June 21, 2013

  • Report # 1014

    So tomorrow is the first day of summer, though it’s pretty hard to tell here by the weather today. It’s pouring rain and 13 C (52 F) so in other words a very chilly June day ! I’m sure it will dry out and warm up over the next few days though, this day is just way below the average for the month. I suppose I shouldn’t be complaining though as soon enough I’ll be feeling the super hot oven heat of Monterrey in the summer time. I’ve never spent time there before in the summer, but last year I was in Hermosillo, also in the north of Mexico, and it’s actually an even hotter city than Monterrey, so I’ll have to be prepared for many days of over 38 C (100 F) weather.

    I worked on Tuesday from 8:30 am until 5:00 pm and then I came home and got things ready for my appointment at the Mexican consulate in Vancouver Wednesday morning. I left the house around 8:15 am, and I took the bus to the skytrain station, and I got downtown a good half an hour early, so I had lots of time. I headed into the consulate at 10:00 am and I filled out my visa application form, and then I had to sit down for a while before heading in for an interview with one of the consulate employees. I had to have my photo taken once again, and they scanned my fingerprints as well. After 10 minutes, a man came out and led me to his office.

    The guy said something and I think I said “sí” or “gracias” and he asked if I speak Spanish, and I said not as well as him (since he’s Mexican) and we ended up doing the whole thing in Spanish… so that must have helped me ! It wasn’t so much an interview as him just asking me a few questions and explaining to me certain things that I would have to do. He asked if I had been to Mexico before, if I had worked in Mexico before, how I learned Spanish, and which part of the country I had been to. He also asked me about the name of the company that I would be working for, the type of work I’d be doing, and the name of the lady from the company who has been helping me out with the whole process. I think some of the questions were for to see if I was really the right person and not someone who just came in my place or something like that.

    Shockingly though I was told that I’ll get to pick up my visa on Monday afternoon ! I actually figured the whole visa process would take another few months, but I guess the visa authorization was the part that takes the long time, and once that is over with and a person gets approved, they get the visa super fast. After the interview I just paid 38 dollars for the visa, and left my passport there as they need to keep it as they prepare the visa. I headed out to the Skytrain station, though one side of the tracks was closed so it took a little longer to get home. Some of the things I heard was that someone jumped in front of the train to kill themselves, but I really don’t know if that’s true as I didn’t see anything about that in the paper today.

    I headed to my work just before 12:00 pm and I talked to the supervisor and explained to her that I was given an opportunity to work for a company that I had applied for a long time ago that I didn’t think I was going to get, and she was very understanding and nice about everything. We talked to the payroll lady and I said my last day of work might be next Wednesday, but I will certainly stay more time if I’m able to. I went straight home that day without working as I had some things to do. I called the lady from Teleperformance and explained to her that I will pick up the visa on Monday. She told me to call back when I have the visa and she will put me in contact with another department to see when I would be starting working there.

    On my visa application form I said that I would arrive in Mexico on July 6, though that was an estimate, and the lady told me it didn’t have to be exact. I have no idea when the company would want me to start exactly, but if I have to be, I could be ready to begin as early as July 8. It would be nice to have a little more time though to get things ready, and plan a trip to Calgary as well. I was told after arriving in Mexico, I have 30 days to go to the migration offices with my documents, and if I don’t do that, the whole process has to start over again, so that is super important, I’m just not sure if those 30 days are exactly from the day I arrive in Mexico, or the day I estimated that I would arrive…. I will definitely ask about that on Monday.

    So ideally I will be able to work another week, maybe a few days longer than that, spend a week in Calgary, and maybe go to Seattle for another day, as Rocío surprised me by telling me she changed her plane ticket home until August as she has been offered free room and board at the hostel in Seattle in exchange for working there. She was supposed to be back in Argentina by June 19, but now she has a lot more time, so I can imagine she’s super happy. I will explain to her that I’ll probably be leaving soon, and if she would like I would definitely come and visit her seeing as it would be an opportunity that I didn’t think would exist before.

    After all of these months of nothing happening, all of a sudden things have happened so quickly that my head is still spinning. I am super happy of course, though I certainly wish, knowing everything that I know now, that I had done things differently. I think I talked about this last time, but knowing what I know now, I probably should have came back to Vancouver right before Christmas, and maybe in that situation I would have found a job in January, and had a whole four extra months of work, plus the money I would have saved not being in Monterrey for those 2.5 additional months. There is no point worrying about all of that now though, I certainly can’t change anything.

    At the end of the day as long as I’ll be working and making money and keeping busy, I think that everything will be ok. I worked again yesterday from 8:30 am until 5:00 pm, and we had a short meeting in the morning with the boss of the office, the guy who basically runs the practice. I was worried he would be upset with me, seeing as he just hired me in May, and my first day was actually a month ago today, but he was understanding and not upset at all. He even said I can still work on Saturday, so I was happy that he wasn’t upset. I certainly do feel a little bad about being given this opportunity and leaving so soon, but I will definitely do my best in the days I have remaining here.

    After returning home from Mexico in March I began applying for so many jobs, and I noticed a number of them required that the preferred candidates would speak other languages. These languages ranged from Punjabi to Hindi, to Chinese, Spanish, French, Tagalog, and a few others. While I can certainly understand that there is a need for certain employees to know other languages in some jobs, it’s a controversial issue as some people feel excluded that they can’t even apply for jobs in their own country because these positions want people to speak languages from other countries.

    I can see both sides of this issue, and while ultimately I don’t think it is right to say someone can’t apply for a position if they don’t know a language that isn’t the official language of the place that they live, for business reasons, sometimes it is necessary, and that is something I can understand. Like for example, if I have a shipping company that does mostly business with China, obviously I would need to have some employees that speak Chinese. So it’s not really discrimination against people who don’t speak those languages, it’s just about getting the right person for the right job. I think as long as these companies are able to offer people who don’t speak any other languages required positions as well, there is nothing wrong with requesting that a potential candidate know a certain language.

    Of course everyone who lives in the country should be able to speak that country’s language as well, so I don’t think it would be a good thing for certain companies only hiring people of their own background and having them speak only in their own language, but clearly in some businesses, they will have to talk in different languages at times, and that is 100 % understandable. Ultimately I do believe though that there are positions for everyone out there, and the people who are not happy with certain positions should not waste their energy complaining and getting upset if they aren’t the right match, but move on and put their energy to matching themselves up with something that really is perfect for them.

    Now with the economy being the way it is though, finding a job in general is hard enough, so I can somewhat understand people’s frustrations of feeling excluded from applying for certain jobs. So I see both sides of this issue, and each side has their points, but at the end of the day I don’t think anyone is being discriminatory and the people who feel left out would certainly be able to find a job that would be a better match for them, just unfortunately in these tough economic times, things take a little longer than usual…. and I know that better than many people ! For the next question:

    What do you think of jobs requiring that candidates be able to speak other languages that aren’t official languages of where they are living ?

    That’s all I have for today. I will leave you with a few more random photos that I took from Rocío’s visit when we had a fire in the backyard. I wish everyone all of the best with everything. Take care and I’ll talk to you all on Monday, bye for now.

     

Comments (6)

  • It’s wet here too, today, but still hot so I’m a little jealous of your cooler weather!
    How exciting that things are finally moving for you to get back to Mexico.

  • Congratulations on getting the Mexican visa that you have been working towards for so long. I hope you can find a job in Mexico that you really love.
    As for employers requiring employees speak another language besides the language of the country where they are….so many employers in the USA require Spanish speaking employees these days. I guess if there is a need for another language; it is what the employers will continue to require.

  • Oh wow, 50 degrees? It has been in the 80′s here lately and the forecast is looking the same!

    The visa interview thing was good that it was in Spanish. Glad it’s finally done, huh? So quick now.

    Great your work now is so kind and understanding. I believe you said you forewarned them of that though.

    And if a job requires a person to speak a second or certain language, I don’t find that wrong. Apparently, it’s what the company wants/needs!

  • i think speaking different popular languages is not just good it is important in professional life. especially for the technical world. when i was doing projects in a factory. i had to work with different machines that were programmed by japaneses german english and french! i think any engineer should speak those 4 popular languages! and of course the department of human resource would choose and hire the one that speak different languages than the one that doesn’t speak those popular languages. and in economical world people should speak many languages more than technical people! because they would have large international relationships with different countries….

  • WOOHOO!! looks like someone will be on the plane to mexico pretty soon.

    yeah, i get the frustration when one is rejected for a job just because he/she is not able to speak a different language, other than the national language. we here at the company are looking for sales staff who can speak english or japanese, and with the lack of qualification in that area, we have to turn down many candidates. the world is getting internationalized and so there is a great need to be able to communicate in a language other than your mother tongue. especially when you are in business with foreign companies.

    great pics, by the way. rocio is pretty. may i just say… omg, that guy in blue is super tall!! either that, or the rest of you guys are short. i think i’m as tall as rocio and so i think it would be intimidating for me to stand beside that tall guy.

  • Have fun living in Mexico :) .. Don’t think you and my friend will cross paths ..
    Nah I bought the album on iTunes and from the band’s official fan club

Post a Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *