I just landed my dream job, and I still pinch myself to make sure it's real.
Right around the new year, I had really begun to shift my thinking about my year-off, my future, and my stay in Egypt. I originally had this grand plan to travel around the world and then settle down a year later, somewhere, in a career/job that fulfilled my passions in life. I didn't have any ideas as to where I would go or what I would do, but I vowed to allow enlightenment to come randomly. But Egypt felt right once I arrived. Now, 6 months later, it still feels right. I love my life here; I love my friends, my family, the weather, and my social life. I honestly haven't felt this happy with my life in years. So maybe I didn't travel anywhere else (although I did make trips to Paris, London, and Peru), but this happiness is exactly what I was hoping to find in this year off. That's why for a while now, I haven't felt like I am on vacation or here as a tourist, and I've been looking to find a semi-long term solution to staying in Cairo.
The teaching job eventually got on my nerves, as I felt like I was wasting my time on students who barely put any effort into learning, and had zero knowledge about the world around them. We'd go through our workbooks, and they wouldn't have a clue as to who the Beatles were, or even Mahatma Gandhi, or James Bond. They're all college educated students, but they live in this sheltered, naive, pathetic bubble. I couldn't get through to them, and I was getting nothing out of the job in return-- especially financially. I had had enough. It was never going to be a career change anyway. It was only ever meant to give me something to do during the day.
So I began to think about semi-long term solutions to staying in Cairo. I'd need a real job that paid, so that I would stop digging into my savings. I wanted to have a normal life again. And although I had a fear of selling-out, I started researching and applying to construction and development companies. Despite the terrible economy here, there is still a significant amount of construction around the city. But thanks to the terrible economy, those construction companies aren't hiring. And I mean that literally.
I was cranky for almost all of January, and my boyfriend was such an angel for putting-up with me putting myself down. He's an incredible person: extremely patient and caring, he's the love of my life, and knows me better than anyone. And at the risk of sounding too corny, like an angel, he saved me. He noticed that every time we went out, I would have to comment about the design of the space. There's a hot new trend of restaurant/bar pop-ups that have really attractive looking spaces that just lure me in. We go out all over Cairo, and I always talk about the paint colors, the materials, the furniture, or the packaging. (Never really the food because we've already established that the food sucks in Egypt).
So he was the one who suggested that I work in interior design. Obviously, I have a passion for it, and it's not too dissimilar to what I've been doing, it just has a more exciting focus. Despite the fact that he and most of his friends work in interior design, I really didn't think it was possible for
me to do that. I didn't think I could work in Egypt, in Arabic, and learn a whole new job at the same time. I thought I would only be appealing to construction companies with my strong resume. Interior Design? That was just on my
Inshallah To-Do List.
Of course he knew which company designed all of my favorite places here and told me to just take a look at their website and see if they may interest me. I must have sat on their website for at least half of the day. They are owned by women who have fabulous taste, one is from Canada, the other went to NYSID, and they are located in Zamalek. I
had to work there. He had contacts at all the other design firms except this one, but this is the only one I applied to. All I had as far as a contact there was the generic careers@... email that all companies post on their sites. AKA - the email address to no one. But I wrote to it anyway. I wrote the most elaborate, heart felt, honest email, about how their spaces made me want to stay in Egypt, and make me feel at home here. I went on to tell them about my move, my career switch, and how there's no place I'd rather work for, than them. It took me a day to write that email, and all I could do was cross my fingers, but I knew that no one would even see the email, let alone read it.
The next day I got a phone call.
The night before my interview, my girlfriends and I went to another one of the spots they designed, Aperitivo, for "research." The first interview was great and I was very optimistic. I knew to wait 2 weeks for the partner to return from a business trip to hear back. During that time, I wouldn't discuss a single detail about the interview with anyone except for my boyfriend. Not my roommates, not my friends, not my family. I felt too superstitious to jinx myself.
And then I was called in for a 2nd interview. That interview lasted only 20 minutes. They didn't have many questions for me, and I felt extremely nervous. Something felt weird. I went home and cried all afternoon, rethinking every detail of the interview, feeling terrible that for the first time, I didn't rock an interview, and I wouldn't be offered a job. I felt so bad and so sorry for myself, that I surrendered and told my boyfriend that even though I wasn't getting the job, we should still go to the fondue restaurant that we were saving for my celebration. I was really mean to him that day. (sorry.)
Two days later, I got the call. And the job. And we went to that fondue restaurant to celebrate.
I started 3 days later, and so far, it has been so exciting, so challenging, and everything I wanted. I walk to work, and my office is beautiful and old and full of character. My bosses are fabulous late-30s-something women who I really admire. The staff is all about my age and speak a mixture of Arabic and English in the office. There's even an American-Egyptian girl from Minneapolis sitting next to me, and she also lives around the corner from me. My Arabic is improving, my skills are expanding, my CAD memory is returning, my clients are motivating. It is such a freakin cool job. It is literally everything I ever wanted to do. Meet a client, visit a space, come up with design ideas, draw them out, watch the space transform.
My job is so freakin cool and my boyfriend is a hero for encouraging me to pursue it.
