Reliving my US experience #DefinitelyPTE

Settling down today at my home in Bangalore, I am trying to recollect how exciting it was when we decided to move to USA. But the learning that came along with meeting new people and exploring places is definitely worth the mention in this blog. Also this blog was started as a venture on 14^th Feb 2012 at my Levittown house.

As I settled into our newly married life, the bigger adjustment/challenges came when I decided to join my husband working on USA on a dependent visa (this visa limits the scope of finding work)

Apart from being away from friends and family, I was happy that my financial independence was not hit hard due to my savings and husband made sure I never felt it. But I did not want this temporary unemployment to erase important time of my professional career. In many industries, rejoining after a break is difficult and teaching industry was no exception

Once in USA, it was becoming difficult to get adjusted to just household chores without getting involved in any office work. As we started the process of starting paper work for getting a work permit, based on my friends suggestions I started looking for jobs on online forums like (upwork, freelancer). Having been in teaching job for a long time, I was hoping that this option would have been a cake walk for me.

It took a while to realize that kirana shops and societal life that we take for granted in india, is not available in USA. However the big malls/stores were accessible in a car. Hardly anyone used to walk. Most of the indian couples staying in our community were working. So it looked odd that i was one of the few person staying back to be at home.  I still decided to keep myself motivated 

But most of the hurdles came when everyone started looking for native English speakers or English certified course. I decided to still try and started by blog foodydelight.  Another option I tried is to join a community college so that I can up-skill myself. But they also needed a English test score for entry. They were open both for IELTS and PTE.

I choose PTE #DefinitelyPTE for five simple reasons

-      Readily available PTE Preparation Course.   This preparation material gave me the required confidence needed to clear the test quickly

-      Recommendation from my friends who had already given this exam and they had benefited from it

-      Easy availability of centers

-      Recommendation from the college (La Salle University, Burlington County college and Rutgers) where I had shortlisted couple of courses to pursue

-      My husband had plans to relocate to other international locations. Given the global acceptance of this test, I was hoping that I could quickly join the workforce and this test could act as top-up qualification

During this time i researched a lot. Talked to different people on the forums/blogs, watched youtube vidoes, connected with other housewives from my husband's company who wanted to work and also attended different meetings that used to occur in our resident community for allowing women reconnect to workforce.

Once I was done with PTE exam, it gave me lot of confidence and improved my skills. As I started pursuing my education, my freelancing career also started flourishing. As I updated my profile with this test qualification, some serious corporations started viewing my applications and gave me test jobs. I was lucky to convert them and my own career started flourishing.

The college experience gave me an idea of American culture along with the slang. The most important part was the network that it added to my career. Though I had been bought up in Indian metros, the college experience also gave me an insight into that America is not what Hollywood is. It is similar to what I guess outsiders think of india on seeing our movies.

No doubt #DefinitelyPTE provided me the much needed breakthrough. With this breakthrough I was able to successfully change my field from teaching to IT testing for few months (quit full time job due to other personal phases of life). 

The whole experience thought me many things. But at the same time it made me appreciate the Indian life much more despite all the complains that we have. I think unless we experience both sides of a coin, we can never appreciate it.

Below are some videos which will give you more information why you should definitely choose PTE