Job hunt: Monroe man’s persistence paid off

Published 11:51 pm Sunday, February 22, 2009

Christian Eaglehead was getting desperate.

The Monroe man had been looking for a job for several months. Eaglehead had two children to support, and his wife, a nurse, was pregnant.

He was laid off from a marine electronics company in Lynnwood in November 2007. He used to work on boats and yachts as an electronics technician. As the national economy slowed, the company’s profit dwindled. The nation fell into a recession in a month.

Eaglehead had sent out many resumes and taken interviews with employers.

Nothing happened. He broke down a few times, he said.

“I didn’t know why I wasn’t able to find a job, and I was worried,” Eaglehead, 39, said.

Eaglehead turned to WorkSource in Everett and attended a job fair organized by the jobs center with state resources in early 2008. A recruiter from the Tulalip Tribes encouraged Eaglehead, an American Indian, to seek opportunities with the tribe.

Afterward, Eaglehead visited the Tulalip reservation every day for two weeks. He applied for one opening after another. Finally, he found a job as a bellman for the tribal confederation’s new resort hotel. That was in May 2008, six months after he was laid off.

“It was persistence and also attitude” that gave him the new job, Eaglehead said. “Good things happen to those who try hard and work hard.”

But there were moments when his confidence flagged, Eaglehead said. He learned lessons from his job-hunting experience.

Job seekers should modify their resumes in accordance with job openings, Eaglehead said. Each opening requires different skills and experience. You can’t use the exact same resume for different jobs.

If you get an interview with a company, make sure you do research about the company in advance, Eaglehead said. And it’s OK to apply for an opening when you don’t have all the required skills.

“It took you some confidence to learn some skills,” he said. “That confidence isn’t gone. It’s still part of you. You just need to apply that confidence to learn new skills.”

In retrospect, he was able to find a job in a recession because he kept at it until he succeeded, Eaglehead said.

“I was positive,” he said. “I remained positive.”

Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029, ynohara@heraldnet.com.