There are many prospective students were asking me about the job prospects after graduation and also the internship during the study. Therefore, I feel it maybe necessary to write a blog about job hunting issues so that you may have a clearer picture about what kind of help you can get from PennGSE for your job hunting.
It's mostly not so hard to find an unpaid internship. Even though the jobs are unpaid, the working experiences are really valuable for both your study and your future job hunting. And for jobs after graduation, it's more difficult but the approaches and resources that might be useful to you are the same.
There are various ways that you can search for potential internships/jobs. GSE has a contact person for career services who's specifically responsible for students from GSE--Jim Alton. He's a really nice and helpful person, who's enthusiastic in helping you to find resources that might help. Always ask help from the career services because they have more resources and information than you do, and they can also provide help on your resume/CV or cover letter. Apart from Jim, you can also ask help from previous students who has graduated or who's in higher grade than you. They have gone through the experience that you are going through right now so they must have a lot to share, not only the experiences but also some possible resources that you can make use of. Some of them can even recommend you to their previous employers directly and it will save you a lot of time and efforts to search for jobs. Besides, advisers, who's assigned to you by GSE, can be really helpful. You can schedule a meeting with your adviser and talk about your concerns and difficulties. And again, as they are more experienced in this than you, they may be able to provide you with a lot of information and suggestions. For example, my adviser referred me to an internship at a small consulting firm, and through interviews, I finally got the job and so far I have learned a lot from the experiences and I really appreciate her help in it. Last, but not least, use all the possible networks that you have here, and ask them for help. You really need to be proactive in job hunting because jobs won't come you, you have to go to them! By possible networks, i mean professors, friends, classmates, relatives, etc.
Many people were asking me about how hard it is for an international students to find jobs in U.S. To be honest, it's not as easy as in China but as long as you make efforts, the results will be satisfactory. I also have some suggestions for international students who wants to work in the U.S. in the future. First of all, think clearly about what you want to do in the future. There are definitely many options available, but try to figure out which one you like and which one might like you as well. It means you have to find out a job that's suitable for your background and you feel passionate about it too. After determining what you want to do in the future, try to accumulate internship experiences in the related industries, especially internships in U.S. One way that your future employer is going to use to evaluate you is your past experience and your academic backgrounds. Working experience is important in job hunting. The third tip is to utilize the school career center. Penn has a very good website PennLink for career services, you can find job listings, trainings and workshops for interviews, personalized services in job hunting, etc. So don't forget to make the full use of the website. The reality is that when international students want to find jobs in U.S., visa is always an issue. Bear in mind that you have to be really outstanding to compete with other competitors and to get the jobs. There were many successful examples so don't worry about the feasibility.