Your quality of life in America

[ktun 0]

For those of us who have given up a lot to come here, how do you find your quality of life compared to back home?

For me, my quality of life here is significantly worse than back home in the material sense at least. And I guess at heart, I'm really a big city girl and miss London. We've also had large amounts of unexpected expenses, so I hope things will improve once I'm working!!

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I guess it depends on how you measure quality. Speaking for my wife, it is clear that the material quality of her life is significantly better here. However, she doesn't have any close friends here and that seems to bring down, in her mind, her overall sense of quality of life in the States. She says its lonely here and too isolated. All very fair points.

[rejane 1]

Since i got here life had been good to me, it s been a good change for me, I lived 5 years in Ireland before whereihadlot of fun, friends and a good job.

I do not have so many friends...

I think it s been harder for me to make firends here than in Europe.

[RaspberrySwirl 20]

I feel a whine post coming on and I've had some (really awful home-brewed by a friend) wine so bear with me.

I make $7.40 an hour here for a stupid manufacturing job. I have to wait a year for my first review and then might be considered for a raise of, get this, 2%. Oh yeah, I'm lovin' it.

I'm trying to figure out how on earth you're supposed to afford college and combine that with a full time job. I used to pay 100 euros for tuition a year.

I've been here over a year now and no friends. Probably because noone lives in this town o.O

Yes, I'm a big city girl and yes I dread living here. Completely not what I've expected it to be like. I didn't have high hopes but I certainly didn't think it'd be that difficult to find a decent job that pays just a tad bit more, ya know?

Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, once I'm able to naturalize, we're both out of here. Back to Belgium. Whoop dee doo. Honestly, screw it all. David is a supervisor and doesn't even make $12 an hour. He was supposed to get his yearly raise and his "supervisor out of training" raise months ago. They cut our hours down to 32h a week and I don't qualify for unemployment benefits.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

OK, that was all.

Good night and good luck!

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I make $7.40 an hour here for a stupid manufacturing job. I have to wait a year for my first review and then might be considered for a raise of, get this, 2%. Oh yeah, I'm lovin' it.

How is the job market in your neck of the woods? My wife hooked up with a staffing agency and they got her a position just 5 minutes from home making close to 20 an hour. Have you tried going to a staffing agency? In NJ they tend to have good positions. A few other positions she's had to turn down (since she doesn't have a car yet) have all been in the 14-22 dollar an hour range. Give it a shot.

[Peggy 1]

So how do you go about hooking up with a staffing agency?

Anyone

[RaspberrySwirl 20]

I make $7.40 an hour here for a stupid manufacturing job. I have to wait a year for my first review and then might be considered for a raise of, get this, 2%. Oh yeah, I'm lovin' it.

How is the job market in your neck of the woods? My wife hooked up with a staffing agency and they got her a position just 5 minutes from home making close to 20 an hour. Have you tried going to a staffing agency? In NJ they tend to have good positions. A few other positions she's had to turn down (since she doesn't have a car yet) have all been in the 14-22 dollar an hour range. Give it a shot.

I'd love to. But I live at least 30 minutes from anywhere. o.O I don't have my own car or license. David would rather stick with his job for another few years (He's been with them for 6 years now). I feel rather.. stuck.

Kudos to your wife.

So how do you go about hooking up with a staffing agency?

Anyone

You go in and say: Hi I'm looking for a job. I don't know really, some of them have websites where you find local agencies and stuff.

Is it just me or do "temps" have a bad reputation here? The company hired a few of them when we were busy (I guess it's cheaper for them to do that rather than give us back our regular hours ). And most of the full-time employees I work with just don't seem to like temps in general. No idea why

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

So how do you go about hooking up with a staffing agency?

Anyone

There are a number of ways you can do that. One is to just stop by the office and say hi. Like Rasp said. Another is to send a resume online, but that doesn't appear to be very effective. A third option (the one my wife used) is to meet with staffing agency people at a recruitment event. Another way is through an employee referral.

Is it just me or do "temps" have a bad reputation here? The company hired a few of them when we were busy (I guess it's cheaper for them to do that rather than give us back our regular hours ). And most of the full-time employees I work with just don't seem to like temps in general. No idea why

Temps represent a threat to their job security.

I don't know about temps having a bad rep in general, though. My company regularly brings in people on temp-to-hire contracts. That means they come in as temps and at a pre-determined point in time the client company makes the decision to hire them full-time or not. And the company my wife is currently working at has an entire operation run by temps from the same staffing agency. They have maybe half a dozen regular employee managers and close to 60 temps. It's just another way of doing business.

Edit: I should add, for the same money it is certainly better to be a regular employee. But my wife didn't have much luck landing a full-time position, so she went the temp route. It's a decent way to build up some experience while you continue your job search. Rasp, have you two considered moving to a metropolitan area like NYC/surroundings or Chicago/Dallas/DC? I'd be willing to bet my all you'd do just fine out there. You're clearly intelligent and capable of expressing yourself clearly, and that alone puts you above a big chunk of the American workforce.

Edited March 19, 2006 by Agent Smith

[Peggy 1]

Another question.

Can I work for the govt owned liquor stores here or the postal service. Or is that just for US citizens.

I have been looking at the A-1 Employment jobs here.

Seems like alot of the places here if you ask for a job application they tell me I have to go somewhere to fill it out. Like to Human Resources.

[chocolaterie 0]

When I lived in Toronto, I had my family and all my friends I grew up with. The only thing I didn't have was my hubby...

So I left everything behind including an edu at UofT to come to Phoenix. I'm a big city girl too. Although Phoenix is a big city it's not the same type of big city, we don't even have a downtown!

It took me over a year and a half to find friends I could relate to... coincidentally, most of my friends are from other countries. Another obstacle is my friends are either in the party mind set (being that I'm only 22) or they have kids. My husband is 25 but he doesn't act 25. He hates crowds, he hates social gatherings, and he dislikes people... & i'm a social butterfly. I also find I don't eat as healthy as I use too or walk as much, and as a consequence in my first year I gained 20 lbs.. it's taken me almost another year to work off 10 of it!

But in the end I would do it all over again.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Another question.

Can I work for the govt owned liquor stores here or the postal service. Or is that just for US citizens.

I have been looking at the A-1 Employment jobs here.

Seems like alot of the places here if you ask for a job application they tell me I have to go somewhere to fill it out. Like to Human Resources.

You can't work for USPS till you're a citizen.

And this country doesn't have any government owned liquor stores. I recall that Ontario did when I used to visit there and I thought it was pretty amusing

And yes, if you walk into a place of business and ask them for an application, they usually will direct you to HR. That's HR's job.

My husband is 25 but he doesn't act 25. He hates crowds, he hates social gatherings, and he dislikes people...

lol, i've been antiparty/antisocial since the day I was born I can handle myself now, but after it's over I need to sleep it off, I hate it so much

[Peggy 1]

Well thats strange. I went into the ABC Beverage store and she told me it was govt owned.

I worked for the Provincal Govt Liquor Stores at home before I came here. I made really good money.

All the Liquor Stores in Nova Scotia are run by the Govt.

I think its good, if they didnt run it and they were private. You would only make 6.50 an hour.

Compared to starting off at 10.50 then up to 16 and hour. Plus if you were a shift manager I made 23 bucks an hour doing that job. So everyone at home wanted to work there

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Well thats strange. I went into the ABC Beverage store and she told me it was govt owned.

Interesting. Whereabouts is this? I've never heard of this, but then again this is a pretty big country. I'm sure there's a lot I haven't heard of!

[Peggy 1]

Its in Alabama.

[pax 0]

Pennsylvania's liquor stores are ALL state stores, Ari...can't believe you didn't know that, living in Jersey.