No where to go but up

Three years ago, Khris Saleh had it all — a wife, two children he adored, and a job he loved in Santa Cruz as a pharmaceutical representative, one that came with a great salary, a company car and benefits.

“It was great,” Saleh said. “The kids were in great schools. It was the perfect lifestyle.”
But then came the call every employee dreads. Saleh said he received a phone call asking him to meet with the company manager.

“I went into his office and I was told they were downsizing,” he said. “I was also told my benefits would run out at the end of the month.”

Because he had been with the company for three years, he received three weeks of severance pay — a week for every year worked.

“I was lucky. They don’t have to give you anything,” Saleh said.

Wanting to keep consistency for his wife and two young boys — ages 3 and 5 at the time, Saleh said he searched for a job, and tried for three months, to stay in the area. But it did not take long to go through their savings and the family was forced to move back to Porterville.

“I was really depressed but coming down, as I came through Pacheco Pass, I promised myself that I was going to do something proactive,” he said. “Because you don’t know how long you’ll be unemployed.”

As it turned out, the time was 30 months.

But staying active and positive is what helped Saleh, a 1996 Monache High, and a 2001 Fresno State University graduate, get through the time.

Upon returning to Porterville, Saleh said he constantly applied for jobs and he received many phone calls and interviews but to no avail.

But it did not appear that anyone was actually hiring, but rather “stacking up their talent pools,” he said.

“Luckily we were able to move back and move into a family home but things got really tough, really tight, really quick,” Saleh said. “I needed to put my energy into something.”
To make ends meet, Saleh worked at the family business off and on but soon realized he was an over-qualified cashier there and he needed to move on and not take someone else’s job.
“I wasn’t really fitting in,” he said. “I still help out now and then but it’s really part of my past.”
Saleh became involved with his children’s sports — Little League Baseball and youth soccer. He joined the board of directors for Porterville Little League and started to get involve in civic affairs.

“I started going to City Council meetings,” he said. “Things were great in Santa Cruz. By comparison, there’s lots of room for improvement in Porterville. I wanted to bring Porterville up to my standards. I became very vocal and started going to the library meetings and Measure H meetings and speaking up at City Council meetings. A lot of people out here tend to either not see the vision, have a lack of a vision, or seem content to complain. There’s a lack of communication between the general public and what’s going on in City Hall.”

When his brother, Taha Saleh, ran for Porterville City Council in 2010, Khris became his campaign manager.

“I had all this energy and needed to put it into something,” he said. “I was still actively seeking employment all through this.”

Saleh said he found the cycle constantly repeated — sending out a batch of applications and resumes, getting calls for interviews, and waiting.

The process was expensive, too. The packet he presented to potential employers cost $20 each, and he paid for his own travel and lodging when he interviewed out of the area, he said.

“When I got the call from [Porterville College,] I had forgotten I had applied,” he said.

But with a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a marketing option, Saleh knew he had to put energy into selling himself.

“This was totally different. It was academia. I got the call in January and did a lot of fast research,” he said. “It was a great establishment and a great opportunity.”

After an interview with a panel of judges, Saleh was offered a job as a program technician of CalWorks. But he will never forget what he went through, he said.

Richer life experience

“It changed my outlook of life. Before my focus was on finances. Being unemployed gives you the opportunity to value what’s really important. You get pleasure in bare essentials — spending time with the children,” he said. “You learn that you don’t really need all those extra things and you concentrate on bare necessities.”

What he really has enjoyed is the sense of community he has gained, he said.

“I’ve lived here all my life and never got emotionally involved in anything,” Saleh said. “Because I just kind of burst out on the scene out of nowhere, I can come across as too much to take in.”

But he wants to do all he can to help make the community better, he said, even if its challenging, and thus one of the reasons he got involved with the Porterville Library and Measure H.

“I am finding more and more that I am drawn and have an obligation to my community of leaving it as good or better as when I found it,” he said. “Here, services are lacking. I want to get the word out — this town needs a new library. We had an awesome library in the Bay Area.”

Saleh also offered advice for people who are unemployed and actively searching for employment.

“Be active. Don’t sit around. Go out and develop a network. Meet influential people and don’t be afraid to network,” he said. “Expand your talents, open a broader job search, update your resume’, and be up to date on your interviewing skills. Make yourself marketable and look at resources. They are out there — CSET, Proteus, EDD, and Cal Jobs. Don’t be afraid to go out there and look.”

Volunteering also helps — not for the money but for the experience, he said.

“Learn to help other people. There is mass satisfaction in that,” Saleh said. “Get your name and your face out there. It won’t hurt. Unemployment is not by choice. We’re not poor by choice. This economy dictates circumstances. There’s a lot of obstacles in the economy. Be proactive and do not be afraid.”

Contact Esther Avila at 784-5000, Ext. 1045, or eavila@portervillerecorder.com.