My Truth-Clarification Experience during Job Interviews

[PureInsight.net] When I moved
from Mainland China to Canada, I was already in my 30s. Yet I was back
to square one and found it very difficult to find a job. Many Dafa
practitioners who moved from China to overseas faced with the same
difficulty. Many had to attend classes to learn how to do job hunting.
These job hunters were often told they needed to rely on friends or to
call people, and so on.  I found my job not through  friends;
instead it was through clarifying the truth. I like to share my
experiences with everyone.



I came to Canada in 2003. Before I moved to Canada, I was a senior
engineer with a renowned international corporation. Because of my
qualification and technical skill, I led a leisure and carefree life
style with an above-average salary. After moving to Canada where I
didn't know anyone and wasn't familiar with the surroundings, I
attended several tutorial classes for immigrants. I learned how to
write a resume and a cover letter. But I was still at loss as to how to
search for a job.



For a period of time, I felt it was not possible to find a job in
Canada. Since I had some savings and I was a single person without a
lot of expenses, I figured I'd have enough money to support me until
the end of Fa-Rectification. I felt I only needed to do Dafa work that
has to do with Fa-Rectification. This thought itself is actually an
attachment of time and also was pursuing a leisurely life.



In 2005, I met my present wife. She became a handicapped person due to
torture by the Chinese communist regime during the persecution of Falun
Gong. But she didn't give up and faced the persecution courageously.
Eventually she was able to move to Canada. I admired her a lot and
wanted to help take care for her. We quickly got married.



Preparing a resume

 

Forming a family means a bigger expense for me. Soon our expenditures
exceeded our income. I realized that the situation was actually urging
me to look for a job to make up for the inadequacy of my cultivation. I
started to prepare a resume and cover letter. I mentioned that I was a
Falun Gong practitioner in the cover letter. I had asked several
friends who were good at English to help revise it. They all suggested
that I did not mention Falun Gong during my job search, because people
in Canada tend to keep religious preferences or personal beliefs to
themselves.



I discussed this issue with my wife. We reached the conclusion that as
a Dafa practitioner if we didn't clarify the truth, then what
significance would the job search serve?  I felt I ought to
clarify the truth during my job search. But at the same I also felt
what my friends said also made sense as well.  If my friends all
felt I shouldn't mention Falun Gong during my job search, it could mean
my original cover letter hadn't harmonized with ordinary people. I
believed that the wisdom Dafa bestowed upon me would solve this
problem.  



After several revisions, my letter not only included
truth-clarification, but it was also very sincere. I briefly described
my family situation and the persecution my wife had gone though because
of her practicing Falun Gong in China. I told the potential employers
that cultivation of Falun Gong had made me a better person and looking
for a job not only allowed me to care for my wife, but also would bring
benefit to society through my hard work.



I often went to the library to look up contact information for major
corporations in Canada. Although I had obtained some information that
way, the efficiency was low. One day I found a book by accident, which
contained contact information of the 1000 largest corporations in
Canada on a CD.



I figured the information would help my job search a great deal. So I
checked out the book and downloaded the information from the CD when I
got home. I made up my mind to send my resume to all 1000 companies so
that they would all know the fact about Falun Gong.



It was arduous to send so many resumes, because each resume needed to
be updated to meet the situation of each company. I found the speed of
sending resumes had something to do with my cultivation situation. When
I did well on studying the Fa and doing exercises, sending out resumes
would be faster. But when I didn't do well with the Fa study, sending
resumes was not only slow, but also tiring, it was like I had just
finished some laborious work.



Because of our increased expenditures during this time, our saving
account almost became empty. I thus had to find manual labor work to
support us. I found a job at a plant that produced
fiberglass-reinforced plastics. I left home at 5 each morning of those
snowy days. At the end of each day, my whole body was covered with red
spots caused by the fiberglass fragments. They were painful to touch.
My hands were filled with fiberglass needles and couldn't hold any
object.



I continued to send out resumes. I could only send out 10 letters each
day. Sometime I felt frustrated because I couldn't see change any time
soon and I found it difficult to handle the hardship I experienced with
my physical labor. My wife often encouraged me that there was a reason
why Dafa had given me my skills. I knew I'd need to continue sending my
resume and to clarify the truth to those 1000 companies. I knew that I
needed to let those 1000 companies know the truth and I needed to do
it. I felt that I would obtain good results.



With my wife's encouragement, I continued to send out resumes. During
this time, my parents came to visit us and brought some money for me.
They didn't want to see my whole body filled with fiberglass. When I
came home, they were also physically bothered by the fiberglass. I thus
quit my job at the fiberglass plant and devoted my time preparing my
resumes.



The Interview



After sending out resumes, I received some opportunities for interviews.



I then found that how well a job interview went had a lot with my cultivation status.



During my first interview, all I was thinking of was the position I was
interviewing for and how I would grow in the company if I got the job.
As a result, I was told that I was over- qualified, before I had a
chance to say much. (The term "over-qualified" is often used to reject
a job applicant adopted in North America, meaning your qualification is
too high for the job.) At the time, I had already sent out 600 resumes.



My second interview wasn't through my mailing of my resume; instead it
was through a friend's recommendation. It was a large corporation and
it seemed to match my background. I thought of clarifying the truth
during the interview, but was afraid it might affect the interview. So
I thought it could wait after I had gotten the job. The interview went
quiet well, but the company wasn't in urgent need of extra personnel.
So I was told to wait for news. By this time, I had already sent out
more than 900 resumes.



Before the New Year of 2006, I had sent out all 1000 resumes. I felt
wonderful and felt like I had accomplished a big job. I was relieved
and my mood relaxed. I found a manual labor job to make some money to
support my family. My wife didn't care what kind of job I did. She
stayed up until one in the morning each night to wait for me to come
home and watched me eat a nighttime snack before going to bed.



Getting the job



Several days after I started working on the manual labor job, I
received an e-mail asking me to attend an interview on the following
Tuesday. I thus took a day off from my work and went to the interview.



The first person I met was the personnel manager. He was very outgoing
and told me right away how superior their product was. Being an
experienced engineer for over a dozen years in the computer business, I
understood the purpose of the product well. Our conversation went quiet
well.   



The formal interview began when we entered his office. We didn't
discuss technical issues; instead, we talked about my work experience.
He asked about my family. It was natural for me to clarify the truth to
him. I told him about Falun Gong and how my wife was persecuted in
China because of her practicing Falun Gong. I also told him how she
strives to improve herself constantly, how she always does lots of
household duties even she has physical disabilities, how hard she has
studied, and how she has been accepted by  the University of
Toronto. I told him she was the reason why I was looking for this
position. He developed some understandings and was supportive of Falun
Gong. He was very touched after hearing my personal experiences. He
told me not to worry and he was going to find others to talk to me.
 



With his help, I was able to clarify the truth during all my interviews
with the company, all the way up to the vice president of the company.
I found out later that one is lucky to meet the department manager
during the first interview. But with the help of the personnel manager,
I had talked to the group leader, department manager, and the vice
president of  new product development. With them spending so much
time with me, it actually meant that I would be getting the position.



The evidence of fact



I have worked in this company for several months already. Work has gone smoothly.



I found out later that this company was bought by an U.S. company at
the time I finished sending out 1000 resumes. It has reorganized and
hired many more people.



Because of their positive attitudes towards Dafa, the managers who
interviewed me all have been blessed with good fortunes recently. For
example, my department manager received an excellent appraisal for his
speech about the new product in Las Vegas. The vice president in charge
of new product development has been featured prominently in a
newspaper. Our company product has been selected by Microsoft as one of
the twelve best programs for the new generation of operating system,
Vista.



Thinking back my experiences in looking for a job, I have all sorts of
feelings welling up in my mind. A new system has taken shape following
my job searching. I recall the hardship I experienced during performing
difficult physical labor to make a living, the feeling of being unable
to foresee my future when I sent out those 1000 resumes, and my
exhausted body and anguished mind when I saw my bank account
diminishing. But when I see the final achievement, I feel that what I
went through was brief and negligible. I remember Teacher has said:
"Your cultivation's goal goes beyond self-Consummation, as you are to
save sentient beings, and you are helping the lives of the future to
establish that future. Your responsibility is big, but the payback that
awaits you is enormous. What you will gain later on far exceeds what
you put in, as much as that may be." (From Teaching the Fa at the 2004
International Fa Conference in New York)



I know that searching for a job is just the beginning of my cultivation
process. On the path of cultivation, there will be many tribulations
and tests. I will remember our reverence Teacher's guidance, do well on
the three things, maintain the balance between the life of a cultivator
and an everyday person, and walk the path provide by Teacher. Lastly, I
like to quote what Teacher said to encourage each other with fellow
practitioners:

(From The Master-Disciple Bond (Hong Yin II))



Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2006/7/25/38705.html