For Ex-Cons and Laid-off Execs Alike, Dim Job Hopes

YVETTE BELL: I'll have my secretary contact you in a day or so.

TRAINEE: Thank you, Mrs. Bell. Have a good day.

YVETTE BELL: All right.

What did you think?

TRAINEE: His gum chewing.

YVETTE BELL: Gum chewing, sticking his tongue out. Michael Jordan is not in here.

PAUL SOLMAN: Yvette Bell of the Safer Foundation introduces ex- convicts like Dimitrious Johnson to the etiquette of job search, but the odds are a lot longer here than even in the suburbs.

DIMITRIOUS JOHNSON: Because it's kind of complicated for us out here, you know, with the people that's getting laid off, it's very, very hard for us to get jobs with backgrounds, you know?

PAUL SOLMAN: Background meaning?

DIMITRIOUS JOHNSON: Meaning a record, you know, convicted of a crime.

LARRY WOHLGEMUTH: That's the reason why a lot of people return to the penitentiary.

PAUL SOLMAN: Larry Wohlgemuth did time for robbery.

LARRY WOHLGEMUTH: Me, I've been back and forth. I can't find a job, so I go back to my old ways, because nobody will hire me.

PAUL SOLMAN: Our audience is going to hear that, and I can guarantee you they'll say, "What, is he threatening us, that he's going to go back on to the streets if we don't give him a job?"

LARRY WOHLGEMUTH: I've tried several times. I mean, I've gone, I've filled out applications thinking that I'm going to get the job, but they won't hire me. As soon as they do the background check, they know that -- just their opinion of me is just totally changed.

And sometimes you have to lie to get in the door. And once you get in the door, you wait 90 days, and then they put you through this process. Then they find out that you are this bad villain, and the employer says, "You know, you're a great guy, but our insurance company, we just can't have you here because of your background," and they have to let me go.

PAUL SOLMAN: How many people here feel the same way Larry does?

Cephas Wright did not.

CEPHAS WRIGHT: I think it's all about being motivated and positive within yourself to know that you want to -- you're going to be that better person, you're going to be successful.

LARRY WOHLGEMUTH: I believe he's romanticizing the situation. I mean, how long is it going to take you until where your state of mind is going back, "Well, I might as well just go stick somebody up"?

MICHAEL DAVIS: I understand Larry's point of view, because I've seen people who have a dejected mind frame, but we have to pull ourselves out of that by being optimistic. We have to have some type of faith which draws on a higher power, whether it be above or within.

PAUL SOLMAN: Listening to Michael Davis, who did time for sexual assault, I had a final question for Larry Wohlgemuth.

You could say that this is an argument for cultivating a certain degree of self-delusion. Are you simply unable to do that?

LARRY WOHLGEMUTH: You probably hit the nail right on the head when you said that. Probably that's basically where it's at right now.

YVETTE BELL: The purpose for us having job-readiness here is so that you guys can find gainful employment. You might get turned down 100 times. It's the 101st time you might get your big break.

So it's not about, you know, being discouraged or romanticizing the situation, because it is what it is right now. The past is exactly what it is: It is your past. We can't change it.

But what you can change and what you want somebody to see is the new you. You want that employer to see the person that you are today and not define you by who you were.

PETER STURDIVANT: It's discouraging when you keep hearing "no" and all your efforts don't bring back anything of value.

BHARATH TOLAPPA: If you get 1 yes out of 50 no's, you know, that's a good odd. And that's what people have got to internalize in going through the search.

PAUL SOLMAN: Manufacturing engineer John Leone.

JOHN LEONE: It's sort of like brothers in arms. You know, we're going through a very difficult time in our lives. And just to see that we're all helping each other out, it's encouraging.

PAUL SOLMAN: And yet, as at the ex-convict group, the constant battle is with discouragement in an economy like this one.

CHRIS DEMAIO: We were all senior executives in our previous positions. And we had authority. We had people who listened to us. And, you know, we had a say in how things were done. And now, all of a sudden, you know, you're not getting that connection, and now it's all -- you know, you feel like you're adding no value to anything that you're doing.

PAUL SOLMAN: Even though you know in this, the Great Recession, worst since the Great Depression, that it can't possibly be your fault, right?

CHRIS DEMAIO: That's a good excuse for me to make me feel better about myself, but, you know, it helps me get through the day, but I still -- I get down, because I just don't feel like I'm being productive.

PAUL SOLMAN: That may be how most of America's many millions of unemployed feel at the moment.