Work

Nepal has worked its magic for me once again - I never cease to be amazed at how the universe looks after me here. I am starting a new job on Monday and am very excited about it. It has morphed a bit over the last week or so since it was first offered to me, but I think that we have finally settled on a shape and form that suits us all. I have no doubt that it will continue to evolve over time.

As you know, I have been helping out the students at a local college with their resumés. The college, Global Academy of Tourism and Hospitality Education (GATE), is affiliated with a college in Switzerland where Khem, the founder and CEO was educated. Khem and his brother Bharat also own another business, Global Education Network (GEN), which serves as a placement agency to find temporary work for Nepalis abroad. This is a fledgling company and to date they have placed workers in the US and several Middle Eastern countries. They are hoping to turn their attention to Canada, where there is a liberal attitude towards international internships and where foreigners are welcome. Khem lived in Montreal for three years and so is familiar with the life of an immigrant in Canada. Even though he is a well-educated and very polished man, he frequently runs into stumbling blocks in this business simply because he is Nepalese. In addition, he still has significant hoops to jump through in order to get visas to travel abroad, which limits how he can conduct his business. (Most Nepalis are not granted visas to Western countries as they are considered too much of a risk. My friend Bhola was denied a temporary working visa to Canada in spite of having Canadian sponsors and no end of Canadian character references. The problem was that he didn’t have enough money in a Nepalese bank account and the Canadian government didn’t believe that having a wife and three sons in Nepal was enough of an incentive for him to return home after his visit. Apparently they believe that money is more important to Nepalis than their family is.) Anyway, Khem and Bharat need a Westerner to run this business for them, and they offered the job to me. The fact that I’m Canadian is a bonus.

The work will involve everything from finding employers abroad, arranging the temporary work visas, and dealing with whatever government, legal and professional bodies might be involved in the process. As mentioned, I’ll be focussing on Canada for now but I’ll also be dealing with placements in the US, Dubai and Bahrain among others. Khem hasn’t previously placed any Nepalis in Canada so I’ll be learning the process pretty much from the ground up. They have offered to secure my Nepali work visa as an employee of GEN, and are footing the $2000 bill. Bharat is a lawyer and has started the ball rolling on that process. The job will also allow me to travel home from time to time on the company dime, and will also likely see me traveling elsewhere.

Given Khem’s background in the hospitality industry, we will likely be focussing on placements in that area. The Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) website has listed this industry as an area that is under-staffed and would welcome foreign workers. Obviously we will give priority to the students from GATE for their internships abroad, but we are open to providing services to any Nepalis looking to work outside the country. We are all dreaming big at the moment and envision this project growing to include workers from many different industries as well as students wanting to study abroad and business immigrants (who essentially buy their way into a country).

It will take some time for my visa to be ready, and in the meantime I will be doing my research into how the placement process will work. In addition, I am going to spend some time rewriting the GEN website, which has a great layout but not such great use of the English language. I expect that in the beginning, I’ll have time on my hands, which is where jobs number two and three come in. On Monday, I will be starting to work four days a week at GATE. My duties there essentially fall into two categories. The first is administrative. I’m sure they’re going to try to give it some fancy title to make me feel important, but the fact of the matter is that I’ll really be maintaining the student files and keeping stats on the school’s track record to be used for recruiting and finding placements. In addition, I’ll be sitting in on management meetings and keeping them all on track. It is my experience so far that the people running the college, Khem included, are wonderful visionaries but they couldn’t schedule a meeting if their lives depended on it. Given that I’m pretty much the complete opposite, I think we’ll complement each other nicely. I’ll set agendas for their meetings, take minutes and follow up on action items. Apparently these functions have been sorely lacking to date.

My other function at GATE will be something we’re tentatively titling “Education Resource Manager”. This involves a whole myriad of tasks, from helping the teachers with finding educational tools, to planning learning activities for the students such as movie nights and field trips. In addition, I’ll be doing some peripheral English language work with the students. I’ll be going through their work to isolate chronic problems and then designing seminars to work on these problems. I’ll also offer one-on-one sessions with the students to help them edit their written work and also work on conversation.

For the immediate future, I’ll be spending most of my time at the college, however I expect that over time my efforts will begin shifting more towards the placement business. As the business grows, I believe it will consume more and more of my time. It’s been difficult enough just figuring things out this far so I don’t want to get too caught up in trying to anticipate what’s coming down the road.

I’m incredibly excited about these opportunities, especially the one at GEN. This is the first time that I can remember ever being excited about work and looking at it as something other than a way to pay the bills. Even though I have no background in this kind of thing, I’m confident that I’ll do a great job. It’s all about process and details, which are my strengths. It also feels really worthwhile and I’m sure it will give me the sense of satisfaction that I’ve been looking for. Add in the opportunity to come home from time to time, and it all seems perfect.