Job Hunt

Here was my plan: Save up a couple of grand, fly to Canada, find a job, get an apartment, sponsor dina, and live happily ever after.

June 2009: So I've been here in Toronto for nearly two months, living in my aunt's condo and my bank account slowly bleeding to death. My aunts who were actually excited with my arrival were already bored with me. The best way to put it is, I was a cute little puppy that grew up into a pesky mongrel in just couple of weeks. They don't actually say it, but my being there with them is aggravating their lives. How can I tell? Nag, nag, nag. We don't talk. It's hard. I have nothing against them and I actually am very grateful for them accepting me to stay with them. Still, I wanna move out. But two months into my ordeal, I still haven't found a job and I was helpless.

Interviews. I'd say that back home, I was always good at interviews, probably because of my flawless English and non diescript twang. Back home, most of the interviewers would revert to speaking Filipino because they can't keep up with my slang. Oh well, that was not the case here. Everybody was speaking English. Though I'm proud to say that all my interviewers here complimented me on my lack of any accent. Still, my qualifications as a web techie was unsubstantiated by my lack of programming skills or design talent.

Back home, I prided myself of being a Web 2.0 critic, I knew most of what was going on in the industry. Moreover, I worked for an outsourcing company that didn't really know what I was talking about most of the time. Basically, I coulld say anything that sounds kinda techie and they would have no way of knowing if it was the truth or if I was making it up as I went along. Suckers. So my job was pretty easy.

Here however, this was the center of the industry and they knew what they were talking about. Everytime I'd go KIA mode (know-it-all), I found myself with my foot in my mouth and still unemployed. I went to an interview for an E-mail Marketing Manager position adn he asked me what e-mail marketing was, all I answered was 'SPAM'. Partially true but it wasn't quite what he was expecting.

Before I left, I was already looking at job openings in Toronto and was exoecting that with my qualifications I was sure to land a job paying at least twice minimum wage, hell I had a Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics! Well tough luck for me, the world was in an economic recession and employers weren't just going to hire some schmuck from the Philippines as a project manager or even a writer.

So there I was, two months into my Canadian ordeal, jobless and desperate. I was contemplating getting a fast food job or a sales clerk position in Best Buy. Actually, I did submit my applications there just to cover my bases. My aunts were pressuring me to volunteer at the library or get a menial job instead of being on 'vacation mode' as they put it.

Then I discovered internships. I figured that I wasn't qualified for entry level jobs so I had to take another step back. I applied to all kinds of intern positions I could find on craigslist, some were even non-paying at all! One web start up was offering $650 a month and I was expected to work even on weekends. I went to that interview, but I didn't show up for the 2nd phase of the process. Being someone who wrote about web startups for two years, I knew that their product was no good.

I always despised salesmen. However, I was so desperate, I nearly went for a door-to-door sales position.

July 2009: Still jobless and running out of options, I received a call about an internship position I applied for in June. I went to the interview, it was an SEO intern position for 6 months. I figured, what the hell, if they make an offer, take it. So I did.

July 15, 2009. First day of work. Hardcore Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing.