Dylan Houle shares about his experience supporting people searching for employment and the emotional toll it takes.
As the director of a university career center, my job, at its core, is helping people find work. I first got into this line of work more than a decade ago when I stumbled into a job as a professional resume writer.
I learned a lot from my one year as a resume writer. The most important thing I learned is how much work means to people: dignity, pride, ego, security. Most of my clients fell into one of two situations: either recently laid off or out of work for a long time. Vivid in my memory is the emotions I heard in my clients’ voices: anger, anxiety, fear. In those intake calls, I felt the weight of the hope and trust they put in me to help them get back on their feet.
That memory of writing resumes is why I am so mystified and appalled at the Trump administration’s mass and callous layoffs of federal workers.
I’m reminded of a story former President Joe Biden often shared when his dad was struggling to find work; he said, “a job is about more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, ‘Honey, it’s going to be OK.” I remember getting some personal understanding of this story when my own father was let go from a job.