Taking another shot

At the relatively young age of 28, Felipe Saboya's faith in the American corporate system was shaken when he lost his job last summer.

He's giving the corporate world another shot, but is building a small business on the side just in case.

Saboya's family fled Colombia six years ago after his mother, who worked for the government in that South American country, received several threats. The family sought asylum in the United States and settled in Sarasota, where they had a friend.

He started working for Albertsons as an hourly associate in one of its Bradenton supermarkets and eventually worked up to an assistant manager spot at its Parrish store.

"It was a good corporation, and basically I was going for the career, planning to climb the corporate ladder," Saboya said.

After three years with the grocer, rival chain Publix Super Markets bought 49 of Albertsons' stores and went about morphing them into shiny green Publixes. Some, but not all, of the former Albertsons employees were offered jobs. Saboya wasn't.

Newly unemployed last August, he hired Larry LaBelle, an employment consultant, to help him polish his resume and refine his sales pitch to employers.

A key piece of advice: He learned that he needed to give prospective employers concrete examples of how he made previous employers money or saved them money, Saboya said. Meanwhile, he put out word on his Facebook and MySpace accounts that he was looking for work.

Eventually, a friend alerted him to a job at a Walgreens. He visited the drugstore in Ellenton and landed an interview, which soon led to a job. He started in February. Saboya is still a little nervous about the corporate world, and has launched a small commercial cleaning service on the side.

For now, he's keen on seeing how far he can go with Walgreen Co.

"Let's see what happens," he said.