How to Land a Job Offer as an International Student

In April 2014, after three rounds of interviews, I got a full time job offer. It was an energy consulting firm in Texas. Although I declined the offer, I have to admit that it was a tough decision. The salary was good, the growth in the energy market was phenomenal, and the company was willing to provide me with the H1-B working visa sponsorship.

In this article, I’m going to focus on the process of job searching, and offer three pieces of career advice that might help you to increase the chance of getting an offer in the U.S.

1. Trust the Career Management Center.

Personally, I chose Tulane because Freeman has a better Career Management Center (CMC) than peers. After talking with Jada, the career counselor for MFIN 2014 program, I confirmed the idea that our CMC was great. I then spent a lot of time involved in CMC programs.  I attended every event, revised my resume again and again, and applied for every related position on Freeman-link, which paid-off in the end.

2. Prepare Early and Spend Time.

Job searching takes time. Resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles might take you weeks to write and update. Interviewing can also take you a whole week to prepare. Personally, I spent more than 10 hours a week on average in job searching and related work, which was a lot. Thankfully, I started early since orientation to the program. However, if I had a chance, I would start even earlier and spend more time.

3. Build Your LinkedIn Profile and Connect with Alumni like Me.  🙂

LinkedIn is the best professional social website ever. I use this website daily to stay in touch with my contacts and manage my professional network. Currently, I have 1500+ contacts and many of them are Tulane alumni. If I had questions about interviews, I would seek help from them to get some insider information. Most of them are very helpful.

At the end, I wish you the best of luck in job search. Yes, frankly speaking, luck might be the most important factor.

Yuan “Forest” Ren