Choosing an Occupation

Choosing an occupation can be a difficult process for some disappearees. If you do not have your new identity well-established in advance, you may have difficulty finding exactly the kind of work you like to do. Employers will be reluctant to hire you for a high paying job if you can't provide them with any previous work references or show training or schooling. Your first few jobs may be low-paying, part-time work where few questions are asked. After a time you can build up an employment history and a number of references that will lead you to greener pastures.

The problems of the well-to-do disappearee are often much more severe than those of the common laborer who leaves his wife. The higher a person's socio-economic status, theoretically the harder it will be to regain an equivalent position in the new identity. And the problems in finding new work are compounded by the fact that the people these disappearees leave behind often have more resources and more incentive to track them down. Further, it takes more in the way of paper qualifications to land a high-paying, high-status job than it does to pick apples.

But the well-to-do disappearee can work himself up into a nice position if he has some valuable skills to sell. Like the less-well-off laborer, he can freelance his services, say preparing taxes during tax season or doing freelance computer work, until he builds up enough references to land a decent full-time job. He should avoid jobs that are very similar to his previous employment, though. For while the United States is large geographically, it is small insofar as specialized occupations and interests are concerned. A top banker from New York City who wanders into a bank in Seattle has a good chance of meeting someone he saw at a convention.

Most people who switch identities automatically change occupations, too. In many cases the dissatisfaction with the daily grind is what causes people to disappear in the first place. Most white collar workers who disappear actually seek out blue collar work as the preferred way to earn their living. But blue collar workers seldom seek out white collar work. Rather, they change to a different but similar trade than they previously practiced.

There are a great many jobs that pay rather well for only part-time or irregular work. The construction industry is a good example, where employment tends to run along boom and bust lines. At times when the local construction unions cannot fill all the orders for manpower, there is an excellent chance of getting work even for those without developed skills. And for those who have a background as carpenters or electricians, there is always piecemeal work available, even if it's just filling in for people who are sick or on vacation.

Where construction work pays the best, which is usually in the big cities that disappearees like because it's easier to stay lost in them, unions dominate the work and effectively exclude outsiders. There are ways to work into the unions, though. One is to get a union job in areas of the country where they are less well developed, then take your membership with you to the big city once you're established. Or you can hang out at the union halls long enough to get a fill-in job, which can easily qualify you for union membership if you work it long enough.

One of the nicer aspects of landing union membership in the construction trade is that you can work out of hiring halls. These are usually operated jointly by employers and the unions. In essence, they are extremely efficient, low-fee employment agencies. Through the halls you can get short term work all over the country. And if you are in a mind to stay put for a while, you can earn excellent money. I know of people who earn upwards of $40,000 per year working out of hiring halls--plus some fantastic taxfree benefits.

There are a lot of other jobs where references and an employment track record are not required. During the good weather months nearly anyone of able body can find some sort of home improvement work to do. There is also a great deal of work available through temporary employment agencies, particularly office work. Temporary agencies usually ask a lot less questions about your background than full-blown employment agencies which disappearees should definitely avoid. The other nice facet of temporary work is that it very often leads to a fulltime position with whatever company you start out with.

There is one kind of work that the vanisher should by all means avoid, and that is positions that put him in the public eye. Fields like television, radio, bartending, lecturing, bellhopping, etc., should be consistently avoided. I once knew of an accountant from Ketchikan, Alaska who had trouble keeping his clients' money separate from his own. He skipped bail and moved to Portland where he got a job hopping bells in a hotel. About a half-hour after the first Alaskan checked in, he was on an escorted, expense-paid trip back to the Land of the Midnight Sun. As obvious as this point may seem, publicity of this sort (that is, of the kind that could easily have been avoided) has been the downfall of a considerable number of lamsters and fugitives.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 825