Excel Your Career With Our Top 5 Holiday Networking Tips
Dear Coach Kwan,
This is my first year in the States after the pandemic and I will be graduating soon. I know networking is important, and I heard the holiday season could be a great time to network. How can I optimize this holiday seasons in the US for networking post-pandemic?
Find a Summer Internship in 60 Days as an International Student
As an international student studying in the United States, you are likely looking for ways to gain experience, build your resume, and make connections in your field. One great way to achieve all of these goals is through a summer internship. However, finding the right internship can be a challenge, especially for international students who face unique obstacles.
What To Do When Your 90-Day OPT Unemployment Is Running Out
Five Steps To Take If You Are Unemployed Under Optional Practical Training (OPT) I get a lot of messages from international students such as the one above as their 90-day OPT unemployment allowance period comes to an end. Many new graduates hoped that three months would be enough time to secure a job offer. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible in reality. The job market is tough to crack, and it is even more challenging to find jobs as an international student. If you are in this situation, please take a deep breath and follow the 5 steps below: 1) Start being specific about your career goal Employers will hire you because you have the right skills to solve their business problems and you are passionate about helping them achieve their business goals. Don’t just blindly apply. You need to narrow down your job search. Be more specific about the jobs you are applying for and which industries you are applying to. For instance, if you are an MBA international student, your career paths and job opportunities for MBA graduates can be various such as Management Consultant, Marketing Manager, Sales Manager, etc. If you have been distributing your resume to multiple companies in different roles, please pause and think about your specific skill sets and past experience. Find your selling points for your job applications. If you are open to any job, you will not be a strong candidate. 2) Target a stepping stone for your OPT Since you have a limited amount of time, larger companies may not be the right target as there are multiple layers to the hiring process. Look for small to medium-sized companies that have been around for more than 5 years with sustainable revenue. Those companies can be flexible with their hiring policy and might not have a vast talent pool like large global companies. Many of them are willing to hire international students if they are short of manpower and urgently need skilled candidates. After you have built your profile and expanded your knowledge in the industry with these companies, you will become a more desirable candidate and become ready to jump into bigger companies. Most large companies select to sponsor experienced hires over entry-level candidates. 3) Spend only 10% of your time on online job application On average, only 2% of online applicants are called in for interviews. For international students, the odds are even tougher. It is sad that not all jobs posted online clearly indicate whether or not they hire international students. You need to use other methods. Spend 90% of your time connecting with your target professionals. Use your connections and really put yourself out there. You might hear about great opportunities from the most unlikely sources. Remember: if you don’t put yourself out there, people won’t know you exist and are available. 4) Develop a Plan B for Your OPT Find options that allow you to stay past the 90 days period. The term “employed” is not as specific as you might think. Find a job that is related to your course of study. Paid or unpaid job doesn’t matter. It will help stop the 90-day unemployment allowance clock. Please always contact your International Student Services Office at your college or university. Your DSO is the person who can approve if the job is compatible with your OPT. In a normal situation, the OPT job needs to require at least 20 hours a week. However, duration the COVID-19 emergency, SEVP considers students who are working in their OPT opportunities fewer than 20 hours a week as engaged in OPT. See this announcement, Find other options, such as temporary jobs or volunteering positions, that will allow you to remain in the country. Please contact your International Student Services at your school to ensure eligibility. If you are not familiar with the job market and specific industries, it is tough for students to find jobs within 3 months. If you don’t have connections, your search time will augment to an average of 5 to 6 months. Maintain your status with your plan B and continue your full-time job searching! 5) Find a Community to Support You Join a community that helps you move forward. You can build your professional skills and connect with professionals via many professional affiliations. For example; joining Ascend Leadership will give you the opportunity to learn from so many inspiring Asian leaders in the US. At ICAway, we also have a WhatsApp group for International Students so please make sure that you check this out today and request to join our group! Do you want to get more tips on this topic? Check out these resources:
3 Steps to Getting Referrals from Your Connections
For international students, when the traditional job search process starts to yield worse results than before, you need to find people who can advocate your abilities to your target employers. You want to get your foot in the door without stumbling through immigration question hurdles, right?
Introducing “Lift as We Climb”: Mentorship for Our Community
Nobody achieves success alone. We all need communities of people to support, and who support us, to build each other up and provide unique and helpful insight. In this way, anyone can succeed. ICAway aims to support a community of international students, immigrants, and leaders who want to pay it forward.
“Lift as We Climb” Mentorship program seeks to help build students’ ability to create mentor/mentee relationships.
True Stories: Turning Job [Rejections] Into Job [Offers]
Hear the journeys of three international job candidates who overcame barriers and landed their dream jobs in the US. By Amanda Rosenberg There is a clear disparity that international students and immigrants in the US face when finding jobs. From lacking knowledge on the US job system to work permits (CPT/OPT/H-1B) to not having professional connections, international job candidates often find that these barriers prevent them from getting jobs in the US. We are looking to bridge that disparity for international students by providing them with the tools and job search skill training they need to land a job in the US. Since 2017, ICAway has had a 100% success rate with the one-on-one 90-day intensive program and over 90% of students who joined the ICAway Talent Platform landed jobs in the US. Here are just a few stories of students who used ICAway to achieve their dreams. Trang Vu – “I was uncertain about my post-graduation outcome” Dr. Trang Vu studied chemistry at Pennsylvania State University before receiving her PHD of cosmetic science at University of Cincinnati. Vu is a self proclaimed “skin care junkie” and has always dreamed of working with cosmetics. She is now the R&D scientist at Unilever. Naisargi Dave – “I wanted to change my job while I was on OPT” Dave received a civil engineering degree in India from the Gujarat Technical University, then received a masters in environmental engineering from the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Now, she works as an Environmental Scientist with a private company called EA Engineering. Mario Aguilar Méndez – “I didn’t have a degree and connections in the US” After graduating from Private University of Bolivia in electromechanical engineering, Aguilar Méndez received a Masters in automation and robotics in Spain at Universitat Ramon Llull. Aguilar Méndez now works at Deloitte as an Oracle Business Analyst. Challenges and Barriers Finding a job is always challenging, but there are unique barriers that many international students have to overcome. Our three students each struggled to overcome one specific barrier in applying for jobs. Trang Vu’s biggest barrier was ensuring a job post-graduation. According to Vu, “Finding a job as an international student has always been a challenge. So, I started my job search early on” Despite her early start, Vu “continued to apply for jobs for months and only received rejections for a very long time”. Vu’s challenge would be to ensure a job after graduation. Naisargi Dave struggled with her career future when she decided to change jobs. She recalls, “when I graduated, this research job came along, however a few years into the job, I realized that it’s not where my heart is at. I still like my work in environmental engineering and science. I made the decision to change jobs right on my OPT.” Keeping this in mind, Dave said, “I had to convince my employer that this was a work permit that would expire at some point.” Dave’s challenge was to find an opportunity to switch jobs without it affecting her OPT and future H-1B. Mario Lacking connections in your new country can be really influential on job searches as well. Aguilar Méndez said, “I didn’t have a clear vision of what I wanted…I was trying to apply everywhere. I didn’t know how to sell myself in the network of the United States.” Aguilar Méndez’s challenge was a lack of knowledge on the US job market. Overcoming Difficulties No challenge is overcome without some difficulties along the way. All three of our students experienced this for themselves, when issues arose that affected their job searches. Trang Vu recounted her roadblock, saying “When I got a job offer and I told them I would need a sponsorship, they took back the offer.” Although Vu had the qualifications to work the jobs she wanted, she got rejected due to her immigration status. Naisargi Dave struggled with selling herself to employers, causing networking connections to falter. She said, “After I joined ICAway, my outlook completely changed. I started looking at it as a two-way-street and tried to make networking a lot more meaningful. Then I was really confident when I was giving my answers in interviews.” Mario Not having knowledge of the US job market makes it difficult to decipher the correct job-achieving strategies. Aguilar Méndez recalled, “I only connected with one or two people, but that was it. I had no clue how to get an interview or make connections.” By overcoming this barrier, Aguilar Méndez says his “transformation has been huge…I got different skills and approaches to networking…and achieved a job offer with your gameplan and your coaching.” Becoming Success Stories What brings together our three students is their stories and journey to success. After dealing with their individual struggles, each student joined ICAway. Through this, they were able to overcome all barriers and launch their dream careers. Trang Vu excitedly remembers, “Eventually I landed the job of my dreams…I got connected to people who are very high ranking on Linkedin, like the CEO and VP of R&D…I got connected to Unilever, a week after I talked with them, I received a job offer.” Having had set up connections for herself, Vu was able to find a job that she loved. Naisargi Dave was able to change jobs as she had hoped. She explained, “Everything worked out, I joined ICAway, I met a lot of people going through the same thing, and I thought ‘oh, it’s no big deal,’ it sort of gave me the strength to go through that process…I definitely network a lot more after joining ICAway.” Dave also gained perspective since her journey. She said, “By being from a different culture, by being from a different country, having studied in this country, graduating in the middle of a pandemic, you already bring a lot more to the team and to the work than usual. Even though you feel like you have no experience, you have really good resilience, which is very
International Students’ Dream Job ? How to Stand Out as a Data Professional?
Dear Coach Kwan, I am an incoming international student who is trying to decide what career path to take. A lot of my friends are going down the track of “data professional”, and they claim that this is a sure way for them to land a job after graduation. Is this true? Should I pursue this path as well? Sincerely, An undecided-and-soon-to-be freshman Having a career as a “Data Professional” is highly desired by a large number of international students. One of the reasons behind this is that demand is high. According to a study titled “Workforce Overview: Data Professionals” conducted by Bellevue University, there are about 8,000 job openings annually. However, as the demand increases, so does the supply. In fact, according to the same study, from 2013 to 2017, the number of people working as data professionals grew by 8.6% and that number is still growing. This means that just the degree will not hand you the job. You need to stand out within this consistently growing pool of people. There are key competencies required from data professionals, and this includes not only technical skills but soft skills as well. Follow these 3 steps to position yourself as the right talent—the talent the hiring manager is looking for. 1) Enhance your communication skills 56% of Data Professional recruiters are looking for candidates who have strong communications skills, according to the study by Bellevue University. You can start working on this by socializing with people to practice your language skills with on a daily basis. Next is to not be afraid to venture outside your comfort zone. Take advantage of every opportunity to introduce yourself to someone new, to break the ice with a complete stranger, and engaged in as many meetings as possible, be it over the phone, over coffee or during a committee meeting. Do not hesitate to share your own thoughts and never be afraid to ask questions when you don’t understand something. Do not worry about having an accent – your accent can be an attractive quality! Plus, what you say matters more. You can also join clubs that help you improve your communication skills, such as Toastmasters. Remember: practice makes perfect. Keep on trying, and you will become a master communicator! 2) Participate in challenging projects and practice other desirable skills On your resume and during a job interview, if you can present yourself as a reliable team member, a problem solver, and as someone with amazing teamwork skills, this data professional job of your dreams will be closer to you! Following communication skills, the most desired skills are self-management, problem solving and collaboration. While in school, there are plenty of opportunities for you to practice these skills. The possibilities to find a project are endless. Courses, school or business competitions, internships, co-ops, experiential learning opportunities and volunteering roles. Take advantage of these options and you will be one step closer to becoming the perfect candidate for the perfect job. 3) Build your network of data professionals in the field that you love There are a lot of both local and national professional associations out there. You can start exploring by inviting your Data Analytics professor for a cup of coffee and ask for their advice on which professional associations you should join. Find out if there are any upcoming conferences in your area. Participating in professional associations will not only help you build your job referral pipeline for the future, but will also provide you with opportunities to learn new skills and technologies from real cases. Furthermore, you will be inspired by many successful professionals in the field! From our latest survey with 31 students from 8 institutions around the U.S., we found that the number one reason that international students choose to avoid attending local or national conferences and be a part of professional affiliations is that they felt that they could not afford a membership or conference fee. I understand that being on a budget presents new challenges. However, if you cannot afford certain options due to financial reasons, explore free opportunities or organizations that partner with your school. Sometimes they give free tickets or discounts exclusive to students from partner institutions. Don’t stop dreaming and exploring just because you don’t think you can afford it! When there is a will, there is a way! Data Professionals As the demand for data professionals rises, so does the supply. Amongst that rising number of candidates, you need to ensure that you stand out. Brush up on not only the technical skills required but also the soft skills that the recruiters are looking for. Work at being a better communicator, better team player and better networker and the ideal opportunities will present themselves to you! Join the ICAway Talent Platform to learn how to build your new network in the U.S. and build a career brand that draws recruiters to you About Coach Kwan Kwan is an experienced human-capital consultant. Her past corporate experience includes global organizations like Deloitte, Accenture, and BMW. Kwan moved to the U.S. in 2014, earned her Senior Professional HR certification from HRIC. She joined one of the world’s most prestigious consulting firms as a Senior Consultant of Human Capital Consulting Practice and managed multiple projects for Fortune 500 clients. Today, Kwan is the CEO and Founder of ICAway, an educational consulting firm based out of Chicago. Our mission is to be an empowering community for international students and light the way for students to find jobs in the U.S.
10 Ways to Stay on Top of Job Searching during COVID-19 (and the Trump Administration)
Dear Coach Kwan, I’m an international student who recently graduated in the class of 2020 from a notable university. However, I have limited work experience and minimal connections, but I’m looking for a job in the United States. I know it can be hard for international students to stand out among a crowd, and the pandemic is making me really worried about landing a job. It seems like job markets are failing and I’m anxious I won’t get anything on time, as my OPT is about to start soon and I’m on a very tight timeline. I am looking for some help. What advice can you give about staying strong during COVID-19? Sincerely,An international 2020 graduate Without any crisis, an average job opening attracts 250 resumes and only 2 percent of those applicants will be called for an interview. And since the COVID-19 crisis, U.S. internship hiring has been cut in half and the estimates for the 2019-2020 academic year indicate a total of 3,898,000 college graduates in the United States. That’s the challenge every new graduate in the U.S. faces. For international students, your challenges will double if you go through traditional career search – waiting for the job to be open, applying online, waiting for an interview opportunity. When you receive the first phone call, the recruiter will ask about your immigration status and they may say, “We don’t have a policy to sponsor international students.” This is a kind of situation that many talented international students usually stumble through and lose their chances to present their skills in front of the hiring managers. 3 Ways of Thinking about the Job Market Right Now My heart goes out to all of you who just graduated without a job offer in place. With all of the pandemic challenges and the limitation of OPT timeline and unemployment allowance, we are all in a racing mode when searching for jobs. During this pandemic and an ongoing attempt from the Trump administration to impose new restrictions on students who want to work in the United States after graduation on Optional Practical Training (OPT), you are a race car driving on a track where the conditions are more challenging than ever. To win this race, you need to stay: Strategic, Resilient and Mindful. In this article, I’d like to provide you with ten ways to help you achieve these three ways of thinking. Being Strategic 1) Monitor the job market. Monitor the job market on a weekly basis. Look at which industries are hiring and in which parts of the country. Gear toward the industries that are hiring, and stay tuned to our Facebook page as we will share job posting movements by industries every Monday. 2) Know who you need to talk to. According to Payscale.com, there could be as much as 80 percent of new jobs that are never listed but are instead filled internally or via networking. So stop spending so much time on online job applications–it won’t work! Jobs that are posted at this time might not be hiring. Spend 90 percent of your time finding the right people to connect and build meaningful connections with. Don’t ask for a referral right away; it is the biggest turn off if you want someone to advocate for you during your job search. Be patient, but do it right. Use friendly yet concise messages, and show interest in the person you want to connect with. 3) Use a calendar for time management. As I’ve been coaching a lot of students, I see that not many young talents have learned how to use their calendar effectively. During your job search, you need to have a clear work plan. For example, which day and time during the week you should look for new job postings: don’t waste time on ones that were posted over a week ago, as jobless numbers have been skyrocketing. Be mindful of when the best time to apply for a job is, and when the best time to connect with people is. Use your calendar wisely. 4) Find a stepping stone. Many students just focus on big tech firms or consulting firms in their job search. There are lots of companies that are hiring, and many people don’t know about them. Those are the companies you can target. Once you have built your expertise and compelling stories from working in a smaller company, you will have higher chances of getting into those Fortune 500 companies. Some smaller companies also serve well-known clients. This is a golden opportunity for you to build brands working with those top clients as well, in turn building your resume. Being Resilient 5) Move on after you did your best. All you need is one win. Never spend days wondering why you didn’t get a result from your interview last week yet, or trying to predict an interviewer’s behavior (for example, thinking they haven’t called because they don’t like you). You are wasting your time putting yourself through that mindset. Do your best in each interview. Send personalized and memorable thank you notes. Then, move onto the next job interview. Job application is not a numbers game (read about that here), but job interviews are. You need to get weekly job interviews; if not, there’s something you need to fix. Each job interview will help you grow and become better at each round. For many of us international students, English is not our mother tongue. The more interviews you get, the better communicator you will be. You will become at ease about interviewing, and when the right job comes at the right time, it will be yours. 6) Take a small break in between, and know when to do that. Know your limit, and don’t sweat it if you need to take a break. We can compare the job process to a race car track. In motorsports, a pit stop is a pause for refueling, new tires, repairs, and mechanical adjustments. Just like in
Career Fair Prep: How To Research A Company
Dear Coach Kwan, As career fair season quickly approaches, I am starting to get nervous about how to approach it. I understand that it is a great opportunity for me and I think I know how I should act during the fair but how should I prepare for it beforehand? Sincerely, A slightly-but-actually-very-nervous international student I love the mindset of this student! As important as it is to know what to do and how to act during the career fair, a lot of it is based on how you prepare for it. You should always, I repeat, always, do your research on the companies attending the career fair, particularly the ones you are interested in. Here are four steps on how to conduct thorough research that will help you acquire knowledge and therefore make an impression on the recruiter: 1. Do a deep dive into the company website As obvious as it may seem, their website should be your go-to. Here you can learn about the company history, their mission, their leadership, their clients and their service lines. You cannot claim to be interested in a company and yet not know these basic things. While you might think that this is over-the-top, I seriously advice you to approach this just like you would for a job interview. Arm yourself with knowledge and the recruiter will appreciate your clear interest in the company. 2. Check latest news on Twitter and LinkedIn After scrolling through their website, you should take it a step further and check out their social media. If you want to know about the latest news regarding the company, use Twitter or LinkedIn. These platforms are updated much more regularly than their website. By knowing not only about the company’s basic background but about what they are currently undergoing will truly show that you went the extra mile to do research on the company. With the tidbits of information that you find on their Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, you will be able to engage in non-generic conversations with the recruiter, and therefore he or she will be more likely to remember you. 3. Watch YouTube Another great platform to use for research purposes is YouTube. Nowadays, tons of companies have their own channels. This way, you can learn about company culture. Being a good candidate means that you need to be compatible with the existing company culture. At the end of the day, no matter how skilled you are, you will need to fit in with the workplace and the people you work with. If you can gauge what the company’s personality is, including their work environment, ethics and values, you will be able to position yourself as a candidate who not only meets the skills requirement but who is also a good cultural fit. 4. Find mutual connections for informational interviews Getting information from an insider is the ultimate move that makes you stand out from the crowd. Since everyone has access to the internet, theoretically, all the online research you do can be done by everyone else. While this is highly unlikely, it is still enough of a reason for you to seek out informational interviews. The obvious first step would be to see if you know anyone who is currently working for that company. If not, you can use LinkedIn to see if any of you have mutual connections with someone who works there. Reaching out to a complete stranger is not likely to yield any results, therefore, you should rely on the connections you already have. Ask for an informational interview and get as much information you can. By asking the right questions, you will be able to learn so much more than what you will by simply doing research online. On top of that, you can connect with the recruiter on a more personal level because you now have a mutual connection with them. The easiest way to build rapport with people is by establishing you have mutual interests and mutual connections – now you can use both! About Coach Kwan Kwan is an experienced human-capital consultant. Her past corporate experience includes global organizations like Deloitte, Accenture, and BMW.Kwan moved to the U.S. in 2014, earned her Senior Professional HR certification from HRIC and joined one of the world’s most prestigious consulting firms as a Senior Consultant of Human Capital Consulting Practice and managed multiple projects for Fortune 500 clients. Today, Kwan is the CEO and Founder of ICAway, an educational consulting firm based out of Chicago. Our mission is to be an empowering community for international students and light the way for students to find jobs in the U.S. Want to learn more about all the important networking techniques and strategic game plan to help you build a professional network in the US? Free Three-Week Career Strategy Series In this 3-week strategy, you’ll find some great examples like… How to plan your career strategy based on your situation How to create an effective networking game plan to turn your new connections into your mentors and job referrals in the future How to build your brand on a resume, LinkedIn profile, and much more to draw recruiters to you Please tell us about yourself and I’ll send your personalized tips to your inbox! Master career fairs through confident approaches, impactful introductions, insightful questioning, and networking finesse. Sidestep pitfalls, develop a compelling personal brand, and leverage opportunities for long-term success. Use the coupon code ‘CareerFair50’ to receive a 50% discount. Start Now Start Now with Coup