With the end of the semester coming to an end, some international students who may be graduating are faced with a tough decision: do they try to get an internship in the United States, or do they return home to look for a job?
For those who choose to find an internship in the United States, they might be facing some difficulty convincing employers to hire them.
“It’s worth it for companies to hire international students because we can demonstrate that we’re more eligible for positions,” said electrical engineering senior Wenbo Gong .
The China native said international students bring an asset to the workplace because of their cultural background, in addition to proving that they’re as good as domestic students by completing an undergraduate degree in a U.S. university.
Despite the more global environment we’re living in nowadays, international students are still faced with the U.S. visa regulations that make it more difficult for employers to hire them, Gong said.
When hiring a non-American citizen, employers have to fill out extra paperwork and hire an attorney to obtain a work visa or authorization for the person.
This is not the only option, said Skyin Yin, international student advisor and communications and experiential learning coordinator at the Office of International Students and Scholars.
Yin said students often mention that they don’t know about the options available to them to apply for a job, Yin said. Similarly, employers don’t know about the options available for them to hire international students without going the extra mile to apply for work visas on their employees’ behalf.
“Actually it’s not that complicated as a lot of employers think, and the student ... just need(s) to go to our website and talk to the advisors about the process,” Yin said.
Options for undergraduate students to obtain work authorizations are to apply for the Curricular Practical Training, or CPT, or to apply for Optional Practical Training, or OPT.
The difference between both authorizations is that CPT caters to students who are still studying, whereas OPT is for recent graduates and allows students to work up to one year in the United States and up to 29 months with students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics or STEM fields.
Students with the J-1 Visa have the option of applying for Academic Training, or AT, allowing them to work for 18 months.
In order to be eligible for either, students have to work in their own field or area of study since the jobs are considered to be training and not an actual job, Yin said.
In order to facilitate a better understanding among both international students and employers, OISS is working closely with the Career Services Network to plan for more joint programming and coordination to focus on more international-student oriented career preparation events.
Field Career Services Coordinator Allison Fox , who will be working closely with OISS on such programming, said career fairs can be overwhelming.
“If you go someplace like a career gallery where you have hundreds of employers and thousands of students, I think it’s surprising even for domestic students to go to them for their first time,” Fox said.
She said one of the topics that career services deems important is making sure that international students understand career fairs and know how to prepare well for them.
OISS has also been partnering with off-campus organizations, like the Global Talent Retention Initiative of Michigan .
The GTRI was launched about three years ago when a study suggested retaining international students would help Michigan regain its economic power, said GTRI Director of Marketing and Communications Anne Craft .
Craft said the main purpose of the organization is to connect international students with employers, specifically ones based in Michigan, and to educate the employers on what needs to be done.
“We can provide resources, but at the end of the day, it’s (the employers’) responsibility to get it through,” she said, adding that the organization even has immigration attorneys on their advisory board to assist with visa issues.
Yin said OISS is assisting with the promotion of the initiative’s Michigan’s Global Future Conference for International Students to connect them with employers and assist them to find jobs through various seminars. The conference will take place Nov. 21 in Detroit , and there will be another conference in February in Grand Rapids.
In addition to the conference, Craft said the initiative is starting an online registry, where international students can add their information for employers to be able to connect with them.
She said by January the registry should be available for employers to view.
Fox recommended that students take advantage of the resources they have and try to get an internship before graduation.
