Friday, April 16, 2010

Bubbly world

I had an interview today. I drove about 40 minutes and arrived an hour earlier at 9:00. I waited till 10 to 10 and then got in. The interview went very well and at the end the manager told me he will prepare the offer for me till the end of the next week.

I was happy and at the same time scared. the image they tried to show me was a little scarey. although I tried to have a realistic image about what I am expected to do there still I was scared. Basically at this time they want me to start from the very basic just like some one with bachelor. I have to go to sites around Toronto maybe 6 months to one year and supervise masculine workers. Workers who might find it so hard to listen to a girl like me. I have to prove myself to them and learn to be tough. The office is about 50 km away from home and I have no idea about the pay or benefits. I should wait to see the offer package to make my final decision. During interview both the manager and the experienced engineer tried to clarify that probably for the next few years I won't do any numerical analysis as I used to do for my PhD.

This is the real world.

Many of us live in a bubble with the wrong image from the real world, our ability and talents. When we are choosing a major at college how much we really know what we will become at the end? how much?
You ask a 7 year old kid what she/he wants to be! The answers are something like : I want to be a Dr, I wanna be an engineer, I wanna be a fire fighter, I wanna be a policeman...
Where do we get these ideas..sure TV, movies..makes everything looks dramatic, exciting, challenging, but not realistic...

I remember there was a TV series about  highway patrols dealing with drug dealers, murderers, criminals every day which is totally a wrong image.  Most of the time highway patrols fined ordinary car drivers like us  for speeding. You watch a movie, shows some young, handsome engineers working at decent offices and  think those engineers are probably sending at least one Apollo  to the space every week. If movies tries to show you a realistic routine of each career, a routine that is the case for  80% of your time, the movie won't sell. Everybody loves drama..and that what you get, a wrong dramatic image and you ended up doing something you probably hate and so bored with.

But it's not only TV or movies even these companies website are totally exaggerating about their work atmosphere. Just go around and search some engineering websites. I bet in every single of these sites you'll read something like " we are leading engineering company, dealing with innovative challenging projects." What many of these company should write is " we are working on routine  projects and every 10 years maybe a little new subjects pops up and makes us out of our comfort zone, so if you are someone with post graduate degree please don't bother to waste your time by applying for our company".

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Seeding

- Hi I am Ms. nobody, calling  to follow up on my resume with Mr./Ms. somebody.
- Sure let me connect you
-This is Mr./Ms. somebody's voice-male. Please leave a message!

And I know this is a dead end...He is not going to return my call but I won't give up. That's a Law of Seed :D

I must admit the hardest part of finding job is "the following up" section. You are as a total stranger calling to another stranger to talk about your resume. You don't want to look annoying or desperate. A friend of mine pushed me to follow up my resume few days ago which totally put me out of my comfort zone. But that's a good sign. If you are out of your comfort zone it means you are making progress. It shows something has changed for you. I need to practice being out of my cosy zone. I didn't realize how much I made myself comfortable at home during last two years of long distance study. Things are about to change...

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

The Law of the Seed

Andrew Matthew is one of my favorite authors. I read one of his books "follow your hear" about 6 years ago and I loved it. The book is simple but full of wisdom. here is part of his book which comes handy for me right now.

Nature has something to teach us here. It's telling us: "Most seeds never grow. So if you really want to make something happen, you had better try more than once."

This might mean:

You'll attend twenty interviews to get one job.

You'll interview forty people to find one good employee.

You'll talk to fifty people to sell one house, car, vacuum cleaner, insurance policy, idea.

And you might meet a hundred acquaintances to find one special friend...