MENA WOMEN: What kind of jobs are your husbands doing/looking into?

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Hubby is studying for the USMLE (United States Medical License Equivalent) which after he passes the second part he can start practicing medicine here for a reduced rate then if he passed all three parts. His sister who is a cardiologist came to the US last year with her Hubby who is an orthopedic surgeon and she passed the first part of the USMLE and has some prospects at various institutions in the US already. So she is working on her paper work to come back here later this year or early next year for one of those prospects.

Since her Husband already did a fellowship at John Hopkins this is a good example for her and Waleed. Waleed is also looking for a fellowship or a clerkship to parley him into a group of professionals to give him some experience and some contacts and possibly start a medical business with them when the time comes. I'm sure we'll be fine but only time will tell.

After he passes the exams and is secured in a good job practicing medicine he says we can start a family.

just a little advice from someone whos been there....tell him study hard and score well on those tests. hassan got 75 on his step 1 and 78 on step 2 and could hardly get a job with those scores. he had to do alot of begging to get into the local hospital residency program. he applied for a ton of programs and did not get one interview. when the post match scramble came we called and called and they wouldnt even talk to him because he didnt score 80. so those scores mean alot in getting a job.

ur husband is also going to have to do a 3 year residency first before a fellowship so dont plan on a family soon and plan on lots of hours alone cuz they will work him to death for a piss poor $40,000/year. its a little more but not much more. i cant remember what the exact amount is.

my husband is behind on his tests. he has 2 more to take before he finishes his second year in the residency program. he hardly has time to study so is best for ur husband to get them all behind him before he starts working.

Thanks for the tips. He's well aware of the scores he needs to get to pick the specialty he wants. His sister was one in seven that took the first part of the test here and she was the only female. She was also the only one that passed with a score of 98%. We don't know how she managed that with taking care of her busy Husband and two small daughters. We think the fact she is having her Masters already may have something to do with it. Waleed is studying very hard and plans to take part 1&2 asap but I'll mention the bit about part 3 to him as well before he even starts looking for work.

[Donna A 4]

wow...98 is great. she will be able to get a residency pretty much anywhere. well i guess it depends on how long she has been out of school. alot of places concider that also. another reason why my husband had such a hard time getting in. imagine that...he practiced medicine in saudi arabia for almost 10 years and his experience didnt help at all. they want new doctors not old ones. some of the programs dont want u to be out of college for over 2-3 years and some 5 years.

oh yeah...start saving up money for those applications too. they are not cheap!!! we spent $1,000 the first year and got noooo interviews so the next year we spent $2,000 and the only interview he got was at the hospital here and only cuz he went there and begged and wouldnt stop begging until they interviewed him.

also prepare yourself for they only hire once a year. so if u dont make it the first time u have to wait a whole year before applying again and with their education no one is going to hire them. my husband applied many places and didnt get called...why would they hire someone who is going to quit as soon as they get a job in their profession anyway?

[Jenn! 918]

And one more thing... When you submit a resume with ALL previous residences, education, and/or experience listed from countries like Morocco, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, etc... they can probably safely assume what religious backgrown a person has also without asking. (obviously not all people from those countries are Muslim but an overwhelming majority is.)

Educated people have asked me what language they speak in Morocco. Some others have thought that Morocco was the same as Monaco. I bet the majority have no idea that Morocco is a Muslim country. And unless people hear an "El" or "Al" in the last name or a first name like Mohammed or something, they probably wouldn't know.

Maybe I don't have very much confidence in the American people.

[SaadBell 0]

Maybe I don't have very much confidence in the American people.

I wish you were wrong Jenn, but I have a bad feeling you are correct, how sad.

[RAKASA 0]

Educated people have asked me what language they speak in Morocco. Some others have thought that Morocco was the same as Monaco. I bet the majority have no idea that Morocco is a Muslim country. And unless people hear an "El" or "Al" in the last name or a first name like Mohammed or something, they probably wouldn't know.

Maybe I don't have very much confidence in the American people.

I have this happen so often! Both asking what language(s) they speak and confusing it w/ Monaco...

The majority of people I've spoken w/ also don't have a clue where Morocco is unless they've been there. Many have no clue it is a Muslim (majority) country. I guess I have a serious lack of confidence in the American people as well.

[Nasturtium 500]

Educated people have asked me what language they speak in Morocco. Some others have thought that Morocco was the same as Monaco. I bet the majority have no idea that Morocco is a Muslim country. And unless people hear an "El" or "Al" in the last name or a first name like Mohammed or something, they probably wouldn't know.

Maybe I don't have very much confidence in the American people.

Most people insist, to me, that Jordan is really Georgia.

[sara535 15]

Educated people have asked me what language they speak in Morocco. Some others have thought that Morocco was the same as Monaco. I bet the majority have no idea that Morocco is a Muslim country. And unless people hear an "El" or "Al" in the last name or a first name like Mohammed or something, they probably wouldn't know.

Maybe I don't have very much confidence in the American people.

I have this happen so often! Both asking what language(s) they speak and confusing it w/ Monaco...

The majority of people I've spoken w/ also don't have a clue where Morocco is unless they've been there. Many have no clue it is a Muslim (majority) country. I guess I have a serious lack of confidence in the American people as well.

umm, when I lived in NEW MEXICO which is, in fact, a state, I had a relative in arkansas ask me once if I had to convert my currency before I came to visit. wow.

[RAKASA 0]

Educated people have asked me what language they speak in Morocco. Some others have thought that Morocco was the same as Monaco. I bet the majority have no idea that Morocco is a Muslim country. And unless people hear an "El" or "Al" in the last name or a first name like Mohammed or something, they probably wouldn't know.

Maybe I don't have very much confidence in the American people.

Most people insist, to me, that Jordan is really Georgia.

LOL... would that be American Georgia or Russian Georgia?

[simple_male 1]

Educated people have asked me what language they speak in Morocco. Some others have thought that Morocco was the same as Monaco. I bet the majority have no idea that Morocco is a Muslim country. And unless people hear an "El" or "Al" in the last name or a first name like Mohammed or something, they probably wouldn't know.

Maybe I don't have very much confidence in the American people.

Most people insist, to me, that Jordan is really Georgia.

LOL... would that be American Georgia or Russian Georgia?

Georgia, a part of former Soviet Union is a sovereign country. It is not part of Russia.

[doodlebugg 10]

He got a few under the table offers for pumping gas but they're under the table so we'll see how desparate the situation gets before thinking about that. EAD isn't done yet but so far the jobs that we're ready to apply him for are with large office supply companies since he worked as a senior sales something majigger for ten years at an office supply store.

I'm sure it won't be that big but he's not too worried about working more than one job to get by for now until he moves up. He did have an interview set up from way back at a pharmacuetical company but we weren't aware that a license to drive was needed so that put the cabosh on that scenario. Bottom line he'll do anything to make money.

[morocco4ever 63]

Our lawyer in Morocco came once to New York and tried to get into it here. He said it was not easy at all. He eventually gave up and went back to Morocco. I think the problem he had was the language.

I feel really bad for immigrants that come from a highly educated back ground. They get here and pretty much have to start at ground zero. It's not easy.

I agree some might have to start all over. But not all. My husband got a job in his field right away(computer programmer/systems analyst). It really matters what field. He happens to be in a very in demand/good paying field. So I guess it matters where you move to and what you do.

Did you husband know english before he came? I think that is a huge part of it.

The company I work for has a huge amount of employees from India, as well as an office in India. They are highly intelligent, and many specialize in computers. The ones I work with on a regular basis know english very well, but have such a strong accent, talk fast, and have learned the pronunciations differently, that I have no idea what they are saying.

Funny story, I am in accounting and they were talking about what I thought was depostion. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what a depostion has to do with accounting. It took forever before I realized he meant depreciation. lol

[Nasturtium 500]

umm, when I lived in NEW MEXICO which is, in fact, a state, I had a relative in arkansas ask me once if I had to convert my currency before I came to visit. wow.

I had a friend in college who came from Norway. He was asked on one occasion by a fellow classmate how he came to the US-- did he drive or take a bus. From Norway. Non-stop. She informed us that it was just over Alaska, right? By California?

LOL... would that be American Georgia or Russian Georgia?

American Georgia. They always ask if he came from Atlanta.

Also, in intro to Anth for the apst few years one of the TAs in our program has been giving continent tests... because he realized no one knew where Africa was. So it involves a map and you are supposed to label the 7 continents. Favorite answer is that Africa was "Northern Antarctica."

Edited April 23, 2008 by julianna

[sereia 0]

And one more thing... When you submit a resume with ALL previous residences, education, and/or experience listed from countries like Morocco, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, etc... they can probably safely assume what religious backgrown a person has also without asking. (obviously not all people from those countries are Muslim but an overwhelming majority is.)

Educated people have asked me what language they speak in Morocco. Some others have thought that Morocco was the same as Monaco. I bet the majority have no idea that Morocco is a Muslim country. And unless people hear an "El" or "Al" in the last name or a first name like Mohammed or something, they probably wouldn't know.

Maybe I don't have very much confidence in the American people.

Oh I've gotten the Monaco thing (Why would someone know of MONACO over MOROCCO anyway? Thats weird to me), I've been asked the language thing, I've even been asked WHERE Morocco is like they have absolutely no clue of even part of the world its in. But I tend to have slightly more faith in more educated people who would be doing the reading/hiring of an Engineer anyway. Slightly. lol

I bet more people have heard of Morocco versus Georgia (the country) haha!

[tammy2688 1]

Maybe I don't have very much confidence in the American people.

I wish you were wrong Jenn, but I have a bad feeling you are correct, how sad.

Yap...its true. Its nice when you dont have to feel this actually happenning but when you really feel it, it hurts realy bad. Makes you have bad feelings about things you had so much confidence of even a few years back.

[chri'stina 190]

I wouldn't really know what language they speak in Morocco if I didn't look it up. French and arabic would come to mind but I wouldn't really blame people for not knowing that. I am sure many intelligent people wouldn't know how many languages are spoken in India. I don't know certain languages spoken in African countries...people know more about what they are interested in.

Though one thing that I used to get asked was if India was in the middle east. Now, that is a dumb question if you ask me.

Our lawyer in Morocco came once to New York and tried to get into it here. He said it was not easy at all. He eventually gave up and went back to Morocco. I think the problem he had was the language.

I feel really bad for immigrants that come from a highly educated back ground. They get here and pretty much have to start at ground zero. It's not easy.

I agree some might have to start all over. But not all. My husband got a job in his field right away(computer programmer/systems analyst). It really matters what field. He happens to be in a very in demand/good paying field. So I guess it matters where you move to and what you do.

Did you husband know english before he came? I think that is a huge part of it.

The company I work for has a huge amount of employees from India, as well as an office in India. They are highly intelligent, and many specialize in computers. The ones I work with on a regular basis know english very well, but have such a strong accent, talk fast, and have learned the pronunciations differently, that I have no idea what they are saying.

Funny story, I am in accounting and they were talking about what I thought was depostion. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what a depostion has to do with accounting. It took forever before I realized he meant depreciation. lol

Yeah he knew English before he came and doesn't have a really thick accent IMO. But he has a boss that is from India and has a much thicker accent but he has a good job too.

Don't almost all the people moving over know English? Unless the couple talks in a different language together(like Jenn has said in the past in her case). But if they don't, and the man doesn't know English, how are they talking? I can understand if they aren't strong at English but I'd hope they know it somewhat.