Working in the US

[CassandraHaydar 0]

For my husband, working in the US is presenting issues for us. For his entire life, my husband has been learning and teaching Taekwondo. The last 10 years of his life were spent in Korea doing just this. Coming to Arizona where getting a job teaching TKD is difficult and not well paid, he's finding it difficult.

I have enough money to support us but I also want him to be happy. I hope he can find a job that he doesn't despise. I'm doing everything I can to help him find something.

What kinds of jobs have your SO's gotten when they first arrived? Specifically, I am curious about people that don't have set job skills (like computers).

[Rings 10]

Well I can only post based on my own experience. My husband worked in radio and it took him about a year to find a job even with a valid EAD. So I guess what I am saying is that if he is passionate and this is what he wants to do and he has a good resume, then he will find a place where he wants to be. I don't know how long your husband has been here, but make sure his resume is more American than his home country resumes are because it's amazing how different we do things in different countires. He will find something, don't let him give up the fight.

Edited September 15, 2009 by Rings

[Jamaican JNR 2]

For my husband, working in the US is presenting issues for us. For his entire life, my husband has been learning and teaching Taekwondo. The last 10 years of his life were spent in Korea doing just this. Coming to Arizona where getting a job teaching TKD is difficult and not well paid, he's finding it difficult.

I have enough money to support us but I also want him to be happy. I hope he can find a job that he doesn't despise. I'm doing everything I can to help him find something.

What kinds of jobs have your SO's gotten when they first arrived? Specifically, I am curious about people that don't have set job skills (like computers).

I have special skills in the field of computer, but my first job in the US is completely different. I arrived late July 09 and was getting fustrated in a matter of weeks even tho my usc wife took care of me financially. I am use to my independence and even tho grateful, I still want to feel like a man. In early Sept., I was offered employment; salary low but its the first job here in my new country. I have signed up for school/college because i know that to get a good paying job here, one has to use education.

I do hope that he finds something that will make him feel like a man again even tho pay might be low.

[Nothing1234 2]

We are also in Arizona. My husband has computer skills but most of his background has been in dance. Choreography, music and performances. He has been able to teach a bit but its not much money. So he is now working in a Customer Service type roll and is really enjoying it. He's been here almost 1.5 yrs but didn't start looking (for our own personal reasons: babies, etc.) till about 3 months ago and has been working now over 1 1/2. It's not his dream job and he'd love to be able to have the success he had back home however, its a job and a good one at that for now.

Good luck!

[*Maureen* 0]

if he's been doing Taekwondo for the past 10 years maybe and i don't know hard it would be to do but what about if he starts his own Taekwondo in your area.

[S and S 12]

My husband spent many months looking for a job. He is a medical school graduate but not licensed here so he can't work as a doctor yet. We tried getting him lower, entry level positions at hospitals, but none of them hired him, no matter what job he applied for. He also applied at Best Buy, Walmart, Walgreens, telemarketing, gas stations, department stores at the mall, etc with no luck. Job market is just tough right now. It was only a month ago that he finally got a job at Ihop and that was only because a guy at the local mosque helped him get it. We hope as he builds a US work history things will change. I did send my husband to Nursing assistant school and got his licencse, but for whatever reason, no one hired him. We suspect it was because he is Iraqi and all his education is in Iraq with no US work experience, since they desperately need nursing assistants everywhere, but of course they don't tell us why they didn't hire him.

Your husband has a unique talent that may help him more to get into that field though I really don't know much about jobs in that area. Probably the first thing is for him to go to the schools and make friends or for him to just start his own school like someone else mentioned.