Job search in the USA

Angelika Most of you are already up to date on this, but some of you are not, so for the sake of completeness, I'm quickly writing down the story again. In my last newsletter, I described in detail that Michael is now working from home because the Blaxxun office in San Francisco has closed, but the Blaxxun funding is secured until early 1998. After Michael had just finished setting up all the computers in our apartment, and I had gotten used to him turning our apartment into an open-plan office, the next piece of bad news came (just before my departure to Germany), namely that the funding was withdrawn again, and Blaxxun will likely shut down completely by the end of June or July (including the office in Munich).

Michael was advised to apply for a job at another company in San Francisco or the surrounding area, as he also faces the additional challenge of needing a new American visa for any potential new employer. Michael didn't hesitate and immediately uploaded his resume to the internet. Thirty seconds later, the first person called and offered him a job. In the age of the internet (at least in the software industry), this is how it works: "recruiters" search the internet on behalf of companies to identify suitable candidates and forward them to the relevant firm. A recruiter functions much like a broker: if an employment contract is signed, they receive a commission from the company.

So Michael first spoke with the recruiter and then with a responsible person from the hiring company. He was surprised that instead of simply scheduling an interview, they asked him actual test questions, such as how he would program something in a specific language. This is because Americans often embellish their resumes with things they haven't actually done. Americans also generally enjoy phone conversations, which is very evident during the job application process. It often happened that Michael spoke with two or three people from the company over the phone, repeatedly answering the same questions, before being invited for an in-person interview. At the interview, he had to speak with up to seven different people (though in person, not over the phone). After these conversations, the second phone phase begins.

If the company is interested in potentially hiring an applicant, they don't want to see work references; instead, they ask for phone numbers of people you've worked with before so they can call them and grill them about the applicant. In some cases, they even call the university the applicant graduated from to see if this actually checks out. You can probably imagine that what I just described doesn't go so smoothly when you come from Germany. The Americans aren't too keen about calling internationally.

In any case, Michael was able to apply at Oracle, NASA (unfortunately not to work as an astronaut, which would be his dream), two smaller companies, and America Online. We were quite surprised that he was called in for so many interviews, because it was clear from the start that the company would have to pay a lawyer to apply for the new visa and wait 6 to 8 weeks for the visa formalities to be completed, which is an eternity for an American company. The lucky thing is that there is currently a significant shortage of software developers here. Well, Michael decided to go with America Online (the world's largest internet provider). Their office is in San Mateo, which is easily accessible from San Francisco. The visa application is already in process, so we are waiting for a positive response.

The story is not over yet, however, there's more Blaxxun news: The company has recovered, and funding is now secured again until early 1998. The good thing about this is that Michael can continue working for them until the new visa comes through, so we don't have to struggle financially.

And something else, quite funny, from Black Sun: it’s now called Blaxxun. But the people who email me can still use the old spelling. I tell you, with this company, you really go through a thousand adventures.