Sociology

'People no longer had credit cards that worked'

I lost my job a week ago. I was working for a software company here in Southern California, selling educational programs and expecting people to come up with $170 over the phone and give out a credit card number. My manager assured me every day that our business was recession-proof. He said that people will always want to help their children, especially where their education was involved.

Unfortunately, the people I was calling no longer had credit cards that worked. It was sad to listen to some of the stories from people who had just lost their jobs, were expecting to or were worried about losing their homes to foreclosure. When I told them this was a very important purchase, they'd tell me they were more concerned with keeping their home or putting food on the table. Every day I went to work it became more difficult to make the sale. Then I was fired--for not getting enough sales each week. My partner is retired and on Social Security. He also gets a small pension. My income, however, was necessary. We do not know how we are going to pay the bills now.

James Kavanagh

San Diego

'Is the George W. Bush Library hiring?'

My original career choice was to be a history professor. After a few years in graduate school, I decided that a career as a librarian or archivist would be more sensible, considering how long it takes to get a PhD and the student loan debt I was racking up. I graduated from library school in the summer of 2007 with $80,000 in debt and had begun my job search months earlier. I moved from Iowa to Oregon to live with my family while I continued to search for a job. Because my mother is also a librarian, she was able to get me a temporary part-time job at her library for five months.

In April 2008, I finally landed what seemed to be a really great job as a corporate archivist in the suburbs of Washington. I knew that this job was risky, as the company provided archival services for corporate clients,...