Stacey Troup had a successful career in New York City earning a six-figure salary until losing their job after the 9/11 attacks led to widespread job losses. After a year of unemployment, they took a pay cut to find stable work but lost that job during the market crash. They tried different sales jobs but were unfulfilled and unhappy. Realizing a degree was necessary for career stability and growth, they decided to return to school to obtain a degree and get back to a structured career in New York City.

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Exemplary But Unemployed
Stacey Troup
MGT-230
March 30, 2015
University of Phoenix

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Exemplary But Unemployed
On a crisp morning in September, as I left my office and proceeded around the corner for
breakfast, my world forever changed. My office was located at 100 William Street, New York,
NY. This location, two blocks straight ahead of the World Trade Center, had full view of the
attack of September 11, 2011. It was at that point that my world would never be the same again.
Earning a solid 6 figure salary at a position perfect for me with a company I loved, I soon found
myself in a strange state without a job or an idea of what the future would hold.
Our offices closed 3 months after the attack took place and the landscape of the New
York job market for someone at my level lacking a degree became vastly different than it was
just a few months previous.
A Full Year Without Work
As many of my New Yorker’s experienced, the work shortage following the 9-11 attack
had a lasting impact on our happiness. It was at this point I had a decision to make. How could I
effectively maintain employment and still earn enough to survive the prices of rentals in New
York? The answer came to me; after a year out of work I would have to take a salary cut in
order to find stable employment. It was at this point that I secured a job with RBC Capital
Markets as a group assistant. I found myself immersed with a team of 50 people, most of which
I considered family. As luck would have it, two years into my employment the market timing
scandal happened followed by the equity markets crash and I found myself back on the
unemployment line in the summer of 2007.

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Career Reevaluation Amidst Chaos
So there I sat, fully able and willing to work with exemplary skills which far surpassed
most of the assistants at my level yet I was not having any luck finding work. I began to ask
myself if there was something more out there I was destined to do and was this some sort of sign
that I should take the chance on another career?
A mutual friend introduced me to the world of B2B selling and figured with my skills it
would be an easy transition. I began sending my resume to manufacturers in the adult industry in
California trying to get a bite. A few weeks into my quest, a bite happened and I was relocated
to California on a moment’s notice. Giving up the town I called home for nine years and the
only place I ever felt comfortable I just kept telling myself not to worry, to strive for a better life
and to do what was necessary to make life better for myself.
Six months into my time at the manufacturer, they folded operations owing me over
$22,000.00 in unpaid commissions. From that point on I had jobs at distributors but was never
happy in the medium as the management was subpar to the structure I was used to.
In 2011, I was relocated from California to Colorado to help with the sales of a
distributor here. Thinking this was a family environment with a good reputation I decided to
take the chance. Three years into my employment it came out that the reason they hired me was
for my book of business, valued at over 6M per annum. I was subsequently let go from that job
and replaced with someone who worked for ¼ my rate.
It became clear to me that the sales environment was not for me. I longed for the structure
and environment of the hectic trading floor of which I had become accustom. In October, 2014,
after significant research into the C Level Executive Assistant roles of today, I determined that
the only way to find my true happiness and become the person I always knew I could be, was to

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obtain my degree. I decided it was time to stop bouncing around from place to place and find a
stable environment from which to grow and where I would be the most successful.
Conclusion
While I am not afraid to take chances, I do regret my decision to enter the world of sales.
While I made some great life-long friends, the industry was just not well suited for me. I am not
sorry that I made my decision and went with my head, however, in retrospect; I wish I had really
stayed in New York and waited out the job market there.
Here it is, 2015, and I am on an active search for work in New York City. Willing to
give up the life I have here and go back to a place that welcomes my work ethics and abilities,
every day I search, hoping for that bite.
My choices, though not for everyone, are mine. I stand by my choices as they were
necessary to keep working amidst a catastrophic financial crisis in our country. Remembering
that we can only progress if we let go of the past, I strive every day to get myself back home to a
stable, life long career.
Throughout my search, it has become apparent the necessity for a degree and I am hoping
that my current quest for my degree will be appealing to the types of firms I am sending resumes
to. The ability to obtain my degree in a truncated time table should secure my position with a
Fortune 100 or Fortune 500 firm and put me back at my $100k salary base I had become so
accustom to. Had I more of the collegiate experience I would have more thoroughly thought
through my decisions and just been more patient. I would have enrolled in school sooner and not
made such rash decisions. Utilization of critical thinking and basic management styles would
have benefited me greatly.