Editor's note: Americans have endured economic crises before but none quite like this. To capture the depths of the suffering, The New York Times teamed up with local news organizations across the country, including the Arizona Daily Star, to document the lives of a dozen Americans who found themselves out of work. Find the entire project here.
In this crisis, even advanced education isn’t a guarantee. Stephanie Fitzgerald, 36, is a software engineer in Frenchtown, Mont. She lives with her partner, who is a stay-at-home dad, and three children. We first spoke with Ms. Fitzgerald in September.
FRENCHTOWN, Mont. — I’m originally from North Carolina. I went to college in New Orleans, and when Katrina happened, I moved up here. I had my wonderful children, got a master’s degree in computer science and an M.B.A., and checked all the boxes.
When Covid hit, I was working at a small startup as a software engineer. Right at the first week of June they laid me off. It was very unexpected because they said they had gotten the payroll protection, and we weren't to worry. And then they called me up that morning before I was supposed to come in and said, “Hey, pack up your stuff.” Getting laid off right in the middle of this whole situation is almost nightmarish.
We’ve lived in this house for six years. We were actually trying to buy our house right at the beginning of the pandemic. And so before this, I was working as a trampoline instructor, plus a software engineer, plus side jobs so we could get that extra money to buy our house. But I'm collecting boxes to move out at this point. Which is scary because I've never been in that situation, especially with kids. I have enough money for like a month right now. I'm getting about $425 a week on unemployment. It’s been five months now, and I had 13 job interviews this week.
I'm an upper-level engineer, and my average income would usually be between about $100,000 and $150,000, depending on what the title is. Now the positions are popping up at $65,000, which is a big cut.
As software engineers, we have to go through intensive technical interviews. Companies like Amazon take three to four months to determine where a candidate fits, and Amazon's one of my prime potential jobs right now.
One day I even had to spend $50 to rent a conference room in a hotel because I couldn't have a six-hour technical interview at home with my kids there.
I'm talented enough that I'm making it to the fourth and fifth round of job interviews. But every position has 200 candidates. I purposely hide that I have children sometimes, just to make sure there's not another thing against me. Being a woman, I'm about 5 to 10 percent of the software engineer population. Which I've dealt with fine before, because I can compete academically and education-wise and productivity-wise. But I've had situations where jobs have punished me because I got a call from the school, and a lot of my counterparts don't have to deal with that.
There are some days when an interview goes so well, and I get a call from the recruiter and they're like, “They said you were brilliant and you were an incredibly talented person.” And there's no negative. And I still didn't get the job. There's been a couple of times where I just break down because of that.
I work at Instacart and Shipt now, delivering groceries. I do about 22 hours and make about $220 a week.
It makes me feel less valued. I’m a farm girl — hard work doesn't hurt me. But the fact that I have put so much time and investment and energy into my career and I'm having trouble, it does make me question my value.
Meals aren't quite as nice as they used to be, because I don't get food stamps because I don't qualify for them — yet. So food has been a big issue. The children want things, and we just can't do it.
I don't have health insurance anymore, and I don't qualify for Medicaid because my tax return last year exceeded the minimum. I'm on six heart medications every day. I was bawling at Walmart the first time I ran out and they told me how much it cost. I've got one that's $600 a month. I’ve had to space that out and skip doses.
Oct. 7: ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do’
Right now I've got 15 active interviews going on. I counted the other day — that's 567 applications since being laid off in June. I was hoping either a stimulus package would happen again or I would get a job before the middle of this month, and I don't see either happening now.
We're looking at all the options for keeping our house. I've even looked at short-term loan advancements. I don’t know what we’re going to do.
I've told every company I've been interviewing with I'll move now. I’ve just got to have something at this point. It's super depressing because I've been here for about 15 years now.
My kids ask me, “What’s been your favorite thing about this whole experience, what are you going to remember most about this whole experience?” And I say it’s that I got to spend more time with them. We can have those extra little conversations or do little things together.
They don't get the benefit of the outside activities, but they do get a bit more with me. That feels good. But especially this past week, it's been kind of hard trying to not get depressed at this point, or just apathetic.
Oct. 15: ‘I got the job!’
If I hadn't gotten this offer, in three days we were even looking at long-term hotels. We were on the verge of technically being homeless, when I had worked so hard to not be in that position.
They gave me the call on Monday at the end of the day. I had to pause because I was so excited, and I wanted to play it cool. They were like, “What do you want the salary to be?”
It was right during the time I had to pick up the kids, so I'm sitting in line waiting to pick up my daughter, I’m super excited, and I rolled down the window and I’m like, “I got the job!” and everyone at the school said, “Yeah!” Everybody knew I had been looking so hard for one. My daughter’s teachers and her special needs case worker were out there. My daughter said, “This is the best day of my whole life.”
