Our career coach has penned 1,000 columns. He was inspired by his 'idiot' bosses
Forget any gifts for Eli Amdur's birthday this Sunday. You can't compete with his favorite present.
On June 12, the 75th anniversary of his birth, the Teaneck career counselor will also see his 1,000th column published in The Record. The column's longevity – and his ability to affect readers' lives – have kept him going during a two-decade-long second act that ironically followed his own string of unhappy jobs.
Amdur has been writing about workplace issues in these pages since 2001. Each week's column has been a feat of tenacity, like a never-ending school assignment. But it's one Amdur relishes, he said, because he enjoys crafting a message that will help readers reach for their dream jobs.
Among his recent topics were the future of remote work, taking the plunge to start a new business and "what they didn't teach you in business school." One of his most popular columns over the years: "Fifty reasons why employers should hire the 50-plus candidate."
The job won't make him wealthy, but as he often reminds his clients, there's more to work than the paycheck.
"Will the job lead to greater happiness? Will it help you be meaningful to others?" he urges people to ask themselves.
The notion of being meaningful is what drives Amdur, an energetic mentor with a propensity for gab.
His 750-word columns are frequently passed around. Often, they inspire readers to reach out. A 93-year-old Emerson resident, Bill Wassmann, isn't in the market for a job, but he's been a religious follower of Amdur's advice and emailed last year to tell him.
They exchanged messages and a friendship blossomed. "I enjoy his column because he makes good sense, and he's down to earth. He says it honestly and without artifice," said Wassmann, who retired from a career in book publishing decades ago. "I wish he had been around when I was looking for a job because I could have used his advice."
For the past 25 years, Amdur, a Westchester County native, has worked as an executive coach, advising a myriad of jobless and forlorn clients who trudge into his Teaneck office, where he always has his favorite classical music murmuring. If all goes well, they leave with a renewed sense of direction and an extra bounce in their step.
Amdur estimates he has helped as many as 6,000 people who've attended his webinars, or sat in his cozy Minelli Place office. The office is decorated with colorful landscape photos and tchotchkes like a Jerry Garcia doll, an Ebbets Field sign and a book collection on topics related to psychology, poetry and history.
The coach counts himself among his own successful clients: Before he hung his shingle, Amdur was miserable and unemployed. By the time he was 50, he had worked in five businesses, mostly in office equipment sales. He realized "that every other boss I had worked for had either been an idiot or a jerk," he recalled in an interview last month.
One skill had shone through during those dispiriting jobs, he realized: an ability to mentor others.
He opened an office in his Teaneck home in 1997 and delivered free workshops at local job fairs and at The Record's annual networking event. Clients discovered him and Amdur quickly outgrew his home office and set up shop on Minelli Place.
Among his satisfied clients is James Frangione of Fair Lawn. "I was in a job in corporate security where I wasn't all that thrilled and was trying to figure out how to make a leap to another job," he said. He called Amdur and they met for a few hours.
"He totally redefined my definition of work and retirement. I see my career now in terms of different acts. He paid attention to how I think," Frangione said. Amdur "helped cultivate a new direction in me and helped me think about how to get to the next step. He was a good sounding board."
Soon after, Frangione landed another position in the same field where he was happier.
Coaching is highly intuitive, Amdur said. "I never tell people what to do. I help them decide what their next logical step should be."
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His column came about by accident: One day in 2003, a new classifieds manager at The Record, Chelle Bizé, called and said she found his business card on her desk. She didn't know who he was so she wanted to find out. After a few conversations, Bizé invited Amdur to try his hand at an article about workplace issues. It was well-read and become a regular gig.
Amdur came up with new material to write about every week for nearly two decades. "I keep my eyes and ears open to see what's happening in the world," he said. The big news of the moment is the job market which "is stronger than it's ever been. There's no Great Resignation. People aren't leaving the workforce. They are leaving their jobs and going to other jobs. There's a great reshuffling. There's actually a labor shortage."
His own resume documents a circuitous path that seems like it could have benefited from a job coach.
He grew up in Mount Vernon, the son of hardworking immigrants. His father was a synagogue cantor who turned down a contract with the Metropolitan Opera. His mother left high school to help support her parents during the Great Depression and took a job as a bookkeeper. (After she raised her children she went back and earned her degree).
Amdur's first job after graduating Fairleigh Dickinson University was as a junior high school teacher in the South Bronx. He left after three years, ran a concession stand on the Manasquan boardwalk, and then wound up following the Grateful Dead on tour for several years.
His next job was as a delivery boy for an office equipment company, where he worked his way up the ladder to a management job in sales. He built a wholesale distributorship of computer supplies out of his home and expanded it into a Bergenfield warehouse before selling the business in the late 1980s.
From there, Amdur would move into business research, training and development and staffing jobs. He was an adjunct professor at FDU for 15 years, teaching graduate leadership and communications courses.
Amdur doesn't harbor regrets about his unusual career path. "When you learn diverse skills, you wind up being in a position where happy accidents like the opportunity to write a column happen," he said, "and you are ready to say yes to any challenge."
Asked about his retirement plans, the septuagenarian could only laugh – hard.
"There's no age when seniors should retire. I've coached people from age 17 to 84. And the 84-year old got a full-time job!" he said. "A lot of Baby Boomers are still hanging on. We don't need to go sit on the rocking chair."
Deena Yellin covers religion for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to her work covering how the spiritual intersects with our daily lives, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: yellin@northjersey.com
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This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ jobs coach Eli Amdur writes 1,000th career advice column
