An International Student’s Job Search

Once you understand your work permission, have carefully developed a resume and practiced your cover letter writing and interviewing skills, you are ready to engage in the job search – right? But, how do you find jobs not restricted to U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents? Career Services is here to help!

by  Jamie Grant

Are you an F-1 (international) student, working diligently towards your degree, and find yourself, like many other students, thinking about internships, or your life after Penn?  Perhaps you have already starting “job searching” (aka clicking through PennLink) and are dismayed by the number of job postings that clearly state applications are “limited to U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents.”  You are confident that you have strong skills, motivation, and could be an excellent worker, if only given the opportunity.  What can you do to be considered, interviewed and hired?

Let’s consider what it really means to be “F-1.”  An F-1 is a student, non-immigrant visa – just one of many visa types offered by the U.S. Government.  Your F-1 visa was offered to you so that you may complete a degree in the U.S.   Your status as an F-1 student requires that you understand the exact rules and restrictions as to what you can and cannot do while in the U.S.  You most likely remember signing an official-looking legal document that required you to state that you will return to your home country after graduation.  So, how can you possibly stay in the U.S. to work?

While it’s certainly not a secret, many F-1 students that I’ve met in my years of career counseling don’t realize that the F-1 visa has significant training benefits attached to it, otherwise known as “work permissions.”  If you don’t know what terms like pre- or post-completion OPT, the STEM extension, or April 1st might mean to you and your career – keep reading!

To fully understand your potential ability to be hired by a U.S. organization, you have several great learning resources.  Your first stop should be to visit with your advisor for International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) in the International Programs office here on Penn’s campus, or to spend some considerable time studying the ISSS website at http://global.upenn.edu/isss.  Their webpage on F-1 Student Information – http://global.upenn.edu/isss/f1 – has details on just about everything you need to know about your visa and work/training options.  You should become very familiar with your work permissions if you’re serious about applying what you’ve learned and working legally in the U.S.  It is more than likely that you will need be able to clearly explain your permission, either in writing or during an interview, to your potential employer.

Once you understand your work permission, have carefully developed a resume and practiced your cover letter writing and interviewing skills, you are ready to engage in the job search – right?  But, how do you find jobs not restricted to U.S. Citizens or Permanent Residents?  Career Services is here to help!

There are several key resources and events targeted to F-1 job seekers brought to you by the Career Services office.  While you might find your search a bit more challenging than searching and submitting applications through PennLink, as a Penn student you have access to a database of U.S. companies with a history of hiring international candidates – like you – called GoinGlobal.  By researching in GoinGlobal, and cross-referencing your findings with PennLink, company career websites and other job posting resources, you are more than likely to find opportunities in which you have great interest, and for which you may very well be a top candidate.

In addition, each year Career Services hosts a presentation by representatives from the legal firm McCandlish Holton, designed to help you understand all the rules, regulations, requirements, and best strategies to successfully manage your search and career.  http://www.lawmh.com/practice_areas/immigration.htm.  Handouts from their program held throughout the years are available in Career Services for your review.

Other resources maintained by Career Services and accessible through the Career Services Online Library include The H-1B Online Job Databases for Foreign Students/Postdocs (fairly self-explanatory), and Uniworld. 
Uniworld offers two online directories – one of American organizations with International subsidiaries and one of International organizations with American subsidiaries.  This could be especially helpful, much like using GoinGlobal, in guiding you to identify organizations more amenable to hiring international candidates.  In addition, should you not be able to secure a job in the U.S. after graduation, using Uniworld will help you to identify American companies operating in your country of origin – companies that may highly value the educational and cultural experience you have gained by studying in the U.S. and may perhaps consider you for a U.S. post in future years.

You can easily access the resources and directories mentioned here through the Career Services Library On Line Subscription Database:  http://www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/library/  – look for “Online Subscriptions…”

Also, consider types of employing organizations that have greater capacity to hire foreign graduates, such as universities, non-profit organizations affiliated with universities (such as research facilities or hospitals), non-profit research organizations engaged primarily in basic or applied research, and governmental research organizations.  These types of organizations are not subject to the same restrictions on the numbers of foreign graduates for whom they can obtain authorization to hire with H1-B visas, and as such are some of the more common employers of F-1 students.

Say it Ain’t Snow

By Claire Klieger

Remember how excited you were when we had our first major snow storm of the season—all those beautiful flakes falling and covering campus in a blanket of peaceful white? And now, 70-plus inches later, just hearing the words “chance of snow showers” incites groans, hair pulling and the desire to throw things (or, at least it does when you are responsible for shoveling and driving in the stuff).

Even when it's stormy, you've got to keep trudging along in the job search.

Your job/internship search can often be a similar emotional roller coaster.  You may start out excited by the prospect of new opportunities and the many interesting postings at the click of your fingertips. However, in this stormy economy, it’s really hard to stay motivated if multiple applications yield few results.  If you have gone far enough along in the interview process to start imagining your name on the business cards, it can be especially demoralizing. Like this year’s winter weather, it may feel like your torment will never be over.

Whether OCR did not pan out for you or you just aren’t having much luck in your search, it is important to keep looking. Rather than giving into that urge to just throw yourself under a blanket and live in your PJs, now is the time to reconsider your strategy. Are you looking in the right places? Is your resume effectively highlighting your relevant skills or experiences?  Are you networking? Do your interview skills need work? Come talk to us in Career Services to see if there are tools to help you better weather your search.

Even though they are calling for snow (again) on Wednesday, eventually warm weather will be here (sooner than later for those of you going to sunny destinations for spring break).  There are lots of great jobs and internships still out there. In fact, for internships, peak season for postings is actually March. To be successful you just need to continue to put yourself out there. So, keep those wellies or uggs and that rain coat handy (as well as a retooled resume and networking or interview techniques) and when you hear that fateful weather forecast, take a deep breath (after possibly a few choice and colorful words) and say “bring it.”

A Day in the Life

By: David Ross

So by now you may have researched some internships and jobs of interest. Perhaps you’ve had several discussions with individuals revealing those little-discussed tidbits of “insider” information about what really happens at work and want more insight. Or maybe you’ve just determined that you’re at that point where reading anecdotes just isn’t enough. If any of this sounds like something you’ve contemplated or experienced, consider the feasibility of an externship.

What is an externship? You may have already heard the term used in a few different ways or contexts. For this purposes of this blog entry, consider an externship as an opportunity to experience firsthand a day in the life of a working professional. Some people refer to externships as “shadowing” experiences where a person has the chance to follow someone around for a day at the office. So imagine yourself working in a position of great interest to you – an externship may be helpful in revealing more details about what you can really expect once you assume that role. Be sure to make the most of any externship opportunity and absorb as much information as you can, ask questions you can’t find on a website and immerse yourself in the experience.

Perspective is important. So while externships can provide some additional information, note that your experience in one organization may differ from your experience in another. That’s ok – one outcome of an externship is learning more about what may be important to you in a workplace and leaving with more focused questions on similar opportunities within other organizations. The prospect of meeting some professionals in the field can be an added bonus.

Externships may occur through formal, structured programs or may be arranged individually through personal contacts. Regardless of how the opportunity arises, remember that while you are observing a professional at their workplace, your behavior and professionalism are being monitored as well.

Friends on the Inside

by Julie Vick

If you plan to apply for a job at a company or organization where a friend works, think carefully about how to “use” that relationship in a positive way.

It might be very helpful to ask your friend for information about the department or division as you prepare to submit an application or for an interview as you prepare for an interview. If the friend mentions to others that you’ve asked, no harm is done, because your question shows that you are trying to prepare thoroughly.

Once you’ve had your interview but haven’t heard anything, it’s difficult to know what’s really happening. If several weeks go by and you haven’t been contacted there are several possibilities: they haven’t finished interviewing; a reference said something to give the hiring manager pause; or you presented yourself well and your references are positive but you’re simply up against some very stiff competition. Even though your friend might be able to give you some insight into the process you should avoid being a pest and above all, don’t say anything negative about those who interviewed you.

Once an offer is made, however, think hard before involving the potential colleague in a salary negotiation. If it’s a very good friend in the same department, you might ask how flexible the department tends to be in negotiating offers, but leave it at that. For example, the friend may have done a poor job of negotiating, realizes it, and now finds him or herself in the awkward position of advising a new colleague about how to get paid a higher salary! If the friend is in a different department, the situation is less awkward.

Employees develop loyalty to their employer and, particularly in tough times when people want to hold on to their jobs, they don’t want to do anything that could be perceived as disloyal. As a rule of thumb, if you have to ask whether you could trust someone with information about your job search, you probably don’t know the person well enough to assume their loyalty would be to you, rather than to their employer.

Recruiters reveal their deal breakers

I am old enough that most of my friends have become bosses in their jobs.  So, they make decisions about who will work for them.  Recently, I got to learn more about what they consider to be deal breakers in a job application. Here are four of them:

– Deal breaker: Resumes longer than one page. This is a bigger issue for the corporate employers than the nonprofit employers.  To be safe, keep your resume to one page at least until you turn 30.  If you need help choosing what to include on the resume, meet with a career counselor in Career Services.  Exception: resumes for positions in the federal government are often 2-3 pages long because they require more detail.

– Deal breaker: Not showing understanding of what the job entails. Apparently, employers can spot generic cover letters in 10 seconds and eliminate a quarter of applications this way.  How to get your application to the “interview” pile?  Write to the employer about the job and how you will use your skills and experiences in the position.
– Deal breaker: Apologizing for not being able to do the job. I come across phrases like this a lot in cover letter critiques: “While I don’t have a lot of experience in the field, I ….”  Since you’ve only got a page to cover a lot of ground, focus on what you have done and what you can do.

– Deal breaker: Not dressing up for an interview. It seems obvious that we should wear a suit to a job interview, yet Penn grads have reportedly shown up for an interview at a nonprofit organization dressed in khakis and polo shirt. It did not make a good impression with the interviewer, who had already interviewed three suited-up candidates that morning. Lesson learned: Score some easy points by dressing the part.

I hope that by sharing these insiders’ tips, you will avoid some common job search mistakes.  Good luck!