Well. He's 55 yrs old and has been out of work for sometime. At that age no one expects to train you so you have to have had a great track record, be practically a guru and be bringing something to the company to get hired over a recent graduate. His race might play a part in potential employers being doubtful that he has those skills (probably a bit understandable given the number of black acoustical engineers) or not being able empathize with his situation.
He's 55 years old now. He was 33 in 1990, when he stopped working (according to him). The idea that an electrical engineer and physicist with tons of programming experience to boot, and with references from Lockheed as a Senior Research Engineer, could not get a job from 1990 to 2007, is just not plausible, even if he took a lot of time off to care for his parents. The story is not reasonable, and there are parts of it we're not hearing and parts that have been distorted (I doubt he really got to Dartmouth at age 16).
People pass this along as two things: a) a sad personal story, and b) a commentary on the sad state of the country. The fact is that it fails as both. As a personal story, it is implausible and clearly incomplete. I feel like I am being pulled around by the nose. I feel like I am hearing only one source, and that source is less than totally truthful. The real story is probably still sad, but it's probably different and less pithy. Right now, I just feel like I am being manipulated.
And it clearly has nothing to do with the state of America in 2011, since this man's problems existed decades before, and in an excellent economy.
I don't really understand this comment. Why would it be understandable that some employers would not believe that he is a capable black acoustical engineer?
And even if they did, wouldn't it take maybe 5 minutes worth of correspondence to figure out if he was or was not? Unless you are saying there is rampant racism in the acoustical engineering industry to the point that he would not even advance to a correspondence level with a hiring manager based soley on the fact that he is black.. Which I would doubt.
Unfortunately, I've seen it, with myself in computer programming and systems administration. Not the only field where this crops up; fortunately, we're beginning to have good counterexamples of what black Americans are supposed to be:
Many times you need to get your foot in the door to even get those 5 minutes to prove yourself. Not arguing that racism is a factor here just playing the devil's advocate and pointing out that it is possible even if implausible.
I doubt that would be much of an issue, especially since a lot of the acousticians in the Boston area are around that age and I can think of at least a half-dozen Boston-area hires in that age group.
>and has been out of work for sometime
If I had to guess, I'd say this is the big issue.
>His race might play a part in potential employers being doubtful that he has those skills
Maybe, but again I've seen no evidence of this around Boston-area acousticians. I've certainly can't remember ever being on the receiving end of it.
