Immigrant Story

Persia is famous for its 3Cs. Cats, carpets, and caviar. This is how I learned that little nugget.

For the last six weeks we've had a temp in our office working on a filing project for us. He's an older Persian man who immigrated to the US somtime in his forties so that his children would have the opportunity to study in this country and live the American dream that he would have to sacrafice for. It's a common immigrant story. He is a smart guy and was the vice president of a bank in Iran, but because his language skills do not match his hard work he has had problems finding full time employment.

Although technically I was one of his two supervisors, I've had limited interaction with him. I haven't been giving him assignments or monitoring his progress. For the most part, I've said hello in the morning and good bye in the afternoon, and that's about it. Only once did I spend more than 3 minutes talking to him. This guy had an interview for a full time position somewhere at the University. However, he had interviewed for some positions with some related teams, and I had been told that he was a terrible interview. My coworker and I took about half an hour out of our day to do a mock interview. I asked him some questions and then we critiqued his answers. He didn't end up getting that position, but he did learn some valuable dos and don't about finding work and really appreciated what we had done. He said he would never forget the kindness we had shown.

Yesterday was his last day and he threw his own going away party. He wanted to show his appreciation for the things we had done for him. He brought in some food and Persian favorites like pistachio nuts and his homemade sweet cherry wine. We talked and he proudly told us about how his son was just about to finish his degree at San Jose State and that his daughter already had a Master's degree in Mechanical engineering. He was obviously very proud of them and what they had been able to accomplish. For them, he had turned his life upside down and come to a foreign land. For them, he spent six weeks in a cramped fileroom, going through our files one by one.

I thanked him for all his help in our office and wished him the best of luck. Although he doesn't have any permanent jobs lined up yet, his reputation as a filing guru has circulated a little and he has another temp gig lined up after the Thanksgiving holiday. I have a feeling someday somebody will hire this guy permanently.