Down and Out in the New Economy: How People Find (or Don’t Find) Work Today

What does it mean to market yourself as a business in today’s job search world?

Finding a job used to be simple. Now . . . well, it’s complicated. In today’s economy, you can’t just be an employee looking to get hired-you have to market yourself as a business, one that can help another business achieve its goals.

That’s a radical transformation in how we think about work and employment, says Ilana Gershon. And with Down and Out in the New Economy, she digs deep into that change and what it means, not just for job seekers, but for businesses and our very culture. In telling this story, Gershon covers all parts of the employment spectrum: she interviews hiring managers about how they assess candidates; attends personal branding seminars; talks with managers at companies around the United States to suss out regional differences-like how Silicon Valley firms look askance at the lengthier employment tenures of applicants from the Midwest. And she finds that not everything has changed: though the technological trappings may be glitzier, in a lot of cases, who you know remains more important than what you know.

Rich in the voices of people deeply involved with all parts of the employment process, Down and Out in the New Economy offers a snapshot of the quest for work today-and a pointed analysis of its larger meaning.

Ilana Gershon is associate professor of anthropology at Indiana University. She is the author of several books, including Down and Out in the New Economy and The Pandemic Workplace, also published by the University of Chicago Press.