New Horizons

Since November, a major part of my free time has involved tirelessly applying for positions at international jobs around the world.  I filled out application after application, wrote cover letter after cover letter and sent them off into the empty, black-hole-void of the Internet.  Most often, I did not receive any replies, just disheartening, utterly discouraging silence.        

I had almost given up hope and was tentatively planning on returning home to Canada and continuing life there but recently, I had an exciting explosion of emails arrive in my inbox, which led to Skype interviews, which in turn led to multiple job offers.  I ended up choosing between four jobs in four very different countries.  I had given up hope on finding another international job at all, let alone having the opportunity to be choosey!   

For fun, I have listed the cities I applied to below.  As I dutifully typed query letters and plugged my credentials into yet another job-specific application form, I found myself researching and learning about each country and city prior to sending off my resume.  At the time it may have been a welcome distraction from the drudgery of application forms but in the end, I essentially took a part-time course in global geography!

The list in and of itself is a kind of geography challenge.  If you know the country that most of these cities belong to, you can be proud that your knowledge of political geography is better polished than most!  Give the "Jon's Job Hunt Geography Challenge" a try and tally your score out of forty-eight!    

Dakar
Seoul
Kyiv
Kinshasa
Brazzaville
Tashkent
Almaty
Hanoi
Taejon
Amman
Beirut
Kuwait City
Lome
Brasilia
Belo Horizonte
Guadalajara
Panama City
Chennai
Tegucigalpa
Krakow
Bangalore
Tbilisi
Astana
Abuja
Guatemala City
Ho Chi Min City
Freeport
Marrakesh
Casablanca
Yangon
Conakry
Jeddah
Asmara
Dubai
Dushanbe
Cairo
Caracas
Taipei
Riyadh
Doha
Lima
Kerala
Ankara
Santa Cruz
Abu Dhabi
Recife
Ouagadougou
Asuncion

I should mention, that some of these cities, upon closer inspection are sure to have some of my relatives (particularly in-laws) shuddering.  Never fear, we’ve landed in a safe place.   

In the end, we decided to move to Asuncion, Paraguay.  Although we will be genuinely sad to say goodbye to Dhaka, we are incredibly excited and cannot wait to discover what opportunities await us in sunny South America!  More details on Paraguay starting in mid-July and stay tuned for a torrent of writing about Dhaka.  I only have two months left and there is so, so much to write about!

Cheers!

Photo Credit: Elliot Whalen from the Verdant Collective blog @ http://inverdant.com