When growing up, how many of you remember your parents telling you to be careful what you wish for because often times it may turn out to be a lot less than for what you bargained. This old adage brought to mind the excitement surrounding an event that happened at the Wednesday Branch of The Five O’Clock Club approximately two years ago when the Club was approached by ABC World News Tonight to interview some of the branch members in a series they would be doing on the then current downward spiral 
of the job market. At the time, Barack Obama had just been elected president in November, 2008 when the economy went into its first true recession since the dot.com era of the early 1990’s. Who could forget when all you had to do was take a look at the plunging value of your 401K’s or IRA’s.
While the 5OCC was initially skeptical of a news team arriving at the branch to “discreetly” interview and video tape selected members, we thought the piece would give the public an opportunity to see that the 5OCC is an organization that really does help people find jobs – even in a down economy. In keeping with Club’s policy, we informed the members ahead of time that a film crew from ABC would be visiting the branch, and only those who volunteered to be interviewed would be on camera. We always take special precaution to put our members’ best interests first, and would never jeopardize someone’s job search through public exposure.
On the selected night, two cameramen, a lead reporter for ABC World News Tonight, and the show’s producer arrived at the Wednesday Branch to film the piece which was scheduled to be aired the following Friday evening. A few members who volunteered to share their positive experience in working with the 5OCC, as well as some thoughtful and helpful comments form some of the coaches, went off without a hitch. In fact, there was a genuine energy that evening knowing we were sharing a very positive view of people successful in their search for employment, and that our members do land jobs in even the most difficult of times. It was certainly with great anticipation that we looked forward to viewing the news that coming Friday.
Then something very telling happened. That Friday morning (the day the piece was to be aired on the evening news) The New York Times had the byline on its front page that unemployment hit its highest level short of the Great Depression. My first thought was immediate: The piece on the 5OCC would be “bumped” right off the air in lieu of this breaking, albeit negative, news on the unemployment rate. As anticipated, when I turned on the news at 7:00PM that evening, the lead reporter who did the piece at the branch had the opening story, but it was not ours! Instead, the story featured unemployed people standing in line to collect unemployment checks, while others typed madly away on their computers looking at job postings. What could be more negative!
While I understand ABC News leading with the shocking news of the unemployment rate (after all, negative news sells), I thought how terrific it would have been had the piece they did at the branch follow this story, which would have been a reaffirmation that job hunters are still landing jobs, and one organization (the 5OCC) can really help them. But unfortunately, having Chicken Little fall through the sky was all they could manage during the time devoted to this part of the news. From what I understand, the piece they filmed at the Wednesday Branch was aired a couple weeks later, but certainly the air was taken out of our wings by ABC not sharing the positive feedback of our members at a time it would have made the biggest impact.
So, be careful what you wish for. We wished for a great time slot on a nationally recognized news program only to have our hopes dashed. But that’s what happens with news programming! So don’t let the negative news dash your hopes and efforts at landing a new position, and not just any position, but one that can truly be called your dream job. Our advice at The Five O’Clock Club has been, and still is, stop reading or watching all the negative news out there. The real economists and labor experts are the ones to listen to, and take some cues from the federal government, as well as watch the longer term growth of the stock market. These are the indices that are most telling, and right now they are all very positive. And most importantly, talk with other 5OCclubbers who are getting interviews, and landing great jobs, as we continue to work through a difficult job market. No Chicken Little falling out of the sky here!
