2004 Job Market FIELD GUIDE

It took meeting planner Barbara Martin six months to find a job after losing her longtime position with a trade association in Washington, D.C. She finally landed a job with the Washington Area Automobile Dealers Association, needing to convince her employer that the association's less intensive meetings schedule would be enough of a challenge for her. “I had to talk a couple of people into seeing me,” the veteran says of her six-month job search. “And once I got there, they said they were