Birthday present

How many times can a single paragraph be vehemently repeated? I repeated my introduction via mail and phone about 30 times a day for about 4 months! The compelling reason behind this onerous act – I wanted to find a job in USA staying in Bangalore.

When we decided to move to USA, I banished all my reservations and reached out to people, almost all I knew, to help me find a job in their offices in USA. A few friends advised that it will be easier if I am local during the search. All of them duly submitted my resume to their companies. Since the earlier booming economy had busted, things progressed very slowly.

I stayed up late in the night to talk to recruiters to make up for the time difference between Bangalore and USA. This was a sleepy yet curious experience. While everyone was sleeping and dreaming of green meadows and pristine waterfalls, I was interviewing with imaginary faces staring in to my laptop. Many recruiters could not believe that I was staying up so late to talk to them and would profusely thank me. I once attended a voice and video interview at 3 in the morning!

After debating the dates of our travel, we finalized a date, booked our tickets and set out to Uncle Sam! Once we landed, we headed straight to a beautiful place notable for its wineries – Livermore, California. Prakash uncle, Usha aunty, Nikhil and Naina helped us “fresh off the boats”! While Prakash uncle helped us find an apartment, an apt grocery store, furniture that would classify our living as human etc. Usha aunty helped us finalize on all the household items like cleaning supplies, grocery, etc. Nikhil drove us around and helped us finalize our apartment, took us to proper restaurants, as we vegetarians were consternated to see a 4 page colorful menu card without a single vegetarian dish except for salad!

Everything is different in the US when compared to where I came from – the way they drive, the switches and the date format to name a few. We were surprised at many facets - among which the most funny were the vegetables and fruits which were at least 4 times bigger than their counter parts in India!! A brinjal (aka egg plant) could serve 2 people for at least 4 sumptuous servings! The Indian cook books, which were our initial lifeline, had statements like “... use 2 medium sized onions.... “. Were the authors aware that the formidable size of the onions could be compared to a baby's head? Choosing drinking milk turned out tougher than solving problems in tensor mathematics. Milk has many varieties (0% fat, 1% fat, 2% fat, soy milk, goat milk and some other sections which I have still not visited in the last 4 months) and that too with a color code as if they were resistors! Our weekly forays to the grocery store were amazing learning experiences – we were learning what to buy and, more importantly, what not to.

I would accompany my wife on her way back home in the evening. Our walk back home would take about 20 minutes. I had a wonderful time and would look forward to it – no calls to attend or no programming problems to solve/think. The most polished description of how I felt would be the crudest outline of my blissful experience. We had a lot of fun – conscious of the fact that I still did not have a job.

Many of the recruiters whom I had spoken to from India found my resume impressive and wanted me to work for them – the open secret is that they would get money by body-shopping me! Communication was easier as I was local and we could speak at will. I spent one entire month talking to many people – at points in time; I lost count of the number of phone interviews I attended. The follow up from the recruiter would mostly land up as follows, after skipping the pleasantries - “I am sorry, I did not recognize you? <The caller would say their name and try to establish a relationship as if we wore same colored shorts and played marbles in our community temple> Oh, yes. I do recognize you. I am sorry; I was stuck with something else … blah blah”.

In the melee of phone and personal interviews, I happened to attend a face-to-face interview with a Fortune 10 company. I was at awe when I saw the luxurious environment – it reminded me of a large painting done in energetic strokes daubed with salubrious colors. Though I am not a fan of aerated drinks, the sight of free coke got me burping! I rejected this offer. The vexed recruiter informed me that I would be black listed and never considered ever again – I let this pass with a smirk.

I interviewed with another employer who conducted the fastest interview in my career – it happened over one weekend! The final interview was on my birthday (it was a Monday in 2010). We had the interview in the office in Menlo Park, CA. It seemed like someone had thrown me into a rough sea with little knowledge of swimming and, of course, without a life jacket. Though the interview left me fairly imbalanced, I succeeded and was offered a job! I was delighted and my happiness knew no bounds. I being the financially aware type did not understand the terms mentioned in the offer (stocks vested over … years. We will offer a salary of $$$. Benefits will be... % of your basic etc). Like the kid running to its mother for help, I rudely woke up Dad and bothered Prakash uncle for help. I accepted the financial terms of the offer not because I understood them – but because they understood it and did not raise any concerns!

I walked out of the office on my birthday with an offer letter that stated that I will start the next Monday! Isn't this a wonderful birthday present?

Aravind Bargur

Aug 21, 2010