Adventures of a Gringa

Jobs in Rio de Janeiro

I still get a steady stream of questions about moving to Rio, and I don't have time to respond to most of them, so I'm sorry about that. But I recently came across a few interesting job postings in Rio, so whether you're a gringo or an English-speaking Brazilian, check out these opportunities, and be sure to note where they come from, namely Idealist, Craigslist, FPA, and Devex. (Craigslist in particular has mostly crap, but once in awhile there will be ok listings) Make sure you check those sites frequently for English language job listings in Brazil, though they're not terribly common. If I wasn't planning on staying in New York, I would be all over the first listing!

Rio de Janeiro Job Listings - April 2010

Program Officer - Media Rights and Access, Ford Foundation

"The Program Officer will be responsible for designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating a portfolio of grants addressing issues relating to media rights and access as well as advancing public media services in Brazil. S/he will strive to promote a media environment that demonstrates balance between freedom of expression and media regulation and that ensures symmetry of opportunities for citizens and groups generating, disseminating, and acquiring information."

Associate of Business Development, Community in Action

"We are currently seeking a Full-Time Business Development Associate to begin in April, 2010 for a one year period (which can be extended). This position entails several responsibilities. As the development associate, you will work directly with the NGO’s founders to seek funds and create partnerships both in Brazil and abroad."

Manager of Operations, Community in Action

"We are currently seeking a Full-Time Manager of Operations to begin in May, 2010 (or shortly thereafter) for a one year period. As the operations manager, you will direct day-to-day activities in Rio de Janeiro."

Freelance Media Analyst, Report International

"We are currently looking to recruit freelance Portuguese-speaking media analysts in Brazil for a new project. We would need you to write an English language summary of each article, and analyse the content against a number of topics."

IT Program Manager, Accion International

"The IT Program Manager will assist ACCION’s microfinance partner in Brazil with deploying and managing technology to support their business strategy.  S/he will have management responsibility for all IT related ACCION project in Brazil."

Foreign Policy Blog!

I'm very excited to announce that I have been chosen as one of two writers who will write for the Foreign Policy Association's brand new Brazil blog! I was humbled, to say the least, when I found out the other blogger is actually a professor who specializes in Brazil and Latin America. Luckily, he focuses on climate change and the environment, which I tend to touch on marginally, so I think we will make a good team.

Back in the summer, I found out a friend of mine was writing their Cuba blog, and I noticed they didn't have one for Brazil. So I bombarded the blog editor with applications and samples, and recently, I was really happy to get a call from my friend, who will now be my blog boss, so to speak. 

So without further ado: check out my first post on the Brazilian education here.

The power of the business card

One of the smartest purchases I made in the past year was a set of personalized business cards from Moo,* an amazing UK-based business card company. It was recommended to me by an American expat in Rio, and I ordered them sometime last January. I bought a set of mini-cards, which are very handy and somewhat smaller than standard business cards, which makes them unique.

Moo allows you to upload your own image or to pick and choose from their wonderful designs to personalize your cards. You can mix and match different designs, or use big text on the graphic side of the card. I chose Sarah Green's minis collection, which has really funky designs in tons of colors. I had my Rio information put on the back, and since I've been home I handwrote in my New York phone number.

I've found that having these particular cards is incredibly helpful. They're small, so they're easy to carry around (I bought the handy mini-card holder, which people for some reason find intriguing, maybe because it's pink). They're really unique cards and people always react well to them, and frequently ask where I got them. I like to think they help me stand out, even if in a small way.

For expats, these are great to have whether you're moving to a new place or hopping back and forth between several places. In Brazil, having cards in English, while obvious for an American, was actually an advantage, literally working the "gringo card" (plus, there's only one line of text besides my name and contact info). When I came back to New York, I didn't order an entire set of new cards because I actually liked having my Rio information on there. I like to think that also helps me stand out.

While the past seven months were rough in terms of job hunting, having these cards has given me a little bit of extra confidence. There are so many factors that go into an interview, but having something high-quality and memorable for people to remember you by is really helpful.

*Note: I was not paid or compensated to write this! I just love the cards that much.

Out of my mind

Awhile back, when I went to Floripa on my first totally solo vacation, an idea came to me for a fiction book. It wasn't much, but I started forming some concepts as I sat alone on the beach. For some reason, I didn't do anything with them, even as more ideas came along after I went home and as they festered at the back of my mind ever since. It's not that I didn't have time; I didn't really have the desire to do anything about it. (Plus, the Internet is eternally distracting.) Also, being that I work best on deadlines and put existing commitments above personal projects, it never made it to the top of my to-do list.

But then, by way of Brazen Careerist, I came across a little event called National Novel Writing Month, run by a small non-profit in San Francisco. The idea is to write a 50,000 word noel in a month. As the website describes:

"Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly."

Now this is not at all my style - I'm a perfectionist - but I was also notorious in high school and college for writing obscenely long papers, sometimes longer than necessary. So in theory, it's doable, though I have no realistic expectations of finishing, nor of coming out with a decent end result.

In any event, I'm going to give it a try, for nothing more than to force myself to at least give it a shot and see what I come up with. Being that I now have a part-time job, freelance work, job hunting, and a possible second part-time job, I won't have much time. But I figure that if I force myself to join a huge group of people doing the same thing (peer pressure always works), then I will at least start. You can track my progress here, and I would gladly welcome any friends to join and try this ridiculous feat with me.

Silver Lining

It's hard not to get down with the economy and the challenges I'm facing, the same ones a lot of friends and peers are dealing with, too. For a long time, I was all *headdesk* *facepalm* lie-in-bed-eating-candy corn-and-watching-all-three-seasons-of-Arrested-Development down.

But now that I started temping, I realize that there's a definite silver lining to the job market fiasco, at least for me. After being out of the country for two years and doing very different jobs than I was used to, I'm using this time to get back into the groove of the American workplace and the office, which is enormously helpful to me. It's things like dusting off skills with certain computer programs, or something as simple as re-learning how to sit in an office chair for eight hours. Plus, I'm getting new and extremely valuable experience that's hopefully going to make me more valuable as I continue to look for full-time jobs. I'm learning new programs and skills, which is fun and incredibly useful.

Eli, for his part, got his employment authorization very quickly (thank you USCIS!) and started working as a bartender, since he'd taken a course this summer. While he eventually wants to work in something like marketing or business, he was well aware of the job market and on top of that, the reality of being a new immigrant, and he really did the right thing, considering how fast he managed to find a job. He's working really hard, about 45 hours a week. And even though it's not always rainbows and sunshine there (to put it mildly), he's getting New York experience, learning new skills and seeing how the industry works.

The point is that while it's really difficult not to get blue, especially if you're completely unemployed, this terrible time is in its own way giving us opportunities--or rather, forcing us--to do something different. Whether it's traveling, or volunteering, or trying out a part-time or temp job in something you might not have otherwise considered, it's all going to work out in the long run, and we might as well take advantage of this strange time to get something out of it.

Why temp?

I've come quite a long way in my job hunt since I first started looking back in April, even before I came back to New York. Initially, I had a rather narrow set of criteria for job openings I would apply to, and since I initially got three interviews right off the bat, I was lured into a very false sense of security.

Well, sure enough, it became abundantly clear that a job wasn't going to come easy, so I gradually expanded my search, until it became much broader. I applied for some short term jobs, but decided against temping, since my rationale went that I had no idea when I would get a full time job and wouldn't want to be caught in between a temporary, part-time job and the goal of a full-time, long-term job.

That ship has sailed, and I recently began pursuing temping opportunities. The two most important factors are that I managed to pull myself out of a sad little unemployment funk and that it has been five whole months since I got back to the States and have not been able to get a full time job. I still shudder at that number. Five. Nearly half a year. It's mind boggling.

So I went ahead and got myself set up with a non-profit temping agency, which turned out to be really great, and also applied for a temporary position I found on a job board. I was called in for an interview at both places, making me eligible for the agency's temp positions and a candidate at the company looking for a short-term consultant. But amazingly, I was hired for the temp position I had applied for on my own just a few days later, and I start next week. I'm excited about it because it involves a lot of Portuguese translation and using my knowledge of Brazilian culture and current events to help the company try to break into the Brazilian market.

Oh yeah, that's the other thing. I'm going private sector! At least temporarily.

I realize that it's possible an opportunity will come along for a full-time job (I'm still applying to openings almost every day), but it will likely not be right away. In the meantime, I've found something to get myself back on my feet and back into the American workplace, which will be a great way to prepare me for the (hopeful) long-term position I will find somewhere down the road.

Funk

It seems I've got the unemployment blues.

Suddenly, I blinked and the summer was over, and all of the sudden the leaves are changing color and the temperature has dropped to match my spirits. I can't believe how I spent half of the summer doing practically nothing but job hunting and otherwise being a slug.

This is in part why I lost a little bit of steam here on the blog, since I found myself digging deeper and deeper into a rut. On the job hunt, it seems, I always seem to be taking one step forward and two steps back, and now I feel like I've taken a giant leap back and I'm starting from square one. It seems that every time I got my hopes up for a job, and spent hours researching the organization and staff and projects and reports and preparing for the interviews, I'd wind up back where I started, with nothing, surfing Idealist and playing FarmVille in bed.

The time has come and gone when I would normally be back at school or abroad, and being home in September is a bit unsettling for me. To make matters worse, everyone wants to give me advice on how to get a job (or ask about my "wedding"), but at this point, what I need are actual job leads, since I have already been given very good advice from lots of different people. I know what my strengths and weaknesses are, and I know how terrible I am at networking at events and in person, so I'm trying to use the contacts I already have and see where it goes, as well as applying for job listings online (by the way--it is not useless to apply for those listings like many would have you think--all of the interviews I've had so far have been from them).

In the meantime, I've basically stopped doing the things I'd normally do, partially due to relative isolation in the burbs, lack of money, and sheer laziness. I haven't taken or given a dance class since April, and I'm suffering greatly as a result. I haven't gone out as often as I'd like, and some days I barely leave the house. It's been making me a little crazy as a result, but I've planned a few new projects (and luckily, have a few interviews coming up) to keep me occupied. I've decided that instead of being mopey and miserable, I might as well take a shot at being funemployed.