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Engineer Who Responded to Obama's Resquest for Résumé at Public Event Still Unemployed
April 09, 2012
"It seems not even the leader of our country can get Darin a job."
More than two months after President Obama asked Jennifer Wedel for her husband's résumé, her husband remains unemployed.
The interaction took place in January at a question-and-answer session hosted by Google, when Wedel asked the president why the government was giving visas to foreign workers when her husband was having difficulty finding permanent work.
The president seemed surprised by Wedel's situation, saying "there is a huge demand around the country for engineers...we should get [your husband's] résumé and I'll forward it to some of these companies that are telling me they can't find enough engineers in this field."
After asking what sort of engineering her husband specialized in, Obama reiterated: "I meant what I said, if you send me your husband's resume I'd be interested in finding out exactly what's happening right there, because the word we're getting is that somebody in that kind of high-tech field, that kind of engineer, should be able to find something right away...I will follow up on this, because I'm interested in finding out [why] your husband's having trouble getting placed."
And now, more than two months later, Jennifer Wedel's husband Darin remains unemployed.
Soon after speaking with the president, Jennifer Wedel said their phone was flooded with recruiters, headhunters, the media, and even the White House, but nothing seemed to pan out. There were opportunities out of state, but the family cannot move from North Texas because of a custody agreement from Darin's previous marriage.
"I did feel we got our hopes up a little," Jennifer Wedel said last week. "I mean, he's the POTUS. But it seems not even the leader of our country can get [Darin] a job."
Jennifer Wedel began working soon after her husband was laid off two years ago, just until he could get another job. She has since realized that it will be a full-time arrangement.
"This is our permanent job [situation] now. It's unfortunate, but we will overcome...We didn't do the interview with the president to get a job. We did it to get a voice for so many Americans who, like my husband, are in the very same situation.
Wedel's inability to land a job after a receiving a recommendation from the president of the United States has been something of a PR embarrassment for the White House. Politico's Dylan Byers wrote an article on the issue, concluding, "So I'm no PR expert, but... didn't the White House see this one coming?" Others mocked Obama's statement that his administration "created or saved" hundreds of thousands of jobs.
"Obama cannot create ONE job," a conservative blog said.
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