Frustrating Job Hunt with EAD in SF

[BlueAriel 9]

Whilst I’m still relatively new to the US recruitment market, I have many years of recruitment experience and thought I’d chime in.

 

Agree with most posters that it’ll be good for the OP’s husband to obtain relevant and local certifications. 

 

Understand that 4 months of job search seems like a long time to you as you want to start a family soon. However, timing is important, most large companies don’t hire in Nov to Dec, given it’s vacation time. And most employees will leave after they get their bonuses (end of Jan or start of Feb). So your husband has been searching during the ‘low’ season. 

 

Any related job experience overseas may not look as attractive to US employers unless the skills are specialized. OP, you haven’t mentioned the type of experience your husband has. Has he got help desk support experience, networking experience or AI programming experience? The demand for each of these categories are completely different. Let say if he has programming, analytics or quantative experience then he shouldn’t limit himself to just sending apps to tech companies, try applying to financial/insurance companies. 

 

A note on resumes, if he hasn’t got any feedback at all, I’d suggest to review his resume to make sure it’s US version and include all the right keywords mentioned in the job description. Because recruiters usually look at resumes picked out by a filtering software which prescreens all the resumes and look for keywords. I’ve received resumes with ‘hidden keywords’, some candidates filled the white spaces with white ink keywords in the hope that the software will pick them up. It’s a competitive market so things like this happens..  

 

Also, suggest that he has a professional profile on LinkedIn, apply directly to recruiters websites or cold email recruiters that posted ads that he has been applying to.

 

I know that a green card may look better. But as long as the candidate wrote ‘work authorization’ on the resume, most recruiters pick them up. It’s a numbers game for recruiters as well, I want to make sure I catch all the ‘protentials’ and present them to my clients, rather than being picky at the start of the process. 

 

Sorry for the long reply, just my 2 cents. Best of luck with your husband’s job hunt!

Edited February 7, 2018 by BlueAriel

[AshMarty 360]

What about meetups or other industry functions/conferences/hack-a-thon type things. I feel like it is all about connections and who you know.

 

My husband was really good about networking over the past couple of years and actually got his job through a friend of a friend but we both know that he would have had a lot of difficulty if he didn't have an in. In the end he was actually hired by a German company ironically. 

Edited February 7, 2018 by AshMarty

[Orangesapples 1,954]

Temp agencies are another option. Temp jobs are not the best but they're something and they give you experience. 

[DeepInLove 35]

Update your resume and cover letter with keywords from job listing.

Make your Linked In Profile.

Expect to start low. e.g  your market worth might be in six figures. But accept 30%-40% lower, prove yourself in an year, build references, and move on next year to the new job with higher salary.

All they need a work experience in USA. So Expect to start low.

My experience, I started on -50% two years back, proved my self and Now I am getting what I am worthy of.

I have seen many tech gurus with not so good resumes. So first of all concentrate on your resume.

For Software development jobs, try to put all your skills summary in the beginning of the resume, before going in the details. e.g.

 

Collaboration tools	Azure cloud services
Enterprise Integration	SSOA using C#.Net Web Services, WCF Services, Azure CI/CD
Reporting Tools	SSRS 2008/2012 (MS SQL Server’s Reporting Service)
Query Language	SQL and CQL
Databases	MS SQL Server 2005/2008/2012, Neo4j
Operating System	MS Windows 7/XP/2003/2008
Source Control	VSTS, TFS and GIT
Mobile Technologies	Apache Cordova, AngularJS
Languages	C#, JavaScript, HTML, XML, XSLT

[doggieandsam 765]

i totally agree @BlueAriel comments above, all very good advice.  just my additional two cents:

 

- nov/dec/early jan is slow recruitment season everywhere. not only is this holiday and vacation season, most companies also have their budgets run out around this time as well, so normally recruitment activities are put on hold until the budget resets at the start of the year.

- very important: write in large / bold font up top: Authorized to work in the USA / Sponsorship not required! 

- also philippine resumes often tend to be a lot of "flowery word" and the "longer the better" mentality. agree with above, make it US-style. keep it short, straight to the point but include the important keywords. if you think its already short, trust me, it can be shorter! recruiters and headhunters spend about 10 seconds (seconds!) reading it so your husband's resume must pass that time test at first glance. 

- highlight the designation / position / job title on the resume vs company name and location. recruiters will be interested what the position / job description is to see if it matches their requirements rather than a company name. unless it is a known US company with branches in the philippines, nobody will really know or care about a company in the philippines. not to say that they are not good companies, but sometimes not being familiar with something can be a negative. 

- companies receive tons of resumes from online job portals and they will not read all of them. look for the freshly posted jobs so that you are one of the first applicants otherwise your resume, no matter how good it is, will just be buried under all the other ones esp if you don't have all the filter keywords built in.

- a professional profile on linkedin helps. can be more detailed than the paper resume.

- use your networks. see point above about getting your resume buried. if you can find a contact within the company, use that and ask for help to get your resume to the table of the hiring manager. if you can do that you have a better chance of getting your resume read at least.

 

i think maybe just the overall market in silicon valley is by default much more competitive everywhere else. it is where all the aspiring / bright tech professionals move to so it is very important to stand out.

Edited February 7, 2018 by doggieandsam

[BlueAriel 9]

Whilst agree with @DeepInLove putting all the skill set on your resume. I’d suggest to only put the ones relevant to the job description. Otherwise it looks like you’re being jack of all trades and master of none. 

 

Also, when putting in the skill set, put in the level of competency (Seasonal, intermediate, advance, professional) 

Example: C# (Advance).

 

You’d be amazed how many resumes recruiters received that listed the candidate knows C# and at the interview the candidate said, I know C# but only did it for couple of years in college 5 years ago. If the main role is software development using C#, it’s not a good outcome for all parties involved. 

 

When listing things like Operating System or Collabration Tools, mention whether you know how to use them or you have experience being the administrator of them. Example: MS Windows (System Administrator level).

 

Thanks @doggieandsam for further elaboration, really good advice for job hunters!

Edited February 7, 2018 by BlueAriel

[mcdull 474]

that's the reality, US employers will not look at your foreign degree (perhaps except some Canadian and big name UK schools), let alone a degree from a developing country.

 

I graduate University of Hong Kong and University College London, had 15+ years of experience in finance and architecture and couldn't land a darn job in Boston for months. Do you have connections to anyone working in tech?  Perhaps go through an agency?

[databit 328]

What may be "okay" education and experience in the competitive Silicon Valley tech world--the same would be considered outstanding credentials in the rest of the US where tech is continuing to open up. It's a big country.

[Just_Me00 15]

I agree with other posters that the cover letter and resume should be customized depending on the job posting/description. A good way of doing this is having a resume that is the master copy and that you can copy/paste from to other variations of the resume. A good resource to help you customize your resume is to use a tool like TagCrowd to see what the key words of the job posting are and use those in the resume that you apply with. The bigger the word is in the TagCrowd results, the more times it is repeated in the job posting and the more important it is to have in your resume.

 

Lastly, patience is KEY in the job search. It takes time and lots of effort especially for immigrants since most employers prefer to hire someone with experience here in the US.

[ekim 10]

I agree with other posters, networking is important. Build relationship with other IT professionals. Update the linkedin profile. Highlight your role in the most recent work experience and not just the technical skills. You need to show what you can contribute to the company and what makes you better than the rest of the applicant. Some interviewers don't look at your old job descriptions and just focus on the most recent. Tailor the summary of your resume to the job requirements and don't put irrelevant experience. Also don't lie on your resume. I've seen some applicants put bogus work experiences especially those who are using agency. The agency itself is the one asking them to put those bogus work experiences.

[ceeq 53]

3 hours ago, karice said:

I can't really speak to the tech aspect of his search, but I do have a bit of job search experience as an immigrant. Honestly, the thing I found the most helpful, was making a note on my resume to explain the gap in employment (gap: relocation is what I put). I noticed an immediate improvement in responses. 

Okay thanks! He did quit his job last May 2017 since that was the time to fly back home with me. I guess adding that in would be great! (Considering the application process has taken a while) He's had recruiters ask him why he has been out of work since MAy 2017- Present, he finds it troublesome explaining the petition>ead>green card. I have a feeling this may have dinged some employers. Any advice?

[karice 29]

1 minute ago, ceeq said:

Okay thanks! He did quit his job last May 2017 since that was the time to fly back home with me. I guess adding that in would be great! (Considering the application process has taken a while) He's had recruiters ask him why he has been out of work since MAy 2017- Present, he finds it troublesome explaining the petition>ead>green card. I have a feeling this may have dinged some employers. Any advice?

I've always approached it by being honest but not giving them too much info. My situation is obviously different than yours, but I tell employers (ONLY during an interview, never before) that I left my previous job due to a cut in hours and I couldn't sustain a reasonable standard of living. I chose to help my dad take care of my mom while she was sick, and did not feel like it was an honest thing to seek other employment when I wouldn't know if I would be there three days or three years. Basically, sum up your situation, and then say he just got work authorization. Immigration is a long process, and an employer doesn't need to know a ton about it to understand that.

 

My only caution is in how you phrase things. I was at an advantage in that my gap was easy to spin (lack of hours and taking care of family). Your case might not be. I've had employers tell me that they get suspicious of people quit a job without plans to move somewhere else (ie: quitting before you have a visa in hand). And whatever you do, make sure that he conveys how much he wants go stay in the area that he's in and is committed to his job. It helps dispel any questions they may have over him possibly leaving. 

[Tom&Hana 37]

If he is thinking about certification in the tech field, I would highly recommend looking into Salesforce.com. They offer free online training, the cert exams are relatively inexpensive, and the job market is extremely hot right now. 

[Scandi 4,166]

I noticed it was hard to get a job with no references from the US, my foreign references weren't interesting at all to the employers here in LA. So I got myself a seasonal job where I know they don't even bother checking much because they need so many people over black friday, the holidays etc so I would at least have something and some kind of reference from here. They decided to keep me and offered me a much better position, so going for a seasonal job turned out to be a good move for me. 

[yuna628 9,676]

I don't know if this helps additionally but, HR's decision in hiring my husband was over a period of several months and he was not told about his hiring until after the Nov/Dec break. This was a position he interviewed for in the summer! Things.. take a long time depending on the company. It was a job he was certainly overqualified for based on his degree, but I do recall his boss liked very much that he had previously worked for a US-based UK company and an easily recognizable brand... and had transferable skills which was very important to them. They did actually check his foreign references too.