Daniel Seddiqui is working as a field laborer for one week. He has to lift and move water hoses around cherry trees at Murray Family Farms in Bakersfield.
"Luckily, they start really early so it's not hot yet, but I’m bending over quite a bit already," Seddiqui said.
It's his first day on the job, but Seddiqui is not your average employee. He comes with loads of experience, about 50 jobs worth.
"I'm literally dropping into a community where I have no connections with no jobs lined up and try to make a really quick living," he said.
For three years, Seddiqui says he couldn't get a job after graduating from USC with a degree in Economics. So, he decided to hit the road to get hired. In 2009, Seddiqui literally worked 50 jobs in 50 states in 50 weeks.
He worked as an archaeologist in Arkansas, a border patrol agent in Arizona, a boilermaker in Missouri and a wedding coordinator in Nevada, among dozens of jobs. Now, that his resume is much longer, he embarked on a new job-seeking endeavor, to cover some of the cities he missed the first time.
"I would like to settle down,” he said. “But, I was so intrigued when I did the 50 jobs things with all these regions I missed out on, I wanted to see these communities and what they go through each day."
Seddiqui plans to travel to several regions and tackle underserved communities. Bakersfield is his second stop. He first was South Dakota at a Native American reservation where he worked as a youth career counselor.
“What Daniel is doing is very difficult work. It's very hot. It's hard manual labor,” said Vickie Murray, co-owner of Murray Family Farms. “But, it's also extremely crucial so that our crops can grow and we can do what we do."
Seddiqui offers a few tips for job seekers:
Be persistent and don't be afraid of rejection.
Expand your network. Find connections in other cities and careers.
Take risks. Don't limit yourself to your expertise.
"Adaptability is also very important,” he said. “Going out of your comfort zone, you'll be able to find anything you want as long as you're really open-minded and flexible."
Seddiqui says his next stop is the Mississippi Delta to work against obesity and train a town for a 10k race.
