Kai… He interviewed with about 10 companies and had 7-9 interviews for each company. He was interviewing every day for months…. It was exhausting! (Working from 4AM-noon for one job in the USA and interviewing all afternoon.) He had 3 companies competing for him in the end. But last Friday he received and signed an exceptionally-great job offer from Canva— a first-class, worldwide software company.

Me… About a month ago… I put in 3 job applications on a Saturday, had an interview on that Tuesday, and was offered the job by the end of that same week at Wairau (pronounced Weye- row) Valley Special School— a school for children with severe disabilities— my peeps!

I felt kind of bad that Kai had to work so much harder in interviewing than me. But he was applying for jobs that pay more than 2x mine (top-level software engineer/architect positions). I was applying for MS-level positions requiring a few years of experience while holding a PhD and 27 years experience working for people with severe disabilities.

In the end, it is his job offer that mattered as he is on the “green light” list for straight to residency.

Nonetheless, We are incredibly grateful to be past that astoundingly-stressful hurdle and to have come out of it with some great jobs. Life is good!