Finding a job upon graduation may present students with one of the most daunting tasks following their college careers. For international students hoping to work in the United States, the task can prove even more difficult.
The International Career Network Committee formed at the University last year to help these students overcome the obstacles facing their domestic career searches by connecting them to alumni who have succeeded in the U.S. job market.
The ICNC Saturday hosted its Second Annual Networking Luncheon, the culmination of the year’s programs at which students lunched informally with international alumni working in the states to gain advice. Some 50 students, alumni and organizers attended the event, held at the Student Recreation Center.
“We’re happy to have, I think, every continent of the world, except for Antartica,” ICNC events coordinator and Japanese major Joshua Thorpe told the attendees.
ICNC spokesman and University senior Daniel Asenlund said the committee sought an informal setting where students could ask the alumni whatever was on their minds.
Asenlund, who is from Sweden, said the main reason for the event is that international students find more traditional events intimidating and those events fail to address their specific needs.
Eddie Chen, a marketing student from Taiwan, agreed.
“It’s a great opportunity for foreign kids,” he said. “They do have some fears getting into events like these, like they won’t fit in.”
Many of the attendees longingly eyed the buffet, framed by green and yellow balloons from the Alumni Association, while Magid Shirzadegan, interim associate vice president for international programs, made some opening remarks.
“I’m going to try and make it brief because I’m sure, like me, you’re pretty hungry,” he said.
Shirzadegan, an Iranian who also searched for a career in the U.S., offered advice for finding work and suggested that students be open, expand community involvement and be self-confident.
Over plates of salad, pesto and chicken piccata, students and alumni broke the ice with casual conversation about jobs, majors and homelands. Questions included what to say during an interview and where to look for work, but discussion occasionally turned to the international realm.
The biggest issue for students concerned work visas. Students and alumni expressed particular frustration at visa cutbacks post-Sept. 11, 2001.
“It’s harder and harder these days,” Santiago Garcian said. After graduate school, the Spaniard will head to Belgium because he said he misses Europe, but also because of the job market.
“If you’re not in a technical field, it’s pretty hard to find a visa, at least with a bachelor’s degree,” he said.
Amanda Burr, a native of England and now a research coordinator for an investment firm in Portland, lamented the short time foreigners are given to find a job with a U.S. visa – sometime as little as 30 days. She said even an F-1 visa for one year “doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll find a job, and then you have to persuade an employer it’s worth it.”
This is where Thorpe sees the ICNC as an invaluable resource for international students.
“I hope that, even if people meet once, maybe they could make a mentor, keep in touch,” Thorpe said. “But even if they don’t do that, maybe they can get some advice and avoid the trip ups of others.”
He added that the ICNC reprised last year’s luncheon because student feedback expressed a preference for the face-to-face interaction over straight lectures.
Not everyone agreed this year.
Finnish math student Jonne Kuittinen , who is spending a year at the University, said he felt the event was misadvertised, although had he known better, he might have attended anyway.
“I was a bit disappointed,” he said. “I didn’t learn about job searches in the U.S.”
Asenlund explained the ICNC does not focus on such workshops because the OIP already offers them. The ICNC is more focused on the alumni connection, he said. But because students have expressed interest in such events, they may be added in the future.
Two of next year’s committee members, Genna Berube and Alison Burger, said the program is due for a reversal of sorts: next year they hope to help U.S. students who want to work abroad. They are considering setting up a new or parallel committee so that the needs of international students do not suffer.