President Elect Barack Obama is set to take office in January, and already people across the nation are vying for positions within the administration.
The Web site, Change.Gov, which boasts job listings and a blog, amongst other things crashed recently, returning an error message to Web surfers days after the historic victory.
Before the election, young and old folks left jobs to work the campaign trail for both President Elect Obama and Senator John McCain. For some, the campaign trail may account for years of their lives, and for others it may be weeks. But for most of them, the question is the same, what next? For answers, MainStreet caught up with Ebonie Johnson Cooper, 25, to discuss life on the trail and what happens now that it’s all over.
What made you decide to leave your job to volunteer for the campaign?
I liked what I was doing but I felt like I wanted to do public service. I received an email to do Camp Obama, and the night before I left to go to the Democratic National Committee I decided to apply. It wasn’t until I reached Denver and went to a couple of events there that I knew that I was supposed to be a part of the Obama campaign. When I came home, life became about putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
Were you able to leave your job for the campaign trail? If so, for how long and what were the rules?
I had the option to stay [with my old job], but I declined. Instead, I put in my official two week notice at BET International. I worked with my boss for three years, and he was fantastic. It was a difficult decision, but it was something I knew that I wanted to do because I was interested in doing different things. It was a bittersweet moment.
