As a few of you requested, I am going to put more of my daily life and goings on into the blog as well as the travel stories.
One of the most immediate things for me is finding a job. I graduated from my language course in December, and had a great visit back to LA in January. Now it is time to look for a job.
I am lucky to be in the tech industry - there are job possibilities and Dutch fluency is helpful but not a requirement. For some of my Australian friends here, it is next to impossible to find a job in other industries without Dutch fluency.
I got my interview "power suit" in the US during my last visit home, as none of Dutch clothes fit me here. I certainly cant get a professional suit in the kid's section, and sometimes even kids clothes are too long for me!!
So, some things are pretty much the same...hunt online job boards, email resumes, work with headhunters who range from incompetent to actually helpful.
OK, now how do I get there?
Some things are different here. Much more personal info, that is off-limits in the US, are commonly asked in interviews and even included on the resume. I have been asked for my age, marital status, children (or lack there-of), and once even religion (to see if I needed to take any additional religious days off). I was asked once to submit a photo, so they could put "a face to the name". Resumes can stretch 4 pages as people often put hobbies, every job they had from the first flipping burgers to last professional job.
My interview prep is a little different here. I get directions (by train, bus & local city map). I also usually have to have Rob help translate the job sites for me. You know its not a good sign when he scans pages of info and says only "they are a tech company founded 10 years ago".
Well, I have an interview tomorrow the largest European car and hand-held GPS company TomTom (www.TomTom.com). I'll put up a post-interview blog on how it went. Wish me luck all!!
1 comment:
Actually, sounds like Yelena's experience interviewing for residencies. Her resume is 8 pages long. Kaiser Permanente asked for a headshot. Sometimes she hides her wedding ring because otherwise they'll ask her "when are you planning on having children?" (Obviously if she's only going to have a one-year residency they don't want her punching a giant hole in that by having kids.) Yelena also has trouble finding an interview suit that fits right. She found one at Nordstrom, but the very first time she wore it to an interview, her satchel somehow rubbed off on the pants and left this terrible blotch so the suit is unusable. And it was on sale so she can't return it!
But, at least she knows the language, so you still have it worse. Good luck!!!
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