[Akinari]

Originally Posted by GGnoRE

Part of the problem is that with Vancouver being a such a great place to live, there's always a backlog of overqualified people willing to work in lower roles with lower pays. At my previous work, I worked with three coworkers in their 30's and 40's that took massive pay cuts (I'm guessing at least 50% even though their pay is still in 6 figures) to live in Vancouver. One had a top-tier MBA and two were from top-tier banks like Goldman from London and HK. I see similar examples all the time in accounting, tech, engineering etc.. IMO, Vancouver is terrible place for young people to grow their careers, assuming you have the drive and the intellectual potential. There's just not enough job opportunities with good growth potential. The difference I see among my peers' career trajectories between those who stayed in Vancouver vs people who left for bigger job markets is astronomical in 10 years. My advice is to explore your options outside of Van asap. You're young and have nothing to lose, don't let the allure of how beautiful and comfortable this city is prevent you from exploring your full potential.



When I was applying for my current job, I had a similar experience. Over 4 months I went through 5 rounds, ~10 interviews. HR didn't even have the courtesy to let me know I didn't get the job and I had to chase after them to receive that rejection. But guess what? I sucked it up and contacted the same HR recruiter again after 3 months and let her know that I'm still interested and willing to go through the same interview process if a similar role pops up in the future. I'm not sure if that correspondence reminded her that I was still out there but she let me know that one of the managers I interviewed with (among the previous ~10 interviews) was hiring and had a really good impression and was considering me along with other new candidates. After a few months, I got the job because I aced all my previous interviews but I was not hired for the previous role based on 'fit' (managers were incentivized to increase diversity scores, whole another story). My advice is, if you really like the company and felt you did well on your interviews, don't give up and keep reaching out to the company to let them know that you're still out there and motivated to work for them. Funny thing is, my partner is also working for her current dream job through a similar second opportunity. So don't sleep on second chances; if you made a great impression, they will remember you.

I'm not sure if I ever shared this here, but my close friends including some of those who are on here, knew that prior to taking my current job, gf and I had actually decided that we'd be moving to Tokyo. It was initially me who did the convincing (I absolutely LOVE Tokyo, it's such an incredible city) because gf was skeptical obviously (not as much passion towards Japan as me, and no Japanese language skills) but after much back and forth, she began to see my reasoning.

- We're young, and both see the lack of growth opportunities in Vancouver for those with ambitions, and both struggle with our careers
- When the only reasons to STAY in Vancouver are that it's very chill and comfortable, you know there's a problem
- Working your ass off in a 9-8 job and rising through the ranks within 3 years (all my friends who moved back to HK/Taipei/Tokyo after graduation) versus having maybe only 2 hours of work to do out of a 9-5 job with a 1.5hr lunch, and not really experiencing much, if any growth, it should be obvious what the answer is
- We're both crazy about Japanese food and everything Japanese in general (I'm an ex-weeb and gf also enjoys certain aspects of Japanese culture very much)
- Gf grew up in HK and I've always hated the country bumpkin lifestyle in Vancouver (wE'rE a WoRlD cLaSs CiTy) of a tiny city trying to be something that it's not, so she's very accustomed to the big city lifestyle and I've always dreamed of living in a huge metropolitan REAL world-class city, and after several trips to Tokyo together, we were sure we'd greatly enjoy living there

We went as far as to begin taking Japanese lessons, and I began networking on a daily basis to increase my contacts in Japan, reaching out to existing friends and friends of friends, as well as random people (I even had a long back and forth email conversation with Derek with Pacific Coast Auto on career prospects for a non-Japanese person like myself). I began looking into the different types of visas, everything associated with housing including rentals, different areas to live in, etc. etc. etc. BASICALLY we were super serious about moving.

And yes, for all of you people that are thinking in your head hahaha this stupid gaijin wanting to move to Tokyo thinking it's all fine and dandy and the best place in the world through his rose coloured glasses, we did absolutely consider that and we were completely aware of how significant of a change our lives would go through, and how Japanese culture isn't exactly the friendliest thing. These are things we took into consideration, but were hardships we were willing to experience (not exactly hardships, it's just how things are there vs the retirement city that is Vancouver).

Till this day, I'm not sure why I expected that this current role I'm in would fix everything and make me be able to stay in Vancouver. To be frank, I'm quite disappointed in this company and how they duped the recruiter (spoke with her afterwards about the toxic things that were happening and she said wtf that isn't what they told me and empathized with me at least).

Long story short: I'm thinking of moving to Tokyo again...shouldn't have put off that dream of ours. Lots of planning to do. It's a big LIFE move, takes a lot of planning.

Originally Posted by tiger_handheld

Unfathomably rich=they can go to any restaurant in the world and order without looking at the menu price and place their Amex without hesitation after dinner is over.

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

You guys can do that too, you know that right?

Then become unfathomably in debt

Originally Posted by 6793026

I feel you bro; times are tough. Great vibe all around and still lose at the end. It freaking sucks.
Went thru this sample exercise on a IT hipster San Fran type start up... took me 4 days to do a presentation (following their curriculum etc). And you're right, just one simple email... "sorry, we went with someone better"blah blah blah......just a copy & paste too bad so sad email.

Didn't even want to debrief.



9 out of 10 times... people lose out due to referrals / internal hire etc. I got defeated twice on an amazing opportunity in March. Went super emo... and now due to COVID... there are nothign going on.

What i learned is to never BLAME yourself.
a) maybe I said soemthign wrong
b) maybe my email wasn't good enough
c) I should have done this instead etc.

You will soon spiral into a dark hole and won't ever come back out. If you don't get a job, never blame yourself on the could have should have... Most of the times, its out of your control.

It's tough not to be hard on yourself, especially for me since I'm a bit of an OCD perfectionist