1 out of 241

Whether I fail or succeed, there is always one man standing by me: Jesus

1 out of 241. 1 offer out of 241 job applications I sent out. Finally...after 157 days unemployed... I got one offer from Walmart, the company that I cannot even dream of  !!!!  Praise God ! Praise God ! Praise God ! I am totally underserved for this gift from God.

April 25, 2014 I had a chance to land on a Resources Analyst at Berkley Lab. Long story short, it was a 2 for 1 situation, and I crashed the interview by presenting my confidence and professional skills. However, another candidate outperformed me by having more working experiences.  I was very disappointed about not getting that job. 

After that, I realized: even though we think ourselves already doing a fantastic job, we still need to seek God's help first. We cannot do this alone, or, without put God in mind. In every single moment we breath in this temporary world, God wants to restore our relationship with Him. In fact, we also need to remember Luke 12: 30-31, For the pagan run after earthly things, and your Father knows that you need them, however,  you, as a Christian, shall seek His kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

In the beginning of May, 2014, I received a call from the agent regarding a job opportunity from Walmart. I sent out my resume and after two weeks I was blessed to move into the phone interview process. However, I did not do well on that interview due to some questions that I am not quite understand. The interviewer asked me to give a business process example about CCC( a random company).  My mind suddenly blanked because I actually had a direct experience dealing with CCC (a misunderstanding right here). I started to think if I accidentally revealed this confidential information on my resume. I literally repeatedly asked her to clarify her questions 3 times that made me look super unprofessional ( 1 or 2 times are OK, 3 times I might need to see the doctor) . I honestly told her the truth that I thought she mentioned one of bullet points that I wrote on my resume, and we both bursted into laughing. I delivered the story about CCC and me, and then we finished the conversation. I was not satisfied about my performance due to the 3 times thing. However, if God wants to give you something, literally nothing can stop Him. 

After two weeks... in June 5, I received a phone call from the agent, saying that Walmart wants to schedule a IN-PERSON INTERVIEW with me!!! Praise God ! Long story short, I usually schedule interview in the afternoon so I can have enough time to get prepared in the morning. On that day, I was thinking about Walmart.com's and Amazon's competition. Since Walmart lack behind Amazon for years, Walmart needs to try some different approaches in order to compete with Amazon. All of sudden I had a idea about online Farmers Market for Walmart.com. Since Walmart's slogan is save people money so that can live better, and Walmart is very family-oriented company( I did the research)  . Why not promote local small farmers so they can live better since small farmers usually have to move around different farmers market during weekend or weekdays. After I got this idea, I felt more confident and more peace. 

In the afternoon, I met with my hiring manager. During our conversation, I could feel that she is tough but not as tough as Fenny ( I am blessed to have a chance to be trained EVERY SINGLE DAY with one toughest & cutest lady in the world). She literally asked EVERY SINGLE DETAILS and I can sense that she listened EVERY SINGLE DETALS of my words. I felt my power of confidence flowed away to her, but the miracle happened during the Q&A. I only asked her to tell me "a little bit" more about the current issue that she expect me to solve in the future. The hiring manager seemed to open up her heart and talked "a lot" about this issue ( looks like this issue really bothers her a lot ). I am not a good speaker but definitely a good listener when I want to. I listened to her and tried to understand this issues more thoroughly for 5 minutes. I usually did poor job at Q&A, but THANK God I could just simply listen to her at this time(God is crazy good and always blows my mind).

A week later, my agent called me, "Steve, Walmart wants you on board"  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAA! I was speechless and super happy about it. However, I also knew that there is one critical issue that haven't been brought up yet since the beginning of the interview: my visa status. I only have around 2 plus months left for my OPT. Based on the original contract, it says a 4 months temp to hire position. Although Fenny, my angel, kept encouraging me that nothing can stop God if He decide to give you something, I still felt uncomfortable about this risk factor ( Jesus: Steve, you of little faith). In June 18, 2014, when I went to the agencies to sign the contract, I brought up this issue to the agent. My agent just simply said that, "oh I already told them, and they are OK with that." Praise God!!!

I started to think of how many things are out of my control during this interview process. If I didn't come up with that Farmers market idea, I would not have been as confident as I was in the interview. If my hiring manager did not open her heart in Q&A, I would not have a chance to show how eager I want to know this job. If they know my working status at very early stage, I would not have a chance to move forward to the next step. If my agent did not think of me in the first place, I would not have any chance to land on this position. If my friend did not refer me to work as a intern first at another company, I would not have a chance to write something in my resume that is meaningful to this position. God's series of small miracles that happen in my life in different ways lead me to land on this job that I would never think of. Walmart is two consecutive champion in Fortune 500. The reason I can get this job is 100% because of the grace of God. If He loves us super much and willing to give us so many gifts that we are 100% undeserved. How are we going to respond the God's love? It is quite simple,  

Like the lyrics from "the stand"

So what could I say?

And what could I do?

But offer this heart, Oh God

Completely to you

God is good. All the time

I had an interview in May 28, 2014. I was nervous due to some sudden changes. I called my agent to prep today's interview in the morning. Apparently, my preparation is quite different from my agent's expectation. As a result, my agent helped me to rephrase some sentences, which caused me nervous because I needed to make many adjustments.  

So...I kept praying to God for calming my heart. 

(Psalm 145: 18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.)

He did not answer my phone call right away. I still felt very nervous, but then He answered my little prayer at a super perfect timing that I was not expected. 

When I walked into the office, there were two ladies talking in the front desk. Somehow they asked me how was my weekend. This is the first time ever someone in the front desk asked me how was my weekend! I told them I went to Seattle for vacation. We joked around the never-ending rains in Seattle. Although rains nurture a lot of trees in Seattle that make Seattle a beautiful city, rains also cause some people depressed, and these people choose to drink beer. 

Anyway, we had a good conversation, and then all of sudden my burden vanished. As soon as I did not feel nervous, the interviewer came in. Her tone is soft and nice, which is a super good sign, and it turns out she is also nice person, too (Yeah!). She did not brought out many hard questions to me, instead, she focused on asking how good is my Excel (Yeah!). I brought up some work samples to demonstrate the financial models that I developed and maintained, and she is impressed by my work.  

I really want to thank God that I called my agent earlier today. She taught me some tips and phrases so that I can answer several hard questions if I encounter. And it actually happened during the interview, and I just used the same tactic to answer that question correctly. All these things are out of my control but in God’s hand. and I thank God for His grace.