Hi everyone, after so long lurking I've finally decided to share my own little tale of job searching in the USA compared to home in Europe.
Coming to the United States was worrying me as endless personality quizzes, 10 step interview processes and 5 hour long job applications are already all too common, and I was not disappointed coming here. That said, I've finally got an offer for a great position, but I learned some rules along the way:
-
If they try and automate the entire application process with quizzes and scenarios, and offer a single short interview, the company's financial position is not good enough to hire good human resources. You will almost certainly be offered a low wage and have an extremely heavy workload.
-
If a company doesn't advertise the salary, it is not worth applying to. Even if the salary is reasonable making the choice to post an ad without salary is setting the trend of working for free: they want you to spend your time working on an application so that you will feel as though you have wasted it if you do not accept a low salary. This, to me, shows a boss that expects you to put your work above all else and doesn't consider any aspect of an employees life once they're off the clock.
-
Don't apply for anything under 20 an hour. Anything less is insulting, especially with gas prices hitting this all time high and inflation rampant. If you have the luxury of taking a longer time to apply for a job, no matter what the skillset, there will be a better company somewhere that will compensate you more reasonably than 20 or less.
-
If a boss is pushing for a return to the office without offering any (at the least) hybrid solutions, that means they consider their real estate more valuable than their employees well-being.
-
I've learned the hard way to put away as much as possible of each payslip. Obviously this is easier said than done, and the ability to do this is heavily tied to one's wage, but having a bit of reserve cash this time around allowed me to take more time, apply more selectively, work on each application individually if it was warranted rather than blanket cover letters, etc. I was a compulsive spender but investing or crypto satisfies that same itch for me, while at best, making me more money, at worst I will lose less than if I had gone out and bought something not worth it.
This is just my experience. You all might have different ideas, but these are the things I wish I had known throughout my job searching career.