Do employers discriminate against immigrants?

[Tac05 3]

Keep your chin up! I've been here a few days short of a month, and have been applying everyday to whatever I thought I would be able to do, not necessarily in the field I'm qualified in. I'm qualified in Childcare/Youth work, but was having no luck in that field either. And everyday I was getting rejection emails. I was starting to hate it, going insane because I wasn't doing anything. Until Monday, I received a call, pretty much had a phone interview, where we discussed my qualifications and experience, she said to me that my qualifications will have to be converted over, but after that I got a face to face interview and was hired. I start Monday.

I spoke to a recruiting agency that had jobs going in my qualified fields and was told that they would be able to find me temp work, which I was going to do. You have some great suggestions here, and all I can add is stay positive, and just keep applying. Things will come your way. I wish you all the best of luck ?

[junaidjackie2016 10]

Marrienne, the above is all good advice.

Here's something that almost no other job-interested person is doing:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/449151-the-steveandtiff-stupremacy/?p=6471637

You can set yourself apart from almost every other person out there.

Awesome advice and as a career advisor, I approve. The challenge for many is the idea of networking, getting yourself out there, and frankly, looking at the job search as a full-time job. I will definitely keep this in mind as I counsel my students on job search techniques!

[hjha 4]

Thanks everyone for giving advice and sharing your previous experiences.

I will move to the US soon and I am also worried about employment there. I want to get your perspective about something related to resume format.

I did a master's degree in Belgium, although the academic institution is not a top tier target school. It is considered good in Europe and it is well ranked.

My question is: Should I put the ranking of the school since a US employer has never heard of it? (school is ranked in Top 40 by Financial times) or does this looks like trying too hard.

Any advice is highly appreciated.

Thanks-

[junaidjackie2016 10]

Thanks everyone for giving advice and sharing your previous experiences.

I will move to the US soon and I am also worried about employment there. I want to get your perspective about something related to resume format.

I did a master's degree in Belgium, although the academic institution is not a top tier target school. It is considered good in Europe and it is well ranked.

My question is: Should I put the ranking of the school since a US employer has never heard of it? (school is ranked in Top 40 by Financial times) or does this looks like trying too hard.

Any advice is highly appreciated.

Thanks-

I would advise not to...many international students that I advise (I'm a career advisor) tend to be verbose on the resume. However, the rule is that clear and concise is more attractive. Adding anything extra is distracting and unnecessary. That said, I would not put the ranking of the school. As you said, a US employer probably will have never heard of it.

Edited August 31, 2016 by junaidjackie2016

[chrisete 55]

HI Marienne,

Lots of great advice here. As an HR professional please let me add my 2 cents but I will be in the same boat shortly as soon as I get my EAD approval and can start looking for work.

Yes, employers discriminate but mostly its because of systemic discrimination and not intentional. For example, jobs are that are advertised in the Wall Street Journal are only going to be seen and applied to by a select group of people. It doesn't give all people equal access to apply or even know the job is vacant. If you are in a certain profession, make sure that you are on the mailing list of that association. For me it would be the SHRM. Join your group as we often advertise for specific roles in those publications only. To an extent, they even say that access to a computer is systemic discrimination as not everyone has a pc or is computer literate.

Make sure you have your name on your resume: For example, my pet peeve is a whack of resumes all titled: My resume or New resume. After I take my first cut at the pile of resumes, I go back and search for specific ones and can't find them because of the title. I'm looking for the name I remember. If I can't find it, I move on because there is just way too many in the pipeline.

Make sure you have a professional email address. I always crack up at one job seeker who's email address was: seekingserenitynow@email.com All I could think of was, "you won't find that here". I took a pass.

The lower the job level, the more people will apply and so you can get overlooked. Follow up without being pesty. I've had thousands apply before and it is a mountain.

Be first to apply. As soon as the job goes live, the hiring manager will want to see who's applying in the first day so there's a good chance that the manager will see that resume before I make any cuts to a short list. Or be last to apply....they've exhausted all their options and getting desperate but this is not where you want to be.

Yes, many HR people are lazy but they are also overworked and have a laundry list of things that the hiring manager wants (to the point of nearly impossible. I have to be a purple squirrel sniper - an animal that doesn't exist to satisfy the list). This is also why it is so difficult to get a job because all the power is with the employer who wants an exact set of qualifications. They want an engineer who can dj or a sales director who is also an accountant. Don't be afraid to list something interesting as it can make all the difference. We like interesting and people who have had many experiences as they approach things in a fashion I would describe as more open minded. The soft skills are very important.

Many hiring managers often change their mind to what they want as soon as they start seeing what resumes are coming in so it gets tricky as some of the competencies have changed from what you originally applied to do.

Discrimination is a 2 way street. I have also had employers who specifically wanted European employees and not North American because in their personal opinion they work harder or better or different or are not so 'entitled'. I always have to explain well, this is the law and not my personal opinion so here's your top 3 qualified candidates, but not everyone in HR pushes back like me but I can't make them hire someone they don't want. You never know if the employer has an aunt that is Greek or had a wonderful time in Greece and that may open the door for you. Be memorable. Be professional.

Good luck to you and everyone else out there looking. Just don't stop looking and please subscribe to your profession's association.

[lost_at_sea 995]

Just realised you've only been here 6 weeks, too. That's also not very long. If it's a big company, they can take weeks to filter through applications and send out interviews, do a round of interviews, then decide they didn't like anyone in the first batch and go through it all over again (starting from scratch, since they already rejected the rest of the group). I've seen it happen (and been someone either trying to get a company to get their act together and get on with it, both being hired or hiring - drives me crazy - took 3 months once to NOT hire someone, ugh). But, yeah, keep an eye on their job listings and don't be surprised to see them put back up jobs you've already applied for.

If there's some particular companies you really especially want to work for, try and reach out personally or go to any events they have? I don't know your field, so it's hard to know if that's even an option. For design & tech (my industry) that's what worked for me to get a FT position - getting to know folks and getting an in. And now I'm a freelancer, that's basically the only way I get new reliable work, too. Gotta keep showing your face!

[Will_and_Tu 46]

I won't argue the point you are making as they may be very well valid in certain companies. Multi-international companies should have a well structured HR orginazation with a well thought out and run recruitment process including having a list of target universities irrespective of which country these universities are located. Sitting around my office right now are folks from : Algeria, India, UK, Nigeria, Bolivia, Canada, Congo (my boss), France, Egypt, Brazil, Uruguay, Russia, South Africa and of course the US. All degree qualified and some of whom, me for example, were recruited from overseas to work here in the US work environment and we all started off as engineer trainees, mostly outside our home countries.

There is plenty of advice for a go forward; the job market is tough no matter which country you are in. In a previous role, I looked for people with foreign experience to bring worldly ideas and culture.

The point is to keep trying, never give up, every rejection is a learning experience, widen the net, and take small opportunities to get a foot in the door.

What you say is also true. I think what I'm getting at is that the more familiar prospective employers are with a university's name or reputation, the more weight it can carry in terms of comfort. My office is also pretty international, but there would be a particular scrutiny of degrees that come from certain countries. This can result in some applications/resumes being pre-screened out by HR departments even before the relevant content experts come into play from the hiring department. This was just an attempt to explain what can be going that might otherwise be construed as immigrant-targeted discrimination. As others have pointed, in the current job market, companies have so many applicants that they can afford to only even consider people who are absolute perfect matches.

The best way to get around that, until U.S. work experience is built up, is to focus the resume around work experience in general that's relevant to the position.

Of course, all of this advice could be totally unhelpful depending upon how specialized the field is.

[Boiler 45,715]

In Greece OP was a teacher, probably not easy to do that in the US, husband is chronically ill.

[lost_at_sea 995]

In Greece OP was a teacher, probably not easy to do that in the US, husband is chronically ill.

I assume teaching jobs are kind of seasonal, in a way, too - most likely hiring before a new semester starts, rather than half way through etc. So, that sucks. :/

[IcezMan_IcezLady 582]

I think bringing your pay expectation down a bit will be a start. It took me 8 months after college to get a job.

Even my own university sent a denial letter.I cried...lol.

But I was discriminating against temporary jobs. And my job today was earn through a temporary position and I worked hard to get promoted and I changed positions.

My first professional job paid about $300 more than the monthly pay I was making from 8 years working in grocery store. I felt i deserved more but I wasn't getting those jobs and student loans were coming in.

So do what you gotta do. Will you stay home because you can't find a $20+ hr job? Take whatever job you can get as a start. Get your feet in the door first then you push forward.

One thing great about America is that, it is easy to climb up in most jobs.

Try state and local jobs..their pays are not too bad and they have some benefits to make up for the low pay.

Good luck!

[Pythos1 24]

There are many companies that only hire through temp agencies. Part of the reasoning is the benefits package that an employee gets on day 1 versus the no-benefits that a temp service worker gets. And the company doesn't have to sort through a bunch of resumes to set up interviews with people they don't already know. Once in with the temp service, the company can get to know the worker before the temp contract expires, and offer them a job... or an interview for the job. The company already knows which temps will fit in with their full-time employees and can have a more successful, more stable selection process due to experience with the temp.

Also, I'm pretty certain everyone here has better social skills than I do. When I was looking for factory or retail work, my social skills were such that I couldn't get past an interview. But getting in through a temp service, they could see my work ethic first-hand. And I became desirable through my verified work ethic.

I bring up my terrible social skills (I never get the social cues) as a natural-born USC because, even if you have top-notch social skills in your home country, the cultural differences might bring your social skills down in the US. So, going through a low-paying temp agency might be a strong opportunity to get into the higher paying permanent position.

[dandk 72]

To chime in to what others have already mentioned, major US companies look for certifications. Get yourself certified in at least one of these certifications; Six Sigma, PMP, or SCRUM. Practically, she got interviewed to most of the positions she applied. Those certifications get you to the door, especially if you have profile in Linkedin.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

In Greece OP was a teacher, probably not easy to do that in the US, husband is chronically ill.

Maybe she is trying to get back to her professional field, whatever that is, and there is a gap, which will make it super tough.

[Happytobe 164]

Don't get too discouraged. When my hubby arrived he was putting in applications everywhere. He finally landed a waiter position and he left that after 6 months (the tips were great, but the environment was not) and started with temp agencies, working whatever they gave him. That got him a permanent position where he is now, the pay is decent, the health insurance is awesome and saves us thousands every year. It took some time, but, as others have said, be diligent and keep updating your résumé.

[chrisete 55]

In Greece OP was a teacher, probably not easy to do that in the US, husband is chronically ill.