Photo by Clementine Gallot

People often ask me the back story behind how Design Resumes was formed. The business and even the name of the business was a fluke in the beginning. I started writing resumes in 1983 as a response to a little ad we placed to gain some additional income.

We had purchased a very basic computer as a result of some classes we took as a bonus from our employer, a property management firm. We used that computer for many things, writing the apartment complex newsletter, creating forms, and tracking expenses for the company and the Section 8 housing project we ran.

I built a small business that grew into fairly heavy traffic when Wausau Insurance was bought by Nationwide and many people were uncertain about their future. Suddenly, I was working with executives and many other people who needed to have their resumes ready to go.

The Naperville Transfer

I continued that little business until we accepted a promotion to Naperville, Illinois to open up another complex for the same owner who had since fired our property management firm but retained us.

This project was totally different. The 50 unit Section 8 in Wausau was a new property when we came on board in 1981 but the residents and the processes of low income property management and government housing were totally different from the 400 unit luxury housing project on 31 acres in Naperville. The new project boasted a clubhouse complete with a spa, tennis courts, swimming pools, and a man made lake. Gorgeous apartments in a yuppie-targeted new complex then called Spice Run.

We had just had our son, Tim in March of 1986 and the owner was very supportive of our little family. He had raised his own son in his legal office until his son was 5.

Transferring to Naperville was a long process, the project was delayed multiple times and we had long replaced ourselves with a new management team who would take over as soon as we moved. During that time, I found myself pregnant with Dan.

Our advisors, who included our pastor at the time, said not to tell our owner, the developer or his team about the pregnancy. We had waited 5 years before Tim was born and it was a total surprise that Dan decided to start his life at that moment. I figured I could handle it.

My role was Community Manager, managing and directing all aspects of the leasing and marketing factors and the staff that came with it. My husband was to be the Operations Manager who was also the owner’s liaison during the construction phase with the contractor.

The Mistakes

Our owner and his staff were upset about Dan because his arrival was scheduled for April 5 and the project was due to open April 1. I made a very naive and in hindsight stupid statement to the owner. “But this is construction, you won’t open on schedule.” Telling a developer that must have made him crazy. But I had been around construction long enough to know that there are always delays and the project was already way off track. I was right. The project didn’t open until July 1.

During the time we were in Naperville, I did many things. I interviewed vendors for multiple services, landscaping, extermination, trash removal and more. I wrote the resident handbook, hired an illustrator, and had it printed by a local printer. I was charged with writing the company-wide handbook covering multiple property management issues. I shopped for furniture with the marketing firm and leasing agents for the model apartments.

Dan was born on schedule on April 5. My own ideas of child-raising changed. We had Tim with us the whole time in Wausau with only occasional babysitting by Grammas. I thought that it would continue and I think the owner’s child care issues made me not even discuss it with them. Mistake Number Two. We had to find full-time child care in a brand new location 5 hours from home one month after Dan was born. Now we had 2 children 13 months apart and no family support.

The Warning Signs

The owner changed our move-in location and move-in date so that we would leave the competitor’s apartment complex that we had lived in two blocks from our project. We moved in on July 10. I should have seen the warning signs. As I drove with my manager from Milwaukee to various locations in the Chicago area, she asked me questions about whether I missed Wausau. The new project was not ready for occupancy. Dan had colic and the apartment complexes wiring system was faulty and the smoke alarms went off with every lightening strike in the storm-filled summer of 1987. The lack of sleep between Dan and the alarms coupled with the challenges of the project and being a very new mom of two challenged my emotions and I easily found myself driven to tears.

The Termination Notice

Our owner had our manager meet us in the model apartment where she delivered the notice that we were terminated on August 5. We had 5 days to get off property. They instituted a gag order so we couldn’t talk to the contractors who had become our friends.

Now we lost two jobs simultaneously, our home, and had two babies who were by then 4 months and 17 months old. I didn’t even think about finding another job in Naperville. We called family and we packed up leaving before the 5 days were up.

I was so angry. I was so scared. I had no idea what would come next. Back home, my network didn’t work. People I had used as vendors in Wausau were not wanting to hire me or my husband for their businesses at any wage that would support our growing family.

We ended up moving in with Bill’s parents and living with them for four months. They had a huge house but can you imagine the disruption of two babies under the age of two in a household with both my in-laws turning 65?

Amazingly, the bank agreed to finance our first home that we bought for $29,500 even though at the time, all we had to show for income was our unemployment checks.

I launched Design Resumes again in 1987. Now you know the rest of the story.

This is a very long and overly detailed post but as I wrote it the same emotions came up as they did back then. They surface every time I tell the story to one of my clients. It is the reason that I understand how it feels to lose a job, the uncertainty and the fears.

It is also the reason that I can tell you that there is hope on the horizon and that someday you will find a new life that is rewarding again. Everyone will not go on the path of self-employment that I have gone but they will find a new beginning.