I'll never forget when I was able to help one of my TOEFL students find a job after a 1 year gap in his resume.
About a year ago, I was able to help Mo, a skilled pharmacist who ran his own pharmaceutical company back in Iran, land a job as a pharmacy tech in the US.
I remember the absolute joy I heard from his voice when he called to let me know that CVS decided to hire him.
He had a bad experience of being fired previously and his confidence took a hit. Compound that with the fact that he wasn't sure of his own English skills and also had a daughter to look after during that time, he wasn't the most certain job candidate.
But after I was able to help him revise his resume and to coach him on interview skills, he started getting job offers immediately.
And when he was able to land his job, I realized that I had a skill that could benefit so many others.
As an immigrant myself who arrived in the US 15 years ago, I understand the pain of not truly being able to communicate my value. Sure, I understood the language and mastered it just as well as any of my middle school peers, but I had a missing piece where I was not able to communicate with others because I simply didn't understand their culture of what they valued.
Now I'm a career coach, and I've helped skilled immigrants get offers and land jobs as financial analysts, UX designers, data scientists, graphic designers, and more. Why do I do this? Here are my whys:
1. Skilled Immigrants Create Economies
Yes, that's not a typo--they create entire economies.
If you are reading this, chances are you know of the co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin, who came to the US from Russia when he was 8 years old.
If you consider yourself an Apple fan, you'd know that Steve Jobs' biological father was a Syrian immigrant.
If you step onto any top college campuses in the US, you'd know that most of the technical fields are dominated by graduate students from other countries.
While I was studying at Berkeley, the running joke was that you'll always be able to understand the professor, but never the graduate student.
Since these top graduate students are the top of their field in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology, fields where the greatest growths are and the most difficult to study, it only makes sense to invest in immigrants, to help those who are technically qualified but not sure how to network with hiring managers or how to present themselves on interviews to give them a fair chance.
2. Immigrants Are Willing to Do Whatever It Takes
Imagine having to uproot your entire life, culture, beliefs, saying goodbye to your friends and family, for a chance to make it in a completely different one.
And you decide to go for it.
That's the spirit of doing whatever it takes.
Everybody knows that success takes commitment. But few people actually go through with it.
In my own life I've met many immigrants, and they're a self-selected bunch of people who are hard working, ambitious, consummate networks, but most of all--they are willing to do whatever it takes.
They're willing to take over work that nobody else wants to do.
They slave long hours
And amazingly, immigrants are 3x more likely to become millionaires than the native-born American.
Is this a coincidence?
I don't think so.
3. Immigrants Aren't Whiners, They're Doers.
I'm very thankful to be in a country that allows freedom of speech, and I'm all for expressing your opinions.
However, there's a certain limit that you reach when you only seek to change situations by talking.
Many times talking is not enough--you must do.
You must take action on your dreams and that action is the bridge between your dreams and your reality.
Many people whine about the economy, about how they didn't go to a great college, their previous employers, their location, EVERYTHING is up for blame except their current condition.
I'm not having that.
I want to work with people who KNOW that they are 100% responsible for their situation and who took the risk to move to the land of opportunity, who KNOW they have it within them, but just need a bit of help and the tools to reach their job.
These are the reasons why I love to help my immigrant clients.
How about you? What are your reasons for what you do?
x
Li
p.s. if you are interested in learning more about how you can work with me to land your American dream job, I invite you to head on over to www.FreeCallwithLi.com to apply for a free 30 minute consult to see how you can land your dream job!