Try looking for a job here

Twice a year I do a workshop for International Students about conducting a US-style job search. I have done this for probably ten years, usually by myself because I think the other staff people are afraid to do it. It doesn't really call for much, just patience and understanding and a certain sensitivity and maybe a little research.

Here's the thing: last fall I brought in a guest speaker, a Chinese man whom I had met at a conference, who volunteered to do it after I told him about my efforts to get the students to listen to what I had to say and take it to heart. I wondered if I had any credibility with the International Students and if I had the most current information for them. Well wouldn't you know it? He proceeded to tell them the same darn things that I tell them, but they listened to him, and even took notes!

I invited him again to come and do it today, but he didn't show up for some reason. This was puzzling because he seemed like the kind of person who lived up to his commitments. Later I checked the confirmation letter I had sent him and I had told him to come on "Monday, February 25", and of course it's Monday February 28 today. So I went ahead and did it myself.

We had a group of twenty or so students, a few of whom did participate when I asked questions, so that made it much easier. I asked them what their first impressions were of Americans when they landed in Cleveland. They said some kind things, remarking on the friendliness of the people, and their directness. (An International Student advisor once told me a less flattering impression: that Americans smell funny because we eat meat, while Hindus, for example, do not.)

I then took this and used in the workshop to show that they, too, have to be more direct in their dealings with Americans if they are to be perceived as confident and competent candidates.

Anyway, now I'm very tired, but it was kind of fun talking to the students--India, China, Greece, Venezuela, Taiwan, Malaysia--an interesting group.