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Facts to be known

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Princedriss

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Dear future new immigrant , here are some facts that you need to expect if you come to America as legal immigrant :

- If you do not have american degree , you will suffer to find a job in an office or corporation. Do not ever think that your diplomas from overseas will attract the recruiters , once they see any overseas degree , they will put you in second choice. My advise is that when you come to USA think about getting a degree even one year degree will be so much helpful than your overseas diplomas.

-If you do not have american degree or diploma you have 3 choices :

1- apply forever on the job website, and nobody will call, and if somebody calls , you will tell him about your life overseas , he will tell you : hey i ll call u later, and he will never call. Maybe if you get a chance and if he really likes you, you will be chosen.

2- You will wait so much for the corporate opportunity, but you decide to take any job, you will work in retail industry, in a store as cashier and even that in companies like walgreens or CVS you will be having a computer tests for 8 dollars per hour.

3- You have a connection you have a friend or family member who work in company, he can hook you up, you have better chance to get a job, here in the USA they love something called references. If you get referred you will be chosen even if you have a degree from Somalia. Connection and references are so important in America.

Solution ? if you come to USA , you have to find a small job that pays minimum wage, you will end up working pizza delivery or in a store, but remember , in order to improve your life in USA you MUST study and get a degree in USA.
 
Sorry but that is just plain twaddle. I have already been offered jobs in America with no American degrees...even before I was an LPR! I believe Britsimon has a similar experience. You absolutely cannot make such blanket statements. I know people with senior jobs in US firms who only have degrees from an African country.

However, if you do expect to just walk into the US and immediately find a job, you are likely to be in for a shock. The market is much more competitive and it is generally a lot more work to find a job than some people are used to. Perseverance.

Also when you say "recruiters" are you talking about in-company recruiters? Have you spoken to any of them to confirm what you claim? (No I thought not.) A hint would also be to spend time seeing how US companies like to read resumes and make sure yours highlights what you need.
 
I not only ave no American degree, I have NO degree. And somehow I earn 6 figure salaries and have made a very comfortable living in America. I work with about 30 Indian engineers, the vast aortic of whom were educated in India. I interviewed and hired a lady yesterday from India, again, no American degree.

Now, is it a good idea to get a USA degree - sure! But it snt always needed...
 
Princedriss is obviously posting from his(?) personal experience, however that is no ground to make generalized statements such as these.

Countless number of people are working in the US and earning mind-boggling income without having a single US degree. Now, if I'm not mistaken, I do seem to recollect the OP boasting back in 2013 about how easy adapting to life in the US will be for him because he has some US college degrees. This post certainly doesn't sound like such has been the case.

In addition to Susie's suggestion about how US companies like to read resumes, it's equally a very good idea to learn appropriate interviewing skills - don't go off tangent talking on and on about your life back in your country, no interviewer is interested in that.
 
Hmm mom thanks, I thought I had remembered princedriss saying that he had been to college in the US, but I wasn't going to spend time searching to verify that!
 
SusieQQQ said:
Hmm mom thanks, I thought I had remembered princedriss saying that he had been to college in the US, but I wasn't going to spend time searching to verify that!
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Yeah Susie, I didn't dig through old posts to confirm either. I just have this bad habit of letting some posts get stuck on my poor brain because of the effects they have on me when I read them :oops:
 
I never finished my university degree (Canada) and still managed to live and work comfortably for 2 and then 8 years in the US. I worked in the tech field and both companies I was at were full of foreign degree holders. Towards the end of the last company I was responsible for hiring and had no qualms with people with foreign degrees or even no degree. We found that many non-Americans were more focused and were happy to have them.

But I will admit that not having good English communication skills did cause us to pass over people, no matter how talented they were. This may put some non-English speakers at a disadvantage. But if you are willing to show your initiative, and continue to flesh out your English skills, then you should be fine.
 
I'm going to disagree with most of you guys. I think Princedriss has a valid point for many of the applicants.

I think British, South Africans, Canadians, Australians etc will have a different immigrant experience than most of the world due to English level and cultural similarity and you shouldn't use your anglo-immigrant experience as a comparison template.
 
I tend to disagree that one needs a degree in order to succeed in America. Having said that yes it might be important to get back to school once you get to the U.S if you want to expand your career options and hence step up in the career ladder which is nothing different to write about seeing as it is the same case wherever you are in America, Africa, Europe or even Asia
 
guestgulkan said:
I'm going to disagree with most of you guys. I think Princedriss has a valid point for many of the applicants.

I think British, South Africans, Canadians, Australians etc will have a different immigrant experience than most of the world due to English level and cultural similarity and you shouldn't use your anglo-immigrant experience as a comparison template.
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And that is exactly the point. The broad generalisations are the problem, including the one that says an American education is the solution to the problem.
 
guestgulkan said:
I'm going to disagree with most of you guys. I think Princedriss has a valid point for many of the applicants.

I think British, South Africans, Canadians, Australians etc will have a different immigrant experience than most of the world due to English level and cultural similarity and you shouldn't use your anglo-immigrant experience as a comparison template.
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But that is a point zuroma made - then it's not about where the degree is from but about speaking English. So his advice is off target in that case. It shouldn't be "you need to go to college in the US" ( which is a pretty pricey option) but "make sure you learn as much English as you can as fast as possible". I believe English for second language classes are widely available. It is going to be difficult to get a senior job - which normally requires a lot of communicating - if you are not reasonably fluent, no matter how many degrees you have or from where.

(Although he did also imply that if you have connections it doesn't matter...)
 
I am not talking about Canadian, British or Australian. I am talking about the big majority of the immigrants (Russians , hispanic, africans , arabs, turcs, asians...)

I have two american degrees , and I got pretty much comfortable job, I got this job after a lot of interviews, patience and connections. My experience overseas has really harm my resume, I spoke with many recruiters and HR managers , and they all say the same, american degree and experience are way more favored than overseas ones. Do not bother to speak a lot about your overseas experiences, most of them really do not care what you did.

About the English, this is primordial fact, if you do not speak English fluently , do not bother to apply for a corporate position unless you have high IT or science skills ( some Chinese are recruited in IT companies with 150K per year but they have so much difficulties to speak english)
 
Princedriss said:
I am not talking about Canadian, British or Australian. I am talking about the big majority of the immigrants (Russians , hispanic, africans , arabs, turcs, asians...)

I have two american degrees , and I got pretty much comfortable job, I got this job after a lot of interviews, patience and connections. My experience overseas has really harm my resume, I spoke with many recruiters and HR managers , and they all say the same, american degree and experience are way more favored than overseas ones. Do not bother to speak a lot about your overseas experiences, most of them really do not care what you did.

About the English, this is primordial fact, if you do not speak English fluently , do not bother to apply for a corporate position unless you have high IT or science skills ( some Chinese are recruited in IT companies with 150K per year but they have so much difficulties to speak english)
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So how does any of this actually tie up with what you said in your first post??? :confused: What you actually meant to say, it seems, is that it can take quite a lot of effort to find a job, especially if one has non-US experience, and one needs to persevere, and be patient, and that it will be especially difficult if you're not fluent in English. That is very different to "give up hope and take a minimum wage job while you get another degree".

(I'm from Africa by the way. There are a number of African countries where English is spoken. France & other continental European countries didn't take the whole continent.)
 
SusieQQQ said:
So how does any of this actually tie up with what you said in your first post??? :confused: What you actually meant to say, it seems, is that it can take quite a lot of effort to find a job, especially if one has non-US experience, and one needs to persevere, and be patient, and that it will be especially difficult if you're not fluent in English. That is very different to "give up hope and take a minimum wage job while you get another degree".

(I'm from Africa by the way. There are a number of African countries where English is spoken. France & other continental European countries didn't take the whole continent.)
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Well said Susie. I believe in helping people and not fear mongering. Generalized statements such as "If you do not have american degree , you will suffer to find a job in an office or corporation. Do not ever think that your diplomas from overseas will attract the recruiters , once they see any overseas degree , they will put you in second choice" are not helpful IMO!

I'm also from Africa, my spouse and I have used degrees obtained from schools back in my country to snag numerous mouth watering job offers both from Canada and the US!
 
Qualifications from outside the US are usually looked down - the only ones that are given reasonable acceptance are from Canada, the UK and Australia, and even then it's not guaranteed.

Beyond that, it's an uphill battle usually. This is why you find immigrants with PhDs and MBAs driving cabs in the US. Pretending otherwise is futile. We all know people who have succeeded in spite of that hurdle, but they are exceptions, not the norm.

This does not mean it's impossible to get a job with a qualification from outside those countries, like I pointed out in a thread I started on the old forum. It's possible to get a job with your Kenyan or Ghanaian degree, but it requires heavy networking and diligence, as well as a dose of luck. My own uncle, with a BS degree in Chemistry from Ethiopia, got a great researcher position in a chemicals manufacturer in the US, for instance. Another relative only had an Associate's Degree from Ethiopia when she got a permanent position at the World Bank (as local staff, which is different from international recruitment). It's certainly easier during economic boom times as well when labor is scarce. Both those relatives got those jobs during the late 90s boom.

When it comes to international experience, however, I'm going to have to disagree with the OP. Employers love seeing that. Granted, it may depend on your field, and how you sell that information will make a difference. But it's not a negative at all. That's why you have American students going on study abroad programs, for instance. It looks good on your resume for sure. They want people with international perspectives, considering how US companies heavily trade abroad.
 
I can live with the word "usually". Usually an uphill battle - yeah of course - moving to another country is hard, it will take hard work, sacrifice, adaptability, humility and a lot of luck. What you don't need is a defeatist attitude or to listen to incorrect blanket statements that cannot be backed up by facts.

Just remember you are responsible for your own future - act accordingly. Good luck to all.
 
Friends, Mom and I have decided to lock this thread. All points of view have been shared, and further posts would not say anything not already stated.

Princedriss glad to hear you at least are doing well - feel free to post other experiences if you feel they can be informative and helpful.
 
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