Unending times

It seems it has been a zillion years that I am searching for a job. Back, when I was working in Pune, I was growing increasingly dissatified with myself and had started seeking something more meaningful in life than just coding day and night. I don't remember the date, but the year may have been early 2006.

Simultaneously, I had also started studying to pursue MBA, either India or abroad. US was completely out of question. Yet, something struck..something at the right time and right place..however cliched it may sound.. but I did come to US to pursue MBA. I was living my, what I call, a short term dream. I was given scholarship, got a tuition waiver, yet it was too costly. Finding a job was essential to continue. Having invested most of the money in a house back home, it was the only way to continue living the dream.

When I drove from the airport to the room where I was hosted, on Jul 23rd 07, the need for the on-campus job had overcome any other feeling of amusement and happiness that one experiences on landing in a different, a very different country. The next 2.5 months, everyday, morning to evening, 8 to 5, I scouted every office, every floor in every building on the campus in summer battling tempereatures that more than often reached 45 degree celsius. The program had started and the effort required was overwhelming. When, the classes started, I also had to start looking for an internship. The studies, the assignments, adjustments to cultural differences, cooking, cleaning all took all 24 hrs. I had to find time to sleep for a couple of hours. It was a disaster, I felt.

After around 70 days, I finally managed to get an on-campus job. It was 20 hrs per week. It was impossible, I thought. I slept 3 hrs a day for the next three semesters. The addition to the everyday activities was the search for internship. Typically, an internship search is much difficult than a full-time search because of the few positions available. I lost all hope. I had an opportunity in India, a great opportunity but it was, what a MBA would call, a -ve NPV project.I got an internship on the last day. It was a nightmare till then and I had convinced myself of the courses that I would take in the summer. But I finally did complete the internship.

During the beginning of the last semester, the world had changed poles. Wall street had disappeared. Government was all over the economy. In the next two months, the intermeshed wheels of world economies had come to a stageering halt because of lack of oil (i.e. liquidity). It has been the same ever since. I stopped reading newspapers and news. It was the same news everyday. Job losses, write offs, Bush, Paulson, Bernanke, financial losses etc. I got tired of reading them. The econoy lost 600,000 jobs last month. The situation continues remaining grim. Finding a job in such a situation has made me insensitive in many ways. Initially, I was irritated because of the uncertainty that I faced. But, gradually I got used to it.

So, the job search still continues. Since 2006. First MBA, then on-campus job, then internship and then full-time. I know that I will get a full-time job. That is not what is uncertain. But where, what and when is what is uncertain. I hope it is soon.