Hi there,
I have lived in the US already for a while, and arrival here was in itself an opportunity as so many people from a multitude of countries want to immigrate here.
I cannot say that the opportunities knocked on my door immediately, and I had to kiss many frogs before I met the princess.
Yet, I had a couple of opportunities, which I took advantage of as they presented themselves. I will discuss here one of them.
In 1996, the medical company I worked for laid me off. It hurt me emotionally because I was busting my ass for this company. Yet, what can one do? I applied for contract work in one of the job hunting agencies. This company sent me to work for an oil company in about a month. I passed an interview and was surprised at how easy work was after leading a reasonably complex project in the previous company, yet I was paid even more money than I was making before.
It made me think that there is no one-to-one correspondence between the skill level and the fee one can charge for it in America.
I worked in this company for two years under the supervision of another contractor (for simplicity, let’s call him Bill), who has worked with them for many years. But, as I mentioned, the work was relatively easy, and as long as their system was running smoothly, no one stuck their noses in our business.
Once Bill asked me if I would want to cooperate with him on another project. That project was from another company. I agreed and worked on another project and was paid additional money but at the same rate. Then Bill put me in contact with the person from the other company (Let's call him Fred) and delegated me the work on that project entirely. I suspected that Bill charged the company more, but I didn’t open my mouth as the overall result was pretty good.
Then the oil company was sold to someone else, and I lost my contract. However, when I conveyed this news to Fred, he invited me to work for his company. That was awesome. Since I didn’t get this position through a job hunting agency, they were not entitled to the share of my earnings.
When I arrived at that mortgage company, they had an important project to develop in the risk management area. When they told me how much they were prepared to pay, my jaw dropped, as their contractor’s rate was almost twice as large as what was making through the agency and what I was getting via Bill. You see I didn't tell Fred how much Bill paid me and he offered me as much as they paid to Bill.
Of course, the jaw-dropping was only virtual. So at the negotiation table, I made an impression that I was giving the offer some thought and finally agreed.
Since that opportunity, my rate increased, and I was asking for a new rate or higher for all my future contract jobs.
And as far as how to spend the additional money? Come on, friends, I am married, and if anything, my wife knows how to spend.