Three months after the Mitsubishi automotive plant in Normal closed, many workers are still struggling to find fulltime employment. WGLT has been checking in periodically with some of the those workers, like former car assembler Mick Hannah. Hannah has now found part-time work with a private Internet firm that monitors student content on school computers. But that job will end when the school year is over.
Hannah worked at Mitsubishi for 26 years. He quickly found that looking for a job these days is quite different from when he last searched for work. He took advantage of some of the free services offered to the laid-off workers, including classes in how to write resumes and cover letters. A high school graduate, Hannah also took an aptitude test which showed he has the ability to work toward a college degree, but says decided against enrolling in a community college at this time in order to work and spend his free time looking for fulltime employment.
He is using a modest severance package from Mitsubishi and the income from his part-time internet job to help pay his mortgage, his and his wife's living expenses, and to assist a daughter who is completing her professional studies. If he does not find fulltime employment soon, Hannah says he will have to begin dipping into the family's savings.
Hannah has found networking through friends a better source of job leads than many of the on line employment resources or newspaper ads, which, he says, advertise mainly low wage, low skill jobs. He checks the websites of large local employers, such as State Farm and Illinois State University, everyday for leads.
The qualifications employers often list have also proved somewhat surprising, he says. "If I had a license to drive a truck, if I were willing to move 800 miles away or if I had at least a bachelor's degree I could get a job, although that last one is not guaranteed, even,"he says. "These are jobs that are office help, not high end jobs, which is surprising." Among his qualifications, Hannah lists in his cover letters, good communication and cooperation skills, experience working in manufacturing and his aptitude for learning new skills.
In this Sound Ideas interview, Hannah also talks about what his "dream job" would be and what is sustaining him emotionally these days.