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America in recent years has been flooded with Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants. Many are highly skilled and willing to work hard. They would be excellent employees.
Trouble is many are scared to death to interact with people outside their family and friends. English is a second language to them and they are unfamiliar with how people find a job in America. Their culture does not encourage assertive behavior on the part of women, so they don't sell themselves.
Now days even lower level clerical jobs require intense interviews and conversations with at least five people just to be come a finalist for the job.
But many of these applicants, while well meaning and interested, are just so painfully shy that they really struggle in today's competitive job market.
What can be done so painfully shy but well qualified applicants can get hired?
It is very difficult. HR and companies hate Introverts/shy people. They'd rather hire someone who drinks on the job or has a felony record than hire someone shy. As I've commented before the shallow nature of the selection process in addition to the bias against introverts will kill them. The only thing they can do is learn to fake their way through it.
Trouble is many are scared to death to interact with people outside their family and friends. English is a second language to them and they are unfamiliar with how people find a job in America. Their culture does not encourage assertive behavior on the part of women, so they don't sell themselves./QUOTE]
And you know this how? Any immigrant to a new country is naturally reserved in the beginning as they adapt to a new culture so I'm not sure why or how you've chosen those from Asia and the Middle East as being a particular subset prone to being "scared to death" in any respect. The majority of Middle Eastern and Asian immigrants I've encountered have an excellent command of English with many articulating themselves far better than their counterparts whose first language is English ... Although generalizing isn't a good policy, the disenfranchised and unskilled Hispanic immigrants seem to have the bigger problem with English.
It is a shame because these introverts are very good workers. However, the problem you described can be overcome. I certainly did. I think joining Toastmasters can help these people. My brother has the same problem and he is unemployed right now. He is too afraid of the interview process. He doesn't believe he can get any job with his accent while competing against native speakers during an interview. I am trying to tell him to go to Toastmasters meetings but he doesn't believe it will work for him. It works.
The job hunting support group I go to has a large number of women from Asia and the Middle East and the instructor talks often about how women in these countries are socialized to be quiet and shy.
I have been in management and found almost without exception that the women from Asia and Muslim countries are socialized to not be outspoken and aggressive around men.
[quote=STT Resident;33127415]
Quote:
Originally Posted by I'm Retired Now
Trouble is many are scared to death to interact with people outside their family and friends. English is a second language to them and they are unfamiliar with how people find a job in America. Their culture does not encourage assertive behavior on the part of women, so they don't sell themselves./QUOTE]
And you know this how? Any immigrant to a new country is naturally reserved in the beginning as they adapt to a new culture so I'm not sure why or how you've chosen those from Asia and the Middle East as being a particular subset prone to being "scared to death" in any respect. The majority of Middle Eastern and Asian immigrants I've encountered have an excellent command of English with many articulating themselves far better than their counterparts whose first language is English ... Although generalizing isn't a good policy, the disenfranchised and unskilled Hispanic immigrants seem to have the bigger problem with English.
I can think of very few jobs that don't require interacting with people outside of your family in friends. If they're really that scared of interaction, then they are not going to be a good employee in most cases. Even in my introvert-laden career (software engineering) interacting with others on a regular basis is crucial to what I do.
Your "instructor" is obviously a bigot. The whole premise of this post is just one person's racial bias trying to pass off as fact.
I regularly deal with and hire recent immigrants - just like any other culture, there is a wide range of personalities. All I care about is their performance in the role and with the team as a whole.
It's not so much shyness as the adjustment is major. New country, new culture, learning to leave old rules behind.
Younger adjust better. And I can't imagine living in a camp for your formative years and then having to adjust all over again.
I've found that what appears to be shyness is a comprehension barrier. You'll get "yes" when the person doesn't understand a thing you've said.
Your "instructor" is obviously a bigot. The whole premise of this post is just one person's racial bias trying to pass off as fact.
I regularly deal with and hire recent immigrants - just like any other culture, there is a wide range of personalities. All I care about is their performance in the role and with the team as a whole.
So there are no cultural differences between the expected behavior of women from Greece vs. Japan?
The instructor is not a bigot and it is true that in certain cultures, women are brought up to be quiet outside of home, add that to the general shyness of many immigrants who think that having an accent is an automatic disqualifier and it spells a formula for a job search disaster. What I think will help is having the immigrants rehearse the interview one on one with someone in their field, so that instead of being judged, they feel supported, and the mentor can gently stir them towards being more confident during the interview. Are there organizations that have volunteers to do that? I have done this type of coaching for people from my country (former Soviet Union, but not as part of any organization, just someone calling my Mom and say like "My son is so smart, but has a hard time interviewing" and I would spend a few hours with the person coaching them through questions, telling them how to sell themselves, etc, because at some point, I was shy as well-educated, fluent in 4 languages, honor degree from NYU Stern and paralyzed to death thinking that my accent was such a huge defect. It took years to build that confidence and I was glad to be able to pass it on to many others.
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