The job I have and The job I want.

So I got a job. It took a while for me to actually wrap my head around the strategies that need to be employed in order to find employmen in the country; but, now that I sort of know what I am doing, interviews are becoming more frequent and job offers sem to be getting slightly better, although I am still not where I want to be.

So. I got a job at a place where I teach english to Arabs. Most of them are beginners and it is a stressful job when you have students that sorta push your skills to the edge. Its a very well paying job however. I could do it as a supplemental job if I find the right full time to that finishes in time and which doesn't impede on this teaching place in any other way, chances of that are low though. So, basically I am hoping to take it one session at a time and earn my 75 riyals an hour while I can. For 48 hours of work in a month (ie. one session) I get 3600 riyals. Almost double what some people make in Qatar working a full day at work every day of the month, they support families too. Not only am I inexperienced in teaching, I am single and I only work 3 hours a day, four days a week. 48 hours/month= 3600 riyals= sweetness= Uzi dancing.

I haven't found a full time job yet, and that is a top priority as I need to find a sponsor willing to provide me with a residence visa. I gave three interviews yesterday (Qatar TV, Qatar Islamic Banks and BMW Automoiles) and two interviews today (Standard Chartered and Qatar Islamic Bank).

Out of all these interviews, I am most interested in the job offered by BMW Automobiles. Its a marketing position and the interview that I had with them (originally for a different position, but it got tweaked when they saw I was interested in the marketing position) was awesome. When I say awesome I'm not talking about how I did at the interview, infact I don't know how I did; but, the guy who was interviewing me was impressive and it was the conversation with him that was awesome. Young, well dressed, smart, Lebanese, on the ball, intelligent, able to have a conversation on various levels; he picked up my context when we started getting into it and when he realised that I was serious and that I was able to answer his questions, he started getting into it himself.

We discussed politics' relation to marketing, the relationship between marketing and sales, the thin line between them, how to market an established product, the grey areas of marketing such as lying/exaggeration and finances; It was an amazing interview. He was a hard ass, but not one that was trying to be demeaning, he wanted to know if I was everything I made myself out to be. When he asked me if I knew azbout international politics, I said yes.. he followed up by asking if teh middle east was an interest of mine. I said yes, so then he took me to task, asked me about Lebanon. I slam dunked it.And the best thing was that I could tell he knew what I was talking about which was above what the other two guys in the interview could even grasp. I don't want to be elitist in how I speak of this, but at some points me and this dude just started talking about stuff that was just lost on the other two men and I could just tell by looking at them from the corner of my eyes. It was awesome.

This guy got me on the ball again. I have not had a good interview for a year or so. I haven't been so excited for a job in a year. I have not been taken to task on such an intellectual level for so long. It was amazing, exhilarating and just phenomenal to be talking to someone else on the same level. I know that sounds elitist again, but there you have it. I have been starving for decent, complex, multi-contextual, multi-level conversation in person and I found some in the unlikeliest of places, a BMW showoom in Doha. There you have it, the job I want. The job I would accept even if they paid me a pittance just to get my foot in the door.

That or Al Jazeera International; someone took my resume into that place a few days ago too. Fingers crossed.