Striking out on their own

By Elizabeth Razzi Special to The Washington Post

With the national unemployment rate at nearly 9 percent, most employees find they have little choice butto accept more work, stagnant pay and less security.

But some workers are steering their careers in directions they hope will be more promising, more fulfilling and more under their own control.

The money may not be as good as their previous jobs, and the risk of personal failure may be high in some cases, but the prospect of a new career path – sometimes one long desired but ignored – is alluring.

Her own franchise Maxine Gill, 46, of Laurel, Md., took her career in a new direction after she was laid off last year from her job as sales and marketing director for Comcast.

“I enjoyed what I did, but I knew I was not going to retire from that job,” she said. It was the second time she had been laid off.

“Marketing always seems to be first to go,” she said.

Earlier this year, she struck out on her own, investing $50,000 to $60,000 in a franchise, College Nannies & Tutors. Her company hires people (taking care of the tax and paperwork headaches) and places them with families for temporary or long-term duty.

“Everything is on my shoulders, but I enjoy working for me,” Gill said. “If I were still in corporate America, I would have to work extra hard, and I would have to travel. You’ve got to do more now because of the economic recession to keep your job.”

Gill’s layoff aligned with her desire to open her own business.

“The fact that I have an impact on children’s lives is very important to me,” she said. “And the fact that I can employ people in this economy is a plus.”

Government, charity work The government is hiring, and some people are seeking security in the public sector, with applications for government jobs hitting 7.7 million during the first five months of this year.

That comes close to the 8.1 million total for all of last year. Other people are pursuing a more spiritual bent. Applications to study this fall at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington are up 10 percent.

“Most of it is attributable to a change in the economy and to people looking for more meaningful work,” said Beth Ludlum, director of recruitment at the seminary.

And the number of people who want to volunteer for charitable organizations is soaring.

Madye Henson, president and chief executive of Greater DC Cares, a group that trains volunteers for work with more than 200 charitable groups, said there is clearly an increase in volunteering, in part because it helps laid-off people keep their skills sharp.

But she tied it to the presidential election, as well.

“I think a lot of it is attributable to the president raising a flag and challenging everybody to give back,” she said.

New home, new life Laura Murray took a big step in the spring to alter her life.

A lawyer in her early 50s, Murray closed her 10-year-old crisis-management consulting business in New York, sublet her apartment and moved to Washington to throw her energies into an alternative career.

“It is one of the smarter, cooler things I have done,” she said.

In September, Murray said, business was so good she had to consider turning away clients. Then the financial crisis hit. She faced a decision: drastically reshape the business or grab the chance to try something new.

“It really was an opportunity to think, ‘do you want to do something differently?’” she said. “The old way isn’t working.” Now she is re-engaging her first love: politics and public policy, a field she had worked in early in her career. “It’s such an exciting time to be in Washington,” Murray said.

She is aggressively pursuing jobs at federal agencies or with a private-sector group that works with the government, but her new career will most likely result in a pay cut.

“I view this as an opportunity, and I’m not going to waste it,” she said.

Cosmetics over law Finally, consider the story of a frustrated Washington lawyer who is putting a pretty face on the recession.

With a $100 investment in a sample kit, this lawyer in her 30s launched a side career selling Mary Kay cosmetics. She spoke on condition of anonymity because she didn’t want her law firm to know she hopes to leave.

“They think I’m happy as a bug in a rug, and I want to keep them thinking that,” she said.

But happy she is not. Still burdened with $150,000 in law school debt, she is working for a firm that has frozen its salaries.

“All that, and this is the payoff,” she said. “I get to work and work and work for no raise and no bonus.”

She and her husband, who works for the government, would like to sell their home, move somewhere where the pace of life is slower and start a family. But that will have to wait. The housing bust drained their home’s value and they cannot afford to sell.

“The economy has suddenly made it so we are stuck,” she said.

Eventually, she hopes to quit the law firm and maybe open a private practice.

“I went to law school so I would have tools in my tool-kit,” she said.

Her tool-kit now includes myriad shades of lipstick. Each item sold earns her a 50 percent commission, and three months into the business, she says she earns $400 to $500 a month.

“That is our ticket to changing our entire lives,” she said. “I now question whether I will even go back to the practice of law after I quit.”