Getting Jobs in Michigan

Sally: Your story is common, it was the same for me. People say there is work in Michigan for new college grads but the people that say that are not the people looking for work. The people looking for work in this state are frustrated at the situation, the nations economy is bad enough but things in Michigan are worse.

I cannot see any way that the people saying they can get people good jobs for hard working young people can ever make due on that promise.

To me it is not a question of why would someone look to leave the state instead it is a question of why you would stay? In a competition to retain young people and be attractive to young talented professionals the state has done nothing and consequently it shows in the resulting situation of Michigan.

This is a frustrating post. You give one example to show that we can all get jobs here. We'll I've had three friends in as many months who were forced to move because they could not get jobs in Grand Rapids. One friend, a chef, was laid off last Christmas. The only steady work he found was for a mulch company. After about a week in L.A. he already had found jobs at two of the city's top restaurants. Another friend, also a cook, and his girlfriend, who has an interior design degree from Kendall, both joined him recently, because... wait for it... they couldn't find jobs here. They had wanted to stay in Michigan to start a dinner club and/or a restaurant, but they couldn't find any investors. Freelancing wasn't working for them either.

I myself am lucky to have found a well-paying job in Michigan. But it's somewhat outside of my interest area. I have worked at four of GR's major cultural institutions. Not only were they poorly managed, unprofessional environments, they seem to only hire from the inside, making it impossible for me to land a job in fundraising in the arts here. It's frustrating because I've raised about a million dollars for the international Christian nonprofit I work for, and I would like to have applied those skills to the arts sector, which I'm passionate about.

Packing your bags is not the "hot" thing. It is the necessary thing.

Interestingly if someone takes full advantage of Michigan funded programs such as "No Worker Left Behind" a contract needs to signed stating that the individual will seek only work in Michigan for up to three years after graduating. I hope the jobs will be there.