In the rear of the Orland Park Public Library, lifelong machinist David Blaha reports to work each morning. The silence is a world away from the din of the machine shop that laid him off nearly two years ago. The tools of his new trade are a laptop computer and the library’s reference books that offer advice on resume writing and prepping for job interviews.
He tinkers with applications now. He fixes appointments, all hoping to land another job as a maintenance machinist.
Orland Park resident Dave Blaha has a daily ritual of going to the library to spend his time searching job boards and sending out resumes. The machinist has been out of work for 22 months but refuses to give in or give up.
(Joseph P. Meier/SouthtownStar)
Blaha, 53, of Orland Hills, now lives by this routine.
“Looking for a job is a full-time job,” he whispered, mindful of patrons reading nearby. “That’s why I get out of the house and come here.”
Thing is though, the hiring process is nothing like it used to be, he said. You can’t just show up anymore to see a guy and walk out, a few questions later, with a start date. Most companies won’t even accept dropped-off resumes.
Hiring is a multilayered process, with numerous tests and conversations, that starts with an online application. Blaha has taken welding tests, drug tests, medical tests – even something called a listening and observation test.
He’s had to show a birth certificate, a passport – even his diploma from Reavis High School proving his graduation.
“You’d think I’m going to be president of the United States,” he said.
‘You can’t give in or give up’
Blaha adores machines. They’re in his blood. His Slavic surname translates roughly to “man of bronze.” His father, a master machinist, lost his hearing working all his life in a machine shop.
He can look at a part and visualize the mold that made it. And making machines work again thrills him.
“I have a natural knack with machines,” he said. “Repairing something is like bringing it to life.”
But in March 2008, the mailing machine company in Crestwood Blaha was working for told him his drilling and milling skills were no longer needed. With the economy buckling, companies were spending less on mailings and on the machines that stuff them.
Between March 2008 and December 2009, Illinois has lost 90,300 manufacturing jobs, while the nation lost a total of 1,869,000 jobs in that sector, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
Blaha, meanwhile, has gone through the seven stages of grief that job counselors warned him about.
And he’s torn through a good seven incarnations of resumes with help from area job clubs.
The clubs – Blaha is up to three, sponsored by St. Elizabeth Seton in Orland Hills, St. Germaine in Oak Lawn and Our Lady of the Woods in Orland Park – help keep his morale up. He’s gotten help tweaking his resume and polishing his interviewing skills.
An active church and choir member at Our Lady of the Ridge in Chicago Ridge, Blaha draws on his Catholic faith to keep it together.
“I think prayer helps me the most,” he said. “You have to believe it’s going to get better. You can’t give in or give up.”
‘Economy has gotten better’
A fter decades of early morning starts on the job, Blaha still wakes up at 6 a.m. The library doesn’t open until 9, so he drinks coffee, reads the news, gets dressed.
Though some of his job club colleagues still don a shirt and tie every day, Blaha prefers T-shirts.
Setting up by the library’s broad windows, he checks an e-mail inbox that’s full of tips about potential jobs. He jumps on the new ones for any maintenance machinist jobs within 30 miles of home.
“You’ve got to get on the job right away and apply within three days or they won’t even call you,” he said.
Some of the ads prove useless, Blaha’s learned over months of doing this. Companies with dozens of listings all over the area are actually training schools trying to get you to click through, he said.
“I tend to stay away from staffing services. They’re more of a pain, more of a runaround.”
At least he has listings again to try for. In October, Blaha received only a few job matches a day. Now he’ll hit on 25 or 30.
“The economy has gotten better just watching the job things that come up,” he said.
By 2 p.m. each day, he heads home to check messages on his answering machine and set up his plan of attack for the next day. He makes dinner for the younger brother he’s shared an apartment with since both men divorced 18 years ago.
After 22 months of job searching, Blaha thinks he’s mastered the dance.
One company just turned him down, but he’s deep in the process at a second – a real company, not an agency.
But he won’t quit the hunt until he has a final offer to accept and a start date, saying, “Until you have a job, you don’t have one.”
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services