work placement in america(9months)

PeakOutput

so i jsut did a j1 in the states and it was the best summer of my life

i have to do 9months work placement in june and my college has said i can do it in america no problem(i have a company lined up already) but they didnt really tell me much more

ill ask them again but they told me to come back to them 12 weeks before im due to go and that sounds a bit late to me considering how long the j1 took to arrange so has anyone done this before? i wont be able to get a j1 ill have to get probably a year long visa anyone know how much this costs?

what commitments do i have to make to get the visa and what commitments does the company have to make(the college mentioned something about the company promising to have me in 3 different roles in the time im there)?

spideog7

I haven't done it or anything but I'd say it sounds like the H1B visa that is in place, whereby an employer sponsors you and you are only allowed to work with that employer, so you couldn't get a part time job or anything on the side if you needed it (not legally anyway). that's the graduate one at any rate.

It may not be that visa though there might be a special one for internships, I know people who've done internships for 8 months in the US. They are fairly reasonable about all that stuff, I'm sure you won't have a problem. Best bet is to go talk to your college careers department or who ever is in charge of it they'll point you in the right direction. Just bear in mind, you can't just have an employer "in mind", you'll probably need an offer on the table before they'll issue you such a visa.

Godd luck

EDIT: You said "lined up" not "in mind", my bad, sounds more promising for you !

PeakOutput

thanks for the reply the job is guaranteed alright

BuffyBot

Moved to Abroad as this more a "living there" sort of issue

Darren1o1

PeakOutput wrote: »

so i jsut did a j1 in the states and it was the best summer of my life

i have to do 9months work placement in june and my college has said i can do it in america no problem(i have a company lined up already) but they didnt really tell me much more

ill ask them again but they told me to come back to them 12 weeks before im due to go and that sounds a bit late to me considering how long the j1 took to arrange so has anyone done this before? i wont be able to get a j1 ill have to get probably a year long visa anyone know how much this costs?

what commitments do i have to make to get the visa and what commitments does the company have to make(the college mentioned something about the company promising to have me in 3 different roles in the time im there)?

J1 (internship) visa will do, 4-6 weeks to sort it. Have a look at www.experienceintrax.com From my experience those guys are pretty good. All you will need is some basic training plan and fill out job spec etc.

pow wow

Agreed....OP won't qualify for H1B at any rate.

J1 might suit, under the 'Trainee' category. Your employer will have to petition for this on your behalf (which they probably did for your Summer visa unless you went through USIT or that other crowd) and include a DS-7002 form detailing your 'training plan'. You are allowed to be paid; however the form includes a declaration that you're not displacing American employees and you're being recruited to 'train' rather than 'work', so per the form you should only be receiving a stipend rather than an actual wage.

The visa process is nothing really to do with your uni here (unless they have a third party agency in the US who will be sponsoring the visa) so the role rotation requirement might be one of their own as part of the work placement.

Also check you're not subject to the two-year residency requirement on your old visa.

Any other questions, let me know.

stubble1

Hi Guys, I'm going into 3rd year BIS in UCC this September, meaning I also have placement after Christmas. I also have the option of doing placement abroad and I'm considering the USA (Boston to be exact).

However, my results average for first and second year hasn't been brilliant, I have a 2.1. I'm just wondering do results have much of a bearing on what you get. Obviously they do to a certain extent but surely other factors such as work experience (I did a Summer Internship with an IT company in Limerick last summer) and lecture attendance come into play.

And please don't comment on my poor results and say that if I don't succeed in getting America then I deserved it, I know they could be better! Living away from home for the first time, meeting new people etc all took its toll on study time. I'm sure many of you guys who have been to college can relate to this!

Cheers lads.

jaymcg91

Lecture attendance? So the dunces that don't do great (not saying that's you) but turn up every day could still get good opportunities despite not being that bright?

I know at DCU it's solely exam results. As it should be.

stubble1

jaymcg91 wrote: »

Lecture attendance? So the dunces that don't do great (not saying that's you) but turn up every day could still get good opportunities despite not being that bright?

I know at DCU it's solely exam results. As it should be.

In my course, 80% attendance is required. I wish I worked harder these last 2 years. College can be a curse like that!

Thargor

Whats wrong with your 2.1? If it was a 2.2 Id be worried.

stubble1

Thargor wrote: »

Whats wrong with your 2.1? If it was a 2.2 Id be worried.

You could be right about the 2.1. I've heard though that some USA employers are only satisfied with a 1.1 but I also have heard of a story of a lad getting placement in Credit Suisse in London with a 2.2!

Thargor

Some people lie through their teeth and never even have their qualifications checked...

silja

***** Moving from Living Abroad to USA forum for more answers *****

Dave1442397

stubble1 wrote: »

However, my results average for first and second year hasn't been brilliant, I have a 2.1. I'm just wondering do results have much of a bearing on what you get. Obviously they do to a certain extent but surely other factors such as work experience (I did a Summer Internship with an IT company in Limerick last summer) and lecture attendance come into play.

I have worked for quite a few companies in the 25 years I've been here, and I can tell you that Americans in general have no clue about foreign qualifications. All you need to do is say you have a degree in whatever you're doing, eg Computer Science.

If it doesn't say B.Sc on your diploma, just tell them that it's the Irish equivalent and that's all you need to say. Don't get into different levels of degree unless asked about it, and it would be a rare interviewer who would ask.

They are more interested in the fact that you made it through college than what you ended up with. I haven't worked in the field I studied since I lived in Ireland, and even at my first job in the US they didn't care. They had me take a logic test and do a couple of interviews, and that was that.

stubble1

Dave1442397 wrote: »

I have worked for quite a few companies in the 25 years I've been here, and I can tell you that Americans in general have no clue about foreign qualifications. All you need to do is say you have a degree in whatever you're doing, eg Computer Science.

If it doesn't say B.Sc on your diploma, just tell them that it's the Irish equivalent and that's all you need to say. Don't get into different levels of degree unless asked about it, and it would be a rare interviewer who would ask.

They are more interested in the fact that you made it through college than what you ended up with. I haven't worked in the field I studied since I lived in Ireland, and even at my first job in the US they didn't care. They had me take a logic test and do a couple of interviews, and that was that.

Jeez, that's astounding that they wouldn't know much about Irish college courses and qualifications considering they've been taking on Irish interns for a few years now. But if it works in my favour I'll take it

jaymcg91

stubble1 wrote: »

Jeez, that's astounding that they wouldn't know much about Irish college courses and qualifications considering they've been taking on Irish interns for a few years now. But if it works in my favour I'll take it

Is it? Ireland is a tiny tiny country on the edge of Europe - I doubt it's worth their while to investigate Irish university courses and qualifications.

ProudDUB

jaymcg91 wrote: »

Is it? Ireland is a tiny tiny country on the edge of Europe - I doubt it's worth their while to investigate Irish university courses and qualifications.

No, but they can probably spend 30 second on Google and figure it out. How "good" your degree is, its a bog standard thing to ask about at interviews, or to look for on a CV/resume. Of course employers are going to want to know whether or not you barely scrapped a pass degree, or whether you graduated with distinction. This would apply whether or not you are US job applicant, or someone from over seas.

In the US, they do not use the terms first class honours degree, second class honours degree, or 2.1, 2.2 etc etc for third level degres. They use the old Greek terms, cum lauda, magna cum lauda and summa cum lauda, which are pretty much the same thing. They also look at the GPA (grade point averge) score that the candidate had during their college years, as an indicator of how well they did in college.

If an applicant is asked about their third level qualifications in an interview & they can't answer the questions to the interviewers satisfaction, they are minimizing the chances of their getting the job, if there are other applicants that can.

Dave1442397

They "could" spend 30 seconds on Google, but I've never seen them do that. I've always been contacted by some HR drone asking for a copy of my diploma for their files, and that's always after I've started on the job.

I'm sure there are professions where they care more about your college grades, but in IT, it's all about the technical skills and the interview. I've interviewed easily over 100 people, mostly foreign, and I just assume the resume is mostly fiction and ask them questions about how they would handle situations that crop up in the workplace, how they would approach certain projects, etc.

Back in the '90s there was a school in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, where you could take a class in passing an IT interview. People were taught how to answer all the common COBOL/CICS/DB2/JCL questions, and a resume was created for them. We used to collect the resumes and lay them out on a conference table every now and then just for laughs. They were all variations on maybe five unique resumes.

I only had one person sneak through the interview process (we did phone interviews). When he started at the company, we realized after a couple of hours that he had never used a QWERTY keyboard before, and could barely speak English. Apparently they could also pay someone to take the interview for them if they had enough advance warning

ProudDUB

Dave1442397 wrote: »

They "could" spend 30 seconds on Google, but I've never seen them do that. I've always been contacted by some HR drone asking for a copy of my diploma for their files, and that's always after I've started on the job.

And in jobs where my specific qualifications were required, I generally had to provide proof of them before I was officially hired. Yes, they took my word that I actually had them, while the process was ongoing. But if I had not eventually provided them, the process would have ground to a halt.

But that was just me. Every one is different. Every job is different. Every company is different. Every interviewer will operate under different criteria laid down by his employer. The OP asking if prospective employers will care what his academic career has been like to date (over and above other things such as work experience, or coming across really well in an interview) is like asking how long is a piece of string. They are all going to be different.

JohnMearsheimer

stubble1 wrote: »

Jeez, that's astounding that they wouldn't know much about Irish college courses and qualifications considering they've been taking on Irish interns for a few years now. But if it works in my favour I'll take it

Sounds like you're talking about Fidelity Investments. If it is I'm sure they are familiar with the Irish degree classification system. They have been working with UCC for years. My friend did his internship with them in Boston about 10 years ago. He's a permanent staff member there now. I'm not sure what class of degree he has but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a 1.1. He most definitely has a high 2.1 at the very least. If you are on a 2.1 I'd say apply for it.

stubble1

Thanks for the replies and advice guys. Can anyone speak from experience of being an intern in an IT company in a country other the Ireland, notably USA? Did you enjoy the experience, what pay was like, what you took from it, would you recommend it etc. Thanks in advance.