Indians Outside India (Part II)

Now I’m sure for all my friends already in the second stage of green card processing would agree that Internship does not guarantee you the longer stay that most of “Indians” are looking for. My supervisor as well as her own boss, who both having seen my work were more than interested in giving me a full time opportunity. But sadly my company was going through the time (later 2005s) when the American Car Industry was hit by the Japanese ‘Camry’, just like when the Japanese hit the Pearl Harbor with their Kamikaze air attacks – talking about History repeating itself, only in a slightly different pattern. So, then started the quest of finding full-time career opportunities. I started going to the career fairs in a more serious manner, and just not for collecting Pens, paper clips, duffle bags, not to forget my favorite coffee mugs and drinking bottle with emblems of different companies. Making sure that I get my introduction line perfect, “Hello my Name is ---- and I’m interested in full time career opportunity with your company in whichever department that can get me a H1-B visa sponsorship”. Lot of those representatives, whom are told to take the application from whoever comes to their booth, Black, Brown, Yellow and even the whites with the same smile and punch line and not giving out any signs of biasness. Well, they did a good job, some genuinely interested, others thinking “Oh, here comes another foreigner trying to make it big at Uncle Sam’s and taking away jobs from one of us”. As a note of advice to all my readers, I have no prejudice towards these people. I have only come across the people who genuinely don’t care about someone’s origin and only care about their abilities, so chin up. My best bet was the internet – just throw in a bunch of buzz words related to your industry and let your e-resume do the trick for you. And it actually worked, got a call from a small sized consultancy firm that specialized in ‘Industrial Engineering’ work. They called me (all on my expense) interviewed me and told me that they will come back with a decision. This was the most excruciating wait, something similar to the one where you propose the girl you like and she says that she has to think about it. Till the point you get an answer from her (or the company) you have to be very very careful to do a follow up, well in this case the company doesn’t care, but the girl likes all that extra attention you pour in, keeping all the ego and self respect earned so far (mostly by showing off to people around you) at stake. This wait especially when you have applied to a so called consulting firm will help me learn later about the actuality on how they work on keeping the recruiting rate and the rate of getting project tuned up. After full 5 weeks of wait, I was given a reply. I still can’t forget those sweet words from the HR saying – “We are very excited to forward you an offer” – Finer prints read –“Here is what we are giving you, take it or leave it –we know you desperately want someone to apply for your H1 so don’t be a smart a$$”. I took up the job and gave a huge party to all my friends. Some of them were already done with this stage, some of them were getting into this. I was almost Godlike for them, and they considered me to be their mentor. I helped them without anything in return with my experiences, and I’m still helping some of them even know (ahem…) as I know how one has to go through this agonizing phase.

Moving to this new place was a fight in itself, but my social skills got me through this. Had to stay with some friend of a friend of a uncle’s son’s neighbor in the starting part. To do my bit of contribution, I sometimes got pizzas, beer (never forget that) and Groceries whenever I could. As most of them were still students doing PhD. My pay could afford this so I had no problem. I finally moved out to my own apartment. I had strict rules set for myself that I will NOT stay with any roommates. I had already stayed for 2.5 years with 3 guys, and quickly realized that it makes you a better person (read-more prepared) by teaching you to adjust – something that will be utmost useful when you are dating or married – I would like to write on this experience in the separate blog. Coming back to my experience with this firm, I quickly blend with these folks as I was a part of this firm ever since it was first commenced. But, certain instances started to make me think that, I would not want to be for a long time. I’m sure there are people out there with a fare share of these incidences. I used to see the office space soap, and I have to give it to the production team, that they have done a fabulous job in capturing the essence of a “Office Space” – no wonder we all get a good laugh, as each one would have some kind of experience similar to one shown in last night’s office space. I soon turned to my Internet job search mode, and this time my resume looked much fuller than before – lot more buzz word with the best one out there “The Consultant”. U.S. market has got lot of respect for this word in its own sense, some people’s definition of a consultant is ‘ A Glib, (very powerful) PowerPoint presenter, who knows everything about everything - and can make your sinking boat float – even its on a desert”. I will talk more in my next posting – please be tuned….. Thanks