Join us as Coach Kwan and Younes Ben share his journey from Morocco to the USA, leading to his first full-time job as an Energy Engineer! From balancing studies and cultural integration to securing interviews and navigating the job market, Younes reveals his strategies for success.
Transcript:
[00:00:00] Coach Kwan: Hello everyone. Today is Sunday morning. What time is it now? 9:30 a.m. In Chicago. And we are here at the Chicago Botanic Garden because my good student here, Younes, he’s going to travel to Pennsylvania. He’s going to move away from me, right? Because he’s got a new job and today he’s going to share his experience with you all.
[00:00:25]
[00:00:38] Coach Kwan: Younes, can you please introduce yourself a little bit?
[00:00:40] Younes: Hi, everyone. My name is Younes Ben. I came from Morocco and France and I’ve been studying and I just graduated from Illinois Institute of technology in Chicago.
[00:00:52] Coach Kwan: Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. So, when did you come here to Chicago?
[00:00:57] Younes: So, I came like a year ago in August. And I spent like full 12 months graduating, like taking classes and I had been thinking about like looking for jobs as well. I had to like, be planning my time of courses, for courses, trying to integrate with Americans here, understanding their culture and in the same time looking for jobs, getting some interviews, and for finally being able to get a job.
[00:01:31] Coach Kwan: Wonderful. So it was just a year ago. August last year. Now we are in October of 2024. August last year, you came here to the U.S., but we connected. We got connected before August, right? Can, can you tell our friends a little bit about how you found out about I-C-A-way and what made you decide to join I-C-A-way?
[00:01:52] Younes: That’s correct. So first of all I knew the platform, I think it was like a month or before being actually physically in the us. And the reason why I, I wanted to be part of this platform is to be sure if I come to the US I would really be able to get a job. So before even deciding if I’m gonna be in the US or not, I, reached out to coach Kwan and we, we met like before being here and we have discussed like the plan that we might be doing during the year, which was very great plan. And again, it was like during 12 months only. So during the 12 months I had to manage having a very good grades having the.
[00:02:41] Younes: Like, learning the American culture, the job market, and starting getting interviews. That was very manageable, but only since I was, like, with as a member with the I-C-A-way platform, it’s really helped a lot and yeah, it was a very good experience.
[00:02:57] Coach Kwan: Thank you. I really enjoy coaching you.
[00:02:59] Coach Kwan: And you know, it’s just 12 months master’s degree, right? It’s very quick. It’s so hard for international students, even though the benefit of like a short timeline program is that you take benefit of it by getting jobs faster But that 12 month 12 month integration into the US, managing everything.
[00:03:24] Coach Kwan: It’s just so tough, right? Can you tell us a little bit more about? Like some of the challenges that you experienced as a graduate student coming here and needed to find jobs within 12 months?
[00:03:37] Younes: Yeah, sure. So I remember like, as anyone coming here for the United States for their studies. They would need like the first month at least for like doing some paperwork understanding the courses, maybe even what courses they should take.
[00:03:53] Younes: So the first month you’re really just trying to understand what you’re going to do during the whole year, how you’re going to graduate. I didn’t, when, when I came here, I didn’t have like a very good understanding of the immigration system as well, which is very important as international. So you need to know what are your rights, what kind of work eligibilities you do have because as an international you’re you have like some limiting limitations compared to americans So you should really be aware of those if you want to get a job and yeah, so I had a lot of challenges including like how to get interviews and how to pass interviews and But that was actually like, I was able to go through that with Coach Kwan and she really helped a lot from the resume process till getting interviews till even at the end having like salary negotiation, which is something I never prepared before.
[00:04:54] Younes: So she really helped, helped a lot and I’m sure since it’s lifetime plan. I’m sure it’s, there’s a lot more to come and I’m very excited for what is coming next.
[00:05:07] Coach Kwan: I’m so proud of you Younes. Thank you. Tell us more about this new job please.
[00:05:12] Younes: Yeah, sure. So it’s an energy engineer too with CLEAResult.
[00:05:17] Younes: So CLEAResult is a consulting company. They’re the largest provider of energy services in the US and Canada. So basically in North America. And I had the chance to have this job remotely as well, which is something I was not expecting. It’s very good. So it’s a very good opportunity to be like not only in the office because it’s it’s kind of the job is Site based you need to go to the sites as well and to meet with clients as well.
[00:05:55] Younes: So it’s Not i would say it’s not 100 percent Remote, but instead of being at the office. I have the opportunity of being like home
[00:06:06] Coach Kwan: Travel
[00:06:08] Younes: and travel to the sites, which is still requiring to be in contact with other people. So it’s a Very good opportunity.
[00:06:17] Coach Kwan: And you have lots of client facing. Right, which is so gonna be so great on your profile.
[00:06:23] Younes: Yeah, exactly
[00:06:24] Coach Kwan: manage client expectation Deliver projects on time following the all the project plan
[00:06:30] Younes: exactly, that’s correct and This is one of the things I have learned during the program as well. So being Like having a profile that is also client based, since I’m like in engineering industry, I was like mostly only thinking about the technical sides.
[00:06:47] Younes: But when going through my resume and my profile with Coach Kwan, she, she also wanted to emphasize some of the, the client based, I had experiences I had before, like with some voluntary associations. I’ve been member of or to get also some trainings and those were really helpful to land a job and like to talk about during interviews.
[00:07:13] Coach Kwan: Wonderful. Yes, because you came here without full time employment in the past. Right. You came here, tell, tell our friends a little bit more about your backgrounds and at first how challenging you thought it would be.
[00:07:29] Younes: Right. So this is a bit of a fun story. Before coming to the U.S. I really needed to have a sort of guarantee, which you might not have a guarantee of landing a job before being in the U.
[00:07:42] Younes: S. But before being here, I I had almost, like, just a couple of weeks of like, as working in, in the industry. So I didn’t have that much of experience which was something very challenging. And I I thought that I might not have my chance to land a job here in the U.S. Because I know a lot of people that already had like at least a year experience and came to the US and were not able to find a job. I really needed to be sure if I’m here in the US I would be able to get a job. And, yeah, so, from the first meeting, from the first day, I tried to reach out to Coach Kwan. We had this planning, I’ve just been following it. That was a plan from basically August, the first day the first day that we had the meeting.
[00:08:37] Younes: Till like the day of getting a job and that’s basically what I was doing. Like I’ve been following the plan. And it was not only with Coach Kwan, we also had a community. So we’ve been meeting each other week and the community as well helps a lot because you meet a lot of people, a lot of people within your situation as well.
[00:09:00] Younes: And like people that can be like looking for similar jobs as you or people that have landed jobs that you were, you’re willing to have. So it’s very helpful. I’ve also like been participating on some sort of networking events with some of the members. So other than like participating and being learning about the skills of being in the US and getting a job.
[00:09:25] Younes: The fact of being part of this community was really, really helpful.
[00:09:31] Coach Kwan: And we are so glad that you’re part of the community. You really help enrich the community as well, Younes, because you’re one of the active members, you know, and you’re not just there to learn, but you’re also there to share.
[00:09:46] Coach Kwan: I remember that like you, you so proactively sharing your experience with the job interviews with other members to inspire others. So. I’m so happy for you and congratulations once again. Thank you so much. All right. What will be your advice to other let’s say Engineering students that want to come here to the US and get an engineering job in the future.
[00:10:13] Younes: Yeah, sure So my advice would be for engineers International engineers that would want to come here or Even like most of the internationals who want to come here. It’s, it’s going to be about if you really want to, like, be sure and have enough, the right job for you. You should really be aware of like how the job market is here in the US how the interviewing process does work. How the. American work culture does work and certainly you might be able to do that by your own but it takes a lot of time and this is, since you you might be already working, this is something that might be complicated but when you have someone that helps you and a community that is doing the same thing or had the same process before.
[00:11:11] Younes: It’s just really helpful, a very good time investment and money investment. And it’s, it’s just brings your goals quicker than expected and make sure you reach out to what are you, where you want to arrive at the end.
[00:11:30] Coach Kwan: Yeah, because you know, great things. It’s going to happen, but it takes time and effort to get there, right?
[00:11:39] Coach Kwan: Thank you so much for being the inspiration to the international student community, Younes. Cheers, congratulations. Thank you so much.
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