The Job Search goes Global

John (Biz Pic)

On the job front, John had from the start gotten quite a bit of interest and several serious interviews. He flew to California, Boston and North Carolina in succession and felt fairly positive that a job offer might come out of one of these opportunities. But one after another he got turned down, put off or caught in a bureaucratic morass. He decided to move on and pursue things outside the country. Besides his hard-earned permanent residence status in Hong Kong was nearling expiration and (oh, by the way) while he was at it the Southside Hash was getting ready to celebrate their 2000th run which of course he couldn't miss!

So while Cindy was busy selling off the furniture and household goods as well as locating a moving and storage company to handle the remainder, John began to organize his trip to Hong Kong. He planned to depart on June 21 for a 10-day stay which would involve meetings and interviews with recruiters or potential employers plus a certain degree of play-time with his old running buds. Oh and let's not leave out that before his departure we also had to travel back to Cape Cod to prepare our home for the approaching rental season!

But wonders never cease and one of the key job opportunities that John had interviewed for earlier came back to give him a second chance! This company is involved in the marine shipping industry and has headquarters in Boston although the position of interest would be for a regional director in Asia and head of their office in Singapore! Fortunately the timing worked out very well since they wished to make arrangements for further interviews while we were in Cape Cod. Additionally, John was able to propose that he add on a leg to his trip to Hong Kong that would enable him to meet with the staff already in Singapore. The company agreed and from there things progressed in due course. He had a successful trip that resulted in job offers from both a company in Hong Kong as well as for this role in Singapore. Since John's heart had been set on the Singapore job right from the start he was over the moon when he received their offer and accepted the job with a start date in early August!

At this juncture our goods are mostly sorted or stored and we completed the first part of this wayward journey from Colorado to Boston. Thinking back to the beginning it's staggering now to realize all that we accomplished between March and the end of July. It's also not an experience either of us hope to repeat anytime soon! It required almost overwhelming degrees of focus, persistence, creativity, and will to make one thing after another happen. Yet that alone cannot account for success and we are both aware and grateful that in these difficult times for so many the wide-ranging support from friends and family contributed greatly and that fate or an angel or both saw us through what could have otherwise been very ugly times. Instead we have this whole new starting point and another new chapter to add to our lives...