, Okla. Age 45

Economy Chips Away at Cabinet Maker’s Business

Daryl Jones misses the smiles that would appear on clients’ faces after receiving the one-of-a-kind cabinets, bedroom sets and other wood furniture he built by hand while running his home-based business. But sales plummeted in recent years, prompting the third-generation craftsman to take a job building cabinets for corporate jets to make ends meet. Still, Mr. Jones is optimistic that one day he will return to his custom woodworking full time. “Once the economy bounces back and people feel comfortable again spending money, then things will start picking back up.”

Jeff Walker

Jeff Walker Brighton, Mich. Age 53

Auto Industry Executive Goes Back to School

Jeff Walker, a former auto industry executive, doesn’t mind being among the oldest students at Eastern Michigan University. “I’m happier than just being unemployed and looking for a job,” he says. In April, Mr. Walker lost his job as a vice president of operations at a small auto equipment supplier in Brighton, Mich., where he had worked for 22 years. Mr. Walker is studying technology management in pursuit of the college degree he started but never finished after high school. Now, he says, he just wants to “get out of manufacturing.”

Duane Dittbrenner

Duane Dittbrenner, Cleburne, Texas Age 50

Veteran Trucker Worries About Paying the Bills

Duane Dittbrenner was laid off last month from his job at Arrow Trucking Co. He has been struggling to find another trucking job in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. “Where I live, most of it is hazmat and tankers,” says Mr. Dittbrenner, who has hauled big rigs for the past 20 years throughout the U.S. Mr. Dittbrenner says he is worried he won’t be able to pay next month’s bills if a new job doesn’t come along. “It’s just getting out there and pounding the pavement,” he says. “I’ll have one soon. All you can do is be optimistic.”

Michael Benabib

Debra Allicock, Brooklyn, N.Y. Age 42

Growing Demand, but Low Pay, for Home Health

Debra Allicock migrated to New York from Guyana in 2000 and took a job as a home-health aide, helping the elderly with errands, meals and light housekeeping. She says the relationships she gains are what motivates her to work 12-hour days despite low pay and no medical insurance. “You get to get very close and attached with them,” she says of her clients. Ms. Allicock says her services are in high demand. “Why go to a nursing home when you can stay in your home surrounded by everything you love?” she says. “Maybe one day someone is going to return that favor for me.”

Richard Hawthorne

Richard Hawthorne, Laguna Beach, Calif. Age 58

Real Estate Executive Tries a New Path

Richard Hawthorne has been out of work since June 2007, when he was laid off from a small commercial real estate investment firm where he was director of development. “In past downturns I’ve done well, but this downturn has me stumped,” he says. Mr. Hawthorne enjoyed his more than 30 years in commercial real estate. “There was something new and totally unpredictable each and every day to solve,” he says. But now, tired of being told he is overqualified for jobs in his field, he is launching a business advising financial institutions on how to eliminate investment property debt.

– Interviews by Sarah E. Needleman

Unhealthy but a boon for men without a college education. One in three jobs, or six million total, have been lost in the manufacturing sector since 1997, the last year the sector posted job gains. The upsurge in construction jobs accompanying the housing boom provided these workers in manufacturing with an opportunity to earn decent wages.

Now that door, too, has shut. With 1.6 million jobs lost over the last two years, the construction sector has accounted for more than a fifth of the jobs lost since the recession began.

For more highly educated workers, finance may no longer offer as many high-paying jobs as it has in the past. Thomas Philippon, an economist at New York University’s Stern School of Business, estimates that the financial sector’s share of the economy was nearly 20% larger than it should have been. Since the start of the recession, the financial sector has lost 548,000 jobs, or 6.6% of its work force. Mr. Philippon’s estimate suggests there will be further pressure on financial jobs.

In other areas of the labor market, the recession accelerated job losses that were probably coming anyway. In November, there were 36% fewer people working in record shops than two years earlier, according to the Labor Department. There were 23% fewer people working at directory and mailing list publishers, and 46% fewer at photofinishing establishments. Those are jobs that, with the advent of mp3 recordings, Google and digital photography, were likely disappearing anyway.

But as the recession hurt already ailing businesses, workers were forced into a sudden adjustment rather than the gradual one they would have otherwise faced. The recession also provided companies with an opportunity to cut jobs no longer as critical as they once were. That may be particularly true of the secretaries and mailroom clerks that advances in information technology have made less necessary. The ranks of people doing office and administrative work have fallen 10.1% since the recession began.

“Those are the production jobs of the information age, and they’re being to a substantial extent automated,” says Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist David Autor.

The permanent loss of many jobs may keep the labor market from fully recovering for a long time to come.

Prior to the 1990s, jobs rebounded quickly once recessions ended. Payrolls fell by nearly three million in the deep downturn that extended from July 1981 to November 1982. But by the start of 1983, the economy was creating jobs again, and by the end of 1983, the U.S. job count had exceeded its old peak.

That was because more of the job losses were essentially temporary, with manufacturers and the like letting workers go with the implicit expectation that they would be hiring them back once the worst was over.

But since the early 1990s, jobs have been slower to recover from recession. After the 2001 downturn ended, job losses continued for nearly two years. It wasn’t until 2005 that the job count returned to its prerecession high.

Productivity-enhancing technology and competition from low-wage countries like China made more job losses permanent. And it took time for new jobs to be created and for workers to acquire the skills needed to do them. In the wake of a far deeper recession, creating new jobs and retraining workers to do them could take even longer.

It is anyone’s guess what those jobs will be. The Labor Department has done little more than extrapolate from recent trends. It expects growth in areas like health care, which has been one of the few bright spots. Given the exigencies of an aging population, that seems a fair bet.

One could also make the case that the U.S. is shifting from a consumer nation to a nation of producers, and that will lead to a resurgence in technology and high-tech manufacturing jobs.

But Harvard’s Mr. Katz warns that past experience suggests such conjecture is likely fruitless. “One thing we’ve learned is that when we attempt to forecast jobs 10 or 15 years out, we don’t even get the categories right,” he says.

Write to Justin Lahart at justin.lahart@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A15

By JEFFREY ZASLOW

Ten, nine, eight, seven …

This New Year’s Eve, Dick Clark will again be on TV, counting down the seconds to midnight. But in his slurred speech, the result of a 2004 stroke, some of us can’t help but hear the countdowns in our own lives—to the end of our careers, to the difficulties of old age, to the decisions we must make about closing chapters that defined us.

Mr. Clark turned 80 this past Monday, and a lot of people consider him a hero for remaining on the job. They see him as a role model for resiliency, and a vital steward of New Year’s Eve, a holiday designed to look back as well as forward. They ask: Why surrender Dec. 31 to the young?

Others argue that Mr. Clark has become an inappropriate symbol for what should be a happy celebration, because he reminds viewers of sadder things: the ravages of illness and the hazards of aging. He had his time, they say. He ought to let go of the baton and allow a younger generation to run with it alone.

We heard similar drumbeats around 80-year-old Bobby Bowden, the legendary Florida State football coach. In the wake of the team’s lackluster record this year and calls for his resignation, he announced his retirement on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Oprah Winfrey has confirmed that she will end her talk show in 2011, after she completes 25 seasons. “This show has been my life,” she said, “and I love it enough to know when it’s time to say goodbye.”

These public figures remind us of the hard decisions that often accompany letting go. It is an inexact process. It can be a mistake to leave a job too early, and it can be easy to stay too long.

“A lot of people retire because they have enough money. I call them ‘the bored affluent,’ ” says John Sondereker, who retired in 2003, at age 60, as an executive vice president at Wells Fargo Financial. “Golf will never replace a good career.”

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Dick Clark, on ‘American Bandstand’ in 1970: He’s still in the spotlight.

But staying too long in a job can be worse. I’ve heard from readers over the years offering sharp advice about clinging to a fading career. Here’s how one summed it up: “When the horse dies, dismount.”

When people can’t bring themselves to retire, it is often because they look for evidence that confirms their urge to hold on, says Richard Staelin, a professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, who studies “confirmation bias.” Those who hang on too long tend to ignore things that would tell them it’s time to leave, he says.

Since his stroke, Mr. Clark’s show has continued to be television’s top-rated New Year’s Eve program. It’s not as if he’s a football coach whose team has stopped winning, says Larry Klein, the show’s longtime producer. “We don’t have losing seasons. We win every single year.”

Also, feedback from viewers has been far more positive than negative, says Mr. Klein. “They say Dick shows strength and courage. He created the show. He’s an American institution. He deserves to decide on his own when and if he’ll leave.” (Mr. Clark, who launched his New Year’s Eve show in 1972, declined to comment for this column.)

Dr. Staelin wonders if Mr. Clark and his team are subconsciously focusing only on the positives—the high ratings, the complimentary fan mail. They may not be giving equal weight to other questions: Are Mr. Clark’s limitations compromising a show that might be stronger without him? How will these post-stroke years change the public’s perception of him? Will he be remembered for the telegenic charm of his prime, or for being an entertainer who held on too long?

It’s hard to view ourselves with clear eyes, says Dr. Staelin. He uses himself as an example. He is 70 and believes his teaching skills are undiminished. “But I may also have confirmation bias,” he says.

Leaving and Grieving

Jack Rigby, a 58-year-old dentist in Hudson, Ohio, has gone through all the stages of leaving and grieving for a job. In 2005, suffering from liver disease that left him fatigued and in pain, he made a hard choice. He wrote to 1,200 patients saying that “with great sadness,” he was giving up his practice. A younger dentist would take over.

More than 250 patients wrote back, and their loving and supportive letters sustained Dr. Rigby through his 2007 liver transplant. Reading the letters became a retirement ritual for him. On mornings when he yearned to go to work, he’d sometimes get up early and sit at home, paging through the letters. “I had them stacked up, and when I was feeling badly, it helped to read them,” he says.

Over time, he realized that pining for his job wasn’t going to help him move forward. And so, this past August, he decided to get rid of the letters.

He could have just thrown them away, but he wanted to do something more meaningful. He took out his paper shredder, and read each letter one last time before feeding it into the machine. “I was pretty emotional,” he says. “But I’m glad I did it. You can’t walk two trails. I can’t go back to being a dentist. I now look at those letters as a lifeboat which supported my passage to this new place and time.”

The medicine Dr. Rigby takes leaves his hands trembling, so he knows he will never return to administering anesthetic and drilling teeth. But he’s grateful that in retirement he has been able to re-embrace his love of photography. Because he uses a tripod with his camera, his tremors don’t matter.

Dr. Rigby says he hears from former patients who are happy with the young dentist who took over his practice. And though it saddens him that he will never get to work with his son, who will soon graduate from dental school, he is buoyed to know that newer generations are carrying on the work he loved. Likewise, Mr. Sondereker, the retiree from Wells Fargo, says he feels a sense of accomplishment in retirement, knowing he trained and mentored dozens of people who are still there.

Measuring Success

Ann Fishman, a consultant who specializes in marketing to different generations, says those contemplating retirement should measure success by how well they perform as mentors. In that regard, she thinks Dick Clark is doing OK.

Since Dec. 31, 2005, Mr. Clark has shared New Year’s Eve hosting duties with Ryan Seacrest of “American Idol,” who is 34.

“We need to honor our aging and we need to honor our young,” Ms. Fishman says. “America was built on the cooperation of generations working together. When Clark and Seacrest are together, it shows us that we don’t have to be afraid of aging, and we don’t have to promote youth to the exclusion of old age.”

Mr. Clark knows he won’t be the New Year’s Eve host forever. Like bandleader Guy Lombardo, his tenure will end. For now, perhaps, we should pay attention to his exchanges with Mr. Seacrest, and to the high-spirited ways he introduces acts 50 years younger than he is. In today’s splintered media world, there aren’t many places anymore where several generations share the same stage.

Until Mr. Clark decides to retire, this image of him passing the baton, however slowly, may serve all of us well, as we consider our own paths and the emotional countdowns to come.

Write to Jeffrey Zaslow at jeffrey.zaslow@wsj.com

By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN

Angela Winfield began losing her sight around age 4 and was completely blind by her sophomore year at Barnard College. But she went on to graduate from there and completed her JD at Cornell Law School prior to passing the New York state bar exam. Today she’s an associate at Hiscock & Barclay, a 210-attorney firm, specializing in commercial litigation, torts and product-liability defense. Wall Street Journal reporter Sarah E. Needleman spoke with Ms. Winfield about her career path. Edited excerpts follow.

Courtesy Hiscock & Barclay

Full name: Angela Winfield
Hometown: Newburgh, N.Y.
Current position: Associate, Hiscock & Barclay
First job: Office assistant, summer youth employment program, Newburgh Free Academy
Favorite job: Current one
Education: B.A. in political science and human rights from Columbia University’s Barnard College; J.D. from Cornell Law School
Years in the industry: 2.5
Age: 25
How I got to here in 10 words or less: Hard work, determination and fearlessness.

What inspired you to go into law?

When I was growing up and could still see, I used to watch “The Cosby Show.” Claire Huxtable was one of the few African American women on TV. She was an attorney and I wanted to be like her.

You joined Hiscock & Barclay in Syracuse, N.Y., right out of law school. How did being blind impact your job search?

My approach was to not mention it and to demonstrate that I could do the job. I attended school-sponsored job fairs and interviewed with a number of firms.

I remember one interviewer who just couldn’t figure out how he would be able to do his job if he couldn’t see. Because he thought he wouldn’t be able to do it, he just didn’t see how I could. My response to him was that he knows himself better than I do and perhaps he would be helpless if he were blind. But knowing myself better than he did, I was certain that I could not only do what was necessary to practice law, but excel at it. The interviewer was a little flustered for a moment and then awkwardly asked me a few more questions and wrapped up the interview. I don’t remember if the firm extended an offer, but if they did, I certainly rejected it.

The only offer I accepted was Hiscock & Barclay’s and one of the many reasons why was because of the ease and comfort in which the interviewing attorneys interacted with me. I know I am not the traditional applicant and I wanted to affiliate myself with a firm that relishes those sorts of opportunities.

What does your job entail?

I do mostly trial-preparation work, which involves lots of research. I use commercial legal databases such as Lexis-Nexis and WestLaw, as well as public sources. I also prepare motions and depositions and work alongside partners on issues that come up with clients. Ideally, I’d like to spend as much time as possible in the courtroom, but the vast majority of cases settle before trial.

How do you do research and other tasks without being able to see?

I have a software program called JAWS, short for “job access with speech.” It reads everything on my computer screen to me. But because of security issues, you can’t use your own software to take standardized tests. When I took the LSAT and the bar, I had to have a live reader and was in a separate room so that I didn’t disturb the other test-takers. I would either type my answer using JAWS with security software or dictate my answer.

When I joined the firm, one of the things I did was work with a mobility instructor, who’s trained in helping blind people get around. We walked through the office to get familiar with where my desk would be and places I would need to go.

I also have a seeing-guide dog named Ogden. He’s a Labrador and Golden Retriever crossbreed. He’s a got a bed by my desk.

What’s your schedule like?

I’m usually in the office from around 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. But between bringing work home, serving on the boards of two not-for-profits, doing community work and starting my motivational speaking business, Blind Faith Enterprises LLC, I put in about 70 hours a week.

Are clients ever surprised to learn about your disability?

No, but there are times when the opposing counsel or judge will think I’m the client. Once I did pro-bono work for a client who was also blind. She said she felt very fortunate to have someone who understood her situation.

Have any advice for blind professionals looking to follow in your footsteps?

First and foremost, you need to learn to live and travel independently. You don’t need to be ambivalent and never take help, but you need to be absolutely confident that you can do things on your own. You also need to learn when and how to ask for help. After that, figure out what it is that you not only enjoy doing, but are good at. Then take every opportunity you can to develop the skills necessary to do what ever that is. And when I say every opportunity, I mean every opportunity, even ones that seem scary. Research, plan, prepare, practice and then face your fears and do it repeatedly until you’re not afraid.

What’s next for your career?

I have my eye on partnership. I probably won’t take the traditional route there or be your traditional partner, but I hope to carve out a suitable place for myself in the partnership ranks. I plan to practice law indefinitely even while I pursue motivational speaking. One of the keystones to that is talking about how I have — and continue — to overcome obstacles every day. In other words, I’m not just talking; I’m walking the walk, as well.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com

Amid the economy’s many ailments, some good news has remained mostly off the radar: The at-home work force is growing, and it is encompassing new occupations ranging from radiology and nursing to auditing and teaching.

The bad news: Fierce competition means your odds of landing one of these jobs are poor. And if you succeed, you will probably take a pay cut.

For companies, home-based employees, independent contractors and freelancers are helping cut costs and improve customer service. Full-time, home-based freelancers and independent contractors in the U.S. are expected to increase by 200,000 workers to 11 million by the end of 2009, says Ray Boggs, a vice president of IDC, Framingham, Mass., a market-research firm; he sees another 200,000-worker increase in 2010.

While that is a mere blip on the radar in an economy that has been losing nearly that many jobs in a month, the trend means a lot to the individuals who are benefiting from it. They are avoiding dreaded commutes, doing volunteer work, pursuing college degrees or caring for family. And they are performing increasingly complex tasks from home, from reading MRIs to helping clients search for Bigfoot, the mythic wilderness monster.

“We are seeing a general broadening of the work-at-home landscape,” says Christine Durst, chief executive of a work-at-home Web site and co-author of a new guidebook on the topic.

Applicants are stacking up by the hundreds of thousands, however. Based on my survey of a dozen companies that use home workers, your odds of actually landing one of these positions range from about 25-to-1 to 300-to-1.

ARO Contact Center, Kansas City, Mo., which employs just 200 home auditors and sales and customer-service workers, gets 1,000 resumes a week, says Michael Amigoni, chief operating officer. West Corp., Omaha, with 14,000 active agents handling customer-service and other calls, hires only 0.5% to 1% of its 4,500 weekly applicants. And Alpine Access, Denver, with 2,800 home customer-service, sales and tech-support agents, hires about only 2% of the 100,000 people who apply each year.

“It takes a lot of luck to get these positions,” says Tammie Deweever, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a home customer-service agent for LiveOps, Santa Clara, Calif. “You have to be good at what you do.” Ms. Deweever has a college degree in marketing and worked as a mortgage broker before joining LiveOps last January. For her, job flexibility means being able to be home for her children, 17, 15 and 8; she often works split shifts around their needs, answering calls from TV viewers wanting to buy products from juicers to jeans.

Many skilled at-home professionals and managers earn less than a corporate salary. Less-skilled customer-service or sales work usually pays about $8 to $15 an hour, ranging as high as $25 or more with incentives or premiums. Some companies pay by the minute or hour spent on the phone, while others pay by the shift. The jobs vary by company from full-time employee positions with benefits to part-time independent contractor positions.

And applicants must be wary of scam artists. Ms. Durst, Woodstock, Conn., who screens work-at-home pitches for her Web site, RatRaceRebellion.com, says she is finding only one legitimate job among every 60 pitches she examines. In 2006, the odds weren’t quite as bad: She was finding one legitimate job for every 31 pitches vetted.

Many victims of work-at-home fraud have sent money, only to receive worthless products or leads, or nothing at all, in return; others who disclose too much personal information have fallen victim to theft from credit-card or checking accounts.

But those who win the work-at-home lottery reap diverse benefits. Intent on avoiding a long commute, Heather Hedden, a Raleigh, N.C., marketing specialist, spent a year looking for her current spot, as a home-based concierge for VIPdesk, Alexandria, Va. The position was worth the wait, she says. She enjoys using her research skills to help clients find theater or sports tickets, vintage wines or travel services. When a client asked for help looking for Bigfoot, she found an outfitter with a track record of taking like-minded customers on hikes through areas of reported sightings, she says.

After 19 years in private practice, radiologist Steven Brick, Potomac, Md., began working from home for Virtual Radiologic, Eden Prairie, Minn. The setup confers both the freedom to focus on his work, without distractions, and the flexibility to serve as a volunteer at the National Zoo answering visitors’ questions, he says. Virtual Radiologic’s radiologists, who work as independent contractors reading X-rays and other images for hospitals and other medical clients, have increased to 140 from 34 in 2004, a spokeswoman says.

Home-based work enables newlywed Stacey Anderson, 30, Ballston Spa, N.Y., to tackle numerous roles. Since landing a customer-service post last summer as a contractor for VIPdesk, Ms. Anderson has been able to bend her work hours around her husband’s rotating shifts on his job. In addition, she squeezes in a full-time course load as a college student.

Such intangible incentives are drawing skilled, experienced people. Mark Frei, a senior vice president of West, says 80% of West’s home agents have some college education, compared with 30% of those who work in office-based call centers.

Vanessa Torres, 35, San Antonio, Texas, had a bachelor’s degree in business and 16 years’ management experience before signing on last January as a home agent for West. She likes controlling her hours, and works only when her two young children are in school, she says.

Expansion of home-based work is likely to continue. Among the 12 companies I contacted, all were planning to recruit more home workers. Lionbridge Technologies, Waltham, Mass., a provider of multilingual services including translation and product testing, is taking on new freelancers to assess “search relevance”—that is, to ensure Internet searches yield items suitable to particular locales, a spokeswoman says.

Alpine Access, Denver, is recruiting 500 more home agents and expects to add 2,000 in 2010, says Chief Executive Christopher Carrington. LiveOps, with 20,000 home agents for retailing, insurance and other companies, added about 4,000 agents in the past two months. Arise Virtual Solutions, Miramar, Fla., with a home-agent pool of 9,800, is seeking 3,000 agents for the peak holiday and cruise seasons, a spokeswoman says. Michael DeSalles, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan, a research and consulting firm, sees home agents growing by at least 30% a year.

Sites which link clients with skilled freelancers also are seeing a surge in demand for virtual workers with a widening range of professional and technical skills; oDesk.com‘s monthly postings, including graphic design, software, administrative and other projects, rose to 28,000 in the past 30 days, three times year-earlier levels. Monthly hiring on Elance.com is up more than 40% from a year ago.

As more companies allow people to work from anywhere via the Internet, says a spokeswoman for Lionbridge, “we are convinced that this is the new model of work.”

—E-mail sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com.