Navigating the waters from a college degree to an internship or job in the United States is fraught with obstacles for international students. Networking is often an alien concept. Informational interviews are rarely on the radar. A simple handshake after an interview is not an automatic response for all. Add to that the myriad of government regulations. International students have a difficult road, dealing with issues their domestic counterparts do not: adjusting to a new country’s norms and culture, learning new skills, and abiding by numerous regulations to find work upon graduation. Back home, many jobs are obtained through the extended family.
This workshop will be a panel discussion with three of our international alum who will be explaining the culture of their current organization and the steps they took to get into their current positions.
The panel discussion will focus on the following topics:
Balancing Expectations – managing the pressure to secure a job upon graduation
Teamwork Pays Off – working with career services
Overcoming Cultural Hurdles – students don’t need to change their culture in order to work in the U.S., but at the same time we have to talk about how things work differently here.
Enhancing Job Skills - The needs of international students—learning to write résumés, interview, and network “in the American way”— are very different from those of domestic students. In the United States, good interviewing and networking techniques are prerequisites for job seekers.
Panelists are:
Samiran Ghosh-Roy ’19 – Data Engineer/Machine Learning Engineer – UPMC Enterprises
Subhash Verghese ’01 – Vice President, HR Technology and Information Strategy - Comcast
Meredith “Yafei” Lou ’21 – Customer Engineer - Microsoft