Effie 的留學(xué)故事:Job Search (1/3)

I can’t believe it is 2012 already， and I am still in this never-ending job searching process. I believe most of you are interested in this topic， so I decide to complain about it to you here

Because there are a lot to talk about job searching， my plan is to divide it into three parts: “What’s happening” — job market and policies for working visa; “What do you do” — your resume and application process; and “What might help you” — other tools you can use to help you find a job in the US. Based on my own experience， I will talk about “What’s happening” first.

I have been working since Feb of 2007， and in the past 5 years， I have worked at five different places. I have also completed one Bachelor (BS) and two Masters (MS) degrees. It looks like I have plenty experience and education， but finding the job I like is still the biggest challenge I encountered so far.

In 2007， with BS in Chemistry and MS in Bioengineering from an average school， I could only look for scientific research related jobs in the lab because of my education background. Big pharmaceutical companies pay more money but they can only hire limited number of people each year because of the “cap” for H-1B working visas it allows to issue each year. H-1B visa is what you need to work in the US after graduate from school. Because that your F-1 student visa will expire within one year after you graduate. It means you will have one year to find a job in the US and your employer has to be willing to help you applying for H-1B visa. For example， if the company like Merck needs to hire 50 people this year but can only issue 10 working visas to foreigners， the company will hire the rest 40 among US citizens who don’t need a visa， even though you are more qualified than them. In fact they would rather hire another 10 among US citizens if they can. Thus it is extremely competitive for you. In Biotech and Pharmaceutical industry， companies pay $45 to $65K per year for people with undergraduate(BS) degrees， and $65 to $85K for people with MS degree， normally $85K and above for PhDs.

Due to the stringent immigration policy， many international students have to apply for jobs at nonprofit organizations or Universities， which are not restricted by the immigration policies of how many foreign internationals it can hire. I found my first job at the Wistar Institute (www.wistar.org)， which is a nonprofit biological research organization. It is more likely for you to get a job there， because they can hire all 50 new employees as Chinese if they want to. Also because of that they pay significantly less than companies， most highly educated Americans are not willing to get paid at that salary level. I got paid $31k for my first job and I thought I was lucky to be able to Get a job and stay in the US. For bachelor you may start from as low as $28k. Please keep in mind that it was in 2007， and now it should be higher due to inflation.

If you don’t have green card or citizenship， you will face lots of limitations no matter how hard you try， that is also why more of younger generations will go back to China for better career options. Many smaller or medium sized companies won’t even consider you because they don’t want to be bothered or spend money to hire a lawyer to apply visa for You when there are so many American graduates are applying at the same time. After one year， I asked if Wistar can sponsor me applying for green card， and I gave up because of two reasons. One， I have to work there for a minimum of two years before they can consider to help me with the application process; two， I need to stay there for who knows how many years until I get my green card， most likely five years. The total waiting time for green card after you send out all application materials depends on 1) your education level， the higher the faster， and 2) your experience， what your teacher or boss say about you. What happened to me was that after one year I could no longer tolerating working in that lab， I do not like using animals in my research or working with animals on daily bases. But if you are someone think green card is your priority， maybe you should stay in order to get it as soon as possible. In fact many of my friends did that. Time passes faster here for some reason.

After a year and a half working at Wistar， I got my second job at UPenn doing stem cell research， which was closely related to my first job without the animal part. I was hired for the same reason， which was my previous experience. Because it was in the university， I got paid $35k per year which was still very little for my education background， but I was in the middle of salary range. I believe my coworkers with PhDs make only more than $50k per year. It was not challenging for me either， and soon after I was looking for other things to do. One good thing for you to know is that most large companies and universities will have tuition benefit and reimburse part or all of your tuition if you agree to work there for certain years. Since I worked at UPenn， they have the policy of paying more than half of my tuition if I got accepted in a program or taking any classes within the university. Luckily I got into this very good program called Executive Master’s in Technology Management (It is not a traditional MBA degree but I have got the opportunity to learn basic business courses at the top business school in the world. In order to get the full tuition benefit， I worked at UPenn lab for two years， without thinking about applying for a green card. For the same reason， I didn’t want to get stuck there. Maybe I was wrong but I am a stubborn person

My thought was with 3 plus years’ working experience and a degree from top business school， I can find a much better job in China. Thus I planned to come back after I get my second Master. But before it happened I met my husband， and I end up staying here longer. I got my green card quickly after we got married， with paying $3，500 for lawyer fee. Just when I felt ready to look for a better paying job in the industry， the economy went downhill here in 2008， and it caused the bad job market till now. I had to compete with current graduates， graduates from previous years and people with experience who have been laid off. It was a Very Very competitive year when I try to look for a job in the industry.

In conclusion， I have talked about what happened to me since I graduated and the job market in the US. In the next couple articles I will talk about “What you can do” including writing resume and the application process. In the end I will tell you my experience of “What can help you”， including some tips and tools you can use to help you with job searching.

Effie

Feb 04， 2012

1. stringent：Stringent laws， rules， or conditions are very severe or are strictly controlled. (FORMAL)

2. sponsor：If an organization or an individual sponsors something such as an event or someone's training， they pay some or all of the expenses connected with it， often in order to get publicity for themselves.

3. priority：If something is a priority， it is the most important thing you have to do or deal with， or must be done or dealt with before everything else you have to do.

4. tuition：學(xué)費。

5. reimburse：If you reimburse someone for something， you pay them back the money that they have spent or lost because of it. (FORMAL)

6. UPenn：University of Pennsylvania，賓夕法尼亞大學(xué)，位于賓夕法尼亞州的費城，是美國一所著名的私立研究型大學(xué)，八所常青藤盟校之一。