It never rains...

... but it certainly storms cats and dogs and the odd whale here in Malaysia. 

I was in Sydney when they told me that the visa fell through, and there were no openings in the other global offices. (I still have to fight the urge to say "our" even though I've been looking at other companies for some time. Perhaps the first company is like a first love; they make such deep impressions that you can never really forget about them?) 

Anyway, I spent the whole of August spamming companies in Sydney with my resume, begging for a job. I'd like to think that they put me in the reject pile immediately because of my address and not because of a lack of skills. In any case, it was a humbling, enery-sapping experience. It wasn't long before I set my sights on Singapore, thinking that my chances of finding a job there would be higher, but still no luck. WhenI got desparate enough, I resigned myself to working at home in the land of long working hours and low pay. 

The first interview I went to was with a small boutique consulting firm. They offered me a job the same day but for a salary more than six times lower than my previous drawn pay. It is an indication of how desparate I was at the time that I even considered the offer. Only my parents' outrage at what they considered the firm's exploitation of their daughter made me turn it down. 

After that interview, I didn't hear back from anyone for about two weeks and I was getting very anxious, wondering if I'd made a mistake to turn my first offer down. What if it was my only offer? 

But then, as these things go, a friend introduced me to a friend who introduced me to Chen Chow, the most awesomely connected person I know. He passed my resume on to his friends and before I knew it, I'm getting calls from everywhere. I've since learned that if you go through the normal application process here in Malaysia, your resume will end up in some HR pile somewhere and your chances of getting someone that matters looking at your resume is slim to none. But if you pass it on to someone that matters, particularly someone who would like you working for them, then you get a call the next day. And it's THE SAME RESUME. So it's as much about WHO you know as WHAT you know. So much for meritocracy :(

That said, it's only an interview or four, and there are no guarantees that I will win my battle with my nerves and I might just flunk the case miserably anyway. But there's still a glimmer of hope. And the calls and my rapidly-filling callendar are definitely ego boosters. Thanks, Chen Chow, for all your help and support :) 

Now the challenge is to see 

• Whether I can convert these interviews into offers
  
• How long these companies are willing to wait for me to make my decision and, more importantly, 
• What I will do if the companies aren't willing to wait and I'm still chasing the whale. 

Thoughts?