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Prospects in US

claire08 said:
@alemitmee "A credit check for a job? Are you on another planet? "

The problem of credit, specifically credit history, is a large issue for new arrivals. It is actually common to have your record checked for many jobs, in addition to drug testing. It is also practically unavoidable nowadays to have your record checked when applying to rent an apartment, buy an insurance policy for a car, or get a mobile phone. Bad credit means refusal, or high deposits necessary, or unfavorable rates.

Now with tightening in credit it is even more difficult to get credit as a newcomer, and you are not considered to have a 'real' record for several years. So running into problems from having no credit history or bad credit history is a serious issue and a common one.
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I accept that drug testing and criminality background checks are the norm in the US, as they are in may EU countries, and have been subject to them my self in the US. But I have sourced various jobs in the US with out ever being a resident, and with no credit history. As a new immigrant you would have a low lending related credit score. You would also have no problematic prior credit issues as you are starting fresh, so there should be no reason that any credit reporting on an immigrant should flag anything like bankruptcy etc, no record is better then a bad record. I really find it very hard to believe that this can a genuine reason to be constantly turned down for jobs. US financial institutions offer ways and means for people to quickly build credit scores, these can easily be utilised by immigrants to the US, an immigrant that has been in the US two years should easily have built a moderate credit rating in that period, so I don’t buy it as an excuse for not getting hired. But I take your point that in the initial stages of relocation it can be a problem. That is why the US government makes sure that people have enough funding to cover them selves with they get there.
Saying all that, I honestly have not had a problem getting US job offers from Europe with out ever setting foot on a plane. If I ever manage to get this green card I would be doing my upmost to secure employment before I leave for the US, I may not get the job I want but this is can most definitely be done, at least with jobs in my industry.
 
good information

GotPR? said:
Companies are reluctant to use recruit agents due to hefly charge nowadays and companies may turn you down if agent asked too much money. It's no longer booming time and is buyer's market.
Applying through internet and waiting for call is one way but you never know when they call.

I know a lot of people in my industry and they hop company to company, but I found most of them did not just apply blindly. They usually apply through the friends so that they can get quick call back and also friends gives the hiring manager references.
Find friends who are in the same job segment and ask them to forward your resume to his/her boss.
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good information
 
oga

GotPR? said:
Well, I don't know why you are asking this question to me. I'm not the one who said I couldn't get the IT job and working at restaurant.
But, if you'd like know, here we go.



The best way to apply job is through friends who can forward your resume to their manager/director. If you send it to HR or through their homepage, you never know when they come back.
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pls with you experience you can suqqest d areas of specilization in IT that will be ok for fresh men to make qood leavinq
 
MODEST said:
pls with you experience you can suqqest d areas of specilization in IT that will be ok for fresh men to make qood leavinq
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Best IT area is SF bay area. There is a reason why it is called Silicon Valley, however, housing is horribly expensive.(but pay is a bit better than other area too).
 
I need Advice

I must say that this is a wonderful thread. and you guys are doing a very wonderful job here.
Please i will like to use this opportuinity to ask questions.
I had my computer hardware training in a private computer firm in the year 1999 and since then i have been working as a techinician both in repairs, LAN networking, I have Visat experience. and by the grace of God i will have my HND in computer sience come July 2008.
I have not taken any IT external exams like Cisco, MSCE, etc. but i have worked in many computer outfits, cybercafe maintaining systems and LAN networks, also doing Visat Trouble shouting.

Please as some one who is prepearing to move to US and hope to countinue in my area of specialization. what kind of advice can you guys who are into IT give me.
what and what do i have to do to enable me fit in so that i wont be raoming about in state looking for job till enternity. Because what Peng said has just made my heart to jump out from my mouth.
thanks my Able guys..

thanks so much.
 
I also work in IT. I have had my computer science degree since 2005 and have been working with online services for the last few years for the Government.

I been writing servlet and portlet based web applications using Rational Software Architect. I have taken dozens of IBM training courses from Java, Portlet development to Rational Build Forge and Rational Clear Case Administration. I have been working with the Spring framework using hibernate to access our reference databases and working with wsdl's to access our backend mainframe. We also use Maven to control our build life cycle and have strong experience with IBM Web Servers. I have to constantly battle environmental issues to get our apps deployed and tested properly.

I'm confident i'll find something in the US and am hoping this backround will serve me well. I generally perform strong in interviews and have high level technical knowledge, but also strong communication and interpersonal skills.

I'd be curious if 'alemitmee' knows how strong the demand is for theses skills.

Thanks
Andrew
 
Please allow me to share a bit of advise. First off, let me congratulate everyone that has recieved the chance to legally live and work in the US.

That said, you need to know that just because you have a GC doesn't mean life will be easy from now on. It takes time to establish yourself in the US and it could take the rest of your life to get there. You have to pay your dues to the system just like everyone else. Just take your time, one step at a time and one day at a time. It takes a lot of patience, a lot focus and a lot of HARD WORK. In the begining things will get really really hard before they get better and during those hard times you need to keep your head up and stay focused.

You read threads/posts from people that have gone the F1-H1-EB route to get their GC, talk to this people when you can because they understand what stragle means. It might take 10+ years to get your GC and spend more money than most people can imagine but yet these people fight on. This fight is for your children and grandchildren - always keep that in mind.

DO NOT expect instant success! You will start with nothing, know no one and have no money. But if you keep chasing that dream someday you might have it all. Someday success will be yours (or your kid's). And STAY OUT OF TROUBLE with the law!! Stay away from bad company (there's plenty of them in the immigrant community). Avoid getting sucked into schemes that offer you shortcuts to success - those are all myths.

Yeah..and another thing, you wonder where to settle in the US? I say start small. Start in a smaller and less expensive city/town then move up as you get finacially stable. Unless you are very well educated and have a ton of experience, start small employment-wise and move up until you know your way around your career industry. That shouldn't mean you should settle for less than you are worth, it just means don't expect too much too soon.

I could go on on on but by now am guessing you catch my drift.
 
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Good advice from Dematra. This is another objective and experienced piece for some of us who are still in brackets. I am torn between establishing in the UK as an academic working in a university (PhD) and seeking new roots in the US with a dv win. One will ponder over the various experiences being shared to make an informed and nongambled decision.
 
He there, I just spotted your post!

You have a very similar skill set to me actually. I would imagine that you will be able to get a decent job alright. Depending on experience the location you move to, but you could be looking at a salary of 55,000-70,000 USD if you have say 3/5 years experience.

As you know for IT jobs it will always come down to technical interviews. You will be quizzed by senior engineers and if you can “talk the talk” as it were you should be able to get a decent job offer.

Remember it takes years to get a technical skill set such as the one you have so use it to your advantage. I accept that the US economy is not doing great at the moment, so it may not be as easy as it has been to find a job. That said we get paid to do a job, a job that takes along time to train for, and I am confident that a genuine need for engineers will always remain through boom and bust times. It just may require a little more of a creative approach to job hunting, coupled with the flexibility to relocate to different states and cities.

Out of interest where are you from and when are you up for your interview?

If I can’t transfer to the US office of my company, or they don’t make me a decent offer I am planning to spend 2/3 months applying for jobs from here. It would be very easy to clear all the main technical interviews via the phone. Now I know this may not work out, but it can’t do any harm. I would advise you to do the same.
 
Hey 'alemitmee' im from Australia, i've already got my visa, had my interview in Nov 2007. So i'm heading over there in May to travel for 6 weeks, then i'll start looking for work in late June.

I'm going to start submitting my resume around to some recruitment firms in the next few weeks before i go and just say 'avaliable for interview after some date'. I'm not a big fan of phone interviews and don't really plan to submit any specific applications before i leave, but may think about that a bit more.

I'll start out looking in Minnesota and living with my brother so I wont be rushed to find a job, and i'm happy to move if need be, just looking for new experiences really. I figure if it takes longer than 6 months to find something i may just have to cut my losses and head back here, but am hopeful it won't come to that.
 
Quite some interesting contributions in this thread. Keep it up fulks!! It can be very annoying when one is condemned to stay at home for so long. I`ve been indoors in Ohio for 2 weeks now and cannot move a meter. There are no buses, i do not have a driver license yet (they say i cannot take the test untill i have a work permit-GC ). I just wonder how one can go about looking for a job. Worst still i belong to a sector which seemingly does not have much to offer in the job market here: teaching of french as a foreign language in secondary schools. I begin to wonder if one took the right decision by relocating here.
 
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ntumnui said:
Quite some interesting contributions in this thread. Keep it up fulks!! It can be very annoying when one is condemned to stay at home for so long. I`ve been indoors in Ohio for 2 weeks now and cannot move a meter. There are no buses, i do not have a driver license yet (they say i cannot take the test untill i have a work permit-GC ). I just wonder how one can go about looking for a job. Worst still i belong to a sector which seemingly does not have much to offer in the job market here: teaching of french as a foreign language in secondary schools. I begin to wonder if one took the right decision by relocating here.
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hahahah. I can imagine what you are going thru. I don't know where ur from, but if someone had told ya how hard it is to make a living here, u would have taught they were lying to ya. All you can do is sit at home and hope for the best. U don't have to have a car for you to get a job. Like u said, u are probably in a town that has no public or very limited public transportation and there's absolutely no other way to get around town but thru private car. Well, u can't buy a car until you can afford one which is by getting a job. Having a drivers license won't do you any good at this time cuz u don't have a car. u need to find the nearest department store or fast food restaurant and apply for job so that u can atleast start saving up.Yup, america is hard and there isn't an easy way around it.
You are thinking about teaching french in High School? Am sorry man, i don't see how thats going to work for you. Most kids here are hesistant about learning english let alone french. good luck with that.LOL:D
again, find a job thats in a walking distance and try not to be a couch potatoe like some of us already here for a while :D
You'll make it here , its just a matter of time and determination.
 
waaaaooooooooooooooooo

i am very happy that this thread is alive again with alot of insight and stuff,
the guy that teaches french, i think you should approach the teaching board in your area and find what aspect you can fit into when you write the board exams, i know of a friend in new jersey who studied igbo (a local nigerian language) and she teaches in high school now, i dont know the details of how she achieved that though

alot has been said about IT and i think they are very educative

i heard that mary land is an expensive state to leave in, can anyone compare maryland to some state, lets discuss
 
MODEST said:
i am very happy that this thread is alive again with alot of insight and stuff,
the guy that teaches french, i think you should approach the teaching board in your area and find what aspect you can fit into when you write the board exams, i know of a friend in new jersey who studied igbo (a local nigerian language) and she teaches in high school now, i dont know the details of how she achieved that though

alot has been said about IT and i think they are very educative

i heard that mary land is an expensive state to leave in, can anyone compare maryland to some state, lets discuss
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The east cost is more expensive to live at when compared to the south or Midwest.
 
confuse b/w marketing and hr

hi

Does anybody know which would make a better career in US?
I have a master in Management, Could you advice me on SAP software too?
are there many companies using SAP?

:)
 
Thanks a million Johnkent and Modest for your contributions.Especially at this time of absolute solitude finding there is someone listening to you and may be sympathising with you can be really really comforting.
Now that my training is not the best i wonder if you guys can think of some other profession when could relocate to and make it before life runs out of me? I mean some good stuff offering on the job training kind of. I am 40 already!!!
 
ntumnui said:
Thanks a million Johnkent and Modest for your contributions.Especially at this time of absolute solitude finding there is someone listening to you and may be sympathising with you can be really really comforting.
Now that my training is not the best i wonder if you guys can think of some other profession when could relocate to and make it before life runs out of me? I mean some good stuff offering on the job training kind of. I am 40 already!!!
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nursinq is one of d lucrative presently, so u may try practical nursinq dat could be fast and qet u quick job, or better still visit d teachinq board close to you and find out wat u can do, you should be able to teach at least one other subject aside from french,
 
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