SIGNED!

So I now officially have a job and will start on Monday. Quite exciting and scary at the same time. I'm gonna get exposed to the Canadian workplace, and I really wish I fit in well. I give a lot of credit to Sarab for helping me out. She really seemed genuinely excited when I talked to her about signing. My wife of course who supported me (emotionally and financially) during my bum period. And Online Business Systems who have given me this opportunity. I hope I don't let them down.

That sounded like an acceptance speech.

Awesome SH...

O2 made the offer. I gave Sarab a call, and she told me to follow up with O2. They told me to come in. And when I did, they made the offer. I took the Contract home but I'm sure I'll take it. Now I have to think of how to inform the other companies that I'm not taking their offer. It should be easy but that's how I am.

Nice Dilemma

I had my 4th interview with Company O2. It was with the VP. It was also more of an information session with him telling me about the company and how it's organized. No offers here, but he told me that HR is probably just waiting for my references to reply before the next step can be taken.

Meanwhile, Company W called. And they've offered me the job. This is good news. However, the fact that I prefer O2 and I've gotten so far in the interview process worries me. I'd probably jump at this if the competition wasn't O2. I give Sarab a call but she isn't in.

Well, at least this is a nice problem to have.

Final?

A few days back, we lost our wireless connection for a while. I noticed at the time that someone was on the phone. It happened again today and someone was on the phone again. It turns out that since the wireless router and the wireless phone operate in the same frequency (2.4 GHz), simply answering the phone brings down wireless connections. Or something like that. It also turns out that the only guaranteed solution is replacing either device and that costs money. I'm going to be more picky when I get a wireless phone of my own.

Also, Company O2 called again with what they say might be the final interview. She said it would be with the Vice President. As I said before, I'm really liking this company. And we're getting poor thanks to my bum lifestyle. Then again, it's stuff like this that keeps delaying me from getting survival jobs. I hope I'm as close as I hope I am. Did that make sense?

More Job Hunt Updates

I had my 3rd interview at Company O2. This one seemed like more of an information session about a certain opportunity that they have. It isn't Java though. So I guess they're trying to determine if I could do the work and if I'm willing. And I definitely am. Besides, I can get back to Java eventually. And it's always good to try something new.

Also, company W, who interviewed me yesterday, called and informed me that they've shortlisted me and would want my references.

Oh and another non-IT company with an IT group called to schedule an interview for March 6. Let's called them Company W2. It's a pretty big company (they also have their own building) and seems to be a great place to work.

I'm pretty nervous of the situation where I receive an offer from all of them. Or if I get an offer from a company, but I prefer the another. Let's not get carried away though.

So there, good news all around in the job hunting front. GIVE ME A JOB!!!

Still Jobless, Still Hopeful

A non-IT company with openings in their IT group I applied to just called and have scheduled an interview for Feb 27. Let's call them Company W. It's a term position but the job description seems to fit me well (Java Web Development). So that's good news.

I also had my 2nd interview at Company O2. It's a technical interview. The interviewer was a senior Java web developer. I did a bit of research before the interview, and he's pretty much were I'd like to be in a couple of years knowledge-wise. It was a very laid back interview again. He just wanted to get a feel of what my level/experience was. He didn't give me a knowledge exam or anything. So I didn't get a feeling that I did good or bad. It's more like I hope they think I'm a good fit. Oh and he mentioned that the interview process is normally long, with 5 interviews being a good estimate. Gonna wait for that phone call again I guess.

Nice office

I had an interview today. It's an IT consulting company. Let's call them Company O2. Actually Sarab got me this interview. She had contacts there. I recall sending a resume thru e-mail but never got a response. I guess referrals is the way to go here.

When I got there, the first thing I noticed was the interior of the office. It's hard to explain, but the exposed wooden structures and stone walls gave it a homey, sort of outdoor feel (if that made sense). The interview was with the HR manager and it was very laid back. It was like a normal conversation where we would talk about life in the Philippines, adjusting to Canada and, naturally, the weather. Of course, we also went through my background/experience. Thankfully, no dreaded behavioral questions here. Looks like a nice place to work (although most of the time, work is out at the client site). She informs me that she'll be calling again for a technical interview. I hope so as my last interview was a couple of weeks ago and this is pretty much all I've got.

Hire me already!

I'm still jobless. It's getting depressing. Especially since I've had interviews so I know my resume's doing its job. Interviews seemed to be going ok too. Past few days have been dry though. Might have to get that survival job. It's days like this that I wish I took summer jobs in High School or College in fast food. Or I wish I were more physically fit so I could do physically demanding jobs. Or that I didn't hate phones so much so I could work at call centers. I seem to be the worst kind of person to be an immigrant. I hope that a few weeks from now, I'll just laugh at this post.

Nice coincidence

Had 2 interviews today. I kinda had a feeling with the first one that I wouldn't get it. The other one meanwhile seemed quite interested. Interestingly, the addresses of these companies were St. Mary's Avenue and St Mary's Road respectively.

As I got off the bus downtown coming from the interviews, I saw my wife exiting Winnipeg Square on the way to Tim Horton's (coffee shop). That was a nice coincidence.

Dog in the Office, Bus stop photographer

I had a couple of job interviews this week. None of them had anything immediate or promising. One of them though was a bit amusing as the company owners (who was interviewing me), had his dog with him at their office. She (a yellow Labrador retriever) was very friendly and approached me several times looking to be pet. I want a dog. I also had an interesting experience at the bus stop today. I was on my phone, checking the bus schedule, when suddenly this lady was in front of me taking pictures. She probably noticed that I was a bit surprised, so she explained that she was doing a photo essay. I just smiled and said "ok", as I pretended she wasn't there (this is probably what she wanted). After that, she went on her way. I kinda regret not asking her if she'd have an exhibit or something.

Police Station

A job opening I found from a recruiter requires government security clearance. A fingerprint card is one of the requirements for this so the recruiter advised me to send her this. This can be acquired from the Public Safety Building at 151 Princess St. (near city hall). So I decide to go with mean when she goes to work (since it's on the way).

For our bus route, there are a few areas where the bus stops for longer than usual. I presume this is for the driver to take a bathroom break and/or to kill a bit of time if the bus is ahead of schedule. In one of these stops, I spotted a bird of prey type on the ground. It turns out that it was eating a pigeon. The bus might have run over it's dinner so it perched itself on top of a pile of hardened snow, waiting for the bus to leave. It probably wasn't much bigger than it's victim. Never saw much of that in the Philippines. I should really bring my camera more often.

Anyway, it wasn't so hard to find the police station. It seemed more like an office building then the police stations I'm used to. I paid the $52 (damn!) fee at a window in the lobby and proceeded to the 2nd floor. The receptionist seemed very nice and was quite helpful. I had to call the recruiter since they needed more detail on the purpose for getting fingerprints. After a short wait they called me in. They took my photo and let me fill up a short information sheet (I think it was straight to the computer). After another short wait, a police officer came in to do the fingerprinting. After cleaning my hands I had my fingerprints and I was done. I was a bit surprised they didn't keep a copy for their records. Anyway, I'll mail these prints out. I hope it leads to some possible work.

Winnipeg police:
http://www.winnipeg.ca/police/default.stm

Success Skills end

Today was the last day of the Success Skills workshop. I'm still gonna see a lot of them though since they assign us to career counselors who will meet with us regularly to help us with our job hunting. I've been assigned to Sarab. With what I've seen of her, I think I'm pretty lucky. She seems to be the perfect person to help with interview skills which I think is my weakness at the moment. So there, it's time to bombard the IT job market.

First Job Interview

Today, I had my first job interview. It didn't go too well. They kinda criticized my resume and interview skills. They still asked me to revise it so that might be good. I'm starting to wonder if I should stop submitting job applications until I at least finish the Resume writing and Interview skills portion of Success Skills workshop which started it's regular sessions today.

Success Skills and Recruiters

I got some calls from a couple of recruiters. Both of them are based outside Winnipeg but have some openings here. One of them had an opening that required me to get government security clearance so she sent me the forms I needed to fill out. The other had an opening that required Crystal Reports skills (I've been seeing a LOT of those jobs). Hopefully these lead me somewhere good.

Today I also attended the orientation for Success Skills Center workshop. Basically, they're a not-for-profit organization that assists immigrant professionals find work in their field. This will be a 2 week workshop where we will be taught things like resume format, interview skills, work environment, culture, etc.

Naturally, the first people I was able to talk to were fellow pinoys. I met around 4. There were probably around 30 attendees with various ethnic backgrounds. In addition to that, a fellow Pinoy who I met at Success Skills told me that he thought I was Chinese. Had to throw that in :)

One of the pinoys related how she had self-esteem problems working in a survival job which I totally understand. This is probably thanks to wrong expectations. Thankfully, my expectations aren't so high since my wife arrived here first and told me how it really was. It's easy for one to be taken by surprise thanks to the "points system" where if you pass, you would expect that you can get a job in your field. You are led to believe that you are what Canada is looking for. They seem to be getting better at this though as they mentioned that you might not get a job in your original field in this seminar I attended before leaving the Philippines. Oh well, I hope this workshop helps me, her and everyone else attending.

Apply Apply Apply

So I'm applying to all Winnipeg Java jobs I can find on the Net. I primarily use these sites.

Monster
CareerBuilder
Workopolis

There's also Winnipeg Free Press' Careers section which comes out on Saturdays.

There are also a lot of other sites which you can come across in various ways. I must leave no stone unturned. I don't want to be useless.