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by Allan Hoffman
[ More Job Q&As ]
Jack Bybee arrived in the U.S. in 1982, leaving behind his life in South Africa, where he was a bookseller. He was 36 years old at the time. "I came over here with a rucksack on my back, a suitcase in each hand, and $2,000 in my pocket," he says. He worked for bookstores for a number of years, eventually establishing himself in the emerging world of computer books. That led to a column for Computer Shopper magazine and, later, to work as a technical writer. Bybee, who is now an American citizen, lives in Montclair, New Jersey, where he is looking for work as a contract technical writer.
Monster.com: How did you end up coming to the U.S.?
Jack Bybee: I was a bookseller in Capetown, and one day I was peacefully sorting my books and looking out at the mountains, thinking about when I could go off to do my other love -- which is rock climbing -- when this tall fellow walked into the bookstore and said, in a Southern American accent, that we had the best bookstore in Capetown. We got to talking, and the end result was that he said, "Well, come and work for me." He gave me his card, and I wrote to him and said I'd like to come over and visit. He wrote to me and said, "We'll send you a round-trip ticket," and that's what happened.
Mc: Was he offering a specific position?
JB: He asked me to come over as a consultant, with an eye on becoming the assistant manager for the flagship store for a bookstore chain in Knoxville, Tennessee. I was there for about three months. I opened a bookstore, got it up and running, and then the first of many conflicts developed.
In the British Commonwealth, the bookseller is a professional. Here, the bookseller is the kid out of university who stands behind the cash register. What I found here was that I knew an awful lot more about bookselling than even the manager did. That caused a conflict immediately.
Mc: So you left the job after being in the country for just a few months?
JB: Yes, I left. I took a position with a bookstore in Atlanta, basically as a fellow in the shipping and receiving department. The major bookselling convention was in Dallas that year. My boss was going to drive from Atlanta to Dallas for it. I said, "You might not want to take me along, but I'm chaining myself to the inside of the van. Whether you want me along or not, I'm going."
That show gave us an idea of where the computer book industry was going. The phrase computer book hadn't even been defined yet. When we got back to the store, he pointed at the balcony where the used books were and he said, "I've got news for you. We're moving that out and buying a bookstore nearby for the used books. You are taking over the balcony. You develop it into a business and technical and computer books section. Go." And that was what I did.
Mc: Were you at all surprised by this turn of events, given that you had only been in the country a short time?
JB: I was astounded. I had not yet understood how dependent this country is on fresh ideas coming in from the outside. I learned early on that, especially in technology, this country depends on the brains of the immigrant.
Mc: Did you feel you had more opportunities here?
JB: On the whole, I would never have had this opportunity in South Africa or anywhere in the world. I was published in Computer Shopper. I had developed, on the side, a mail-order computer bookstore. I mailed off our catalog in response to an editorial in Computer Shopper. I ended up writing a monthly article. From that, it became the most widely read column in Computer Shopper, topped only by the MS-DOS column at the time. The editor told me that if I could explain something as complex as a computer book, I could do technical writing -- and I did.
Mc: In the business world, what was the most striking cultural difference between the U.S. and South Africa?
JB: Communication. I spent at least five years trying to communicate. That's why I got into technical writing. I realized people here don't communicate. Go into any corporation and try to make yourself understood. Or try to get something done in a meeting. Lack of communication is the biggest problem in the corporate structure.
Mc: What about things outside the workplace?
JB: About three or four days after I got off the plane, I realized the tension in my shoulders was gone. That's because I was free. In South Africa I wasn't free. I wasn't allowed to speak out. I had spoken out against apartheid. I wasn't able to write exactly what I wanted to write. I always had to think about Big Brother looking over my shoulder. Here, I'm free. I can say exactly what I want. I can write without the thought of censorship, and that's something that people here don't even think about. In South Africa, I had to go through a three-ring binder to check almost every title before I sold it or put it on the shelf.
Mc: Were there any logistical difficulties in coming to the U.S.?
JB: I packed up my life in South Africa, and I did that for freedom. And I got here and I had this letter from the person who hired me, who promised to sort out my visa problems. He said he would get me citizenship. I soon realized that what was on paper, on his letterhead, was one thing. As his lawyer pointed out to me, the best thing for me to do was take a Greyhound trip around the country and go back to South Africa, because he wasn't able to sort out the legal problems for me. I nearly had to go back to South Africa.
Mc: Is there anything else you would like to mention about your experience in this country?
JB: Here, for five years, I had to get used to freedom. It was a real strange animal at first. I had to get used to people's attitudes in freedom. And I'm still trying to understand how free or how unfree I am. I've come to the realization that in this country you are chained to your bank balance -- you're only as free as the money you have in your bank account.