Some of you already know, some of you don’t. I got laid off from work, and then found another job within 2 days. Its finally time to let the rest of the story loose..
I returned from Taiwan feeling happy, rested, and relaxed. My sleeping patterns were messed up due to the 8am flight, so I casually ignored the email saying “important meeting - meet me on your own time” from the boss at Invio. After all it said “if not during the weekend, then on Monday morning”, and Jesse saw him earlier in the week without any new information, so I decided that Monday morning was a good idea. It’s not that I was wrong, Monday was a good idea - at least my weekend wasn’t spoiled. During the meeting we were informed that the company has closed it’s development division and is no longer sponsoring the co-op programme. Further on he continued to explain that we get paid for May, the appartment rent is taken care of, and that he contacted UWaterloo and confirmed that we can still join this term. “Also I have lost my job as well”, he says. I’ve gotta say, it was a pretty dramatic moment. The real decisionmaking part of the situation didn’t sink in for the first few hours, so I said some nice thankful and encouraging words at the end of the meeting and proceeded back to my desk, where I laughed about not having to do work “because i’m laid off!! hahahaa”. Only about 3 hours later did I start thinking about this entire scenario more seriously.
Basically I had two choices: go home, catch up on 2 weeks of school, and return to the Canadian lifestyle, or stay in Japan, look for a new job & appartment, and maybe use the ‘foreigner unemployment insurance’ - teaching English. On one hand, I missed my friends and family, and i dont want to break out of the school routine too much. On the other hand, I went to Japan, but haven’t learned to speak the language well enough to carry a conversation, haven’t made any Japanese friends, and haven’t even given a tour to any visiting friends! Clearly, I have much unfinished business here. After much mulling and pondering I made an official decision - to look for a job intensely for the next three days, and if I don’t have anything concrete I will leave ASAP. Ivan and Annabelle were in the same boat as me, which was reassuring. Jesse was gung-ho to leave. Those were the verdicts.
I started my jobhunt on an IRC channel where alot of english-speaking IT guys hang out - introduced to me by my supervisor and pseudo-teacher: Dave Brown. One of his buddies was working in an IT support company, Emissary, where a member of an understaffed team just left, so they were in need of assistance. I talked to the guy, and explained the situation. Apparently everyone was well aware of all this a week ago, and they already planned to hear from me and Ivan today since we had the type of experience they were looking for. Weird. So i sent off my resume, and booked an interview on the next day. Ivan did the same. Annabelle got a bit discouraged by our sudden success, mulled over her thoughts again and left for Canada. Little did she know there was another ’set-up’ ready to catch her fall. Dave really thought of everything ( If you’re reading: thanks alot ). The original plan only had one avaliable slot at Emissary, so Ivan and I would share the hours part-time, and teach English during the other time. I quickly looked into the teaching-situation, and got myself excited about it - I would meet lots of new people, gain new skills, and have alot of fun in general. I found a few schools, made up a less technically-oriented resume, and sent it off. The clouds surely began lifting from the situation.
The interview on the next day, Tuesday, went great. I made a decent impression on the boss, in terms of skills and personality (or so i’d like to think). I was invited to a second interview on Wednesday, and this was definitly a good thing. Ivan’s story is pretty much the same. During the meeting on Wednesday we were both offered full-time jobs, with similar compensation to our old placements, chances for promotions, and a few other perks like Japanese lessons. We couldn’t reject the offer. We partied it up sushi-style later that day. On Friday we attended an information session with a popular English school - Gaba. I did two interviews, including a teaching test with a cutesy japanese woman pretending not to speak English, and got the job on that day pending on one thing - a bank account and black suit-pants. I signed the contract and everything. Ivan had to leave to one of his many martial-arts classes, so he will do that on Tuesday. The point is, i’m now a fully employed IT Support guy, who will run around Tokyo in a suit fixing networks, as well as a contracted part-time English teacher able to select my own hours. Those will be fun to add to the next revision of my resume.
To add to all the fun, Micheal - my new boss, decided to take us out to a bar in Roppongi to meet the rest of the staff and have some ‘refreshing beverages’. Some impressive drinking feats and many drinks later we were all talking about how they were happy to have us, and we were happy to start work for them. Great fun. I’m glad I decided to stick around and see what the future has in store.
Currently i’m looking for a new place to live. It’s true, it’s a big pain to move in Tokyo - alot of fees and very small appartments. Now that i have to leave my current appartment I realize how awesome it is. Oh well.. I’ll see what happens and keep you updated.
Sorry for the lengthy post.
P.S. I bought a second-hand camera from Joe, a Ricoh GR-Digital, and got obsessed. Now I take pictures of everything I see and put the nicer ones here:
www.flickr.com/photos/aavdacev.
Check it out if you have time and comment!
so I can see what goes on.