HAMPSTEAD — When Terry Taylor was laid off from her job as a real estate title buyer in November 2008, she wasn't shocked: the real estate market was floundering.
"I had my own title company before that. I folded it and took my business somewhere else because I saw the writing on the wall," she said.
But 14 months after being laid off, she is still unemployed.
"For this to still be going on in 2010? No. No way. Never would have dreamed it," she said. "At one point, I thought I must be at least halfway through this because I've been at it so long. I wasn't."
Like many people now searching for work, Taylor had never been unemployed. She had never collected an unemployment check, and had not searched for work since finding her first job many years ago. She moved several times throughout the title industry, but always because she was asked to join a new company.
"I didn't have to have an up-to-date resume," she said. "People didn't care about my resume. People knew me by reputation."
After years in the title and mortgage industries, Taylor is now looking for full-time work in a new field — event planning for a nonprofit organization, something she had done as a volunteer.
Though she would be happy to stay in the title business, and has been working part time in it since July, Taylor said there is just not enough business.
"I can't wait for full-time work. I need to get full-time work," she said.
Taylor has a 17-year-old son, Tim. Her husband died five years ago.
She spent the early months of her unemployment searching for jobs every day, applying for positions at large hospitals and universities in Boston.
After countless applications, a doctor told her most of the hospitals were filling positions internally. She also learned that rather than bringing new people on, hospitals were laying people off.
"I felt like I spent six months knocking my head against a stone wall," she said.
In May, she went on two interviews that fell through, causing her to experience what she called a "low period."
"The wind was right out of my sails," she said.
But Taylor persevered and began looking for part-time work, which led to an opportunity that now has her working about 25 hours a week. She also modified the way she searched for jobs based on advice from a career coach.
"You need to feel in your life that you are accomplishing something," she said. "Look for a job for five hours, then clean out a drawer."
Taylor said looking for a job does not mean just sitting at her computer, tucked in a tidy home office in a corner of her kitchen.
"You have to know people. You have to talk to people," she said. "You cannot be shy if you are shy. You have to get over it."
She has been a member of the nhworks networkers in Salem since it began last spring.
"I think when you're feeling down, you can get a lift," she said. "You get to hear the success stories."
It reminds her of the ice storm that devastated Southern New Hampshire just after she lost her job a year ago. She, her friends and neighbors crowded around a wood stove.
"People come together and people help one another," she said. "You're all in the same boat and you help each other get out of it."
She said this time around seems to be a more difficult experience for people who have been laid off in the past, with almost every industry suffering and unemployment lasting longer and longer for many.
"You certainly don't feel like an island," she said. "You certainly don't feel like there's something wrong with you compared to everybody else."
As her own unemployment continues, Taylor has had to adjust her life to a new reality. She said she bought a new wall calendar recently and then said to herself, "That's it. That's the last money I'm going to spend."
She stopped going out to dinner. She saw about two movies in 2009. Her son helps.
"My son is good. He's got a job, he doesn't ask for money. He understands," she said. "I hate to have him understand, but he does."
And in the time since she has been laid off, Taylor has become bolder. Realizing the days of answering a want ad and landing a job are over, she has stepped up her networking in person and online.
"The fact that you are out of work gets closer to the start of every conversation," she said. "The longer it goes on, the bolder I become."
Taylor is optimistic about the new year and hopes to see her networking group dwindle in number as people return to work. And she is ready to take what she has learned in the last 14 months and move on to a job where she can settle in for a long time.
"I've learned a great deal, but enough," she said. "I want to go back to work now."
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