Two months in the world of job hunting and I am ready to write a novel. What an excellent inspiration job hunting provides was completely unknown to me till now. From the time I let everyone know in US that I would have a work permit in US, everyone congratulated me as if I already have a job paying me 10k. I was a little surprised and more annoyed. Annoyed because they sounded ridiculous and encouraging to the extent of raising my expectation. I have been through one hell of a job hunt in India a couple of years back and miserably failed. Though India would not be specifically called the land of opportunities, I know everyone who is moderately educated to have a good looking job. I had spending eight grueling months in Bangalore India which is supposed to be the hot job place and gave (or should I say 'took') interviewers way too many in numbers; made friends too, but never landed with any job of any kind. Monetarily speaking, I spend a lot of money on job hunting and yet to recover that. So I was sure luck wont have moved too higher with job hunt in a couple of years and even in a country half way around the world I am not embarrassed to admit that those encouraging phrases did raise my hopes. So the moment I stepped in the country, I spend a good cut of my savings to the pay order to get my EAD Card. . Look, there begun the spending! Not to mention gong through all those documents of Department of Homeland Security of US to get to the fast way for getting the EAD Card in hand. Woh, if you have seen one, you would that the card looks very encouraging too. Right after i applied for the EAD realized that it takes 3 months to get that card without which noone would legally employ me, they would just take a look at me as a prospect! well, unlike my sister's I was sure mine was not coming in two weeks!
Looking for a job is like going for shopping. When you are broke, you find everything on the stand worth buying and the best deals fly around. The moment comes to buying specific or necessity, you cant even find one store close to expectation.
The First month was casual looking around, like window shopping. I was given brilliant advices meanwhile. Like, I can get a job and tell my employer that the EAD will reach here any moment.; hmm... sounded to me like it has started walking towards me and dear employer, you know the distance between Mesquite and Houston. I half heard this suggestion and decided to start applying online with the half lie, ticking 'yes' to the question about employment authorization documents. Well, everyone who has gone through the electronic mode of job hunting knows that e-hunting ironically turns out to be the slowest one!
One such advice and encouragement was given by the Branch manager of the Bank of America. This was the first week of my arrival and I had not even filed the EAD papers. I went in to get the pay order for EAD. Bank of America, the name most would want to work under. And to my surprise, along with making my pay order and opening my account, this sweet lady offered me a reference to apply at 700 Louisiana St. She encouragingly said, 'our bank is always looking for smart people like you'. Now this sexy address is in the downtown, which always sounds intimidating from driving point of view; so many cris-crosses, so many no entried, absolutely no idea. I took over three weeks and numerous attempts to ultimately reach the fourteen storey fabulous looking building in the theatre district of Houston downtown. The first achievement of driving through and parking the car in the visitor's parking, I dreamt of driving n parking in the employee's four floor's parking slot very soon. The huge elevator took me to the ground floor. Stepping out on its lobby, I could feel the best part of working for such a brand. I asked the reception about the personnel department, which was on the fourth floor I went up to the fourth floor. I went up to the fourth floor to find all the doors electronically locked and a phone by is side. For once I thought of using a liar's tactics and get to enter the door. But the coy me just picked up the phone and dialed the first number on the enlisted paper. Sandra. In a couple of minutes' conversation she told me that the only way to get through the job is to wait for the job to come to you! hmm.. did she really said that? Well, the key was back to being at home and applying online and the recruiter will call you. So, the brighter side was I gotta to see this good place where you know for sure you would want to work. I also got acquainted to the road to downtown.
Experience of job hunting is immense and these days it teaches you more than you know. Like these online applications and job hunting. It tests you all the qualities you are quoting for the jobs you applying for. But there has been an additional concern these days- how authentic is the company which posted such lucrative offer. I never faced this when job hunting year back in India. I am sure it was just because job spams were much lesser in those days. The easiest way to start job hunting is to go to any of the job sites and apply online. The good part is you can see many openings which is encouraging for a job hunter, even though you might end up with none. At the same time sometimes it gets very frustrating to see so many jobs and you still have none. Either way, basic principle of job hunting is to never give up. So all you do is go to the site and make yourself visible. Sometimes, well more often it happens that you have applied for so many openings of the same kind that you feel like hiring a secretary! One fine day, you find a mail in your inbox from one among those forgoten applications which ask you to give them a call to further the process. Yippee! Hurray! But alas, you don't remember what did you exactly got attracted to in this company in the first place. One such mail came to me too. And, my eyes glittered with so many aspirations. The website of the company spoke about event management. One second thought, the website was little vague; who cares as long as I get that paycheck. I called them immediately, fixed an appointment for interview. Though I should have suspected as the lady on the other end never mentioned any detail about the profile, I thought positively to talk to them face-to-face. It was my first interview in the United States, first face-to-face with prospect of job! No less than a moon walk for me that moment. It rained that afternoon like cats and dogs. The road that led directly to the office address was closed With all my senses of direction at use, I found the place; went into a living-room sized hall to be greeted by two skinny teen-aged (looking) ladies. There was another guy dressed formally like me, so I guess he was there to give interview. They handed me a board with one page form as soon as I reached the table. I sat down to write all that I am now so much automated to write filling out numerous online application. I dont understand why they ask to write the same info if I have already provided the same online. Do they want to check my handwriting? I was a little nervous, least because I doubted about getting this job. A middle-ages woman appeared from inside the passage and invited the guy over with her for the interview. She looked very professional and good at customer service. By the time I finished my form, the guy came out with a grin, confirming the fact that he is a go. I went in next with the lady. With all the etiquette in place of an interviewer, she hardly asked me any question about my skills I had mentioned. Well, actually she complimented my personality and I guess made it clear that she believed in all that I have mentioned. Good for me! However, the problem was that she neither answered any of my questions about the company or the job profile, now intended to in near future. She invited me for a field trip with some executives the next day in order for me to get a first hand experience of the work. She spoke of multi-million dollar profits and charity- charitable cause in the same breath! I could see a big mice in this egg. Even after such vagueness, I came back half-decided as whether I would want to go to their next step of 'don't- know-how-long' process of recruitment. By the time I returned home, I was to learn that the glitters in my eyes on getting the email was nowhere about the gold. I was back at not just job hunting this time but also hunting more about this company and its background. I found few reports against it but they were also in some farce looking website so dint really know what to trust. After some thoughts decided to drop the further steps and so took out the visiting card of the interviewer to write a regret letter to her. Ah, guess what i could have found- a card which names completely different company! it means I went to give an interview in a company 'A' and go to its office, where the premises also says 'A' and gives an interview for "z" and almost got recruited there. I mean, this was completely new and absolutely unexpected. So again, job hunting tested my innocence and almost made me feel penny wise pound foolish. Literally, these companies are either too clever or we the job-hunter are too naive to get into their trap!
My job hunt was far from being over. i was also told by the USian that jobs are everywhere, from the corner grocery stores to the Macy's and Dillard's and I did apply to them too. but guess they dint like my name. So here we are the most common problem in my life while job hunting. Though I don't have any evidence to prove this, but I am sure my name has a lot of contribution at hindering my path to a successful career. My name, which contains ten letters and five sounds, is almost impossible for half of the world to even catch its pronunciation in the first shot. Not that its the first time in life I have faced such problem with my name, it never hindered my growth; look at my tongues.. its long and sharp! But this name which scares people away is truly a valid reason why people from recruitment team never call me. I know for the fact that even the lady from Bank of America centre asked me to name her my referral and told me that she would recommend me when she never got my name in any of the meetings. I cant even write pet names or initials while writing cover letters confusing the recruiter more. Once I wrote a PS at the end of the cover letter to call me "Shina" and had decided that even if they just call me back, I would start writing PS on every cover letter. Well, obviously, I never got another chance to add a PS.
Another significant part of the job hunting is writing the cover letter and resume. On serious note, I have heard that people have hot good jobs cause of a good resume and cover-letter (though I personally doubt this bit of information). Even if this was true, there is an irony in the situation which I have not mastered yet even after four different phases of job hunting in my life. With more frustration mounting on your head and more practice, I guess, the cover-letters have started to sound convincing and better (again, I m self-evaluating!). By the time you have really carved out the best and the most innovative cover-letter, you have already applied for almost all the possible openings. Though I write very boldly about my communication skills in my resume an everywhere, I sometimes come to doubt the existence of it in me especially when i sit across the interviewer. I don't seem to understand if what they said was an affirmative or diplomatic negation. Both i find very rude and arrogant or too sweet for me to insist further. Whatever they may be, I seem to be loosing the battle almost all the way. I recently went to a Bank, a walk-in. Thankfully they wanted candidates to apply in person only, so at least I got the chance to go for my second interview after disappointing first one. I went in to the lobby with the receptionist sitting at the centre. After the initial greetings, I enquired about the procedure of recruitment to which she keenly started searching for something around her desk. I realised another of those forms coming on my way and prepared myself to get into the automated form filing mode. She handed me a fat file. Ah! for a minute I wondered if this is the usual way of recruiting in US. First experience the work , then talk about it further. I looked at the file and weighed my whimpering stomach. It looked like a couple of hours work. I sat on the couch nearby to start the form. She guided me throughthe fule and to my relief said,' this contains all the positions which has openings now; you can find the one you want to apply for while filling the form.' Wow, looked like I have lot of choices. The booklet form needed my permission mostly for different kinds of background check, credit check et al. Coming from India, we have this bad habit of signing almost everything without a question. The form took the same time as it would have taken to work on that fat file and now I was starving. As I handed out the completed booklet she introduced me to a lady standing next to her table by then, who would take my interview. Her name suggested she was german; nice smart corporate looking woman I would love to change places with right now. Of course, only the professional part. She spoke tome forthright and honest too. by the time the doors opened and we were out, I realised that I need some magical understanding to woo these interviewers. In those few minutes, I really dint understand what she wanted from me. I wanted to get inside her mind and know what she exactly thought of while talking to me. Whatever she thought, I was left on the same side of the table with the same words to leave with,'keep in touch, would let you know as soon as a position comes up!' Hence I know my meat of job hunting still needs to be churned.
