I have been somewhat busy. Two companies that I am very interested had their job application due March 19. That’s a day before my birthday. And as I mentioned before, many Korean applications want the candidates to write out “personal statement.” In other words, (and in average) there are three to five questions where you have to answer within the given word limit. Many of these questions are interview questions in US. In addition, depends on the company the word limit is such a variety – a firm that I am most interested in limits the answers to be no longer than 2,000 words. Then one of the firms I applied last week limited the answer to be less than 300 words. Of course they are pretty much asking same stuff. So now I applied three companies so far – I keep my fingers crossed.
In the middle of daily job hunting, I got a connection invitation on LinkedIn from my college alum. It’s good but I wondered why on earth he would like to connect with this young gal alum at a small Asian country. It turned out that he saw my profile randomly on my college community on LinkedIn, saw my status as “seeking employment” and wanted to help me out. In addition, he hosted homestay an exchange student from Korea and his daughter visited South Korea several times. What a small world!
He offered me to call him so we can talk about possible career opportunities and practical advice. Yes, I had to get up at 6 am and am pretty sure some of my answers did not make sense, even with strong black tea. But it was incredibly helpful – he introduced me to several new ways and connections. On the top of that he gladly revised my English resume. Though that early morning international phone call really screwed up my normal sleep cycle, I am not going to complain. I can’t. I guess all that karma paid off – for sure I’ll do more good.
Meanwhile I had some strange contacts, too. A guy whom I sent a job-lead e-mail said he will try to call me. So I emptied that day’s schedule. But he ended up not calling me. At the end he did call me, but then started to go on and on and on about my last job and duties. Well…I would not have sent him that job-lead e-mail if I am still related to my last work. I said I am no longer involved in that work. Then he went on about how the things in his company works with much detail. Some of it was helpful, but my job-lead e-mail was not about that. It was simple: “I know you, and here’s my background. Please let me know if you know any fit opportunity for me or can spread the word.”
And then, another guy whom I met through one of the recruiters, is flirting with me. Yes he is a very friendly guy, and thanks for your interest in me…but I really don’t want to initiate a romantic relationship who is +10 years older than I am. I haven’t been dated for two years and consider myself pretty open person, but still. No.
My Korean-style job session is over for now. And there are more employers who posted their openings – and luckily some of them are the field I am interested. To be honest it is a bit frustrating that I have an open schedule but not THAT open. Now it is the major hiring season here, so I would not dare to take a luxury of vacation trip away to Bali.
I hear stories that many Koreans made it through big name grad schools, because the competition rate was lower than before, thanks to bad economy. Maybe I should have gone to the grad school. But what I care most is what AFTER grad school. If I am to go to grad school, I want it to be a “ticket” out of here, or at least not having to deal with bunch of mono-cultured Koreans.
Seriously, if only I was born 5 years earlier, my life would have been much easier. This morning I read an article regarding the international economic depression, written by an economic professor at Yale. He, too, said no one can really predict what would happen – when would this depression end? How long would this depression continue? We really don’t have much data to predict. In human history there was only one economic depression that affected every single country on earth. The one at 1930’s.
I know, I know – the life itself is a bet. It takes turn at the most unexpected part. Or, when you expect it would be curvy, the road is straight. Someone said there’s no road ahead because it’s all about what I make of it.
Yeah…I should’ve graduated college in 90’s.
No comments:
Post a Comment