How an Engineer from

Pakistan got a job in USA,

without any US education
or experience

Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times

This is the story of Azhair Ahmad, who migrated to USA, approximately

18 months ago. He did his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical
Engineering from University of Engineering & Technology Lahore –
Pakistan and Masters in science in Mechanical Engineering from
University of Engineering & Technology Taxila – Pakistan. I am sharing
his story about how he got a job in USA solely based on his education
and experience outside USA. The intent of this story is to describe a
motivational story for those, who sometimes dishearten due to
unfavorable series of events during their struggle. Those who migrate
from other countries can easily imagine the difficulties and obstacles
they face for settling, even when someone else is also available for
assistance. In a similar fashion Azhair did face some problems, when he
came to USA and the biggest of these was a degree of dependency on
others.

He arrived in USA in March 2013 in Virginia and stayed with his uncle
in-law.

In USA, local transportation system is expensive and relatively

ineffective. He had never driven a vehicle in his life before. So, the first
thing he had to learn was driving and obtaining a driving license. He
arranged an old bicycle for his local transportation and started searching
for an odd job and soon he got an opportunity in a pizza shop at $10 per
hour. He used his bicycle to go to the pizza shop until he got his driving
license in 20 days after obtaining a learning permit. His first objective
was to become self-sufficient, which motivated him to overcome his
hurdles. After obtaining his driving license, he bought an old car. Now
he was able to become self-sufficient. He had a job in a pizza shop and a
car for transportation. But this was not his final objective. This was only
his most urgent and most important priority to become independent. His
objective was to get a job in his own field of study and his experience.
After working in the pizza shop for about 2 months, he realized that his
earning from pizza shop was enough only for his own expenses. He has
two sons, who are with his wife in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He realized
that to support the family and save some money for job interviews, he
had to take on another job. Meanwhile, he got an interview call in
Houston-Texas. He took $469 loan from his acquaintance for fare and
went to appear for the interview. Luckily, he got another job interview
as well in Houston, during this same trip. He was happy to have two job
interviews.

During his four day stay in Houston, he appeared for these interviews. In
one of these interviews, he was asked for a follow up interview after two
weeks. He did not receive any response from the second interview. He
had to return his loan as well as save some money for his additional trip
to Houston, in two weeks. This time he planned to permanently shift to
Houston due to more job opportunities in his field of study, in this area.
He talked to his acquaintances about another odd job opportunity. He
was asked to work in a gasoline station $8 per hour, where he was
required to sell wine and beer along with other eatables. He refused to
sell wine and beer due to his religious obligations. As a result he was not
able to get that job. Fortunately, he got another job in a gasoline station
where a worker was on one month leave. There he got good hourly rate
of about $13 with very easy work. In this way, he was able to manage
both jobs, including his job in the pizza place. He started working on
two jobs and emphasis to work more hours in gasoline station than pizza
because of higher rate. In pizza shop, he was working around 30 hours
per week. He was thinking about his savings because he did not want to
take any more loans. He also had a plan to go to Houston in his own car
as he was moving permanently. Everything was looking perfect and he
was happy with all these advancements towards his objective. Two days
before his plan to Houston, he decided to work 22 hours continuously on
both jobs in order to save more money for the time of need. After
completing his 8 hour shift in a gasoline station, he went to pizza shop
for 6 hour work after which he had to go to gasoline station again for
another 8 hours. Same day, he was given permission for pizza delivery
in his own car. When he went for his very first pizza delivery, he got an
accident while taking a U-turn. With this accident, his car was totally
damaged and towed. He went to hospital and could not work for another
8 hours. Luckily, he survived with no major injury except neck pain.
Medically, he was permitted for one day rest. In this accident, he was
considered to be in fault as the other side car signal was green.

Now, the whole scenario was changed. He had a second interview call
from the company in Houston but he did not have car. He also had to
pay $350 to retrieve his car from the towing company. He did not have
transportation to even go back to work. He did not have enough money
to buy another car. He decided to go to Houston by air and stayed there
in his community mosque. After reaching there, he appeared for the
2nd interview. With this interview, he was thinking that he would be
granted the job. After one week he did not receive any response from the
company. When he approached the company, they invited him for the
3rd interview with another executive director. His 3rd interview was not a
formal interview; it was just about introduction to the company’s culture
and business. He thought that he would be granted the job. He did not
receive any response from the Company again although he approached
the company couple of times. He was disappointed from the company
response. He returned his loan from the pay check he received from his
jobs and paid the fine. Now he had less than $500 in total. He did not
have enough money to buy another car to go to any odd jobs. He also
did not want to spend his money to buy a bicycle. He decided to search
for an odd job in a walking distance. After couple of visits to different
restaurants, gasoline stations and food outlets, he found a job in one of
fast food chain outlets, as a cook with $7.50/hour. He had to walk 1-1/2
hour each way to work. At the start, he was given only 20 hours/week.
He knew that he would not be able to keep up with this routine. But he
had no way other than this because he had decided that he would not
take any loans. He also had to leave the mosque where he was
temporarily staying. He had to arrange his own rental place. During his
stay there, he did not ask anyone even for a penny even when some
people asked him about his needs, he denied. He also arranged his own
food. He used to cook one dish and eat it for three weeks. This is all he
could afford.

But, his faith was unshaken. He believed that the success of a person
lies on the awareness he has about his weaknesses. He knew many of his
weaknesses, including the fact that he was not fluent in English, had no
professional references and no American education or experience, in his
field. But, he knew that despite these weaknesses, he had a major
strength that was his belief, in Almighty God. He did not see his
weaknesses and limitations as excuses for his failure. He did believe that
God shows miracles, when a person sincerely struggles to the best of his
or her abilities. The final and favorable results are only God’s Will.
When he came to USA, he started struggling to get information about
how to get a job in USA. What he should do and what are the
differences as compared to his own country. He talked with various
people and shared his circumstances.

Some good pieces of advice were to make a professional profile on

LinkedIn with necessary information and smart English and use actively;
use job websites including indeed.com, monster.com etc. for job search,
write down address on CV and LinkedIn profile where you are intending
to get a job. Like, while searching for a job he came to know that most
of his education and experience related jobs were in Houston-Texas, he
put Houston address on his resume and on the LinkedIn profile rather
where he was living. He was determined to not give up with the difficult
situation but took it as a challenge. He devised his strategies to practice
search on the internet about professional LinkedIn profiles, he viewed
how successful people prepare their profiles, interview questions, ways
to answer interview questions, interview techniques used in USA, and he
revised his resume and LinkedIn profile and increased LinkedIn contacts
and views. He prepared different resume that best match to different
jobs. He did apply for any industry related job with the intention to just
get into the industry. He applied for various jobs from helper to manager
positions. In order to effectively apply for the job, he had to work to
align his resume wording with job description in order to increase the
chances to be considered for the interview. This was the first step
towards getting interview calls. He knew that this is not the way to get a
job because he also has to familiarize himself with interview
requirements and strategies. He learned from his failed interviews and
devised the ways how to tackle situations during interviews including
how to answer interview questions like “Tell me about yourself”,
interview STAR technique etc. He practiced interview questions and
rehearsed them.
The above mentioned strategies and tactics he devised for himself in
order to get a job. He believed that he would never be able to get an
interview call, perform better during the interview and got a job without
Allah’s blessings because he had seen His blessings and miracles like
passing driving test within 20 days without having proper practice, no
dependency, no loan at all even having big financial lose and observed
people assisting him without he asked them for help etc. One day, he
received a call from a recruiter where he did not apply for a job. She
asked his work experience and interest for a Contract position. He
showed his agreement and applied for this job in Old Castle Building
Envelop in Houston Texas. After a few days he got an interview call
from her. Due to unavailability of transport, he took a ride from his
friend and went for the interview, arriving at the place two hours early.
When he reached there, the Vice President called him for the interview,
before schedule and asked some questions. He was nervous as he had
reached early for the interview and could not perform to his satisfaction.
Additionally, this job was not directly related to his education and
experience but only a way to enter into the industry. After the interview,
he was apprehensive that he would not get the job due to his interview
performance. During those days, he also got a chance for a telephonic
interview after which he was invited for the final interview, in the
company DTE Energy. This was his only real hope at this time.

If he did not get a job, he had to continue to work in the fast food outlet
and arrange his own place for living. He continued to pray earnestly to
Allah about his plight and his dire needs.

Allah out of His sheer mercy, bestowed both these jobs with DTE
Energy and Old Castle Building Envelop. Now, the scenario was
completely changed. He had to decide which one he should accept. He
accepted the job with DTE Energy, as it was related to his education and
experience and they were also paying better. This company is one of
fortune 500 companies.
Now, the problem was to have a transport for job. Allah also resolved
his problem with the relocation bonus he received from his employer
and he financed a new car.

In summary, although he learned a lot from his experience and tried so

many different strategies, he continues to have a firm belief that he got
his final job with the fortune 500 company, only because of Allah’s
special blessings.