Winning the bet (I crossed the desert)

Bet accepted, bet won. I got a job.

It’s been such a hard goal to achieve, like to find an oasis craving for fresh water, the same way I was craving for a job as a 21st century nomad.

And in fact the hundreds of positions I had applied for were actually just like mirages, vanishing at a closer look.

Not this time, as those words are firmly stuck in my mind: “We are willing to offer you the position”.

My exhausting travel in search of an income has finished, for now.

Really, I could not imagine Vancouver job market could be so hard to break into, like a medieval fortress.

The simple truth is everybody would like to live and work in Vancouver.

The result also is simple: too many people looking for occasions, too few open positions, salaries not so high if compared to freezer Alberta.

What I got is not exactly what I was looking for initially, but it’s a job, honest, paid, that enables me to spend some more time in this city, whose beauty is only equivalent to the difficulty to earn a living here.

Challenges are not over, but I took a first important step forward. You may be tough Canada, but I’m a stubborn bad ass too.

And wow, my blog is safe as well. I will keep updating it with my thoughts and impressions.

At least I will have more chances to get out to find inspiration and less time to cuddle my laptop with tons of resumes.

Next mission: to get a flat.

And by the way... it's time to turn the I AM GOING TO page to I LIVE IN, as it is time to live (in) Vancouver.

The bet

A bet: that’s what I’ve made. My return to Italy was scheduled for 24^th April in case of failure to get a job in Canada. Well… I have no job yet but I’m still in Canada.

I decided to keep searching here. It’s been a choice as sudden as difficult to make. I made up my mind only a couple of days before my departure.

If I fail again I will have to rebuy a brand new ticket, and I’m vaguely under the impression I won’t find a special offer Ryanair style. If I get a job, well… for a while I’ll stop thinking how miserable is the job market in Italy now.

It’s a bet, as risky as any bet. Life itself is a risk. I don’t want to be overdramatic but, if you think about that, since the moment you’re born you constantly take the chance to die.

If there’s no risk there’s no win, and with no winner there’s no game. Simple, brutal, true.

Nevertheless I was astonished to find out this simple concept is not clear to everybody.

I applied for a position and as a reason not to concede me an interview the principal said, beside the standard not the kind of experience I’m looking for, he looks for somebody with a mindset where you spend one dollar only if you are certain, through testing, that you will get $5 back.

Tell me my friend: who is certain to have back $5 spending $1???

If there’s certainty it’s not a bet, but it’s not even reality, unless you have the gift to see the future.

Who on the Earth would not invest a certain amount of money being 100% sure to gain something from that? Who would be so stupid?

Every entrepreneur knows there’s an entrepreneurial risk when starting a new business: success is never certain. If it was, there would be no businessmen and no business, like to playing lotto if everybody knew in advance the numbers drawn. It applies whether you open a new plant or you hire a new employee.

You can minimize the risk, but you cannot reduce it to zero.

You may like it or not, but that’s the way it works.

Canada is not an exception to me, and I'm sure your company is not to you: do you want to bet?

Spring

Winter has not surrendered yet: greyish clouds are still entangled on the mountains, and the chilly wind reminds you summertime is yet to come.

But there’s no doubt: these last days are a prelude to the good season.

People are enjoying the sunny days and the beautiful sight of the flourishing cherry blossom trees: this time the colour white announces the warmth, not the cold.

For the first time, due also to the long week-end, I found “too many” people around in the streets while I was going to English Bay.

It’s official: spring has come.