Yesterday I had three job interviews throughout the city. I was exhausted at days end and didn't have energy for a post, but I'd like to hit the highlights so to speak before I post anew tonight.
The first interview was at 10:30 a.m. in one of the best neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, Barrio Norte. The job is to teach two kids from San Francisco a few days a week. The entrance to the building was stately, but unassuming with a serious looking security guard in the ante room. Despite his stern demeanor, the guard let me in without any questioning and told me to go to the first floor. I responded with, 'Which apartment on the first floor?' And he said nonchalantly, 'The entire first floor'. I've never known anyone to have the entire first floor of an apartment building in Buenos Aires... The maid/housekeeper let me into what was a truly amazing pad. High ceilings, cavernous rooms, cool furniture, detailed moldings, stunning windows. Incredible. The mother whose children I was to teach arrived shortly thereafter. She appeared unpretentious and made me feel comfortable from the start, which was odd in my experience with people who live so well. We talked for about an hour and a half and shared our educational and political philosophies and it was clear that we were on the same page. To be honest, I hadn't been excited about the idea of teaching children from the states in Buenos Aires until I realized that the job would entail a good deal of freedom to create lesson plans based on my philosophy of education, cool people to work for, a limited amount of work, and pay similar to what I would make in the U.S. My interviewer and I left the apartment together, she to the grocery and me to my next interview. On the way, we chatted about where to find good seafood in Buenos Aires. Apparently, you have to go to specialty stores and should only buy fish on Wednesdays and never on Mondays. Also, you should buy based on smell, not on sight. My interviewer, hailing from the Bay Area, was not impressed with BA's seafood offerings, but being from Ohio, I think I'll be impressed with just about anything that isn't frozen. My interviewer also told me about auctions where I can buy cheap, vintage furniture. Apparently, there are a number of furniture auction companies and churches that do this type of thing and it's the in-the-know way of picking up cheap and sometimes cool stuff in Buenos Aires. This will be great for me since I'll be moving into an unfurnished apartment in a few weeks and will need to find a dinner table, chairs, couch/futon, bed, mattress, and maybe a coffee table and bedstand.
My next interview was at 1pm in a cafe with the owner of an apartment rental/sales/management company. I was to meet the managing director for coffee to talk about the job. It turned out that I had a few minutes to eat a quick lunch before moving onto the cafe and while I was doing so at the house of my host family, my host mom informed me that the owner of the apartment in which I was interested was in town and wanted to meet me to show me the place. I had 20 minutes to get to my next interview but keeping in mind that my interviewer was Argentinian and therefore would probably be late, I ran to my new apartment to meet the owner and check out my future digs. The apartment is on a semi-busy street only blocks away from my host family and still in my favorite neighborhood. It's located on the 7th floor, has a large balcony with a fantastic view that looks down a long, narrow, and only semi-busy street called Paraguay. The windows in both the living room and bedrooms are floor to ceiling length, the floors are parquet wood, the bathroom has a full length bath and a window above it with a great view, and the kitchen is galley style and por lo menos is not a kitchenette. The truth is that the place is small, needs fixing up, and the balcony is a little scary perched so high above the city. However, I liked it plenty and the price is right at about 430/month or so. Apparently, I can get high speed internet for about 4 dollars per month and cable is only slightly more per month. The ownder told me that the apartment will be cleaned and fixed up in 2 weeks time. I won't hold my breath...
After 15 minutes with the owner of my future apartment, a nice 30 something guy who lives in a province 300km away, I ran to my next interview. I was late, but as predicted, my interviewer wasn't there-score. I thought for a moment that I might be stood up, but after about 10 minutes, a rather stunning Argentinian woman walked into the cafe to greet me. It wasn't much of an interview. That is, she more or less tried to sell the position to me because she can't pay me much and I would be the only native English speaker in her office and someone who could best connect with clients from the U.S. That in itself, made me a hot prospect. I quickly realized that there was no need to sell myself, that I need only ask questions about the job and under what circumstances I would be hired. She indicated that the company could sponsor me with a work visa, would give me a free cell phone to use, and would allow me to teach the kids from San Fran two days a week. She also suggested that there were opportunities to advance...A trusted person to take over the management end of the business would be desired at some point in the future. It all sounded good to me. The most important aspect of this experience would be learning about the BA real estate scene and seeing if I could turn it into a livelihood. I left the interview somewhat quickly and told my interviewer that I would write by Wednesday to accept or decline the position. After thinking about it a bit more, I realize that I forgot the answers to or forgot to ask a few key questions such as, how long would I be expected to work during the day? Where would I be expected to work from? After I learn the business, can I work from home? What exactly will I be doing on a day to day basis? So, I need to have these questions answered before I say ye or ne to this job. What she's willing to pay would not be worth rotting away in an office all day just to learn a few things about real estate in BA. However, if there was an amount of freedom and independence within the job, then I'd be love to do it.
The last interview was in the center of town at a famous tango cafe on Plaza de Mayo street called Cafe 36 Billares. I was to meet a young couple with a laptop. When I first applied for the job, I had the sense that it was a long standing reputable tour guide company looking for serious applicants. The truth was somewhat different but refreshing. After insisting on walking and then running to get to the location, I wound up being 10 minutes late, a great first impression. Apparently, however, this means less in Argentina than it does in the states. At the back of the cafe, I quickly spotted the young couple, both of whom weren't wearing business attire and seemed a little quirky to be sure. After just a few minutes of chatting with them, I realized that yes indeed they were both quirky and eccentric, one more so than the other. But, I really like them. The woman was from Brazil, but spoke probably better English than I do and she's never been to an English speaking country. The guy was from the South of England and acted as his partner's laid back and rational foil. The company was forming as a result of the expansion of this British guy's tour guide business. He was getting more offers for tours than he could handle and so decided to expand by hiring guides and writers to fill out a website to attract travelers. This guy's fledgling business focuses on a niche of people who want small semi-private walking tours of the city. People who don't have much time, but whom want to learn a great deal in a short period. The interview was long but fun. Of all the interviews, this couple knew the most about me. They had clearly done their homework on my resume, my writing samples, and my answers to questions they had posed in previous emails. Despite the fact that I felt they were playing more cards than they had, I was impressed and felt that they were certainly smart, detail oriented, and ambitious enough to one day have a successful business. The job would be giving walking tours of the city and writing short pieces for their website to attract customers. I would likely be writing more than giving tours until September while the base of business was being increased and while the low season, winter here, passed. They expressed 3 or so times how much they enjoyed my writing sample and so it seemed then that they might offer me a position writing pieces for their website. I'm excited about the idea of writing for money in general and I told them as much, that I was more interested in producing a body of work on display than I was about making a ton of money from it. Maybe this wasn't the right thing to say, but it's the truth.
I left the interview again feeling like I had formed a connection with my interviewers. They were a bit weird and eccentric, but so am I. I came to Buenos Aires in search of more freewheeling intelligent risk-taking, and ambitious people and this couple certainly fit that bill.
I took my now favorite old school subway car back to my side of town and on the way tried to make sense of the potential opportunities before me. I liked all of them, but couldn't figure out how to make them fit together without making my life a crazy mess of jobs as it has been for the past year in Columbus. Ideally, these 3 jobs would add up to a 40 hour work week and allow me to combine doing 3-4 things I'd really like to do in this city: write, walk around, learn the real estate business, and keep a foot in the world of education/psychology. The coming days will tell whether I'm able to negotiate this...
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