Question

Brad's Dilemma: Finding a New Job Brad Thomas, a 53-year-old retail store manager earning $75,000 a year, has worked for the same company during his entire 28-year career. Brad was recently laid off and is still unemployed 10 months later, and his severance pay and 6 months' unemployment compensation have run out. Because he has consistently observed careful financial planning practices, he now has sufficient savings and investments to carry him through several more months of unemployment. Brad is actively seeking work but finds that he is overqualified for available lower-paying jobs and under-qualified for higher-paying, more desirable positions. There are no openings for positions equivalent to the manager's job he lost. He lost his wife several years earlier and is close to his two grown children, who live in the same city.

Brad has these options:

Wait out the recession until another retail store manager position opens up.

Move to another area of the country where store manager positions are more plentiful.

Accept a lower-paying job for two or three years and then go back to school evenings to finish his college degree and qualify for a better position.

Consider other types of jobs that could benefit from his managerial skills.

1) What important career factors should Brad consider when evaluating his options?

2) What important personal factors should Brad consider when deciding among his career options?

3) What recommendations would you give Brad in light of both the career and personal dimensions of his options noted in Questions 1 and 2?

4)What career strategies should today's workers employ in order to avoid Brad's dilemma?

Answer 1

1. Important career factors are:

a. What is the expected period of recession that would continue. By when is he expected the economy to pick up.

b. The cost of going to evening college and the prospects of getting a job and benefitting after the. A cost-benefit analysis

c. Cost of living in other parts of the country where he proposes to live if he moves out.

2. Important personal factors are:

a. His age 53, What is his estimated life expectancy.

b. His family needs, would his children be able to take care of him in his old age

c. His ability to change to something new given 28-years of doing the same job

3. Suggestion would I would suggest him to look for a similar join elsewhere because considering his age and 28 year career, he would face difficulties in doing a new job in different field. Ideally I would look to relocate to an area with lower living costs.

4. The career options are:

a. To continuously equip themselves with knowledge and skills required for today's workforce. For example: learning online data management.

b. Not to be doing the same job for a very long period with no growth in career.