Backwards Man

Today I have a little clip by Tom Green from the movie “Freddy Got Fingered.” The reason why I post this clip is that when I returned from teaching in Japan for a year I felt I was “The Backwards Man,” well… at least in terms of salary!

After one year of teaching English in Japan, I decided that being an English teacher wasn’t for me. I returned to my hometown hoping that I would find a decent job or at least find one somewhere else in Canada. I figured that with my degree in business and a bit of international work experience under my belt that I would be able to find at least an “entry-level” job.

I applied to many different jobs in many different places… I used all of the major career websites and even got help from my university’s career centre. After a few months I became quite frustrated at why I couldn’t even land an interview and so I contacted some of the Human Resources Officers that had initially turned my applications down. I wanted to figure out what I was doing wrong. They ended up telling me that that I didn’t have enough work experience for the professional-type jobs and then basically told me that I had too much education for the more support-related jobs. What’s a boy to do???

After about 3 months I found a job working at my University’s bookstore ordering software and helping with other general in-store duties. The salary at the bookstore was of course less than my salary in Japan but then again it wasn’t too bad either. Don’t get me wrong, I was extremely grateful to have the job as I worked in a very nice environment and got to work with even nicer people. It also provided me with a steady income. As much as I liked that job I knew that I had to keep looking for that “career” type job that would utilize my previous experience and help me get to where I wanted to go.

After a few months of working at the bookstore, I applied for an internship at Medicine Hat College, marketing their International Education Program. This was definitely the kind of job that had possibilities as it would give me more experience in the field that I was interested in. Unfortunately, it was only a temporary 6 month internship and the salary was less than my University job. I considered these factors, but in the long run I thought this position would provide me with better future opportunities and so I went with it.

After I finished my internship contract I thought that employers might finally become a bit more interested in what I could do for them. Sadly, this was not the case, well not yet anyway…

More months of searching for work while working temporary minimum wage jobs in Regina followed. Two and a half years had now passed since initially leaving Japan and I decided that since I couldn’t get a job in Canada that I would try to get one in Japan. I really wasnt sure if that returning to Japan was the right decision as I didn’t want to teach English again but better to do something and possibly be wrong than to do nothing and never know.

I applied for a working holiday visa and headed for Japan. I quickly found temporary part-time work teaching English. I didnt really enjoy that and so I kept my eyes open for work in Canada. After a couple of months, I was offered a job interview back in Canada with a good company. I decided to take a chance and leave Japan. The Canadian interview went ok but it turned out that I wasn’t exactly what they were looking for. Once more, I was back to being unemployed. I could not return to Japan either since my working holiday visa expired when I left the country.

I found a job selling cell phones in a Regina shopping mall. This job was even less money than the internship and this brought me back to near minimum wage at about $8 an hour + commission.

This is why I felt like the backwards man. For 3 years after returning from Japan, I took on jobs that kept paying less and less. Obviously, this was not by choice, just the way it turned out. I shall now leave you with Tom Green. He will give you another interpretation of my feelings at the time, kind of… sort of… This scene also kind of demonstrates the relationship I had with my Dad at the time to… I can still hear him asking me everyday after he returned home from work… “Hey Mike, did you get a job???” uuuuuuughhhh… wish I could forget those days!!!

Oh and just so you know.. after a month of working the cell phone job my luck started to change for the better. I found an interesting job that related to my work experience and would also give me great experience. Back on the right track!!! I took that job on, worked there for 2 years, and then landed a better job and am still working there….. So as Joe Dirt says, “You gotta keep on keepin on!” Here’s Tom!