Job Search Strategies for International Students

Good afternoon everyone. Hi. Just want to say welcome to the workshop. Hopefully everyone is here for Job Search Strategies for International Students. Is everyone in the right place? Okay, great. Let me introduce myself. My name is LaNighta Sales and I work in Career Services here on campus and I will also let my co-presenter introduce herself. Hi, my name is Amy Cockrell, I'm an international student advisor in the Office of International Student and Scholar Services. I'm sure I've seen many of you and I'm happy to see you here this evening. So, to give you guys a brief summary about what we're going to talk about today, we're going to talk a little bit about elevator pitches and we'll do a brief exercise where you can practice this. Then, we're also going to talk briefly about resume basics, so we won't go into great depth about your individual resumes, but we'll give you some starting points. Then, we'll also tell you some locations you can visit in case you want to meet with someone to talk a little more intently about your specific resume. We'll also talk about interviewing basics, the job search, as well as visa and work authorizations. So, first thing first: your elevator speech. How many people have heard about that? Some hands are going up, there's a few people that have not heard about them and that's fine. So, I'm going to pick on this young man right here in the front--can you tell me what an elevator speech is? Yes, that was a very good summary. What he said was your elevator speech is basically something you would utilize when you're introducing yourself to individuals. The reason we're talking about this right now and it's a timely topic is because Career Fair is in literally two days. Career Fair 2013 is on Wednesday, September 18. And one of the big things we will tell students to do is prepare an elevator speech because when you're at Career Fair, that is one of the first things you're going to do when you're introducing yourself to the employer. One of the things you want to think about to include, very much like this young man said, is your name, education, year, major, and related experience. Very much like he said, if you're networking and talking with an employer, you want to give them something that's going to describe who you are, what you do, as well as what you're looking for. So if you're looking for an internship experience, you want to indicate that in your elevator pitch or speech so they know that's where you're trying to direct that conversation. You can also use those at networking events, doesn't necessarily have to be at Career Fair where maybe you're meeting with an employer at an info session, or maybe you're out in the Oxford community and you run into someone that may have similar interests to you, you can introduce yourself that way and highlight some of your specific skills and qualities you possess that align with what that person has to offer. How many of you think you know how a good elevator speech will go? Do you want to see an example? Sure? Okay. LaNighta, let's give them an example. Okay, great. "LaNighta, it's nice to meet you, I'm an employer at Proctor & Gamble. I understand you're interested in potentially having a career with us." "You're right, Amy. Like Amy said, my name is LaNighta, I'm a senior marketing major here at Miami University. I've had an opportunity to do two internships over the past two summers where I was working specifically on market analysis and market research at various corporations. Many of the internships were smaller. I'm very much interested in continuing that exposure and I heard Proctor & Gamble has a great Research and Development Department and I would love for the opportunity to work there." "Well, LaNighta, I think there are definitely some experiences here that could match up to what we're hoping to do as a corporation." So, what do we think LaNighta did well? LaNighta gave her some basics--who she is, what she's majored in here at Miami, and some of the experiences she's had. What else? Confidence-- confidence can be key when meeting someone. She shook my hand, looked straight in my eyes and my face, and was engaging me on an individual level. She also did a great job connecting her experiences--concrete experiences--to what I'm looking for as an employer at Proctor & Gamble. She talked about things like research, so she researched the employer and knew what the employer might be looking for. So, we're going to challenge you guys for a little bit for a two-minute exercise to pair up with someone and practice an elevator pitch. So you can pair up with the person next to you, behind you, in front of you, we just want you guys to have one minute--because that's about as long as you would have, 30 seconds to a minute--to practice what you think your elevator pitch would sound like. And we're going to walk around and listen in. Thank you guys for participating in the elevator speech activity. The question I have for you all: how did you feel that went? Was it easy, hard, awkward? Why was it awkward? Directly in the eye--so if that's something you're not used to doing, it can be a little bit awkward. One of the tips I would give you is practice looking at yourself in the mirror. I know that seems weird, but that'll help you practice direct eye contact. Other comments? How many of you felt like you knew exactly what to say, what you would tell an employer now, that you'd be ready? How many people say "yes" by a show of hands? One person, and everyone else is "no"? Okay, so the benefit of having this workshop before Career Fair is it gives you an opportunity to know what you have to prepare. So if you know you're going to be introducing yourself to employers and you're having a little bit of difficulty figuring out exactly what you want to say and how you want to present yourself, now you know you need to go back and practice. And you can practice your elevator pitch, again, I recommend practicing in the mirror so you can look at yourself and practice that direct eye contact, practice with your roommate, practice with your friend. If you have a faculty member or close staff member on campus that you're really close with and you feel comfortable with, I would say practice with them so they can give you feedback, but definitely practice it so you can get used to saying it because you don't want it to seem rehearsed, you want it to be natural and that it's flowing because you should be that well-versed in your experiences to be able to speak about them. And saying it out loud, sometimes just saying it out loud helps engrain it in your mind, it sounds familiar, you know how you want to sound. So, you don't just want to say, "My name is Amy. I'm a student at Miami. I'm majoring in EnglishÉ" You want to sound confident and happy to be talking to someone and enthusiastic about the type of career or internship you're pursuing. So, emotions and inflections matter just as much as what you're saying, as well. So, we're going to slide over to talk a little bit about resumes. So the first tip we'll give you--and again, this is going to be basic information about resumes, not so much specific to your majors or fields you're looking to, this is just basic information any student can utilize when they're thinking about approaching resume writing. So, one tip we're going to give you is you're going to want to have a specific objective. For individuals that are familiar with resumes, you'll know and I'm going to jump to this really quick: there's four basic blocks of information included on every resume. Those four blocks are your name and contact information, career/job objective, and then your education or experience. And when it comes to that second block of information, which is your career/job objective, you want to make sure that is specific to every position you're applying for. In our resume guides, we do a very good method of showing you how you can actually target your objectives to a specific position or a field or company you're applying for. So for those of you getting prepared for Career Fair, I would tell you if you're looking at your top five companies, take your resumes and actually create five different resumes that have an objective that's specific to the internships or jobs you're looking for at those companies, and actually give that employer that resume that has the objective that has "seeking accounting internship position with Ernst & Young for summer 2013 where I can utilizeÉ" and list your top three skills. Now, when it comes to your top three skills, you want to make sure those skills are connected to the job description you're applying for or the internship you're applying for, and you want to make sure you actually possess those skills, okay? So, I would not say "I'm going to be utilizing analytical, communication, and organizational skills" if those are not skills I actually possess and they cannot be seen throughout my experiences listed on my resume. Make sense to everyone? So you want to make sure it's specific and targeted. Specialization is key. For example, when I receive resumes in my office--I work in a large field of international education--what I'm interested in is candidates who are interested in what I do specifically, which is work with international students. So, while this candidate may have experience in study abroad, what I want to know is do you have experience in specifically the area I'm looking at. So, it really impresses employers when you've done your research and you know what they're looking for, what their area specifically is. The other thing we would say is tailor action verbs as needed. And with that same statement, I'll say start each bullet statement with a strong action verb. So, each bullet statement you put under your experiences whether they be campus involvement, so if it's leadership experience, or work experience or even your internship experience should always start off with a strong action verb like "communicated," "addressed," "tutored," "mentored," "analyzed," "researched," "created," "developed." Those are examples of strong action verbs, and again, in our resume books we have a list of action verbs you would want to use when you are writing your resume. Now, action verbs denote, or communicate, some level of skill. You want to make sure you're picking the most appropriate action verb to talk about the experience that follows that bullet statement. The other thing is you want to provide quantities where you can. So make sure you quantify numbers with percentages, dollar amounts, data. So, if a student said "I managed a budget," that sounds nice, but if they can say, "I managed a $5,000 budget," that gives the employer or person reading it more context as to how much work and value went into their work when they were managing that budget. So, quantities definitely add value to your experiences listed on your resume. The other thing is you want to highlight the most important experiences first. So, although we have that block of information--contact information, objective, education--most of the time those three will always stay in that order. Contact information, objective, education. However, when you get to your work experience, leadership involvement, as well as maybe relevant accounting experience or finance experience, or relevant volunteer experience, those categories can be adjusted based off of what experiences is going to be most connected to your job that you're applying for or the purpose of your resumes. Rule of thumb we always tell students: employers read from top to bottom, left to right, so the higher you have your relevant experience, the more likely those experiences will be viewed by employers. So, you may have to, when you're reviewing your resume, adjust and move your volunteer experience up if you're applying for a job that's really heavy on volunteer experience and you've had significant volunteer experience that would really communicate the skill and the value you would bring to that job or internship experience. One suggestion might be to create a master resume that lists all the experiences you've had, but then when you're applying to specific internships or jobs, pull from that master resume into something that's more targeted and more specialized for the position you are applying for at that company. So, again, having a list of all the things you've done, but then making something that's specific for what you're applying for and really customizing it. And that's something that if you meet with anyone over in Career Services, whether it be a Career Assistant or Career Advisor, that's something that we recommend students do. We recommend you have a master resume and then pull and tailor your individual resumes based off of the internships and jobs you are applying for. So, you really want to put forth that extra effort; I know you might be looking at me like "LaNighta, that is a lot of work," but you really want to put forth that extra effort because your resume is one avenue they're going to use to get you to the interview and if your resume does not connect you with that job or internship, they're not going to think you're qualified for the position they're recruiting for. So, it's important to do that extra work. One of the questions we often get is "I'm an international student, what should I be putting on my resume that's related to being an international student?" One thing we want to stress is you are real assets to companies and organizations. You have a lot to offer as an international student. We really urge that you highlight your pertinent work experience in the U.S. as well as outside the U.S. So, if you've had an internship at home or a great volunteer experience at home that really connects to what you're applying to do here in the U.S., please do include it. That may be the thing that stands out to the employer that makes them want to know more about you. We also urge you to emphasize accomplishments, not just experience. This goes back to giving concrete examples, what LaNighta was saying. For example, me saying "I've worked with student organizations in the past"--that's nice, that's very broad, that's not very specific. What did I accomplish with this student organization? What did I do with them? Well, we coordinated a major program that had X amount of attendees and resulted in X actions. This gives concretes, this gives context, and now suddenly the employer can relate to the experiences you are giving them. So, again, concrete experiences, accomplishments, positive things you have done in various roles as students, employees, volunteers here at Miami. We would also want to encourage you to not include things like TOEFL scores; this is not something you need to put in your resumes. It is assumed you have English proficiency, you have been students in the U.S., not even something you need to consider putting in your resume. Another question we sometimes get is "What about my status;" I'm an F-1 student or J-1 student. Again, this is not something that needs to be in your resume. A resume is when an employer is just looking through applications trying to find individuals that interest them that they want to interview. So, you will have an opportunity, if selected, to talk about those things later. Okay, so not at this point in the job search. We would always encourage you to put your U.S. contact information versus your home address in your home country because they're probably not going to call home to Ghana if you're from Ghana or another foreign country, okay? They want to know where you are in the U.S. and you probably do have a U.S. address you can provide, so again, I would really urge that. I would also urge using an email address that is professional. So, I would probably be using my Miami email address to be honest because it's professional, it's your name. I wouldn't put my email address if it's smiley123@hotmail.com. It's not a bad email address, but it's not necessarily projecting the professional image I want to give to the employer. So, think about those things a little bit, those things you're putting on your resume. Another thing we want to urge is DO include your fluency in other languages. It is one of the biggest things you can bring to an employer. Many of you obviously speak two languages, maybe speak three, maybe speak more, and you can indicate your various levels--fluent in this, proficient in this, beginner in this. It's okay because if you've studied other languages and you do have some experiences, please share that with the employer. A lot of companies, their transnational, multinational and they're looking for individuals who can do that, who can work in various environments. And finally, always check your spelling, grammar, use of language. That's just a good habit for anyone when writing a resume--get a second opinion. Have another person look at it. Personally, I urge that you use Career Services. They are happy to look at your resume and review it with you. That is so crucial because if you've been staring at it and you miss that one typo, guess whatÉ I guarantee that when the employer is looking through the resumes, that typo is just going to stand out at them, so you really want to catch those things before you submit your resume to the employer. Another thing we want to talk about is the resume versus the CV. How many of you know what a CV is? Okay, I see some hands. How many have CVs? Anyone? Okay, so CV is basically the international equivalent to the resume. It is the more common format accepted in other countries. And the reason we want to highlight that is, do not submit your CV to a U.S. employer. It's a very different format and it's really not the accepted format in the U.S. Some of the big differences is that a resume tends to be extremely concise, to-the-point, bulleted. There's no extras--versus a CV is much more detailed, provides more detail about what you've done as a student, as a professional, as an individual sometimes, and your resume is not going to allow you room for that. Really with a resume you only want to highlight relevant experience. It goes back to having a master resume. But when you're applying, you don't submit the master resume, you submit the focused, specialized resume. Versus a CV is a more comprehensive, holistic portrait of who you are, again, as a professional. So it's a very different format. The resume can be kind of assertive. It's the one time I would say it's okay to brag about yourself. You want to brag about yourself in a resume, so it can seem assertive, maybe even a little bit aggressive sometimes when you're reading through this, "I did this, I did that," but, again, you want to make yourself stand out as an individual to the employer versus the CV I think isn't quite so assertive; maybe a little more modest. You really don't give a lot of personal information in a resume, so you have your objective, you have who you are, but you're not really going to share who you are as a person, that I like to go do these things or what I'm doing in my down time, how it might connect. It's really about your educational experience, your professional experience, and any volunteer work you may have that might connect to this position. And, again, a CV provides a much more comprehensive picture of who you are as an individual. So, they're very different and what we want to stress is you want to submit resumes to U.S. employers. The other thing I want to stress is length; a CV is much longer than a resume. Your resume--how long is your resume? Can I get a poll? How many have 2-page resumes? How many people have 3-page resumes? I see one that is maybe going up. So, to be very honest with you, none of you should have 3-page resumes. I'm not even sure you should have a 2-page resume necessarily. You really want to look at what you have on your resume. As students, you really want to have it down to the bare bones of what's relevant to the position because an employer receives potentially hundreds of applications for one job, so when they're looking through, they're looking at those first couple of things and they may reject you if they see you have a resume that just goes on and on and on. They want to know what you bring to this specific position. So, working with Career Services to make sure your resume really addresses that, is specific, matches the context of the application and the job is really crucial. So, sometimes it is possible to have too long of a resume. To add a caveat to Amy, the only acceptable way you could have a 2-page resume is if you are a Master's student. There is a rule, one page per degree, so if you have your undergraduate and graduate degree, it would be acceptable for you to have a 2-page resume. Also, there some instances, teacher education majors, as well as KNH majors, students that may be in the SLAM major, they can also have some longer resumes, but you are going to want to stick with that one-page resume. Moving on to interviewing tips, we're going to talk really briefly about that. So, when you're in the process of preparing for an interview, one of the big things you're going to want to do is research. And the research is going to come from two angles: researching about yourself and researching about the company. So, the next line says Know Your Story. In order for you to be successful in an interview, you have got to know your story. So, you need to know about your experiences; you need to understand your majors, your minors, how they all connect; you need to be able to articulate your experiences, be able to bring in concrete examples from your experiences whether they be from internships, practical in-class experience, volunteer experience, but you need to know your story. You really need to get a strong sense of all of who you are, what values and skills and abilities you have and how you're bringing those to the table because you need to be able to articulate this to the employer and connect the dots for them. Reflection is something you'll hear us talk about commonly. You'll definitely need to take that time to reflect on your experience. So, if you are Resident Assistant, you're going to want to think beyond just the tasks and responsibilities you were given in that job, and you're going to want to think about what did I accomplish there, what are examples I can pull from when I'm answering these interview questions that would give them concrete examples of when I dealt with a difficult student or how I worked on a team or how I performed certain tasks and responsibilities to organize and plan an event. So, those are definitely things you're going to want to think about when knowing your story. I want to interject now and say you can be doing this now. Even if you weren't interviewing for an employer, this is something I do still, as a professional now--and I do have a job--but there's certain scenarios that every employer is always going to be interested or organizations you're applying to, so you can say "Wow, that was a really tough situation I just dealt with. This would make a great example later if I'm asked about this type of question," or "Wow, I just did a great team activity. This is a perfect example to share with such-and-such organization." So, it's something you can be doing during your entire four or six or however many years at Miami, it's not something you have to wait until senior year to be working on; you can be doing it now. So, we kind of eluded to it and Amy did a nice segway into behavioral interviewing. One big thing about behavioral interviewing is they'll be asking you to tell them about times where you performed certain tasks. An example would be "Tell me about a time when you worked with a difficult client." One of the things you would want to think about is--you might think to yourself "I have no experience working with a client or a customer." So, you would want to translate that to a relevant experience to you; that might be "Tell me about a time when you worked with a difficult classmate or faculty member or volunteer," so that is now relevant to the particular question they're asking you. And when you're answering that question, you want to use what we call the CAR Method, and that stands for Context, Actions taken, and Results. And you want to take the time to actually talk about the context of that situation. You don't want to make it too lengthy, but you want to give them a little bit of background about what happened in regards to that situation. Then, you want to go into the actions taken. The actions taken part is really important because this is when you're really going to, again, highlight how you handled the situation. So, even if it was a team effort, you want to focus on what did you do, what were your exact actions in that particular situation when you were handling it. Then, you want to talk about the results. Did it end positively? Was the client satisfied? Were you able to come to some form of agreement in how you were going to move forward? Was the project received well by your faculty member? Whatever the results are, you want to include that at the end so they know how the situation ended. The other thing is, when you're preparing for interviews, you want to have questions for the interviewer. So, researching the company is where you can develop a lot of those questions. Another way is we do have an interview guide with typical questions you can ask, but I would challenge you to think beyond those typical questions. When you're researching the company, think about what you specifically want to know about it. So, if you're really concerned with working at a company with a specific work environment, then ask them questions that's going to get them talking about the work environment you're going to be working at. Am I going to be working in small cubicles, is this a lot of teamwork, is this a lot of solo work--ask them a lot of questions that's going to give you more insight so you can make an informed decision. When you interview, one of the tips you need to remember is they're not just interviewing you, you're interviewing them, as well. So you are trying to determine if this is a good fit for you. So you want to ask questions, and they expect for you to ask questions, so you definitely want to come prepared with some questions for the interviewers. The other thing about interviewing tips we'll highlight that you may experience as an international student, there may be some unique challenges, so there will be some differences in cultural attitudes and behaviors that you may also have to navigate. The language fluency might also be an issue. One thing I'll recommend to international students I work with is, as hard as you can, try to engage in conversations with your English-speaking classmates, roommates, friends, so you can really start to develop a knowledge of the English language if that's an area you are struggling in because the more you are able to speak the English language, the easier it is for you to be able to communicate to these English-speaking employers your skills and your values. The other things are contextualizing relevant aspects of background at home that may be unfamiliar to the employer. Like Amy said, you all are bringing in a diverse level of experiences. Do not negate that or diminish that when you are talking to the employer, but what you want to challenge yourself to do is think about how did that experience I may have had in my home country now relevant to what I'm applying for. This goes back to that reflection piece that needs to come in, reflecting about how can I pull out specific examples from those experiences that will then make it relevant to the employers. The other thing is immigration status. This is a very common question that we get--uncertainty about when or how to present the status to the employer. That's a question we get oftentimes, so what we tell them is that's not something you automatically have to bring up. So, it's not something you have to go into the interview and be prepared to say "I'm legally able to work in the United States." That's something that you can wait until they ask you that question if you don't feel comfortable presenting it yourself, then you can state that fact, "I am legally eligible to work in the United States," and that's kind of how you would want to phrase it, right Amy? Yes, usually the question is phrased "Are you eligible to work in the U.S.?" Legally, they can only ask you so much about this, so usually how they'll phrase it is "Are you eligible to work in the U.S. should you accept this position?" I would encourage you to say "I am eligible to apply for work authorization" because usually you are, provided this position is related to your major or field of study, and I'll go into that a little more, a few more slides. Another thing we wanted to talk about, and we touched on this with the elevator interview, is communication, and how communication is a product of a culture and it varies culture to culture. So, one of you remarked about how the direct eye contact felt a little awkward and that is very true if you're staring at them very focused that may feel a little strange, but it's actually something quite essential to be doing at an interview in the U.S. because it shows you're engaged and interested in what they're saying. If you weren't making direct eye contact, they could think a couple of things. In the U.S., they could be thinking they're shy, they're not looking at me; it could be that they feel like you're just not that interested. If you're staring off, like you're just not interested in me or what I'm telling you. Again, really crucial, direct eye contact when interviewing or when at an elevator speech at Career Fair, anytime you're engaging one-on-one with an employer. Also, the firm hand shake. This is funny because people say "What if it's too firm or not firm enough?" LaNighta, let's show a not very good handshake. Very loose, right? So what does that convey to the employer? Does it convey anything, you think? If someone shook your hand like that, what would you think of them? Chaotic. "Are you kidding me?" Not serious. Okay. What if I go up to LaNighta and say "It's so nice to meet you, it's so great to meet you!" What did that convey? Pain? It conveyed pain a little bit, potentially, if I was squeezing her hand too hard. A hand shake, what you want it to convey is confidence, again, connecting with the employer one-on-one. It might be silly, but it's something you might want to practice sometime, just making sure you're not squeezing their hand off, but also that you're not very loose. Just a confident, easy hand shake, okay, it does matter. It would be notable to them if it were that way. Another thing is just that proactive role in the interview. One of the things that can happen sometimes is you go to the interview and they're asking you questions and you answer the questions, but you don't maybe engage back with them. So, it goes back to what LaNighta was saying about being prepared to ask questions. Maybe reacting to what they're saying, okay, so be there, be present at that interview. So when they say something and you think it's funny, it's okay to laugh, maybe it's showing you have a sense of humor. If they say something and you want to know more about what they're saying, it might be okay to ask a question, saying "Well, you just remarked on how flood research in the company connects to how the Mississippi River is doing these things, I'm really interested in this. Could you talk about it more?" It shows you're listening to what they're saying. So, an interview is not necessarily a passive experience where you just sit in a chair and you feel like you're getting--we use a different word in the U.S.--"grilled," so someone's just coming at you with questions and you don't get a chance to respond back. It really is a conversation. You should treat it that way. Also, just the value of being able to articulate answers quickly. This is one of the things I feel like can be very tough for anyone, for our students or anyone. So, someone asks you a question and you're thinking "Oh no. I don't have an answer to that. Oh no, what am I going to say?" This goes back again to practicing and what LaNighta was talking about and being prepared for some of the questions you're going to get. There are certain behavioral questions that almost every interviewer is going to ask or potentially ask. If you go to Career Services, they'll have a list of those questions. Prepare in advance. I cannot begin to stress that enough. What you can do is literally take those questions and go through and identify experiences that connect to that. So, study for the interview like you would study for a test at Miami. I actually did this. This is exactly what I did. I took a series of 100 questions when I was a student and I went through and tried to identify experiences that I felt connected to those questions. And guess what, I was definitely asked some of those questions. And because I had prepared, I didn't have that stumbling moment where I thought "Oh no, I don't know what to say." I'd already thought about this, so it was easy for me to continue with the interview and not get stuck. Another thing I would urge you to consider using if you do get worried or just don't know how to answer or it's something you didn't prepare for, it's okay to ask clarifying questions, it's okay to take a moment to pause. So, don't feel so on the spot that you can't take that moment. I think the difference is having long pauses where nothing is being said. So, sometimes you can rephrase the question so what you're asking is how this connects to this, well what I think isÉ So, sometimes that can give you that couple seconds to think about it. Or, if you're not sure you understood the question correctly, it's okay to ask. I think it's better to answer the question properly than make up something because you didn't even know what was being asked. But practicing is really the best way to ensure you're prepared and you're feeling confident and comfortable in the interview. Those long periods of silence, I talked about that. That will be notable to an employer if you kind of sit there and don't answer that question or don't address it, and it seems so easy, but an interview can be difficult. It doesn't feel natural and the only way it's going to feel natural is if you do practice with someone, with someone in Career Services, with your roommate, your best friend, yourself in the mirror, whatever you have to do. I once had a student tell me--and this worked for them--they actually recorded themselves answering questions then they listened to themselves, how they sounded, how natural they sounded, what it looked like and that's how they learned. So, there's lots of options to practice this in advance. It's okay to be working on this now. You don't have to wait until the day of the interview and suddenly feel on the spot. So, again, we want to talk about marketing yourself as an international student in U.S. culture. If there's one thing my students have repeatedly told me, it's that in the U.S. we are very focused on the individual. That is just one of the cultural products of the U.S. So, very much when you're interviewing, you're going to talk about your individual experience, your individual accomplishments. You're not necessarily going to talk about what your peers at Miami have done. It's really about you and it can be a little uncomfortable sometimes potentially focusing so much on yourself, especially when you know other people have contributed to your success. You do want to, in this case with your resume and interview, you want to take credit for what you've accomplished here at Miami and in your life and the experiences you've had. You do want to show how you've solved problems or made this project happen or helped with this presentation. You want to show what you have done as an individual. It's not to say you don't respect the others who have helped you, but it's important to take credit at this time. You can't rely on your academic and professional experience alone. So, this is key. Employers receive lots and lots of resumes and if this resume and that resume both say Bachelor's in Finance and they both had internships, what's going to make them pick one resume over the other? It's going to be you: who you are as an individual, what you bring to the puzzle that no one else can bring. So, figuring out why you are the best candidate for this position. You're going to Career Fair and you're talking them--if everyone in this room says I'm so-and-so and I'm majoring in such-and-such, I want to work in this, that's a good elevator speech, that's a great start, but what is something you can say that maybe no one else can say in this room? Or, very few people at least. What is it that you can bring to this company that no one else can? Intrigue them, pull them in with your answers, with who you are as an individual. They'll be interested. Alright, so, selling yourself as an international student: we talked about how you're multi-lingual, you have a global perspective--this is really crucial. You have lived in multiple countries, you understand other ways of life. And that may seem so obvious to you, but trust me, there are people who don't because they haven't had that opportunity to go to other places. So you can really bring in a dynamic to a conversation that someone else can't. If you're talking about a project the company has worked on and it happened in your home country, what that meant, what that is, you can bring that into the conversation. So stressing your global perspective on things is a great way to show your resources as an international student. Inter-cultural competency: the ability to interact with people from diverse backgrounds--crucial in the employer working environment, that flexibility, that adaptability. All employers want that. Resourcefulness: I want to bring this up. You have been so resourceful coming to a foreign country, for many of you, as 18-year-olds on your own for the first time. You have come to a probably a completely foreign place, I doubt many of you have not been to Ohio first, and you did all of this on your own. We may have picked you up from the airport, we're certainly here at Miami, but you have done so much on your own as individuals, as adults, and it's really admirable. So I think you can show as an international student how resourceful you had to be as adults, as students really taking a lot of autonomy from a young age. Determined: I want to stress again, clearly you are determined by taking all of these steps to get the degree you want. You've gone above and beyond to achieve your goals and accomplishments. And finally, willingness to relocate: this sounds so simple, but it's kind of crucial because a lot of students when they're structuring their job search want to stay in a specific region because of family, because of other ties to an area. You can be flexible as an international student. I'm not saying you want to go live in Iowa City, Iowa, I'm not saying it's your top 10 spot, but you have the ability to do it. And maybe the willingness, if you want the job enough, to try to take that chance. So, again, I want to urge your flexibility in relocating can be really appealing to employers because some U.S. students will not do that. What I'm going to jump to now is work authorization. This is one of the most--this is the big question I get, and this is really where I want to stress that the Office of International Student and Scholar Services is your resource. Please come to us if you have questions about work authorization. So, people ask "How can I work? I'm an international student. Can't I work in the U.S.?" And the answer is yes, with work authorization. At present, none of you probably have that, other than on campus. You do not have the ability to work off-campus. So what happens if you go to Career Fair this week and you get this tremendous opportunity next summer to do an internship in New York City with such-and-such firm. The answer is you apply for work authorization with our office, specifically what you'd apply for is CPT, or Curricular Practical Training. That word, practical training, that's key with our work authorization. It has to be directly related to your major. That is the only way you can receive work authorization, so I really urge you when structuring your job search or internship, you really need to look at things connected to what you're studying at Miami. And I want to stress your major--you cannot get work authorization for your minor or concentration. It has to be connected to the major you have here at Miami. To pursue the CPT authorization, you have to actually be enrolled in a course for academic credit--we would help you with that; don't let that be an obstacle or barrier. There's no fee for CPT, so that is nice. It's actually just processed by my office, the Office of International Student and Scholar Services, so that means we process it relatively quickly, a week or two weeks. So, you just come to us, we give you the application materials, usually it's an application form. We would want to see the offer letter from the employer, we'd need some support from your academic division, you enroll in the class, and then we can give you the authorization. The most common time for students to have CPT tends to be summer because that's when you have the flexibility to be doing these internships. It's a little more difficult during the semester--not impossible--but you are required to be enrolled full-time at Miami in fall and spring, so generally internships would have to be in this geographic area. But in the summer you have the flexibility to go other places, and this authorization can be for anywhere in the U.S. Now, CPT is really for students who have not earned their degree, so what happens if you're about to earn your degree. What's your option? That's called OPT, Optional Practical Training. That, again, you hear that word practical training. So, this is for students just finishing their degree, so if you're finishing here in the fall, now's a good time to be thinking about OPT because you could actually apply now. It is related to your major/field of study, so I want to stress, when you're looking for jobs or internships, don't look for things that are not related to your major. They're not options; we can't give you authorization for that. The U.S. government doesn't let us. But if you are interested in working in the U.S. after graduation, you can apply for OPT. There is an application fee of $380. That is the government charge for it. It's not for us, it's not Miami University's charge. When you apply for OPT, you're actually applying to the government versus our office and they do require this application fee of $380. You can apply up to 90 days before graduation or completion of studies, and if you're finishing in December, as of this week you could be applying. It's not necessarily too early, it would be alright. It's processed by the government, specifically USCIS and it takes a long time--two to three months. I usually tell students plan for three months and be happy if it's less time. They're not fast, the government. One of the key things to know about OPT is you cannot begin working until you have the authorization. So, it's not just the act of applying, you really do have to wait to receive the authorization and that's why planning ahead in your timeline is very crucial. If you're finishing here in spring, I would say you need to be thinking about OPT as early as February, which may feel very early to you, but because it takes so much time to get it, you really want to be thinking about when you want to apply early rather than at the end and you're like "Oh no, now I have a job, but I want authorization and I have to wait two to three months to get it." You cannot accrue more than 90 days unemployment on OPT, so that's one of the big things that's really stressful for a lot of students, and that's why, again, the application and the timing of it can be very crucial. The days of unemployment do not begin until you have the authorization, so it wouldn't start from applying now. If you're finishing here in December and you apply with me tomorrow, your days of unemployment do not start yet. That clock does not start until your OPT begins, which is after you finish your studies. But it is something we can talk more about in my office or at the OPT information session. OPT can be extended. One question we get is how long is OPT. It is 12 months, so one year. But if you are majoring in a STEM field, which is science, technology, engineering, or math, you may be eligible for an additional 17-month extension, so that's a big thing to know about if you think your major falls in one of those areas, please be talking to us, we're happy to verify that for you. That could make you more interesting to the employer--they wouldn't get you for just a year, they could get you for another 17 months on top of that. That's a long period of time. There is no cost or paperwork for the employer when filing for the OPT. So, there's nothing the employer has to do. You don't even have to have an offer to apply for OPT, so that can be appealing to employers. OPT is often used as a bridge to other statuses, and I'll go into that in just a moment. One thing I want to stress is if you're interested in applying for OPT, please come to one of our information sessions like the one next week. We do it on a monthly basis, and please please visit our website. We have a very good website on OPT because it is a complicated process. If you have further questions, do not hesitate to make appointments with us. We're happy to help you. So the question we get is "OPT is only 12 months. What do I do after that?" This goes into the issue of sponsorship, which you may have heard about. Employers have to sponsor. Usually, the most common type is called H-1B. Often an employer might use OPT as a bridge to another status. H-1B is a working visa. It is something you cannot apply for on your own--your employer must sponsor you. H-1B's timing is tricky. The fiscal year usually begins October 1, that means employers actually helped their individual employees file for this back on April 1, and if it's approved, actually isn't going to start until October. So, again, that's why OPT can be a helpful in-between status. That's why the timing of that is so tricky. There's a limited number of H's available so you may have heard about that, heard about lotteries, people getting rejected. It's why if employers are going to sponsor you, they're really going to try to hit that April 1 date. I will say that not everyone is subject to that April 1 date or cap. If you are working, for example, for a university, you're likely not subject. But most corporations--I'll use the Ernst & Young example--they would definitely be subject to the cap, to the various dates. So, you'll see employers interested in certain timelines. We really don't do a lot of H-1B advising in our office because we don't sponsor H's, we don't file for them in our specific office, but we're happy to talk about broad, general outlines about it, but it's something that should you get an offer of employment later, to talk about it with the employer because they're the ones who would file it, they have a lawyer who will have very specific ways they want to pursue that. H's are usually granted for 3 years and then renewable for another 3. Usually the next step after that is permanent residency, what's known as a green card. Again, I want to urge you if you have questions about work authorization, and specifically about CPT or OPT in particular, we can help you with these things. So, as you're looking for jobs and wondering what to say to employers about that, or if you get an opportunity, please come talk to us. We're happy to guide you through the application process. We do have 2 other additional fairs--Spring ICE that will be February 4th this year and it will be approximately from 2-6. And we have our Teacher Job Fair that will be in March. The other thing I want to keep you guys mindful of is our web page is the best place to get the most updated information about fairs and opportunities that we have because we do have virtual fairs and virtual fairs for architecture and art majors, so keep an eye on our website to get the most updated information as to when those fairs will be offered. Additionally, we will be having a basic interviewing workshop that will be following this directly at 7:00, so in a half hour. And then we have some resources. So after this workshop, tomorrow morning you'll receive an email from CareerLink--you're not going to want to delete it--and it's going to give you a copy of this PowerPoint, as well as 2 other attachments. One of the attachments will be a list called Website Resources for International Students and it'll give you a lot more website resources you can utilize to help with your job search process, and it'll have a list of historically-known companies that will sponsor H-1 visas. So, I want to emphasize that they're historically known to have sponsored H-1 visas, it does not necessarily mean they are still sponsoring them, but in the past they have. The other resource we want to bring to your attention is something called Going Global. This can be accessed through our web page. It has a variety of resources available for international students, as well as domestic students interested in getting jobs internationally. If you access the country guides at the top, they will be a great resource for you, as well as the U.S./Canada city guides because these guides will give you the opportunity to look at different cities and states. You can click on the city or state you might be interested in and they'll have a lot of other resources. They typically will have a listing of top companies, so they will give you a listing of H-1B visa companies in their area. This will also be a great resource for you in your job search. This, again, can be accessed on Career Services' website. Lastly, I'm going to show you our contact information. As Amy said, she works in the Office of International Student and Scholar Services and I work in the office of Career Services if you want to get in contact with us, our information will be on the presentation slide that I will send to you. Like I said, I will also send you historically-known to have sponsored H-1 visas that will be attending Career Fair, as well as websites for additional resources for international students. And we do want to thank you for being here. I want to stress what LaNighta said that unfortunately you will encounter employers who are not willing to hire international students, specifically because they won't sponsor, and I understand that's very discouraging. I just want to urge you to persist. Every year, I have students who do find careers or jobs or great experiences that are going to help them when they return home, so keep trying, it can work out, and using the resources LaNighta and I talked about which is these websites that give you great research, the list of employers she's going to give you that historically have potentially hired international. Do your research and you can really do a targeted search and hopefully you will find employers that are internationally-friendly.