All kinds of job interviews

All kinds of job interviews are really the characteristics of immigrant life. This is a true story of a Canadian student's job interview. I hope that reading this story of job interview will be helpful to Canadian students. I have been in Canada for eight years. I have experienced the internet bubble and the global financial turmoil, and I am deeply touched. The first crisis sent me to Montreal HEC, the first business school in Canada. The second crisis brought me back from sunny Florida to cold Toronto.

In March 2000, Beijing was chilly in spring, and I took my eight-year-old daughter to embark on this road of immigration alone. When boarding the plane in Beijing, Air Canada told children that they could board the plane first. On the plane, children will also receive special care and give gifts, toys and food. Children may have loved this country from the moment they boarded Air Canada, and I deeply feel that when I set foot in this beautiful and strange country, I will also start a difficult job search process. Do a good job in all kinds of landing procedures, arrange children to go to school, handle telephone calls and buy computers. First, listen to lectures in Huoxian Society, how to apply for a job, how to interview, how to write a resume, and then send a resume online. There are many job websites. To me, www.workoplis.com is the best in Canada and www.indeed.com is the best in the United States. In China, I have never suffered this kind of hardship, but in the United States and Canada, I have experienced numerous job applications, numerous interviews and numerous failures.

The first job I got in Canada went quite smoothly. I had a telephone interview with a German company in Toronto and Vancouver for about an hour, but I was not invited to the company for an interview. This is my seventh interview in Canada. I received an offer in less than a week. The contract lasts for two years and can be renewed. But it didn't last long. The company originally intended to hire me for a new project, but the project was postponed. In the end, the company lost the project in the competition, and I soon lost my job. At that time, the IT bubble had already appeared. Within a few months of my departure, the company's offices in Spain and Vancouver were closed.

I had to start my second job search in Canada, flying to Calgary, taking a seaplane to Victoria for an interview, and failed in two expeditions. In the big temperature area, I interviewed 10 many times, and 14 got an offer. This is my second quotation. Because of the low salary, frequent overtime, unattended children and some unpleasant things in the company, I returned to China soon after I worked. When I came back from China, the company also went bankrupt.

Due to the influence of the internet bubble, I gave up looking for an IT job, moved from Vancouver to Montreal, studied French for a year, and then applied for a master's degree in finance from the bilingual university HEC in Montreal. From August 2003 to September 2005, I basically completed the master's preparatory course and master's courses, and began to write my graduation thesis and apply for a job.

From sending my first resume in September 2005 to being hired by MetLife in September 2006, I spent a year and attended hundreds of interviews. An interview may include 1-3 rounds and an interview may include 1- 10 person-times. At a party with HEC China, I once joked: "Your life will be victorious, and it will usher in the dawn. I am interviewing 100 times, and I will succeed if I win 100 times, otherwise I will jump off the bridge. " Having said that, I firmly believe that the longer the rainy day, the closer the sunny day is.

As far as I can remember, I flew from Mengcheng to America for four interviews.

I went to Charlotte, North Carolina for the first time. It is also called Crown City, because the top of the tallest building in the city, Bank of America Building, is a crown. The city is the third largest financial center in North America, where Wachovia Bank and Bank of America are headquartered. I went to the headquarters of Bank of America for an interview. The company mentioned my graduation in the first and second telephone interviews, and again in the third interview. Maybe I haven't got my degree, and Bao Er didn't give me an offer.

The second time was in Raleigh, North Carolina, an energy company, Progressive Energy Company, which is one of the top 250 companies in the United States. The agent contacted me, and the company didn't interview me by phone. Lost by a doctor in China. China and Indian are the most difficult people to deal with in the interview. Most of them are engaged in specific work in the company, and the questions they ask are very detailed and difficult to answer. Indians also have accent problems.

The third interview was in Cincinnati, Ohio. After the telephone interview, I flew to the city for an interview with U.S. Bank, the sixth largest bank in the United States. In a restaurant in this city, I can't help crying when I think of my experience of studying, applying for a job and interviewing for so many years: I am a fish, being slaughtered and chosen by others.

The fourth interview, in Florida, came to Tampa after two rounds of telephone interviews. Before that, Tampa didn't exist in my world. She is the third largest city in Florida, across Tampa Bay from St. Petersburg, the fourth largest city, with a population of 450,000. The company I interviewed was MetLife. More than 70 years ago, MetLife was the largest company in the world and was called "Giant Group". From "Titanic" to "9 1 1", the company can respond in the first time. The Titanic Survivor Rescue Command was located at MetLife headquarters at that time. The whole interview process takes about 2 hours. Not many people interviewed me, it was still early, and I was not invited to lunch. I am most afraid of eating. I don't understand the menu at all. I don't know what they are. Besides, during the meal, I will arrange interviews. The restaurant is very noisy, and my hearing is not good, which will definitely affect the interview effect. It was still early, so I checked out of the hotel and called a taxi to Tampa airport. The airport is the most modern in the United States and ranks third in the world. So far, I have taken off and landed at that airport dozens of times. One is an interview and the other is a business trip. The plane soared into the sky and had a bird's eye view of Tampa Bay. The scenery is picturesque, and the houses are all built by the water. Three bridges connect Florida's third largest city with its fourth largest city. The longest uninterrupted sidewalk in the world is located in Tampa, and the first commercial flight in the world originated in these two cities. Looking at the clouds over Tampa Bay, so white and carefree, I am full of emotions and emotions: life is like a cloud, I don't know where it came from. I don't know where to go. I would like to become a cloud, floating in the wind, traveling everywhere, not looking for a job, not worrying about eating, not worrying about living, not worrying about wearing. ...

Back to Mengcheng from Tampa, there were many telephone interviews. About 75% of my interviewees are from the United States, 20% from Canada and 5% from other countries. I once interviewed four companies in the world 100 by telephone: HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, BNP Paribas and General Motors.

On September 1 1, I finally received the employment notice from MetLife. This is the third time I have been hired. I have cancelled more than 20 interviews since I got the job offer. Including Merrill Lynch, RBC, investment companies in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and so on. It is well known that the red light district in the Netherlands is famous, but few people know that the financial industry in the Netherlands is better. Such a small country accounts for 13 of the world's top 500. Shell, ING, AEGON, ABN amro, etc. are all world-famous companies. ING is the largest financial company in the world today. I interviewed ING and AEGON more than once, and I also interviewed AEGON by telephone at the headquarters in The Hague.

MetLife sent me the TN visa documents prepared by my lawyer in new york. I passed the customs inspection, but was refused a visa. According to the North American Free Trade Agreement, TN visa holders must hold a bachelor's degree or above from the United States, Canada and Mexico, or the equivalent of the three countries. I haven't graduated from HEC, and I don't have a North American degree. Customs has passed, so I can't go back easily. I was asked to take fingerprints, take photos, fill out forms, and was treated as a criminal, which bothered me for two hours. My daughter is under 16, so these things are exempted. The plane ticket was scrapped and the house was rented out. Fortunately, it was rented to a fellow villager of mine. I called him and told him that my visa was rejected and I needed to go back for a few days. On the same day, I immediately went to the University of Toronto to apply for an expedited equivalent certificate. On the 20th, I went to the airport again. The immigration officer looked at my equivalent education certificate and TN visa documents, asked me a few simple questions, gave me two I-94 forms, filled them out, paid $56, and exempted children from visas. It will be completed in less than 10 minutes.

The climax of my interview was two years from my entry into MetLife to my departure from MetLife. I have interviewed at least 20% of the world's top 500 banks, and I have interviewed 9 of the US 10 banks. I have experienced from the World Bank and Citibank to the largest banks in Britain, France, Spain and Israel. I have interviewed Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG more than once. Three of the global 10 luxury houses are located in palm beach county, Florida, and I have also been to the palm beach county government for an interview. For a position in MetLife, four vice presidents from four different states called me for an interview. It's not the first time that I interviewed three interviewers in Boston by video in Houston.

These varied job interviews are really the characteristics of immigrant life. I'm still an employee of MetLife today, but I won't be tomorrow. I'm waiting for the results of the interview and preparing for the upcoming interview. My heart is still the same sentence: the longer the rainy day, the closer the sunny day is.