How To Increase Your Chances Of Finding A Job In Argentina

I'm back after a long hiatus. I told myself that I was done writing for this blog, but I felt that there were things that I still needed to share with my readers. So here I am and I'd like to talk about how you might be able to increase your chances of finding a job in Argentina.

As you know, the job outlook in Argentina isn't great, particularly in Cordoba. I've tried applying on job sites like computrabajo.com, zonajobs.com and Bumeran.com, and have failed to yield any good results, save for a few interviews here and there.

In fact, these are some of the obstacles that I run into when I try to apply. As you can see, ageism is an issue.

Unfortunately, I don't meet the age requirements.

Unfortunately, I don't meet the age requirements.

JOB SITES YOU CAN TRY

The nifty thing about the job sites here is that they track the progress of your application. Computrabajo.com in particular shows you how many people have applied for a particular position and whether your application has been viewed or discarded.

I have a list of over 10 pages that show how many companies have "adios" my job submissions. Then again, a lot of the positions had anywhere from 150 to thousands of applicants. so it´s understandable that I may have been overlooked in a vast, turbulent sea of job applicants.

OBSTACLES

There are a lot of obstacles when looking for work in Argentina, particularly a province like Cordoba where there are more people looking for work than there are jobs available. You'll also be dealing with issues related to age requirements (if you're over 29, good luck!), gender (it's legal to exclude people for positions based on gender here), and if you come from another country, most businesses tend to slam the door on your face because they would rather give work to Argentinians.

RECOMMENDATIONS

If you're planning on living here, I recommend Buenos Aires, particularly the CABA region (Capital Federal) which offer a lot more business opportunities than Cordoba for locals and expats.

If you're a computer programmer, which I'm not, you have a better chance of getting work here, though I would strongly recommend that you apply for a work Visa before you move here, unless you've been in Argentina awhile and have successfully applied for residency and/or citizenship.

Don´t assume that Argentine residency or citizenship will guarantee you a job. I thought having dual citizenship (the U.S. and Argentina) would have made things easier for me, but sadly it hasn't. As someone who has worked in the office/admin field for 16 years, I concentrated my job search in this area. Here are some things that I've learned that will hopefully help others in my predicament. 

KNOW THE LANGUAGE WELL

Having a decent amount of knowledge with reading and writing in Spanish is not optional. For example, my Spanish talking skills are a lot better than my writing or reading skills. So in the interviews I went on, they made me answer some questions, some of which I didn't fully understand but I tried filling them out anyway. I left blank any questions that totally baffled me.  

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT INTERVIEWS

While going on interviews, I've noticed a common theme. There are usually 4 interviews in total. At any point in the interview process, you might get eliminated like on American Idol. If you get a call back within a week of your first interview, you passed the first hurdle. But while you did well in your first and second interview, it does not guarantee you won't be disqualified as a candidate in the third or fourth interview. 

Interviewers love a lot of participation, particularly in group interviews. Don´t stay quiet! Be one of the first people to raise your hand or just jump right in and say something. 

One of the interviews I did for a telecommunication company called APEX had a business psychologist who was asking all the questions. Since I wasn't entirely sure what she was asking me on some things (this is where not being comfortable in your knowledge of Spanish can get you in trouble), I found myself unable to participate and this lady was eyeing me like a hawk. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, I never got a second interview. 

TANGO

No! I´m not talking about the Argentine Tango. I´m talking about the computer program, and I strongly recommend that you familiarize yourselves with it. There are vocational schools that teach you everything you need to know about this program. The average price varies by institutes. I´m planning on taking a course for this at some point next year. So when I have more info on pricing I will definitely post it. What I do understand about "TANGO" is that it is somewhat similar to Excel, but can be used in several administrative positions, especially HR. 

MOVE ON

One thing I've come to realize recently is that you have to accept that if something you´re doing isn't working... MOVE ON! Since office/admin jobs haven't produced any results, I decided to learn a different skill.

MEDICAL BILLING AND CODING

I am currently taking a medical coding and billing course at a vocational school in Nueva Cordoba that will last 4 and a 1/2 months. I'm half way there and I've managed to pass the first two of 5 major exams with a 9,50 (for the 1st test) and a 9 (for the 2nd test). The grading scales in Argentina are different from the States. In lieu of letters, A, B, C, D, or F, they use numbers. 10 is the highest so I´m actually quite proud of myself.

LEARNING A NEW FIELD

Not only am I learning a completely new field but I´m also learning to interact with my Argentinian classmates and getting more accustomed to speaking and writing in Castilian (Argentine Spanish). The course charges 500 Argentine pesos a month, which is $52.96 USD. By the time I finish the course, I will have a certificate and a transcript that shows that I've been trained to perform medical billing and coding in orthodontics, biochemistry and pharmaceuticals. And yes! Employers here appreciate vocational certificates just as much as college degrees, which is different in the States. Trust me! I have two certificates from Miami Lakes Tech that I did back in 1995. One was for Data Entry and the other one was for Financial Records and they didn't do squat for me.

PAID VERSUS FREE

But why pay when you can go to the Universidad Nacional De Cordoba (UNC) for free? I´ll tell you what the person that enrolled me in the medical billing and coding program told me. At the UNC, the person signing off on your certificate is the headmaster of history. HISTORY! NOT THE HEALTH CARE FIELD! So basically your certificate and transcript would read like a joke to a potential employer. Plus, my previous experience at the UNC has shown that they spend way too much time going on strikes over nonsense, and a lot of the professors teaching there don´t really seem to care about educating their students at all.

Paid programs are far better because you get a professor, which in my opinion, cares and will go out of their way to make sure that you learn and they won't allow nonsense like political issues (which seep into a lot of UNC lectures) get in the way of the training.

FUTURE OUTLOOK

I don't know if the medical and billing and coding certificate will free me from putting up with the passive aggressive behavior, poor earnings, and the dull routine that comes from working with handlers who assign me my freelance writing work. But one thing I refuse to do is give up hope for a better future. But since many of you reading this haven't taken the proverbial dive to live abroad, I'd like to urge caution. Please, do your research. Make sure that you land on your feet when you move to a foreign country, and have an exit strategy.

Expat Report: Surviving 2014 in Córdoba

2014 was a difficult year for my husband and I. We spent the majority of it separated with the intention of divorcing and never getting back together. And yet, we continued to live under the same roof. Meanwhile, I started my first year at the public university here in Cordoba and ended up dropping out to focus more on work to pay our bills, Zach's medicine, and of course, food.

During the course of the year, I tried dating for the first time in years. But what I assumed was a fellow college student flirting with me turned into an unfortunate misunderstanding. Sadly, it was all cleared up when we were about to go out on what I thought was our first date, and then he clarified over text that he was straight and could only offer me friendship.

On top of that, I had to deal with a roommate turned enemy. And no, I'm not referring to Zach, but to the Argentine woman he befriended, who was a total nightmare to live with. She finally moved out of our house and in with her boyfriend, who lives in Carlos Paz. She described the move as complicated but necessary, as she no longer wanted to live under the same roof as us. Good riddance, I say!

The only sucky thing is that she has become my boss and is giving me online article assignments to write, which she, of course, then takes full credit for. It's just as well, as the articles are utter shit, and only someone as mentally deficient as she is would bother reading them. But I'm going to stop throwing shit her way, as she has given me the closest thing I've found to a stable job here in Argentina, even if the pay is shit.

On another note, our expat friend Brian moved back to the States earlier this year and went MIA. We've received no responses from him despite several attempts to contact him by email or social media. But you know what they say. When one door closes, another one opens. Unfortunately, I learned that some doors should remain closed.

Over the course of the year, I made what I thought was a connection with an expat couple who needed a babysitter for their toddler. Now, I have never in my life taken care of a child, and I was very honest with them about that. They were cool with it and paid good money for me to take care of their kid. I figured that since they were fellow American expats, we had a bond. Well, the connection seemed to be more one-sided. I needed friends, and they just needed a babysitter and some more insight into life in Argentina.

That's okay. I still have a few friends left in Argentina. Well, actually, there's one that I'm not so sure is a friend anymore, but she is a fellow expat.

Her name is Wendy, and she invited me to her home for Thanksgiving, along with my now reconciled husband, Zach. Our fellow expat friend Sarah-Claire was there too. On top of that, there was another American expat couple, one of whom offered to pay me in exchange for writing a three-part story about my journey from the States to Argentina. Spoiler alert! She never paid!

Well, over the course of the evening, Zach and I ended up talking more with Sarah-Claire than anyone else in the house. It was almost like everyone was doing their own thing, which is definitely not how Thanksgiving should be.

Half the food was also semi-recycled from a previous Thanksgiving event that Wendy had gone to earlier that week. But clearly, Sarah-Claire didn't seem to mind. She'll eat anything.

The food was still delicious, even if the dishes were leftovers.

But we hit a bit of a snag when we tried going home.

It turned out that it was raining while we were celebrating indoors. When we tried to leave, we realized the streets were flooded, and we couldn't get a cab to come over. This was not surprising. Getting a cab in Cordoba during a storm is a nightmare.

Finally, Wendy's husband drove us downtown and dropped us off near Patio Olmos. We didn't want to inconvenience him by asking him to drive us any further, though I wish we had, because getting a cab in the downtown area proved just as difficult as getting one from Wendy's house. Eventually, we got one and made it home, though we were extremely drenched.

We were so glad that the night was over, but the aftermath of our visit dragged on.

Remember that horrible roommate I mentioned earlier and in a previous post? Well, it turns out that she had a falling out with Wendy because she was convinced that Wendy had tried to hit on her boyfriend at work. When the roommate from hell, now boss from hell, found out that we went to Wendy's house for Thanksgiving instead of her house party in Carlos Paz, she got really jealous and upset.

Honestly, I don't know how long this working relationship with her will last, given how petty and childish she is, but we'll see. I'm trying to be diplomatic, not just for the job, but because she's still friends with Zach, though that friendship seems to be fading.

And oh shit!

Did I forget to mention Halloween this year? The holiday that comes before Thanksgiving? Well, to be honest, we didn't do much of anything. Though we did go to Walmart and tried on a few masks. Does that count?

The day after Halloween, we celebrated Zach's birthday. The friend turned roommate turned boss from hell was also in attendance, but is not pictured here. But let me tell you, she showed up wearing a blue dress and acting like she was Kim Kardashian. Naturally, the straight guys in the group kept drooling over her.

Although she tried to steal the spotlight, we still managed to have fun with our core group. Unfortunately, they sensed the tension, and the house felt divided for half the night. These two beautiful ladies ended up leaving the party early, much to our dismay.

So now I'll jump to December, when we celebrated Christmas by ourselves without any guests. We did go to my boss from hell's house in Carlos Paz, mainly to make peace. I was so bored that I ended up eating all of her Planter's Nuts. It was only near the end of the night that she subtly told her boyfriend that the nuts were supposed to be shared with some friends at another party she was going to later that night. It was her way of calling me out for eating her stuff. She could have told me in advance. Whatever!

Zach and I had way more fun by ourselves, and we had presents to open on Christmas Day, which included a Lord of the Rings Blu-ray Trilogy collection, an inflatable pool to beat the Argentine summer, and a couple of other miscellaneous items and treats.

I don't know how long it will be before I write another post. I can definitely say that working for the boss from hell and writing those pointless articles drains me both physically and emotionally. So the last thing I want to do is write for my blog. But I will continue to post next year as soon as I get a break.

So I'm going to wish everyone an early Happy New Year and hope that 2015 brings better things than 2014.

Bye for now.

We Reconciled Our Marriage at Johnny B. Good

When Zach and I got married in New York in 2012, we thought it was going to last forever. Then the stress that came with moving abroad to Argentina tore us apart. We separated, and our 12-year relationship, of which we had spent a year and a half married, came to an end.

During our 8-month separation, we realized that we still loved each other and needed one another to get through the challenges we had faced since moving here. So we are officially back together!

To celebrate, we went to a restaurant that I had been dying to try since we got here. It’s called Johnny B. Good, and it is located in the heart of Nueva Cordoba.

The restaurant offers a variety of American dishes, which is why we chose it. The first thing we noticed when we walked in was how much it reminded us of Uno’s Chicago Grill or Chili’s, which are two of our favorite restaurants back home.

We got to the restaurant at noon, but we were not sure if they were serving yet. We have had some previous experiences with other restaurants in Cordoba where they would not serve you unless it was 1 p.m. I am not talking about fast food restaurants, of course, but the more formal ones. So it was very nice that Johnny B. Good opened their doors at 12.

The menu had an assortment of appetizers, main courses, and my favorite, desserts. Zach and I started with the potato skins. They are not exactly like the ones they serve in the States, but they were close enough. The inside was stuffed with cheese, and there was no way to ignore how thick these puppies were. Potato skins are usually thin, with cheddar and bacon bits sprinkled on top. These were gigantic, but still delicious.

Then I went ahead and ordered the Philly cheesesteak, which I haven’t had in ages. They call it the Golden Baguette here and it only costs 83 Argentine pesos (9.86 USD as of the 9/8/14 exchange rate).

Zach had a burger with huge onion rings, not those scrawny, shriveled things they give you at BK. The bacon was not really bacon because, at the moment, it is hard to find in Argentina. They have something similar here called pancetta, but the texture is not the same. It is softer and feels almost raw in your mouth, but Zach loved the burger just the same. The cost was about the same as the Philly cheesesteak.

We were stuffed but decided to go ahead and push our stomachs beyond their limit and order some dessert.

Zach had something that looked like an Oreo ice cream cookie with vanilla sauce on the side, while I had a brownie cup, which was… well, it is kind of difficult to explain. The first layer was whipped cream with a layer of fruit, followed by a layer of dulce de leche, a caramel-like spread that is very popular here, and a brownie crumbled at the bottom of the glass cup. Alright, so maybe it was not that difficult to explain after all.

With drinks, non-alcoholic, the bill came to 425 Argentine pesos, about 50 USD based on the 9/8/14 exchange rate.

All in all, it was money well spent to celebrate our reconciliation.

Afterwards, we went walking around Nueva Cordoba and other areas of downtown.

Eventually, we saw that the annual book fair was in full swing in Plaza San Martin. I covered the last two fairs, but this year I felt there was nothing new or special to report.

Debating whether or not to go into the book fair

Zach and I went through the fair rather quickly. We were looking for novels in English, but since they don't sell many of them here, the bookstores that take part in the fair did not bother bringing their small selection.

The fair did serve one purpose, and that was to kill time until our movie started. In case I have not mentioned it before, we have a history of going to the movies over the last 12 years. Our ticket stub collection is almost as big as the thousands of DVDs we own. We watched the comedy Sex Tape with Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz. We were the only people who laughed at the jokes because we are used to that type of humor, but the film itself was sh*t.

Before I end this post, I have a short update on some of the things happening with our friends and loved ones back home.

The big news is that my husband, Zach, recently became the proud uncle of a beautiful baby girl. I guess that by marriage, that makes me an uncle too. We would like to take a moment to congratulate his brother and his wife on their new addition. Whether we will get the chance to meet our niece remains to be seen. His brother and I don't really get along, and even if we did, we don't exactly have the money to go back and visit.

On my side: I would like to congratulate my very dear friend Amber and her husband Chris on the birth of baby Nathan.

We love and miss our friends and family back in the States, especially given how disappointing some of the Argentine and expat friends we thought we had made turned out to be.

At least we still have each other, and in the end, that is what counts.

Going Global at Cordoba, Argentina's Global Village

Global Village is an event that was held at the Studio Theater in Cordoba Capital, Argentina in 2014. It brought people from diverse cultures and backgrounds together to share and celebrate their uniqueness with music, dancing, information and most importantly, food!

There were tables representing Spain, Croatia, Paraguay, Cuba, the Middle East, Poland, Germany, Canada and Italy (and if I’m forgetting anyone I am deeply sorry).

There were performers entertaining us with Polish dancing. Performers from other countries like Germany and Italy performed as well. Here's this short video I made of the event, which I hope you'll enjoy.

I loved that everyone at the event respected the different cultures present at this event. I’ve recently dealt with three separate situations here in Cordoba City, where this was not the case, leaving me a little disheartened. So, Global Village was a very refreshing experience and frankly it gives me hope that it will open people’s minds to allow those from all cultures and walks of life to express themselves freely without the fear of prejudice here in Argentina.

I'm looking forward to the next event and hopefully, other cultures not present at this year's event, will be encouraged to participate as well.