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Tom Adams
 It was Friday, March 13th, when Thomas Adams’s cell phone rang on his way to see a client in NJ. He pulled over and took the call. “That was when my life shifted gears,” Tom recalls. A regional sales manager for a performance and data networking management company in NY, Tom was informed right there at the side of the road that he was being laid off. He turned his car around and went home.
Tom decided to make the most of his time ‘off’ and do all those projects on his ‘to do’ list for which he never before seemed to have time. His first task was to stain some sliding glass doors that he’d been meaning to do for a long time. They not only still had the manufacturer’s stickers on them, but had remained bare for the best part of a year. When Tom had finished, the doors looked beautiful and, spurred on by that feeling of satisfaction, he took on and completed more and more tasks. He began to realize that he could do whatever he set his mind to do - the doors were a constant reminder of that.
Bob Stomber, a longtime volunteer at the Somerset Hills YMCA, urged Tom to attend Career Forum, a free program run by Bob and other volunteers that helps people in job transition. Career Forum first began in 1991, Bob told him, and is one of the many free programs that the Somerset Hills YMCA provides in support of the community that is funded by the Strong Kids Financial Assistance program. Before long, Tom found himself at Career Forum sitting in a chair among other members of the community who had also lost their jobs. Tom immediately felt the comfort and support of those around him, people in the same shoes as he; he realized that there was nothing to be ashamed of, and that if you are able to look upon these times in a positive light, they can actually offer an opportunity to reinvent yourself and to reset your priorities.
Career Forum taught Tom how to really listen to others like he never had before. “When a company is looking to hire someone, it’s because they have a need or a problem that has to be resolved. They are looking to take the pressure off themselves by hiring the right person for the job. So, the interview is the perfect opportunity to find out what they need and then you can apply that to your own pitch and tell them how you can help them.”
Tom was offered employment in July with a small software company and declares it’s the best job he’s ever had. He insists that Career Forum was a major turning point in his life that helped him understand that you can make something good out of nothing and that, often, job transition can be an opportunity to reinvent yourself. “I look at those beautifully stained doors every morning and smile, knowing that I learned that you can achieve a lot if you just set your mind to it.”
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