Dealing with foreign Ls for beginners
With COVID opening up the remote work channel, many Nigerians and Africans have been looking for remote work in North/South America, Europe, and Asia. While some have been extremely lucky, others have grown accustomed to receiving rejection emails on a daily basis.
It’s not like we can’t get jobs in the country or anything, it’s just that earning in foreign currency comes with some security and economic insulation from Buhari’s whims and caprices ($1 is N805 as we speak) and we can’t forget the totally different and healthier workspace culture.
But it’s not always so easy to get a remote job with a foreign company. Here are a couple of things you need to know when you decide to go down this path:
- The first thing you have to come to terms with is; you’re already at a disadvantage being an African living in Africa and unless you come highly recommended, they would take their own over you.
- You have to also realize that in the job ad, the A in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Af ͬ ͥ ͨ ͣ) is silent. It’s just them fulfilling all righteousness. So don’t get your hopes up because I promise you, the disappointment will be televised.
- As you prepare to send your resume, have it in the back of your mind that unless proven otherwise, the job is not yours and you are in the bottom tier of candidates to be considered.
- If you do get shortlisted, prepare for a lot of unpaid tests that will take your time and data and you might get ghosted even after putting your best foot forward.
- You would also have the rug pulled from beneath you a LOT of the time. Let’s call it near-success syndrome. One moment, you’re close to getting the job, and then through circumstances beyond your control, it slips from your hands.
- The rejection emails will also begin to trickle in within 48 hours (we know they use bots to filter applications). First, it’ll come in twos and threes per day, and then later, as much as 15 per day. The only coping mechanism is to send out more applications. You only lose when you give up.
Try not to take the rejections to heart, there will be more and all you can do is wear a smile and forge on. It’s really not the fault of the recruiters, it’s how the world works. You have to prove your value beyond a reasonable doubt, then continue to keep up insane levels of awesomeness if you do get the job.
You just have to keep at it and want it more than the next person with hopes that you strike gold and when you do, it will be well-deserved.
