IAC:
Hi all, this is the Icelandic Association of Chicago, sitting with Björn, a student at Reykjavik University, who has agreed to sit with us and discuss his experience of what it’s like to job search in the United States as someone from out of town.
[Speaking Icelandic]
Thank you for sitting with us today.
[Icelandic]
Can you tell us about yourself?
Björn:
Well, like you said, I’m a student at Reykjavik University and currently in a hectic and long job search, trying to stay in the US for some time, since my girlfriend has a job here. After school, I would like to keep staying here in Chicago and hopefully get a job. But the thing about Reykjavik University is that it does one bit differently than the older and more popular University of Iceland, is that the courses are 12 weeks long instead of the traditional 15.
So, what is really exciting about that, because I want to talk a bit about what Reykjavik University does, is that keeping the pace is so important, because if you blink, you will have catching up to do. You can never fall behind. And what they also do is that for the last three weeks of the semester, you are what is essentially mimicking a working environment. You’re put into groups, you’re expected to show up at 8am, work to 4, the traditional work day of course, and then trying to have this large hand in at the end of the three weeks course. So yeah, it’s mimicking the working environment, which is a non specific skill, but a vital one nonetheless.
IAC:
Sounds like it’s trying to balance not only the theoretical but also brings in a lot of the practicality and a real world-esque experience.
Björn:
Yes, definitely, which is also in both sides of it, the 12 week one and the three week one, where it’s kind of, yes, trying to bridge the gap between what you know and how fast you can do it, which is, I mean, I would say jobs are like that.
IAC:
Yes. Let’s see, I’m looking forward to hearing a little bit more about that. And you also have another couple of projects that we’ll talk about later on. Can you give us a sneak peek at those?
Björn:
Well, there’s a small NBA extension I wrote, and there’s also the small, like, just for my personal use, which is the breadboard where I connect to the CTA developer account, and I can mimic the train here in Chicago, hopefully, so I can know when to go downstairs and get to my stop.
IAC:
That is clever. All right, so, so far in your time, you’ve had roles as a developer, audio engineer, project manager, how do you feel those skills kind of relate to what you’re looking for here? And what so far do you find to be the toughest aspects of looking for a job in the United States? Especially things regarding, like, visa requirements, and how difficult is it to find an employer that will sponsor?
Björn:
Well, good question, because the great thing about these skills and experiences is they are practically useful everywhere, because I mean, audio doesn’t really change from country to country, and neither does project management, I suppose.
I mean, the basics are still there, wherever you go. But working audio, and in particular, live audio, did sharpen my attention to detail and the ability to work under pressure. But I think the toughest aspect of finding a job in the US is competition.
See, I’m coming from an environment where the pool of applicants isn’t as large as in the United States. I mean, people population wise, it’s much larger and also you get people from everywhere applying to jobs here, whereas in Iceland, I don’t think you get a lot of people from different countries applying.
So the other part is that the smaller companies are, I don’t want to say out of reach, but they don’t have the capacity to take on some immigrants, usually because there’s a bunch of law stuff that goes into it. Beautiful word, by the way, law stuff. And yeah, it kind of restricts the companies I can apply for to somewhat medium and large in size. But for now, I have been looking through some H1B databases, which I have found online, where you can basically type in either the company or the place location.
And then you can find a bunch of companies that have in the past sponsored H1Bs, which is useful. It does filter some companies out and it can narrow it down to try to focus on these companies because in the past they have been sponsoring H1Bs.
IAC:
So slightly off-scripted question, have you sought after companies that are maybe companies that are in mainland Europe, they’re part of the Schengen area, they’re headquartered in the Schengen area, but have a rather large presence in the United States?
Björn:
No, not really, but I have been looking for also companies in Iceland that have some headquarters in the United States, which there’s one called Knox Medical, which is a sleep wearable company and kind of something in the realm of my research project. And then you have some like there’s a company called Tempo, which is some kind of like time management, project management kind of software.
So there are some places in Iceland, but I’ve not ventured to Europe because I think the path would be easier to go through Iceland and then the United States rather than going Europe and then the States.
IAC:
And in this market, how do you showcase yourself as a job seeker? What are some of the techniques that you’re using and what would you recommend to people that have to address any skills gaps in their own resumes? Like what’s your advice to other job seekers in that regard?
Björn:
Well, I have to repeat the advice I got, which was I think two years ago where I was applying for jobs and people like I was done with my first year in the university and I would get some feedback with what I should do.
And people would say side projects, side projects and side projects. So that’s what I’ve been doing since then, which is just doing a bunch of stuff outside of the school’s curriculum. And I hope they can be of some importance.
IAC:
What are those? Can you talk about them?
Björn:
Yeah. There’s a macOS extension or a software that’s called Alfred, which basically replaces the spotlight search. And from there you can do a bunch of scripting and kind of stuff that’s quicker and easier to access. So what I did was I used it for everything to launch apps or find files, that kind of stuff.
So but I got into the habit of always typing in NBA when I wanted to see what games were on. And of course that wouldn’t give me anything. It would just show nothing. So what I did was I created a program that utilizes the NBA API to then show me the scores, the life scores of the NBA games that are currently going on. So it’s kind of I wanted to be it was really like a small problem that I had that I wanted to fix right away.
So I wanted to see like, oh, what can I do here?
NBA?
OK, I can see that Atlanta Hawks are winning the Los Angeles Clippers.
IAC:
Awesome.
Björn:
Yeah.
And then there’s I’ve been doing now I’m working on trying to create a breadboard with the Blue Line stops. So I’ve created a Chicago CTA developer account where I can think the trains and I can.
IAC:
Yeah.
Björn:
Wow.
IAC:
Yeah.
But I do need one part because my Raspberry Pi does only has like, I think, 26 pins that can I can use the LEDs on. Blue Line has about 31 stops, I think. I’ve written the program, but I’m still trying to figure out the hardware stuff so I can just like the LEDs where the train is on every stop.
IAC:
That’s awesome.
Björn:
Yeah.
I like doing a bunch of stupid shit.
IAC:
Yes, but doing that enough and then having that being able to replicate upwards, sometimes that solves a lot of problems or just delights some folks. So, yeah, keep that up. I would love if you could send me URLs to like a GitHub repo or anything along those lines that that sounds really fun.
Björn:
Yeah.
IAC:
Awesome. And then just kind of, if you could, I guess like just the final question that I had scripted out. If you could give, if you could find someone in your position maybe a year or two before where you are, what in the last six months to a year what experience what advice can you give that individual based on the last six months to a year of your own experience of job searching in another country?
Björn:
Well, I would, I mean, advice is usually something I would give if I had been successful or if the success is already there because I’m still in the thick of it. So advice is hard to give when you’re like trying to navigate it yourself, but I think there’s only like one thing I can say is that just start right away. Like it’s going to be a marathon. It’s not a sprint. And what I would also say is just helpful either way. It doesn’t really, it’s helpful for I think any kind of job seeking and that is just to be patient and everything will fall into place.
Like we say, we say, Þetta Reddast. And I think it will.
IAC:
I was wondering when that would come up.
Björn:
We have to.
IAC:
Well, this is great.
So I’m expecting from you a list of some GitHub repos and maybe some pictures of these projects that would be fantastic to display. Everyone, this has been Icelandic Association from Chicago speaking with Björn.
Thank you, Björn.
Thank you.
Sjáumst.