The Job Interview

So I don’t want to leave Brazil. After 12 months here, it’s my home. I speak the language, I know the bus routes, I walk the streets at night, and the people I spend my time with are here. This truly is a place I am happy at.

But, I guess you can’t always have what you want. My visa is expiring. I have school to finish in the U.S. I won a scholarship to study in Europe. I have a lot of neat opportunities ahead that don’t involve Brazil. So what’s the second best alternative? To move back after graduation in January 2011.

But how will I do that? Well contrary to popular belief, gaining a visa in Brazil for an American is not an easy thing. By no means is it a walk in the park. And besides studying, there are just three ways for an American to live in Brazil: 1) Have a Brazilian baby 2) Marry a Brazilian 3) Be contracted by a company in Brazil to work a job that a Brazilian cannot work. At this stage in my life numbers 1 and 2 do not seem like good options so I am going for number 3.

And today was one of my first steps in that process. I have been working for over a month now on perfecting my Portuguese resume and, finally, it came of use. On Tuesday, a friend of mine at my university told me that she had mentioned my name at her work, Rockwell Automation, and that they were very interested in me. As an American, I would be an asset to the Brazilian branch of the American company.
So today, very excited, I made the trek to the other side of Sao Paulo. It was over an hour and a half and, fortunately, since it was the day after a holiday, there was almost no traffic to worry about. It was a journey in and of itself. But it was a good journey, well worth the time.

At Rockwell Automation, the company works to import finished manufactured products and sell them within Brazil. They are looking for someone to work within the logistics department working with the shipments that are coming from the United States, especially Chicago, into Sao Paulo. As an American, I would be an especially useful asset for them. While I do not really understand much about logistics, I would be able to learn to work with the transportation of products and importation of the finished products coming to Brazil, as well as work competing against other companies to receive the products.

While this may not be the job I choose to take next January, it is a neat opportunity I am excited to think on.