Christmas wish come true: a job

“It was the best birthday, ever,” she said.

Anderson was offered a position as human resources director for an Alpharetta billboard advertising company, just in time for the holidays.

“One of the things that I can finally do, monetarily,” she said, “I can give back to society, which I couldn’t do before.”

Anderson used to carry around grocery store gift cards to give to panhandlers. That was before the 48-year-old Buckhead resident lost her job in October 2009. The small Doraville company where she had worked for a year downsized.

From then to Dec. 8, when she was hired, Anderson was among the more than 465,000 Georgians out of work – 10.1 percent of the state’s population.

“I networked, I applied at more than a dozen job sites,” Anderson said.

Nancy Dybowski is another lucky one who found work just in time for Christmas. Her 18-month job search led her to another state. A Cumming resident on and off over the past 13 years, Dybowski, 60, landed a job last week in Memphis.

She accepted a systems analyst position at Sedwick CMS, a health care management company where her husband had previously found work after losing a job in metro Atlanta.

“I consider it a really good Christmas present,” Dybowski said. “I wish everybody could have this kind of Christmas.”

State officials said Dybowski and Anderson may be more fortunate than they know. Fifty-three percent of Georgia’s jobless have been unemployed even longer than they were, for more than two years.

That doesn't mean the hunt is hopeless, though. More than 4,200 people were added to metro Atlanta’s job force last month, according to Georgia Labor Department data.

State Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond suggested those who found jobs, including Anderson and Dybowski, relied on more than the magic of the season.

“I would suspect that they had very strong resumes, emphasized their transferable skills, utilized a network, and maintained a positive attitude despite the current economic situation,” Thurmond said.

“Sometimes, you can just be lucky,” he said. “But more often than not it’s due to hard work and preparation.”

After closing a consulting business she ran with her husband in 2008, Dybowski volunteered with Women’s Christ Centered Career Group, helping women find jobs.

The connections she made eventually helped her.

“The networking absolutely helped,” Dybowski said.

Anderson’s path was a bit rockier.

A week into her new job, she spoke Monday of the emotional highs and lows of a job search that sent her looking as far away as Savannah. During that time she also took on occasional house-painting jobs to supplement her husband’s income from his commission-based job.

“If you’re not in a structured environment and you’re not a structured person, you could just sit all day at home and wait for the phone to ring,” Anderson said.

When she was making calls, sending out resumes or searching for job leads, she said she was up.

“Those were exciting weeks, where there was anticipation and cautious optimism that something was going to work,” Anderson said. “Or I would paint a house, so there was structure.

"But when that was over, there was no structure and nothing looming out there in the future, except to make dinner. After awhile, it becomes a part of your life.”

Jay Litton leads a volunteer career network at Roswell United Methodist Church. He listed a half dozen people, including Dybowski, who emerged from unemployment in the past few weeks.

“People actually are getting jobs for Christmas,” Litton said. “And these aren’t jobs that they’re overqualified for. These are actually good jobs.”

Dybowski, a long-time businesswoman, said she’s making enough to be “very comfortable.”

Anderson was featured in a story about jobless benefits in the Nov. 20 edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Two days after the story appeared, the chief operating officer of Olympus Media contacted Anderson through the newspaper and asked her to come in for an interview.

“It’s as if it was meant to be,” Anderson said Monday, speaking from her desk.

Before she got her new job, Anderson had canceled any plans to exchange Christmas gifts with her loved ones.

“It’s hard to receive Christmas gifts when you can’t give them back,” she said. “You don’t give so that you feel good. But it does feel good … especially when you weren’t able to in the past.”