Timing and Networking Pay Off for Job-Seeker : Recession: One man’s story has a message for others who are frustrated by the quest: ‘You can find work.’

After more than six months of jobless hell, after 350 phone calls and 211 marketing letters and 70 rejection letters, after endless hours searching the want ads and his soul, James Morton has a job.

And a revamped outlook.

“I’ve been made whole,” said Morton. “It’s a relief, a load off my shoulders. It’s also a new challenge because my job has been to find a job.”

Morton, 47, is a new district sales manager for International Multifoods Corp. His July 1 hiring ended an ordeal that began Dec. 13 when he was terminated as director of operations for 240 Mister Donut franchises.

So what’s the big deal about getting a job?

In better economic times, it wouldn’t merit a headline. But unemployment is at an eight-year high, still a drag on the economy and individual lives. For Morton--whose personal story was the focus of a recent Associated Press report--this has been one man’s recession.

“Now it feels like one man’s recovery,” said Morton, who had never been out of work before.

He feels renewed and productive again because he is back on the road in his company car, driving to business meetings and overnighting in chain hotels--and liking it.

He has said goodby to the unemployment line, to shopping for two-for-one bargains at the grocery store, to belt-tightening at home for him, his wife and two daughters.

There are no more part-time jobs to make extra money, such as his part as an extra in a Bruce Willis movie called “The Three Rivers” being filmed in Pittsburgh. He earned $5 an hour for a day’s work, plus $50 for the use of his powerboat.

He cheerily splashes on the Calvin Klein cologne Eternity that he got as a Christmas present but refused to wear until he found a job.

“It’s appropriate, because it felt like an eternity,” Morton said.

His recent breakthrough, however, had less to do with an economic turnaround that it did with good timing and networking--an active approach of contacting everyone he could think of to see if they knew of any job openings.

And there is some irony that he was hired by Multifoods, which was once the parent company of Mister Donut. It sold the franchises in 1990, and after a second sale to a British company, Morton’s middle management job was eliminated.

Morton never burned his bridges and sent a resume to Multifoods. On March 16, he received a polite letter--similar in tone to other rejections--that Multifoods had no openings but would contact him if something came up.

Something did. One manager resigned and another switched positions, and Morton had the inside track. The first call came at 4 p.m. on June 8, which led to a two-hour meeting at Pittsburgh International Airport and a more formal interview.

“There’s no way in the world I could have ever predicted I would have gotten that phone call. You never know when the phone’s going to ring. And then, bingo, it all happened in three weeks,” Morton said.

Because negotiations seemed so promising, friends patted Morton on the back and offered congratulations. But Morton, recalling how other offers turned sour, refused to rejoice until he shook hands on a deal that is close in salary and benefits to what he had in his old job.

“I’ve been up on that limb before. It’s a long fall. I didn’t want to drop,” Morton said.

This time, he didn’t. And he even reached his own target date of landing a new job within seven months.

Morton used an outplacement agency, Bizet & Co., in his job search. It was uncanny how his experience fit the statistical profile.

He had been told to expect one valid job offer for every eight interviews he had; Multifoods was the eighth company he interviewed with. He was also told that the average length of unemployment for a white-collar manager is 6.9 months; he was out of work six months and two weeks.

“My work ethic sustained me. I’ve always worked on a plan--management by objective. My goal was get a position by July 1 that offered job satisfaction, room for growth and an opportunity to use my skills,” Morton said. “Persistence pays off. You have to get out of bed every morning and look for a job. You can’t be playing golf.”

He was also philosophical about turning setbacks into opportunities.

“All things work out for the good,” Morton said. “All the pitfalls and the dark days, when it seemed like the end of the line and you question your self-worth and ability, those were necessary to make you move forward.”

He refrained from any kick-up-your-heels celebrating.

Like the landscape changed by a storm, Morton feels transformed by his jobless experience. The self-doubt, the feeling of being slam-dunked and the humiliation of signing up for jobless pay can do that to a breadwinner.

So he plans to stay active in the unemployed support group he founded at his church, the Memorial Park Presbyterian Church, and to share advice with former colleagues at the Interfaith Re-employment Group he had joined.

“I can’t turn my back on the people who helped me. Other people need to know where the road is going,” Morton said. “I think I’m much more empathetic to what others may be going through. This will forever change my approach. I’ll never take anything for granted again.”

And, just in case, he filed away all of his job hunting materials--the phone numbers, contacts, resumes, form letters. “You never know when this might happen again,” Morton said.