Denise Farris didn’t have a college degree but was working her way up the career ladder. She parlayed administrative assistant and logistics jobs in different industries into a position as director of international marketing for a bartering company.
Then the bottom dropped out. The company folded, owing Farris five weeks of back pay. The bank repossessed her car, she was evicted from her apartment, and she was a single mother with a 4-year-old daughter to think about…