Job interview? Who knew?

I mentioned the job interview – I actually had more than one along the way! I hadn’t completed the Peace Corps and usajobs.gov profiles before I left Morocco, as I had intended, but I had sent out a few resumes. One opening that I happened to come across was for the National Peace Corps Association, the “alumni association” of RPCVs. They were starting a social media web site and wanted someone to be in charge of that effort. I have always been interested in keeping in touch and connecting, way back to my days as vice president of membership for the Junior Academy of the New York Academy of Sciences. So I sent in a resume and lo and behold, they wanted to talk to me! I had an interview at 11:30 pm Thailand time – not easy, after being on the overnight bus the night before, but I think I held my own (plus, the Director of the NPCA had served in Thailand). Alas, I did not make it to the next step, but that would have meant coming to Washington the following week and starting in early January to have everything ready to launch on inauguration day! I could have done it, but was happy to continue my trip. I finally joined the site this week and – well, it’s a work in progress.

May as well talk about my other interviews now, even though it’s jumping ahead. At some point in Thailand I received an email saying that I had made it to the next round in the Foreign Service Officer process (I had taken the written test on July 14 and then had to pass a QEP – Qualifications Evaluation Panel? – with essays. I also had to provide references, though I am not sure anyone called them). The next step was the oral assessment - from Thailand I scheduled it for the latest date possible, March 19 – so that set the outer time limit of my travels. I’ll write more about the oral assessment later, but suffice it to say for now that I signed up to take the written test again in June!

My sister kept telling me to look for jobs in Asia – she said the economy was bleak and there were no jobs back here. Job-hunting mode is very different from travel mode, though – not that easy to look. However, I did ask Marilee if she knew of anything, and she said she had been to an RPCV lunch in Thailand and there met the director of Junior Achievement Asia/Pacific, who was looking for someone to do Junior Achievement Thailand. I could do that! I was a Junior Achievement Advisor way back at Mrs. Smith’s Frozen Foods (I consider this a little-known fact about me). The director, Nancy, and I emailed back and forth and by the time we spoke I had left Thailand and was in Indonesia; she was making a trip to California and we agreed to meet there at the end of January. To make another long story short and get ahead of myself again, I asked her if I could tell other people about the job, and Linda’s friend Linda, who I met in Chiang Mai, got the job! Nancy and I still met in California – you never know.

Lastly – I wanted to try to get to Hong Kong on the way back to the states. My friend Vincent, who lives there, was part of the inspiration for this trip. One year at Reunions, when I was unhappy at my last job, I told him I wanted to travel to Asia, but that I couldn’t just quit my job and travel. He looked squarely at me and said, “but could you?” and that stuck with me and motivated me. The flights didn’t work out (this time!) but since I had gotten in touch anyway, he asked me what I was doing. He’s COO of a company in Hong Kong, and it turned out they were looking for a marketing person to do fashion watches in Canada. I swore off Corporate America but this would be Corporate Canada! We had a conversation over the phone while I was in California, and I told him I would think about it – that was okay, since he wasn’t exactly ready either. I still want to explore the non-profit/development area, but it’s something to keep in mind. It eased my mind somewhat to get all of these interviews and possibilities anyway, before I was really starting to look for a job!

This is an entry without pictures to accompany it so here are some more Thailand scenes:
Decoration from inside Big Buddha temple on Ko Samui:


Different Buddha poses for each day of the week (you make an offering in the slot for the day you were born):


Map of Thailand showing where Peace Corps Volunteers are:


Female monk:


The monk world is a man’s world – each Thai man is expected to become a monk for a while at some point in his lifetime. It is not usual nor particularly honorable for a woman to become a monk – so those who do do it because they really feel the calling.