Candidate #0000 - Post 6
88 days until graduation.
Song that has been stuck in my head for the past couple of hours:
Bare Necessities from Disney’s Jungle Book
Last University Web site I looked at:
University of California – Santa Barbara
A lot has happened over the past couple of days. I don’t even know where to start. And I’m having a really hard time concentrating right now. I had to bring my computer speakers to a conference this weekend (we needed them for a presentation) and I haven’t put them back yet (because I’m really lazy, which anyone knows who has seen the mess in my living room…I have just been way too tired yesterday to move, let’s not even talk about cleaning). So anyway, I can’t listen to music right now, which means that the only sound is the typing on keyboard. It’s really starting to drive me crazy. I can’t work without some background noise. Isn’t that weird? Some people need absolute silence so that they can concentrate. For me, it’s exactly the opposite. I need some noise because silence makes me nervous. Also, whenever it’s so quiet in my apartment, I start listening to all the weird noises of the plumbing in my apartment, the sound of the refrigerator, the wind outside… I get sidetracked more easily when it’s quiet than when there is a lot of background noise.
Anyway, I’m going to try really hard and write this post and hopefully it’ll make sense. :)
Thursday, I met with our Associate Director of Residential Life and she had a lot of great feedback for me regarding my resume and cover letter. I thought, after I had so many people look at it, that it was good. And it probably was, but there were still a lot of little things that could be improved and tweaked. I tried to do that today and I was surprised myself how much I was still able to improve these documents. I sent them to our director again and she will probably get back to me in a couple of days with more feedback. Once I’ve heard from her, I really need to start sending out resumes and cover letters.
I keep getting e-mails from different universities and colleges, who have seen my resume posted on the ACPA Placement. It’s really flattering and exciting to get all these requests. It’s also extremely scary though. I mean, it’s really starting to force me to figure out what I want to do and where I want to go. And most of all, I am still really worried about this whole visa situation. I’m currently here on a student visa and that will expire once I graduate. So what do I do next? Should I apply for this optional practical training visa that would allow me to stay for one additional year? But what after this year? So should I apply for this H1B visa or whatever it is called, that would allow me to stay for six years but is job-specific? It said on this Immigration Web site that applications take 4-6 months to be reviewed. I don’t have 4-6 months after finding a job, before I need to start working. Is this even a possibility? And what if my request is denied?
I’ve been participating in this Green Card Lottery for several years now, but I guess I’m just not a very lucky person. For those of you, who may not be familiar with this lottery: Every year, the US gives out green cards to people from countries that don’t have a lot of immigrants. It’s an effort to further the diversity of this country. All you have to do is send in an application and if you’re lucky, your name is picked. I was told that people from Austria (that’s where I was born) have a 1 in 8 or 9 chance to win. I’ve participated in this lottery for 4 or 5 years, I think (It’s been so many times that I’ve stopped counting). If I could just win, all my problems would be over. This is so frustrating! I wish that whether or not you’d win had something to do with your education, job qualifications, your language skills, etc. I mean, then I would have a much better change. But pure luck? It just doesn’t seem fair.
So yes, the e-mails regarding my candidacy for a variety of Residence Hall Director are very exciting, but I wonder if these institutions were still interested if they knew that I am an international student and would need their sponsorship to get a visa. There are so many qualified candidates out there…why would anyone go through all this extra trouble? And then, there’s never a guarantee that I will actually get the visa.
Our Associate Director of Residential Life has been extremely helpful and is trying to support me every step of the way. She has figured out the name of an attorney, who may be able to give me some advice. We’ll see how all that goes.
But this wasn’t what I meant to tell you about…
Friday, we had this Mock Placement Conference organized by Residential Life for all of our graduate students. It was absolutely phenomenal. During the morning, we had sessions on every aspect of job searching. And then in the afternoon, we actually did a lot of mock interviews. I had four.
It was a little strange doing these interviews with people from my institutions, since I had known all of them before. I was definitely anxious and didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of them. Isn’t it ridiculous how much pressure we put on ourselves?
But it went pretty well. I got a lot of good feedback. Most people told me to slow down. I know I start talking really fast when I get excited or nervous. Both things usually happen when I’m interviewing and talking about ResLife. I’ll have to make sure I don’t do that during any real interviews.
I definitely feel a lot more prepared now. And the best part: We got these absolutely gorgeous UConn portfolios as a Good Luck present.
We are so lucky to have such a generous Residential Life department. If you think about all the hours of work that were put into this event…it’s unbelievable.
I was definitely drained after that mock placement though. Talking for two hours straight (four 30-minute interviews) and having to pay close attention and concentrate all day took a lot more out of me than I had expected. I will have to make sure I don’t overdo it during the ACPA Placement. I don’t want to crash after the first day!
But instead of being able to sleep in on Saturday, I had to get up extra early for the All of the Above conference. That’s a one-day workshop for undergraduates, graduates and new professionals that sponsored by a variety of different professional organizations. I was on the planning committee for this event. So we had to be there bright and early. I got up at 4 a.m., after only 3 hours of sleep because I was still working on last minute preparations as well as some schoolwork until 1 a.m. that morning. The excitement of being at a conference kept me awake all day, but when we were coming back, I had a really hard time keeping my eyes open in the car (fortunately, one of my friends was driving me home).
The conference went really well. We had a good turnout and everything went very smoothly. If I’m still in this region next year, I would love to be on the committee again. But who knows I’ll be?
I’m starting to get tired of this not knowing where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing next year. I just went through this two years ago when I was a senior in college. It would be nice to settle down somewhere and now that I will stay in that area for a while. I don’t care so much about moving, even changing institutions. But it’s hard when you get involved in a community or region and then have to rip yourself away from it. I’ve met a lot of great people this year, at my institution and others in the region, and I’m going to miss them if or when I leave. It’d be nice to get really involved in an organization and now that you have more than one or two years to contribute to it.
Anyway, it’s time for bed because I’m still exhausted. And just so you know: I’m still humming the “Bare Necessities” while I’m typing this. I’m going to have this song stuck in my head all night!
Song that has been stuck in my head for the past couple of hours:
Bare Necessities from Disney’s Jungle Book
Last University Web site I looked at:
University of California – Santa Barbara
A lot has happened over the past couple of days. I don’t even know where to start. And I’m having a really hard time concentrating right now. I had to bring my computer speakers to a conference this weekend (we needed them for a presentation) and I haven’t put them back yet (because I’m really lazy, which anyone knows who has seen the mess in my living room…I have just been way too tired yesterday to move, let’s not even talk about cleaning). So anyway, I can’t listen to music right now, which means that the only sound is the typing on keyboard. It’s really starting to drive me crazy. I can’t work without some background noise. Isn’t that weird? Some people need absolute silence so that they can concentrate. For me, it’s exactly the opposite. I need some noise because silence makes me nervous. Also, whenever it’s so quiet in my apartment, I start listening to all the weird noises of the plumbing in my apartment, the sound of the refrigerator, the wind outside… I get sidetracked more easily when it’s quiet than when there is a lot of background noise.
Anyway, I’m going to try really hard and write this post and hopefully it’ll make sense. :)
Thursday, I met with our Associate Director of Residential Life and she had a lot of great feedback for me regarding my resume and cover letter. I thought, after I had so many people look at it, that it was good. And it probably was, but there were still a lot of little things that could be improved and tweaked. I tried to do that today and I was surprised myself how much I was still able to improve these documents. I sent them to our director again and she will probably get back to me in a couple of days with more feedback. Once I’ve heard from her, I really need to start sending out resumes and cover letters.
I keep getting e-mails from different universities and colleges, who have seen my resume posted on the ACPA Placement. It’s really flattering and exciting to get all these requests. It’s also extremely scary though. I mean, it’s really starting to force me to figure out what I want to do and where I want to go. And most of all, I am still really worried about this whole visa situation. I’m currently here on a student visa and that will expire once I graduate. So what do I do next? Should I apply for this optional practical training visa that would allow me to stay for one additional year? But what after this year? So should I apply for this H1B visa or whatever it is called, that would allow me to stay for six years but is job-specific? It said on this Immigration Web site that applications take 4-6 months to be reviewed. I don’t have 4-6 months after finding a job, before I need to start working. Is this even a possibility? And what if my request is denied?
I’ve been participating in this Green Card Lottery for several years now, but I guess I’m just not a very lucky person. For those of you, who may not be familiar with this lottery: Every year, the US gives out green cards to people from countries that don’t have a lot of immigrants. It’s an effort to further the diversity of this country. All you have to do is send in an application and if you’re lucky, your name is picked. I was told that people from Austria (that’s where I was born) have a 1 in 8 or 9 chance to win. I’ve participated in this lottery for 4 or 5 years, I think (It’s been so many times that I’ve stopped counting). If I could just win, all my problems would be over. This is so frustrating! I wish that whether or not you’d win had something to do with your education, job qualifications, your language skills, etc. I mean, then I would have a much better change. But pure luck? It just doesn’t seem fair.
So yes, the e-mails regarding my candidacy for a variety of Residence Hall Director are very exciting, but I wonder if these institutions were still interested if they knew that I am an international student and would need their sponsorship to get a visa. There are so many qualified candidates out there…why would anyone go through all this extra trouble? And then, there’s never a guarantee that I will actually get the visa.
Our Associate Director of Residential Life has been extremely helpful and is trying to support me every step of the way. She has figured out the name of an attorney, who may be able to give me some advice. We’ll see how all that goes.
But this wasn’t what I meant to tell you about…
Friday, we had this Mock Placement Conference organized by Residential Life for all of our graduate students. It was absolutely phenomenal. During the morning, we had sessions on every aspect of job searching. And then in the afternoon, we actually did a lot of mock interviews. I had four.
It was a little strange doing these interviews with people from my institutions, since I had known all of them before. I was definitely anxious and didn’t want to look like an idiot in front of them. Isn’t it ridiculous how much pressure we put on ourselves?
But it went pretty well. I got a lot of good feedback. Most people told me to slow down. I know I start talking really fast when I get excited or nervous. Both things usually happen when I’m interviewing and talking about ResLife. I’ll have to make sure I don’t do that during any real interviews.
I definitely feel a lot more prepared now. And the best part: We got these absolutely gorgeous UConn portfolios as a Good Luck present.
We are so lucky to have such a generous Residential Life department. If you think about all the hours of work that were put into this event…it’s unbelievable.
I was definitely drained after that mock placement though. Talking for two hours straight (four 30-minute interviews) and having to pay close attention and concentrate all day took a lot more out of me than I had expected. I will have to make sure I don’t overdo it during the ACPA Placement. I don’t want to crash after the first day!
But instead of being able to sleep in on Saturday, I had to get up extra early for the All of the Above conference. That’s a one-day workshop for undergraduates, graduates and new professionals that sponsored by a variety of different professional organizations. I was on the planning committee for this event. So we had to be there bright and early. I got up at 4 a.m., after only 3 hours of sleep because I was still working on last minute preparations as well as some schoolwork until 1 a.m. that morning. The excitement of being at a conference kept me awake all day, but when we were coming back, I had a really hard time keeping my eyes open in the car (fortunately, one of my friends was driving me home).
The conference went really well. We had a good turnout and everything went very smoothly. If I’m still in this region next year, I would love to be on the committee again. But who knows I’ll be?
I’m starting to get tired of this not knowing where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing next year. I just went through this two years ago when I was a senior in college. It would be nice to settle down somewhere and now that I will stay in that area for a while. I don’t care so much about moving, even changing institutions. But it’s hard when you get involved in a community or region and then have to rip yourself away from it. I’ve met a lot of great people this year, at my institution and others in the region, and I’m going to miss them if or when I leave. It’d be nice to get really involved in an organization and now that you have more than one or two years to contribute to it.
Anyway, it’s time for bed because I’m still exhausted. And just so you know: I’m still humming the “Bare Necessities” while I’m typing this. I’m going to have this song stuck in my head all night!
posted by StudentAffairs.com at 11:44 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Candidate #0000 - Thanks for sharing your job-searching experiences with us! As a fellow international student working in student affairs, here are a few tips I wish someone had shared with me before I started working. First, with all due respect to our American friends and co-workers, they do NOT understand the complexities of the issues and tend to downplay them and assure you everything will work out fine. Unfortunately that is not always the case and you want to be prepared. I would definitely consult a lawyer, as well as your school's international student office ASAP - they deal with this all the time and will be realistic about your chances. Second, when you look for positions, make sure there is no citizenship requirement (some schools have those, especially on the West Coast, and yes, it is perfectly legal). Based on my personal experience, I strongly advise you to use your OPT option next year, which requires minimal paperwork on the part of the institution and gives you a freebie cushion year. Once you have started your new position you should immediately begin to discuss the situation with your supervisors and make sure they are willing to sponsor you for an H1B. Start the process as early as you can and make sure that whoever is handling the legal paperwork & process (HR at some school, International Office at others, etc) knows what they are doing and that they have (successfully) gone through this process before with others. Once you have your first H1B, it is easy to transfer it to another school. And, I can't say this enough - have a viable backup plan outside of the US in case things don't work out (or a career where it is easier to be sponsored for a green card; virtually impossible in our field if you are not at an extremely high level.) Keep up your connections in your home country and explore international work possibilities.
I know this all sounds kind of scary - and truthfully, it is a far more stressful process for you than for your classmates - but good planning should make it alot easier.
I'd be happy to answer any of your questions!
Dear Anonymous,
Thank you for the great advice. I am in the process of setting up a meeting with an immigration attorney to get some more advice.
Do you happen to know if there are any institutions (West Coast or anywhere else) that are more likely to be able to help me regarding my visa situation?
Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
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