Losing a job, but finding a calling

January 23, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Janet Studenski had made a bed countless times in her 53 years, but she hesitated in front of her classmates.

This time a student pretending to be a patient was under the covers. The state nursing aide exam was three weeks away, and changing the sheets on an occupied bed was one of 24 skills Studenski needed to master.

At stake were the certification and, with it, a shot at a job.

After more than a year without one, it meant too much to fail.

Since she lost her job as a legal secretary in July 2009, Studenski had been living a life common among the swollen ranks of the unemployed. Every day, uncertainty dragged her down, and hope drove her forward. She felt too old to change careers, but here she was, reinventing herself in a field that promised new challenges and, she hoped, better job prospects.

The recession battered much of the country, casting legions out of work as companies scrambled to cut costs. Now, 11/2 years after it officially ended, the national jobless rate has fallen to 9.4 percent. But the economy added just 103,000 jobs, fewer than economists expected.

More troubling still: The number of people out of work a year or longer has grown dramatically, surging to 30 percent of U.S. job seekers last month.

Older job-seekers are among the most frightened. Often, they feel disadvantaged when pitted against younger candidates. Some give in to early retirement. Others branch out, seeking jobs in sectors they would not have considered in better times.

Sometimes they succeed in finding work. And occasionally, like Studenski, they find something they never expected: a calling.

On a Friday in late July 2009, around lunchtime, the secretary who worked next to Studenski came over to her after a meeting. She’d just been laid off, she told her. Studenski’s phone rang a moment later.

She met with the firm’s human-resources manager and the attorney in charge of the office. They said they felt awful delivering the news and seemed sincere. They offered her a four-week severance package, and the HR manager even passed along a lead on a new job. Still, it stung. Two decades in the legal industry. Never fired, never even a bad review. And now this.

“At first you’re numb,” she said. “You’re just kind of in shock. It’s so hard to explain.”

As the anniversary of Studenski’s layoff approached, her secretary friend from the old firm mentioned she was going back to school for medical administration. That got Studenski thinking about doing something similar.

The health-care field has been one bright spot in a devastating downturn and is expected to deliver still more jobs in the years to come. Nationally, health care has remained one of the few fields to grow during the recession, adding 36,000 jobs in December — more than a third of the total gains, and second only to the leisure and hospitality sector, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

Browsing job boards, Studenski began to notice numerous openings for certified nursing assistants, who help patients with daily activities from brushing their teeth to bathing to taking walks. It didn’t pay a lot — $9.50 an hour, or less than $20,000 a year, is typical to start — but it was work.

She signed up for a five-week class at the Nurse Aide Institute of Excellence in Charlotte. Her mother fronted the $500 fee.

She hadn’t gone to college and worried the work might be too difficult. Her new career would pay less than she brought home on unemployment. And she knew little about nursing.

On the first day, the students paired up with classmates and introduced each other to the group. As Studenski stood and her partner began talking about her, school co-owner Crystal Parker saw something special.

She caught Studenski — and herself — off guard when she said, “Have you ever thought about working in hospice?”

She had met Studenski once before, and saw her as a humble person with a calm, even voice that puts people at ease.

It was becoming clearer to Studenski, too, that her new endeavor fit. A personality test she took shortly after her layoff advised her to pursue “caregiver” roles; her husband said she’s always the one to step up first to help people.

But before she could start a new job, she had to pass the state exam.

Studenski was confident about the written portion, less so about the five skills — chosen randomly, out of a possible 24 — she’d have to perform for test administrators.

After taking the test in August, the test administrator told her she passed.

There was more good news: A nurse from Hospice & Palliative Care Charlotte Region had called the institute to see if instructors could recommend anyone for a job. They suggested Studenski, and soon after, she submitted her application.

Weeks passed. “And then, out of the blue, they did call me.”

She got the job.

Studenski has thought a lot about her journey, how strange it was that her instructors knew she’d end up in hospice, how lucky she was that it all worked out. She encourages anyone else in her position to take a chance, too.