Career reset button: New job, not like the old job

One in an occasional series.

On the first day of his Florida vacation last July, John Zeiger got a call from work telling him he'd been laid off from his systems-analyst job.

"Guess I'll be a male model now," the fit, 42-year-old Telford, Montgomery County, man announced, capitulating to his wife's longtime exhortations to make money with his smile.

And just like that, a victim of the recession began to reinvent himself.

Zeiger, who has an engineering degree from Pennsylvania State University and 20 years of business experience, also possesses blue eyes and thick, wavy hair.

His wife, Barbara Elk Zeiger, 39, herself a model and actress, had long encouraged Zeiger to make a living with his looks.

So, when the ax swung, Zeiger had two thoughts:

"Things happen for a reason," and, "Where do I go for my head shots?"

Like countless others, Zeiger has been compelled by a broken economy to search out a second act, or encore career, as some are calling it.

And while economists are saying the recession is over, 10 percent unemployment remains like wreckage after a hurricane. As a result, people who dreamed of making it in one career must dream again.

Some fortunate ones like Zeiger have the reserve cash, or use their severances and 401(k) plans, to underwrite those "I-always-wanted-to-be-a . . ." fantasies. Others must use luck, pluck, and government largesse to reeducate themselves in job-training programs or community colleges to snag currently in-demand jobs.

In the end, the goal is a career makeover - a new way through, born of job loss during the worst of times since the Depression.

These days, Zeiger actually feels lucky.

"I will look back on this and be grateful that my former employer set me free," said Zeiger, who worked four years for Penn Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Horsham. A company spokesman would not comment on Zeiger's layoff.

"I don't want to work for corporate America anymore," he added. "Modeling will give me more time with my kids." The couple, married a year, have a blended family of five children, ages 7 to 14.

As much as it fosters anxiety, a layoff can provide much-needed renewal, said Daniel Russell of Atlanta, an organizational psychologist with Aon Corp., human-resource consultants.

"The positive side is, 'I have a completely blank slate,' " Russell said. " 'I can do something fulfilling.' "