Looking for Work While Working
Title
Looking for Work While Working
Creator
Jacob Schlitt
Description
"Reading my last resume, it gives the impression of a smooth flow of employment..."
Date
2009
Format
application/pdf
Type
text
Language
en
Coverage
1965/1969
Identifier
Looking_for_Work_While_Wo
Text
Looking for Work While Working
Reading my last resume, it gives the impression of a smooth flow of employment: from the ILGWU, to the JLC, to AFSCME, to USCCR, to Mass. DET, and finally to the Mass. AG’s FLD, and, not mentioned in the resume, retirement. For one thing, it wasn’t so smooth. Getting those jobs was not easy. I have written about how being at the right place at the right time, and knowing the right people, and saying the right words, and being persistent, were major factors in landing each job. Having the right education and work experience were also helpful.
I have mentioned that I have two file cabinets filled with folders containing, among other things, the history of all my jobs: applications, interview summaries, work product, correspondence, news clippings, pay stubs, etc. Browsing through those files, I also found folders containing material about jobs that I applied for and didn’t get, applications for jobs that I had totally forgotten about.
In 1969, I had been at the US Commission on Civil Rights for four years. I started as a field representative (Community Services Specialist) in the Commission’s Field Services Division (FSD), in 1965, and moved up to Director of Technical Assistance (Supervisory Civil Rights Program Specialist) in 1966. I liked my job and I liked the people with whom I worked. But, as I wrote in a letter in February 1969, to someone I vaguely knew, who was working in Geneva, “I have been getting restless…and for some years now, I have wanted to get to Europe.” I asked her about working for the ILO (International Labor Office). I don’t believe I received an answer. But I kept thinking about the possibility.
It seems that as much as I liked my job with the Commission, the thought of working in Europe in a position dealing with international labor was very exciting. And I had “connections.” A letter dated December 13, 1968, from Ken Douty, European Area Specialist in the Bureau of International Labor Affairs of the Department of Labor discussed Labor Attaché positions and other overseas jobs. His letter ended: “It was good having a chance to talk with you at the Glazers’.” So, it was a chance meeting at Joe Glazer’s house that led me to Ken Douty. Joe, Labor’s Troubadour, had been a Labor Attache in Mexico, after he was Education Director for the Textile Workers Union. I had another connection. Kalmen Kaplansky, who had been the Director of the JLC in Canada, was now the Director of the Canada Branch Office of the ILO. I wrote to him on March 6, and received an answer dated 12 March suggesting that I have my application processed in Washington, and he would give me a reference “…should I be asked to do so.”
The next document in the file is a completed International Labour Office Application for Employment dated 12 March 1969. Item number 17 asks “For what work do you wish to be considered?” I was surprised to read my answer: “Research Manager, Research and Planning Department, Automation Unit. Would also consider assignment in race relations or labor education.” Apparently I had heard that there was a job vacancy as a Research Manager and decided to go for it.
Another letter, dated March 13, 1969, was a form letter from James Taylor, Director of the Labor Department’s Office of Program Development and Coordination, informing me that they have submitted my application to the ILO. And a 17, March letter from David Blanchard, Deputy Director of the Washington Branch of the ILO thanked me for my application which they forwarded to the Geneva Headquarters.
I must have been very busy in March. Here is a copy of a letter from George L-P Weaver, Assistant Secretary, International Affairs, Department of Labor, to my friend Walter Davis, AFL-CIO Education Director, Thanking him for his letter about my candidacy, and informing him that “I have written to the Geneva office in his behalf.”
Reading my last resume, it gives the impression of a smooth flow of employment: from the ILGWU, to the JLC, to AFSCME, to USCCR, to Mass. DET, and finally to the Mass. AG’s FLD, and, not mentioned in the resume, retirement. For one thing, it wasn’t so smooth. Getting those jobs was not easy. I have written about how being at the right place at the right time, and knowing the right people, and saying the right words, and being persistent, were major factors in landing each job. Having the right education and work experience were also helpful.
I have mentioned that I have two file cabinets filled with folders containing, among other things, the history of all my jobs: applications, interview summaries, work product, correspondence, news clippings, pay stubs, etc. Browsing through those files, I also found folders containing material about jobs that I applied for and didn’t get, applications for jobs that I had totally forgotten about.
In 1969, I had been at the US Commission on Civil Rights for four years. I started as a field representative (Community Services Specialist) in the Commission’s Field Services Division (FSD), in 1965, and moved up to Director of Technical Assistance (Supervisory Civil Rights Program Specialist) in 1966. I liked my job and I liked the people with whom I worked. But, as I wrote in a letter in February 1969, to someone I vaguely knew, who was working in Geneva, “I have been getting restless…and for some years now, I have wanted to get to Europe.” I asked her about working for the ILO (International Labor Office). I don’t believe I received an answer. But I kept thinking about the possibility.
It seems that as much as I liked my job with the Commission, the thought of working in Europe in a position dealing with international labor was very exciting. And I had “connections.” A letter dated December 13, 1968, from Ken Douty, European Area Specialist in the Bureau of International Labor Affairs of the Department of Labor discussed Labor Attaché positions and other overseas jobs. His letter ended: “It was good having a chance to talk with you at the Glazers’.” So, it was a chance meeting at Joe Glazer’s house that led me to Ken Douty. Joe, Labor’s Troubadour, had been a Labor Attache in Mexico, after he was Education Director for the Textile Workers Union. I had another connection. Kalmen Kaplansky, who had been the Director of the JLC in Canada, was now the Director of the Canada Branch Office of the ILO. I wrote to him on March 6, and received an answer dated 12 March suggesting that I have my application processed in Washington, and he would give me a reference “…should I be asked to do so.”
The next document in the file is a completed International Labour Office Application for Employment dated 12 March 1969. Item number 17 asks “For what work do you wish to be considered?” I was surprised to read my answer: “Research Manager, Research and Planning Department, Automation Unit. Would also consider assignment in race relations or labor education.” Apparently I had heard that there was a job vacancy as a Research Manager and decided to go for it.
Another letter, dated March 13, 1969, was a form letter from James Taylor, Director of the Labor Department’s Office of Program Development and Coordination, informing me that they have submitted my application to the ILO. And a 17, March letter from David Blanchard, Deputy Director of the Washington Branch of the ILO thanked me for my application which they forwarded to the Geneva Headquarters.
I must have been very busy in March. Here is a copy of a letter from George L-P Weaver, Assistant Secretary, International Affairs, Department of Labor, to my friend Walter Davis, AFL-CIO Education Director, Thanking him for his letter about my candidacy, and informing him that “I have written to the Geneva office in his behalf.”
Original Format
application/msword
Collection
Citation
Jacob Schlitt, “Looking for Work While Working,” Autobiographical stories & other writing by Jacob Schlitt, accessed April 19, 2024, https://tsirlson.omeka.net/items/show/98.