The Post-Student Era: Moving Forward in the Working World

It's been over a year since my last post.  Since then, I've graduated and am slowly adjusting to not being a student.  Even though I'm no longer living in China, an awareness of all things associated with China still informs my every breath and thought.  Will I end up working in China?  Most likely.  Will I live there permanently?  Only time will time.

Friends tell me the transition to living in the US should be easy, but it isn't.  I have lived in China for a total of 3 years, by coming back to the US and setting down in a city I have not truly lived in for over a decade, I have left many friends and a familiar way of living behind.

The most difficult part of the reintegration process was finding a US based job/internship.  Considering the terrible state of the economy and other factors, I'm sure I'm not the only one that has struggled with this.  So here are a few things I learned as I weathered this transitional period.

1) Unless a job or internship has requirements clearly marking it as out your range of experience  (for example if you don't have work experience, your chances of hearing back from a job posting labeled as mid-career or advanced are not very high), you always have a shot.  If you think an opportunity will help your career goals and you are interested, apply and see what happens.  Maybe you don't think you possess all the qualifications the posting asks for, or you don't think your chances of getting a response are good, however, your chances of finding a job/internship are zero if you don't submit anything at all.

See this link.  Don't overestimate the competition, don't psych yourself out.

2)  Set realistic goals for how many job/internship applications you will send out.  Are you madly writing your thesis and juggling classes while working part time?  Then you probably won't have enough time to send out job applications every day.  Try to aim for one quality application a week, set aside some time every day just for job hunting.

3)  Research, research, research.  Read each posting carefully to understand what is being looked for.  Then, DON'T START writing your cover letter yet.  Go to the company/organization's website, dig around and learn about what they do.  Have friends working similar jobs, know someone working at the place you're interested in?  Go talk to them to get some insider information.  After arming yourself with all this knowledge, go write an awe inspiring cover letter.  Feel free to use words or phrases from the job posting or the company's HR webpage to make yourself look awesome on paper. 

4)  Just submitted your CV and cover letter?  Good job, now go relax.  Go outside, take a walk, hang out with friends.  Do not obsessively check your email.   In fact, forget about the job you just applied to. Response time can vary greatly from organization to organization.  Once I received a reply within half an hour after emailing my CV.  However, more often than not, I had to wait anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to receive any response at all.  Waiting, not knowing where you'll be next month and what you'll be doing can be stressful.  Find ways to keep yourself occupied.  I used exercise as a way of venting stress and regularizing my schedule while I was in transition.

These are just general tips for making the job hunting process less painful.  Would anyone be interested in seeing a post on resources for finding China related work?  I would also be happy to make a post about my experience as an intern working in the nonprofit sector.

Visions of a Shanghai Expo

 While beautiful pavilions and seas of tourists have entrenched themselves as the defining emblems of the Shanghai Expo, I would like to present a different vision of the Expo, one that is my own.

I enjoy watching the play of light and shadow, even with something as seemingly simple as a single light:

I couldn't keep myself away from the beautiful lights and their sprawling shadows in the Hungarian Pavilion...

...And thoroughly enjoyed playing with all the pretty colored lights...



A herd of hands:

More fun:

For all the people and crowd hate associated with the expo through the media, many of the beautiful lights and their inky shadows would not have been possible without the help of many human hands, including visitors, as one can see in this picture:

Salivating

The majority of my conversations with expats inevitably turn to food, specifically foods that one misses from home. These conservations have a tendency to surface during the holiday season when bustling, well-meaning friends and family members happily communicate the details of their culinary preparations. Last December during a particularly forbidding week before Christmas, a student had the aplomb to bring up a website full of Christmas dessert pictures during a break in one of my classes. As we ogled, we unconsciously sighed in sync.  We did not need reminders of things we couldn't have: authentic Christmas dinners, touches from loved ones and vacation time. The ensuing conservation dripped with the frustration as the class collectively drooled the virtual pleasures in front of our eyes while griping over the fact that we would be attending classes on Christmas Eve. However, that day, an even older and more intense food longing reawakened in me. Ever since I had arrived back in China in June 2009, I had not baked.

In China, the majority of people do not have ovens in their homes. Therefore baking becomes extremely difficulty as only bakeries, other professional institutions and the wealthy possess them. Last Christmas, a friend with a particularly strong cooking and baking streak cajoled the kitchen staff at HNC into let her bake enormous quantities of sweet potato pie for the school Christmas dinner. Since then I have been thinking of alternative ways to indulge my baking desires beyond buying out the contents of local western style bakeries in Nanjing and stuffing my face.

A few nights ago, my desperate pleas were answered in a small way, I came across a recipe for a rice cooker cake.

I plan to try this recipe once I am settled in Nanjing again.

Has anyone ever tried this recipe?  Any other suggestions for this oven-less cake maker?

Reflections

Recently, the majority of my posts have been heavily picture oriented.  Digital photography has brought a great deal of joy to my life; they are a deluge of moments showing the bewilderment and amazement I feel as I face life in mainland China.  I didn’t really think too much about it before but my recent focus on photography reflects my avoidance of using more conscious language essential to introspection and how little thought I've given to where I’m going with my future.  I haven’t had a lot of time to reflect on my experiences while in school.  Consequently, trying to plan out what may potentially be my last year ever as a student this summer hasn’t been much of a success as I had hoped. 

The fragmented nature of my summer has not been supportive of convention or planning of any sort.  Moving from one shell of a living space to another has given me barely enough time to catch my reflection in these places and deepen my understanding of place and how it relates to where I am going physically and mentally. 

Unfortunately, I am no sage or oracle, the could-have-beens, the future could-bes are veiled in cloud to me. 

All I can do offer sketches, brief glimpses of various presents.

Guangzhou

I’ve wandered through South China Normal University a number of times while passing through Guangzhou.  Aside from having one of the best university cafeterias I have had the pleasure of eating at, as an academic institution, it appropriately presented itself as a environment for thought and inquiry this time around.  While strolling through SCNU’s basketball courts, I spotted a 50, 60 year old woman dressed in a Rockets uniform playing basketball with a group of young male college students.  As the players gathered to start a friendly scrimmage, she divided the boys into two teams with a sweep of a hand.  Her eyebrows knitted with concentration as she played rock paper scissors with the opposition’s team captain in order to decide who would possess the ball first.  During the match, she hollered, heckled and hustled like any other players on the court.  The singular nature of her energy and enthusiasm reminded me of my own struggles to maintain a enjoyable but competitive demeanor in China’s casual sports scene dominated by men.  I am glad I am not the only woman on a quest to challenge the naturalization of gender differences so widely touted in China.

Shanghai

The glitz of downtown Shanghai overwhelmed the quieter sensibilities of my wind-blown brother and I when we first arrived.  We found the ever sparkling rainbow of lights and hullabaloo of constant traffic grating on the senses.  However, Shanghai eventually won our hearts one night with music.  A strain of boss nova drifted into our apartment with the moonbeams of a rare clear night.  We ate cold slices of watermelon as wide as the Cheshire cat’s grin; our mouths stretched to mimic the infamous aforementioned cat as we heard old favorites like the girl in ipanema.

Subsequent exploration of Shanghai revealed further riches.  A jazz bar aptly named “The Melting Pot” tugged at my heartstrings and made me reconsider: perhaps Shanghai’s dabbling in internationalization will not necessarily just result in the crass facades of modernization so prevalent in commentary on the China of today.  One day, perhaps Shanghai will be a platform for multiculturalism for all sorts of people beyond the strict necessities of international business and finance.

Nanjing

My initial experience with Shanghai was so jarring I decided to go back to Nanjing for a weekend.  I stayed with my great aunt who lives in a 社区, a local walled in community filled with rustling willows and old Chinese men cooling themselves with paper fans.  Her flat is located in the very back of the compound so the rumbling of local traffic never makes the carrots in her garden tremble.  One morning, I woke up to the sound of laughing children going to school.  It was at that moment I finally understood the meaning of 地气 which refers to the innate spirit of a place.  Traditionally, 地气indicated a place which was good to settle down on and plant crops.  China's newer generations do not hope to be peasants, but this agriculturally oriented understanding of place still resonates with those who have never experienced village living.  In the context of modern China, I think it points to a sense of belonging regardless of place of origin and the potential to nurture new and existing communities.  地气 represents a feeling that any person, traveling or not, hopes to find somewhere during their journey through life.

Innards of a Shanghai Expo

Last Wednesday my brother and I decided to have a gander at the infamous Shanghai Expo.  While its marvels were nothing short of wondrous, hopefully. this selection of photos will not convey the soul crushing seas of people we were forced to navigate through in order to have a glimpse of the treasures within.

Here is the majestic Swedish pavilion:

View of the Turkish Pavilion while standing tantalizing close in line to its entrance:

Taking respite from the swarms of people tramping through the expo...with ice cream!

French, Arabic and Berber text greeting visitors at the entrance of the Algerian pavilion:

No pavilion worth its salt would be complete without a trinket or two for sale!

Nigerian jewelry:

At night the expo becomes another world with sparkles and shadows abound.  The delicate lattice cast by this doodad on the exterior of the Slovakian pavilion caught my eye:

Ladder up the side of one of the pavilions:

The ambiance of the Hungarian pavilion took my breath away, I didn't want to leave:

My brother and I spend most of our day looking at the African and European pavilions.  There was so much more that we did not have enough time to see.  I plan to make another trip to see more of the expo before I leave Shanghai.

Flying with Dragons

For the months of April, May and June I got up at 5:30 am two times a week to learn how to row for the annual Sheraton-Nanjing dragonboat race.  At first the idea of rising so early every day seemed impossible to accomplish, but with the encouragement of my teammates, who were also learning to row for the first time, dragonboat practices became my favorite part of the week. 

I had the pleasure of spending time with a group enthusiastic and wonderful people,  which culminated in a fantastic series of heats on June 5th, 2010.  We placed first in both of our heats and placed 6th out of 30 teams and missed the finals by less than a millisecond(4th: 2'13''12 5th:2'13''46 6th: 2'13'62) and won Best Out of Town Team!

While our race times were far better than anything we previously imagined, what was more important was the consistent sense of humor and positivity instilled in our team which you can see here:

Here we are, practicing bright and early a few weeks before the race(I was feeling particularly energetic that day and thus you see me waving my oar around in the air with both hands)!

   
"Warming up" before the semi-finals:

After a heat on race day:

Here a last image for laughs:

Credits: The first and third pictures are taken from The Hopkins-Nanjing Center's Flickr Stream

Teaser

This is the head attachment of one of the dragonboats used in the race I participated in last Saturday: