Jobs

[leoviale]

Hi, for some time I've been looking for a way to emigrate from my country (Argentina) and establish in US, or another country with a job. I sent some works, CVs and information via some websites, but most of them replied me with the same answer; i have to be an American citizen or have a working visa, that unfortunately i don't have, and the only way to get it, it's from a employer asking me to work in US or other country.

Is there any company, or studios, that may have a program for foreign people to get a chance to work in US, or other country?.

If anyone has any information or anything that can help, I'll really appreciate it. Thank you very much.

[landrvr1]

In the current economic climate you are going to have little or no chance of finding a US company that will 'sponsor' you. That's not to say it might not happen, but.....

 

If you were a student you would actually have a much greater chance to finding an internship in the States; which could lead to a full-time gig.

 

Are there any US architecture firms in your part of the world that you could contact? A field office or something? That would be another route. Get your foot in the door at least.

 

 

 

 

Now then. I'm going to talk about your website, and I'm going to be brutal. I'm just warning you ahead of time. If you are a sensitive soul, I'd stop reading now.

 

I checked out your website and have some suggestions:

 

1. Re-import the audio files and LOWER THE CLIP VOLUME. Seriously dude. They are BLASTING. Both the soundtrack and the button sounds. That's going to immediately piss-off any potential employer who might have their speakers turned on, lol.

 

2. The first thing you see on your website is a LOT OF GREY. Then your bio and contact info. Is that really the first impression you want to give?

 

Fail.

 

The first thing someone should see is a nice big colorful shot of your work. Or a hot naked chick. Or a hot naked guy. Whatever. Anything but a giant field of grey.

 

3. The mechanical sounds during the loading of the various sections are annoying as hell. I get that they relate to the whole industrial/gear theme of the site, but really.... They are distracting. There should be nothing on your site that isn't all about SHOWCASING YOUR WORK.

 

4. The first several architecture shots are dark, grey interiors. Bleh. Grey on grey on grey. Dude. Seriously. WTF? You've got the CG chops, but you are shooting yourself in the foot with this dreadful website.

 

5. Why are the images all so small? Why does the user have to click to enlarge an image? I hate that. HATE THAT. You are asking me and a potential employer to WORK at going through your stuff. Small thumbnails would be better - arrayed on the side or bottom - that you would click to get a much larger image.

 

6. The mineral processing plant animation is well done, but you've got to put a buffer time on that FLV. I'd say about 10seconds, at least. I've got a fast net connection (16,000kbps right now), and that thing stops and stutters like crazy. Nothing annoys people more than choppy video on the net.

 

Well, there you are. You didn't ask for any of that advice, but I couldn't resist. heh

[leoviale]

Lol, thx for the reply and the critics. About the web page, i think u r right about the music and maybe about the gear sound too. Also thx for the advice about the main page, i though about that, im changing my website, ill upload it shortly. About the other advice, maybe u r right, but it's also about once opinion, i had allot of good critics about this website, i know there r some stuff i shoud take care of. Anyways, thx again for your opinion, i think every critic is good, and i'll adjust some i think u made a good point about it.

About the jobs, i think i'll hard to find some one here to get me into US, it's really hard, and belive me, here in Argentina developing the professinal side it's not the right choice, i've been stuck since 2 years or more, and everyone is telling me to get away from here and get a good job outside. That's what i think aswell, but getting myself into US or another country is extremelly hard, so that's why I'm looking everywhere if someone can give me a hand to find a sponsor, or something that lead me in there. Thx again for your reply, and please keep answering this, please if the critics r going to be related to the website, be sure to relate it about the job thread. Thx.

[innerdream]

Look into coming here and going to school, student visa. Then get an internship that leads to a full time job. I know many who have gone that route.

[leoviale]

Thx, any though about any school that have that kind of programs?

[innerdream]

Thx, any though about any school that have that kind of programs?

 

I live in Los Angeles so here try Sci-Arc, U.C.L.A, U.S.C. Good luck!

[leoviale]

Thank you very much!, I'll try.

[leoviale]

Anyway, if there are companies that give sponsorships to ppl to get a job in US, I'm more interested, so let me know please, because studying in US means allot of money, that i just don't have, still I'll try to apply for any scholarship.

[AJLynn]

There aren't enough companies hiring to hire the people who don't need visa sponsors. Right now is a very bad time to be trying this.

[innerdream]

There aren't enough companies hiring to hire the people who don't need visa sponsors. Right now is a very bad time to be trying this.

 

+1

[leoviale]

Well, i'll see what can i do then. Thx for your replies.

[ihabkal]

Leo, I am one of the few persons in the world, maybe, who can give you the direct answer to your questions and an advise on your future, since we are in the same boat, the only difference is you are not living in a place where wars happen every few months. I think Argentina is great, I would like to know what you hate about it.

 

Forget about the US, you will never get in unless you

1- have 45 thousand dollars minimum to spend per year on education and living expenses

2-can marry a US citizen

3- have a relative who can sponsor you, spend on you, and get you a greencard

 

 

I lived in the US for 5 years under a work visa, let me tell you this, the day this visa expires the INS will order you to leave or face jail time, you will leave your house, your US children will leave their friends, you will leave all your belongings and go empty handed.

Besides there are despite the bad economy ONE MILLION applicants for the H1B work visa waiting in line, they only take 64 thousands every year, search online for the facts, the INS is using a lottery system, which means that even if you find someone to hire you, there is no guarantee that you will get in.

And if you do get in, no sane employer will get you a greencard because you can work alone, you are a "start my own company" risk. besides getting a greencard can take 5 to 8 years, and after that you ar enot a US citizen, that takes 15 or more years. every single person I know who got US greencard or citizenship got it from marriage or birth.

so simply there is no future in the US unless someone, an employer or a woman (and you need to be single for the latter one) falls in love with you and sponsors you. and people don't fall in love that easily.

 

So after years of researsh I found out that my only solution is to immigrate to Canada. it takes 5 or more years, but life there is very similar to the US, and you can apply for citizenship after you live three years continuously there, you don't need a sponsor for many categories, and if you get permanent residence status you can work for anyone. and once you are in if you abide by the law, they will never kick you out. it will really be your new home sweet home.

I also considered AUstralia, Sweden, France, and many other countries before I decided that Canada is the only place I could possibly fit in and that would accept me hopefully. despite the despair and anguish I am hopeful of a bright future there. Besides once you are Canadian you can go visit the US anytime you like. and also you can go visist most countries easily and tour the world with a Canadian passport.

Edited April 28, 2009 by ihabkal

[leoviale]

Wow, thx allot, u really made me though about it. I had once though about Canada, then i don't know why i got exited about US. Anyway, is there any advice on how to immigrate to Canada?, or if someone needs to get me there too?, could u give me some advice? Thank you very much, i really appreciate your dedicated reply.

[ihabkal]

All the information is on

 

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/index.asp

 

you will have to read about all immigration categories, also there is for every province a faster immigration program, a lawyer could help you for a fee decide which category fits better your case and will help you file for it, but beware of fraud.

for many categories you don't need a sponsor, you can do it on your own but they have some conditions.

Edited April 28, 2009 by ihabkal

[Tommy L]

Leonardo,

It took you a whole 12 minutes to decide to go to Canada instead of the USA

Sometimes you have to just go with the flow. I shouldn't give you life advice here, its a rendering forum. But I would say that you should maybe address these issues with a more holistic approach.

Why not travel around and find somewhere you like then make a decision on whether you would like to stay?

I came to the States on an H1B visa and decided to stay because I met my wife. The states is a very insular place. They have a notoriously strict immigration system and Ihab is pretty accurate in his observations.

While I like it here, I have also lived/worked all over the world. Some people see the USA as the be all and end all of where to live. This is insane, its ok here, but there are countries that are way easier to get into, have just as good standard of living and some history thrown in to boot. I heard Argentina was one of those places. Seriously, I would like to live there for a while at some point in my life. Dont go getting all 'grass is greener' now....

[leoviale]

I understand your point, it's not just like i changed my mind in 12 min , lol, as i said, i'm looking to emigrate for a long time. I know here u can have a nice life, but here work is not appreciated, and skills neither. It's like u and Ihakbal said, it's about everyone experience, i know that here, ill never succeed, because it's like i never get what i want, and my work here is not appreciated, as many of my friends, and they r ok with that, but i'm not, i always want to learn new stuff, and always update myself, and here, that doesn't even happends. I had some offers before the crisis, but they were all gone when it happened. I know it maybe look like tragical, but from my point of view, here i'm doomed, condemned to be stucked my professional life. I don't want that, because i always was able to develop my skills, even here, where there r lots of obstacles, and if u live here, belive me that u will see that, and thats why many very skilled ppl emigrate to US, and other more developed countries, this is the 3rd world, and i think it sucks, because i know, (and belive me i do) that i can do SUCH many more things to be better in a professional way. And my goal, is to apply all my knowledgement and skills and learn so many things more, but i know that it will never happend in here. That's why i want to emigrate, and i don't care if i have to sacrify my house and friends and family now, i know i can be in touch with them, but right now, all i care is about my professional status.

[Tommy L]

Sounds like you want to be a different person rather than in a different place...

When you move or go on vacation, there's always one piece of baggage that comes with you. That would be yourself. Take up yoga. Its all about living in the moment

[leoviale]

Lol, nah, i'm always the same, but i don't know why do u say that i want to be someone else, i just want to be travel to a 1º world country. Many ppl do it, not just because they want to be someone else (well, maybe some do ), just becuase their native country just don't have what they r looking for or they don't consither that it's the place where they belong, and some emigrate to more developed countries,. I know many ppl who did that, and now have a nice job, and some other that were exelent professional and here they weren't consider as such, ppl just don't care to hire professional ppl, and hire ignorant ones, (and i can give u 100 or examples like that), and now they have very impressive jobs. Ppl who here didn't have much money, and now they have, but thats because here the goverment is ignorant, and so many of the ppl, and they just don't care about education, or professional skills, it's always been like this. And i don't want this, i want to be in another place, it's not like i want to be someone else, no, i just want to have an opportunity somewhere else. Here i don't have a good future, and i don't want that. Maybe i get the chance to go to another country and it won't be like i espected, but that would be my own experience, and that's what i want, or maybe i do and everything goes ok, like i expect. But i'll never know if i never have the chance, like u and Ihabkal had...

[Antisthenes]

myself i am thinking about stopping being an Expat if i can't find any work and before they activate the Halburton camps and food riots in usa.

[innerdream]

If you have character modeling and animation skills you can try game companies. I think you'll have better luck looking outside of the Architecture profession.

[thomasj]

come to canada, its the same as the states, only cleaner and the people are more polite.... i worked in both countries

[Antisthenes]

the country that Paco built.

[leoviale]

come to canada, its the same as the states, only cleaner and the people are more polite.... i worked in both countries

 

Yeah, i'm filling the forms that i need to get in there, lol. I have to send them next week, the bad news is that i have to pay like u$s 1000 to send those documents, and here in argentina its x 3.74 (value in reference of the argentinian coin), so i have to pay 3740 pesos. But well, i'll use my savings, i don't care, anything to get me in there and outside this country lol.

 

Thx m8.

[AJLynn]

Is it really that bad there? If you don't mind my saying so... Have you researched jobs you can apply for in Canada and carefully considered where you would go? I say this not to be critical but because I figure the worst situation would be spending all your money to go to Canada and not finding the situation there to be better than where you are now, and it does sound like you spent 12 minutes deciding on Canada as a destination.

[leoviale]

Well, as I said before, it's not that it took me 12 minutes to decide this. It took me 2 years. I started first thinking about Australia, later, Canada, because there r open spots for immigrants, but then, i though about taking the long shot, and try USA. Then i had a little job from Germany, and had to leave all this behind for a while. But now i want to do this, in all this time, it's all I think about, getting to a developed country, like Canada, USA, or whatever. I don't have problems with adaptation, i live alone, and don't have any problems with that, and as i said, sacrificing my gf, friends and family to accomplish my goal.

Belive me, here the situation is critical. Did u ever try getting here to work? Ok, try it, then tell me how do u fill about it. I'll describe it in some short lines:

1_ Here is how things work. For example, u graduate, or not, doesn't matter, in fact, it's better if u don't have any title, because u will get a better chance to get hired, because they have to pay u less.

2_ If u r professional or not, it doesn't care (80% of the time). It doesn't care if u know how to react about any situation, if u r a team player, or whatever qualities u may have, that any smart company will look up for u to have. Here it's simple = Less education = less payment.

3_ Salaries suck. Here a graphic designer or architect earns something like 1000 ~ 3000 (if u r lucky), but we r talking about pesos, that means this 1 dolar = 3.74 pesos, so if u make the conversion, u will earn something like 267 ~ 800 dolars a month. So forget to get any vacation outside this country for example.-

4_ Stuff r extremely expensive for the relation about salary/life cost.

And i can keep it going... but lets stop here. Now, here's the real deal, i know ppl who left the country in 2001, when the country have a great crisis. Some where professional, and some where not. Now, all of them have a nice life, un US, Europe and Canada. And after some years some got back in here. U know what happened? They all flew back again to those countries again, and said never get back here again. Maybe when they r retired. Now thats maybe a good way to live in here, if u r retired, and have a pension from the outside, because u will have a good income from the outside, and will have that same income x 3.74, so, it's a nice deal.

Now, when it comes to the professional side, it sucks ass, really hard. Belive me.

I want to have my chance outside, as many had, that's all. I don't care about anything else right now, just my professional future, and i know that here i won't have it. It's it so hard to understand?...