While I was studying all the information about Work and Travel USA during my first year, I got the impression that finding a job offer was a piece of cake. No, I didn't think someone would hand it to me on a silver platter, but I had so many methods and examples in my arsenal that I didn't doubt my success. That's why I even smirked at the coordinator's words when he said that the job search service from the agency didn't apply to us (we were flying too late).
I started searching right at the end of December using j1jobs.com. At first, I only sent applications to the vacancies I liked, then, about a month later, to every single one available. There were no replies. Around February, I started corresponding with an employer who later turned out to be a scammer (thanks to the agency forum for the info). There was also another one that seemed trustworthy, but everything was complicated with them. In the very first email, they wrote about a bunch of interviews, online training, etc. Plus, the job was in Vegas (I really didn't want to go there, believe me) and involved selling some unknown junk for kids, like magic toys (I didn't even remember the name and was extremely scared when I opened their website :D). Nothing worked out with anyone else there; I only got about five rejections, but they are still coming in, even though I haven't looked there in ages ;)
The next step, in parallel with the previous one, was craigslist.org. Having grown up on American movies, I wanted to go where? No, not to LA. But to California, you guessed it. Ulyana's mom has college friends in NY and SF, so we decided to go to the latter. That's what I focused on closely on Craigslist. It was terrible. I followed all the advice, but it led to nothing. There were no replies at all. Panic set in.. I read on forums that it's useless to look for an offer in SF. I started looking all over the East Coast, because, again, I had read that there's not much to do on the West Coast. I didn't want to go to the center at all, because spending the whole summer just working is clearly not for me ;) As I communicated with employers, I began to understand which ads were worth answering and how. I long ago moved away from traditional cover letter templates and simply presented them with the fact that I was a student and needed a summer job; if they were interested, they could find my CV in the attachments, if not, well, okay. This turned out to be much more effective. Plus, I started searching for "summer" there, and that immediately led to more suitable options. Thanks to all this, options started appearing. But this started happening closer to the end of February, when I was completely desperate and bought an offer from a girl on VK in NY. Payment was after confirmation, so that gave me the opportunity to continue searching.
What I remember most is a woman who was very touched by my story, told me that she once had exchange students living with her, and wanted to help me in every way. She scheduled a Skype interview, but.. While she was saying short phrases at the beginning, I could hear her perfectly, but as soon as she started telling me something enthusiastically and at length about the job, the connection started to break up.. It was terrible, I explained to her that I couldn't hear her well, she said "ok" and started over. And again the same thing.. As you might have guessed, I was left without that job :(
Then two options appeared simultaneously: one in Florida at a restaurant, another in New Jersey at a fast-food place. I wanted the restaurant, of course, so I was actively corresponding with the employer. But they both kind of died out at the same time.. I didn't despair, I kept using Craigslist, but there were no suitable replies, I got upset and after about two weeks I wrote to both of them asking how they could crush my dream, that without their help I wouldn't go anywhere, that we needed an offer to travel. The first one responded immediately and started demanding a bunch of photos. But after each one sent, he needed some other one. This started to annoy me. And then the second one (his name is Ken) replied that he had been on vacation, apologized profusely, and said that he would send me an offer tomorrow!! My happiness knew no bounds!! I reminded him that I also needed an offer for my friend. He said he could issue one for her if one of his students declined. I wrote to him again that we would like to go work together. He took pity on us and offered her an offer, but without hours (I would never have thought that an employer would agree to make a fake one himself). He assured me that she would find work upon arrival. I thanked him for his help, to which he replied that he could give her part-time. I thanked him even more warmly, to which a question followed about the number of hours we wanted. In the offer, he wrote 30; I didn't want to anger him, so I said that 30 would be enough for us for the first time, and asked about further increases. He said that more could be taken and he would give us both full-time!! When I told all my friends this, they were, to put it mildly, shocked and called me a real diplomat ^^
That's how our job search ended: Sea Isle City, NJ!
One more way to search for work I would like to mention is Google Earth. It didn't help me personally, but I used it for a very short time while I was trying to find something in SF after all. Maybe someone will find their future job in the States exactly like that ;)
