Well, that was really interesting. I met Bill Powers at Barnes and Noble. He’s a guy that Frank worked with a few years ago and then moved to San Diego to direct a company out there. Talking with Frank at the pot-luck party he told me that San Diego was a really good place to work and that it would be worth talking to Mr. Powers to get an idea of what jobs are like out there. I’ll admit, it’s a different way of finding out about jobs. It’s called an “informational interview”, Frank said, where you talk to somebody in the field you’d like to work in to get information about the field, rather than directly asking that person for a job. I wasn’t sure what to think of this at first, as Mr. Powers is the company director and I’m still a student. I didn’t understand why he’d ever agree to talk to me.
Anyway – we met yesterday evening at Barnes and Noble, which I’ve come to love. It’s a massively large bookstore – with a caffé and seats so you can actually read the books – really popular. What a great marketing strategy. The idea is basically that people tend to buy more books when they know what they’re getting, so Barnes and Noble has created an environment in which customers can test-drive the books. We do it all the time with cars, right? So they do it with books. They figure that if a book or magazine isn’t interesting to a person, they’ll put it back quite quickly in most cases, limiting eventual damage to the item. Anyway – you don’t have to buy books to have coffee – so Mr. Powers and I met there.
What an interesting person! He’s been working in software systems development for twenty years, spanning all but the earliest modern generations of computing, and been in California for the last 5 years. It sounds great out there. Although governed by the Republican Mr. Schwarzenegger, it’s one of the most forward looking states in the US – and has something like the 7th largest economy in the world (at least they like to say that). With Silicon Valley just south of San Francisco, there is a long tradition of computing in the state. Mr. Powers told me that San Diego is part of this and that it really is a good way to make a living.
I asked him about work visas, etc., and he said that his company hires experts from all over the world, usually with no problem for the visa, as long as the company fully supports the applicant. They do, of course, when they want to hire someone. So it’s not too bad. He did say that I would have to find out from the American Embassy in Rome what the details of getting a work visa for the United States are, but I did that for the student visa anyway. It’s got harder since 2001, etc., but if the company supports you then it is possible.
Anyway – I asked Mr. Powers what human resource directors look for in an applicant. He told me that the biggest mistake applicants make is to talk all about their past – either on the C.V. or in the cover letter. What they’re really looking for, instead, is for you to show how your past experience demonstrates what you will do for the company. So they want you to highlight “soft skills” – which are not really certified skills, but skills that you develop while you are doing a job. For example, team-work, organisational skills, leadership, etc. These are the things that my C.V. should highlight. So it’s different from the European Format Curriculum Vitae – which I have.
Mr. Powers also said that California in general, but particularly the software industry in San Diego, is really fast-paced – so they’re really looking for people who demonstrate organisation, teamwork, dedication to the job, and that kind of thing. “Cutting-edge people with imagination”. How do you put that on your resume? Anyway – it sounded like a really good place to go, with a culture all it’s own – compared to the rest of California. It’s the southern-most big city, right on the coast. It’s got a big computer industry, and a big university culture – with both the University of California, San Diego – and Scripps Institute of Oceanography. The weather is nice most of the time, and they’ve got large and varied immigrant communities that give you a big cultural mix in the city. It really sounds cool. I checked out a web-site on San Diego – they have a “surf report” for the surfers! Anyway – it was really nice to talk to Mr. Powers. I learned, I guess just like Mr. Lundgren, that American directors like to do these “informational interviews” when they get the time, because they help direct applicants in their job search, in the end producing better applicants and better workers. Also, people like feeling like experts and that their expertise and experience can be helpful to someone. Mr. Powers explained this to me clearly. In his job he is always the boss, so what he does is not really seen as “helping”. He loves talking to “guys just starting out in the business” because he gets to feel helpful in a real way. He suggested I make a list of companies that I’d be interested in applying to, and try to schedule informational interviews with people who work there – giving me a chance to do some direct research on the company before making an actual application. It sure is different at home!
Anyway – the expression of the day is “to be stoked” – it’s a surfer way of saying that you’re excited about something. I’m stoked about the idea of working in California!!!
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