'Overwhelming' Reaction to Stockbroker Turned Pizza Man

March 26, 2009— -- Ken Karpman knows that a reversal of fortune can happen quickly.

After losing his job making $750,000 a year as a stockbroker, he works today as a pizza deliveryman making $7.29 an hour.

Now he is fielding hundreds of job opportunities after being profiled last week on "20/20." Karpman describes the response to his "20/20" appearance as "overwhelming" and estimates he has received at least 300 phone calls, 25 letters and 25 e-mails with potential job offers.

Karpman says he's determined to "strike while the iron is hot"" and convert the media exposure into gainful employment. In the meantime, phone traffic at Mike's Pizza and Deli has skyrocketed.

"For every call for a pizza, there have been 10 calls for me," said Karpman.

For the first 45 years of Karpman's life, everything was close to perfect.

He graduated from UCLA with a bachelor's degree and M.B.A., then got a high-paying job as an institutional equity sales trader. He married his dream girl, had two children and traveled the world on expensive vacations.

Over the span of Karpman's impressive 20-year career as a trader, he climbed the company ladder, reaching a salary of $750,000 a year.

"Life was good, we were making a lot of money -- and why wouldn't this just continue on?" Karpman said.

From all appearances, Ken and Stephanie Karpman were living the American dream in Tampa, Fla., nestled in their 4,000-square-foot home that sits on a golf course. "I had no idea what anything cost in a store," he said. "I'd just put it in the cart and buy."

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Karpman was so confident in his good fortune and the strong economy that he left his job in 2005 to start his own hedge fund. To pay for the new business and their standard of living, Karpman quickly burned through $500,000 in savings and, like so many Americans, took a line of credit against his house.

But in the reversal of fortune that followed, Karpman was unable to attract investors and was forced to dissolve his hedge fund. He found himself jobless in a job market that had collapsed.