Finding a job after moving to US in IT Field

[redBlue 1]

For those of you who moved to U.S under K1/K3-IR-1/CR1 etc. and in IT field,were you guys able to find a decent job in your area without any problem?How long did it take to find a job?Did you find the job environment & office culture different than your own contry?

I'd love to hear some personal experiences.

[Krikit 1,165]

Hi Red. Moving your thread to the Moving to America forum. You'll find lots of threads in there on this topic. Good luck.

[TiffandDai 0]

It took my husband about three and a half years to find a job in IT that he really loves at a local University. I think it took so long because he had other jobs since he moved here on the K1 almost 5 years ago but they were very structured work places. Where as the place he works now is a extremely laid back atmosphere and they do not micro-manage their employees.

[redBlue 1]

thnx for replying..I think for us ,it will be depending on the city,specialty and the time as to how long it will take for us to find a job...

[WARPed 0]

For those of you who moved to U.S under K1/K3-IR-1/CR1 etc. and in IT field,were you guys able to find a decent job in your area without any problem?How long did it take to find a job?Did you find the job environment & office culture different than your own contry?

I'd love to hear some personal experiences.

I've been searching since Jan 13th and live in the Tampa Area of Florida. Applied for a ton of jobs, had 2 interviews and no offers. I'm well qualified and used to support the servers for one of the worlds largest banks in their London HQ. My experience right now is that 50% of the suitable jobs on offer demand Top Secret security clearance as only really government funded sectors are employing. I know that 50% of the local businesses are not in defence. it just seems that way due to who is hiring. I'm now starting to apply for helpdesk positions but the pay is abysmal. It is not a good time to move to the US and job hunt.

[luv2teach77 41]

I moved here in March of 2005 and didn't get my work authorization completed until late October. I applied for countless jobs through the usual job websites but had the most luck when I talked with a recruiter. I made contact with the recruiter in December (just before Christmas) and he out me in for 2 jobs which both interviewed me in the new year. I accepted an offer on one of those and have been here over 3 years now !! I really think it helped talking to a recruiter as he was able to explain to potential employers that my immigrant status didn't mean that it would be a gamble employing me. He was also able to explain my lack of work for the 10 months since I left the UK which cannot always be understood looking at job history in an online appication.

As for experience, i'd worked in IT operations for IBM back in the UK but was hired to do a job for which I had neither experience or skills (unix, backup and storage administration). I think an ability to show you're a quick learner is seen as valuable to many employers. I was worried about my lack of formal qualifications as well but was told by both the recruiter and my eventual employer that pieces of paper don't always mean that someone can manage outside of a classroom.

My suggestion would be to find a local recruiter who you feel will be able to represent your situation well to potential employers. Meet with him / her face to face and make sure you impress on them that you are not going to cost an employer money to hire you. I secured my job thanks to a recruiter from TEKsystems who have offices all over the country. In addition to applying for jobs they may have listed online, get one of their recruiters details and send them an email directly.

Good luck,

Mark

[scandal 951]

I moved here in March of 2005 and didn't get my work authorization completed until late October. I applied for countless jobs through the usual job websites but had the most luck when I talked with a recruiter. I made contact with the recruiter in December (just before Christmas) and he out me in for 2 jobs which both interviewed me in the new year. I accepted an offer on one of those and have been here over 3 years now !! I really think it helped talking to a recruiter as he was able to explain to potential employers that my immigrant status didn't mean that it would be a gamble employing me. He was also able to explain my lack of work for the 10 months since I left the UK which cannot always be understood looking at job history in an online appication.

As for experience, i'd worked in IT operations for IBM back in the UK but was hired to do a job for which I had neither experience or skills (unix, backup and storage administration). I think an ability to show you're a quick learner is seen as valuable to many employers. I was worried about my lack of formal qualifications as well but was told by both the recruiter and my eventual employer that pieces of paper don't always mean that someone can manage outside of a classroom.

My suggestion would be to find a local recruiter who you feel will be able to represent your situation well to potential employers. Meet with him / her face to face and make sure you impress on them that you are not going to cost an employer money to hire you. I secured my job thanks to a recruiter from TEKsystems who have offices all over the country. In addition to applying for jobs they may have listed online, get one of their recruiters details and send them an email directly.

Good luck,

Mark

I would concur with the previous poster that you should concentrate your search on high quality recruiters who are knowledgeable in your area of specialization (e.g. healthcare, finance, government, etc.)

It is a crappy economy and a lot of experienced and talented people are looking for work. However if you have skills that are in demand, and you can present them well, you should be able to find a job.

I am a US citizen with past work experience in the US, so my situation would not be directly comparable to that of an immigrant coming to the US and looking for a first position here. Nonetheless I do have some relevant recent experience. I had been living overseas for the past 5 years and moved back to the US in October, and began a job search at that time. I had several interviews throughout November and started a new job in Dec. in my field - I'm a Project Manager with a software background in the financial industry. Was this unusual? Lucky? Sure. But it wouldn't have happened without effort and organization. I used the job boards (mainly dice.com and careerbuilder.com) only insofar as they put me in touch with good recruiters. The actual interviews and job offers came through (a) me - hard work, experience, organized search, clean resume, etc. (b ) the recruiter - having the contacts in the industry, having a reputation that hiring firms trusted.

I can tell you that if you are a good programmer in an in-demand language (e.g. C++, Python, Perl, etc.) or a good admin (network, systems, DBA, etc.) there are lots of quality positions around. In particular, if you happen to be in the financial industry and have a background with real time market data systems, there is a definitely a shortage of good talent.

Good luck!

[Cecile and Bryan 0]

For those of you who moved to U.S under K1/K3-IR-1/CR1 etc. and in IT field,were you guys able to find a decent job in your area without any problem?How long did it take to find a job?Did you find the job environment & office culture different than your own contry?

I'd love to hear some personal experiences.

I've been searching since Jan 13th and live in the Tampa Area of Florida. Applied for a ton of jobs, had 2 interviews and no offers. I'm well qualified and used to support the servers for one of the worlds largest banks in their London HQ. My experience right now is that 50% of the suitable jobs on offer demand Top Secret security clearance as only really government funded sectors are employing. I know that 50% of the local businesses are not in defence. it just seems that way due to who is hiring. I'm now starting to apply for helpdesk positions but the pay is abysmal. It is not a good time to move to the US and job hunt.

Same here. I am in St. Louis, MO. I applied for lots of jobs since January, had 3 interviews with 'real' companies, and 4 or 5 interviews with recruiters but so far the recruiters haven't found anything good for me as I am entry-level. And of my 3 interviews I've had two negative answers.

It is very annoying to see all those jobs that demand Top secret security clearance.

I'm thinking of applying to other 'less good' jobs or even do something completely different but at this point I have no idea what to do.

[aidan80 9]

I came over here in 2005 and got my first job (there was delays with my GC) in late 2006. It wasn’t IT and I never actually did find an IT job over here. Although I was aiming for the trenches when I arrived as I was a tech back home. Over two years later am still with the same employer, promoted a few times and I do more technical tasks now which is nice. It’s just basic database stuff some general tech stuff and they’ve been good enough to train me in GIS which will come in very handy! All the while I’ve gone back and did a few courses as well to bring me up to spec as a tech over here and next as an admin.

Job market right now is terrible! I’m going to dig in and hold out where am at until things get better. Luckily I got hired by government before things got bad and I’m fairly certain we shouldn’t need to worry about being laid off. I’ve tried to make myself as needed as possible by deploying every skill I have in every area I could!

Good Luck!

[Cecile and Bryan 0]

Well, I just got lucky! I got a job, in IT! It took me 4 months, I pretty much stopped hoping and had started applying to every cashier job around here but that company I had an interview with a month ago finally called me back to say they wanted to hire me. So keep hope and keep trying!

[T_and_A 3]

I got my very first job interview here in US <and very first job> as an IT analyst, 3 days after I received my greencard. A week after they called me and gave a job offer, that was in Oct last year. They made me start Nov 3. Though it's not a perm position yet, I enjoy my job now. This is suppose to be my last week before my contract expires. Yesterday, I just found out that they extended my contract, though I am pregnant now, and have to get a time off, they still want me to come back after my baby is born. I just feel so lucky and grateful and thankful to God about all these.

I guess you really have to present yourself well when you get a chance for an interview especially now that there's a lot of competition and economy is really bad. Network with people and it will work wonders.

[redBlue 1]

I got my very first job interview here in US <and very first job> as an IT analyst, 3 days after I received my greencard. A week after they called me and gave a job offer, that was in Oct last year. They made me start Nov 3. Though it's not a perm position yet, I enjoy my job now. This is suppose to be my last week before my contract expires. Yesterday, I just found out that they extended my contract, though I am pregnant now, and have to get a time off, they still want me to come back after my baby is born. I just feel so lucky and grateful and thankful to God about all these.

I guess you really have to present yourself well when you get a chance for an interview especially now that there's a lot of competition and economy is really bad. Network with people and it will work wonders.

congrulations on ur pregnancy and thnx for the advice...

[DouglasFiel 53]

Couple of things... Get your resume out on Dice.Com... And make sure your resume says Authorized to Work In USA, And apply for Perm, Temp and Contract positions. If you are flexible the opportunities will present themselves.

Good Luck,

[aravis227 1]

My husband arrived in September of 2008, received his EAD in February of '09, and found a good-paying "IT" job within a couple of weeks...it was listed as IT at least. Once he started he found that the IT element was limited and he is primarily doing other types of non-tech related support. He's been looking for something else and was offered another good-paying IT job last week. He'll start there as soon as they finish the background checks. I would definitely recommend trying temp agencies in your area. A lot of companies just aren't hiring directly right now in order to cut costs (they don't have to pay benefits for "temp" employees). That's how my husband found his current job. His entire department is "temp" workers, but some of them have been there for more than a year. The company has no plans to let any of them go (unless they screw up, of course) so it's as stable and permanent as any other job. If he had only gone for direct hire positions he would have had a hard time getting anything other than an entry level position, but this was a way to get in at a higher level and allowed him to apply for other jobs and show a history of higher level work experience in the US.

[Dave and Helena 0]

The day after my GC interview I put my resume up on dice.com, monster.com and yahoo jobs. One week later I got a job offer and I started working the following Monday for a VOIP company.

I had a few things in my favor.

1) Having had a long distance relationship for years using VOIP the whole time I probably knew more about that technology than most.

2) They needed people who could test their service, what is better than having someone on the staff who wants to call abroad all the time?

3) I had EDS and Saab on my resume.

The differences I noticed compared to Sweden was:

- No 15 minute long coffee breaks in the morning and afternoon.

- No union to watch your back, make sure you get raises, more vacation etc.

- No more 4 weeks of continuous vacation in the summertime and 1 week in the winter. In general not enough time off.

- No extra pay for overtime.

- Getting laid off is way easier. My boss came in to my office, told me to take the rest of the afternoon off and there was no need to come back again. (I am now back working there as a hourly contractor).

This company is VERY different from "Corporate America". If you want to know what Corporate America is like. Watch "Office Space".