AUBURN — Eighteen months ago Graham Tasker was a worried, unemployed car mechanic. Today he’s closing in on an associate degree and “has the best job I’ve ever had.”

Tasker credits his journey from anxious and unemployed to happy and employed to the Lewiston CareerCenter and Central Maine Community College.

His life changed in January 2008, when he was heading out the door to work.

According to Tasker, his boss called, telling him there’d be no work; the sheriff was there and wouldn’t let him on the property of the garage. Tasker’s toolbox had been wheeled outside. He needed to come pick it up.

“That’s when shock set in,” he said, explaining his boss had recently bought the business, but disputes between the buyer and seller led to the garage closing.

He applied for work elsewhere, but didn’t find a job. A few months later he attended a seminar “on how to get over being unemployed and laid off, how to get over the denial and anger and make yourself marketable again. One of the things I heard about was the CareerCenter in Lewiston.”

He went to the center, and learned he qualified for the Competitive Skills Scholarship Program. It would help pay for him to get a degree in a field that was growing. He enrolled and began studying computer technology. Initially he was worried about how he’d do, but soon discovered “it was nothing like high school. I want to be here now. There’s a benefit to me being here that I can see.”

And he liked he subject. “I’ve always had an affinity for fixing things. It runs in the family.”

In September he began doing work-study and interning at the college’s IT department. “I was constantly reminding them, ‘This is what I want to do. Let me know if there’s any way I can work in here.’” There was no opening, until one day someone in the department walked out. Tasker was offered a temporary, full-time job maintaining and repairing computers. He’s now cautiously optimistic that when he finishes his degree next month he’ll have a good shot of landing a permanent job as a information systems support specialist.

Compared to his old job, “I’m making more money, getting medical benefits, dental benefits, sick and vacation time, I love it.” He appreciates the atmosphere. The college needs to stay on top of the latest technology, and the focus is students, not profits.

While he was unemployed his family lived mostly on his wife’s income. At one point they fell 10 months behind on their mortgage. “We had folks coming and taking pictures of the house.” They were able to hang onto their home, “but it was very scary,” he said.

Tasker considers himself lucky.

“Would I say it was the best thing that ever happened to me losing that job? I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I feel like I have the best job I’ve ever had.” He wouldn’t have gone to school if he was not unemployed.

For others faced with unemployment, Tasker recommends they explore programs at the CareerCenter.

“Use the CareerCenter, and I don’t just mean their fax machine to send your unemployment job search sheets,” he said. “They want you to come back with a great story.”

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