Ever since I moved to Australia in 2017, I’ve seen an interesting turn of events in the study abroad/work abroad field. While the United States is still a top destination for students studying abroad, the demand for an American degree has dropped. There has been an increase in questions regarding options outside the US for study; and also quite a number of h1b holders looking for other options. So, should you consider studying in the USA?

The answer is, as always, pretty complicated. If you want to study abroad, there are certain aspects that are common to most Western countries. It is pretty expensive (outside of Europe). So, whether you are studying in the US or not, huge loans put a lot of pressure on you to get a job abroad. If you do not get a job abroad, it is very difficult to pay off student loans on an Indian salary.

But, let’s stop talking about stuff that could go wrong. Let’s talk about Arun. He did everything right. After completing his BS in a top IT university in Bangalore, he applied for several universities in the US. He got accepted into 5 universities. Two of them gave him a full scholarship. The other three were great universities, but he decided not to get into debt to get into better universities.

He started a Computer Science program at Texas Arlington University with full scholarship. He worked hard during his studies, and even saved a little money with his scholarship. Two years later, he started looking for jobs. Even though most companies didn’t want to sponsor him, the IT industry was doing well enough that Arun got 2-3 job offers. He accepted a high paying job in Manhattan for $95000. Over the next few years, he worked hard and lived a frugal lifestyle. He didn’t succumb to his parents’ demands that he get married. With a few promotions, a frugal lifestyle and high savings rate, he has saved for $150000.

At the age of 29, he decided that he did not want to do this for the rest of his life. He did not want to wait for 15+ years for his green card in US. Arun quit his job and moved back to India. He then invested $150000 in a fixed deposit in India. Guess what? That amount provides a fixed income of 61260 INR. Arun realized that he didn’t really need to work for the rest of his life. While it’s wouldn’t give him the lifestyle of Vijay Mallya, it’s still a very comfortable lifestyle in most parts of India; even if he decided to get married.

He just took a break of 2 years. At the end of two years, he got bored of the lifestyle; and decided to move to Bangalore and pursue an opportunity at a lucrative start-up.

While Arun is a good example to follow, here’s what you need to do to maximize the opportunity of studying abroad:

1. Study in a university that minimizes or eliminates student loans. This may seem harder than it actually is. Lots of universities in the US provide good research/teaching scholarships for Masters’ programs, and Europe has lots of free university courses.
2. Select a university program that has a high job demand. Computer Science/IT is an obvious option; but there are several other courses that have high demand, especially in the engineering and science fields.
3. Don’t live an extravagant lifestyle abroad. You can life comfortably while sharing apartment with other students, and cooking meals often. Living close to university in a big/medium sized eliminates need for a car.
4. Don’t spend all your time studying. Make sure you increase your contacts and network; so it’s easier to find a job when you start looking.
5. When looking for jobs, stay away from shady consultants that will underpay you. You are better off coming back to India if you can’t find a job.
6. If you are from India and studying in the US, don’t plan on settling down there. With US immigration laws, it should take you over 15 years to get a green card.
7. If you want to be like Arun, here’s how much you need to save to get a monthly interest rate in an Indian fixed deposit. (Assuming annual interest rate of 7%. This is subject to change).

So, don’t completely count out h1b if you’re worried about it. Just realize that the tax rate in the US is a lot less than the other options; so you can invest more others.

Thanks,

Indian Studying Abroad, Our Specials

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Different Types of Interviews

HR Screening Interview

Phone Interview with Hiring Manager

Final Round Interview at Site with Different Hiring Managers

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Situation (S):

Task (T):

Action (A):

Result (R):

Interview Template:

Preparation for Technical Questions

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Seek to Understand All Positions and Interests: The What and the Why

Two prominent chefs are hard-pressed for time and are fighting over the last orange left in the kitchen. They both need it to finalize their recipes for the president’s dinner. After minutes of haggling they reach a compromise and split the orange in half and rush to finish their dishes.

One chef squeezes the juice from his half orange and pours it into the special sauce he is making, but the juice wasn’t enough for his recipe. The other grates the peel from the other half of the orange and stirs the scrapings into the batter for his cake, but he too didn’t have enough peels for his cake.

The irony is that one chef only needed the peels and the other only needed the juice. The obvious mistake both chefs made was they focused on each other’s position (the what) and not each other’s interests (the why). Both chefs would have been better off if they had peeled the orange and taken the parts they needed.

The above story illustrates the importance of seeking to understand one’s own positions and interests as well as that of the other party.

Gather Relevant Information: Knowledge is Power

It is imperative to learn as much as possible about the person or company you are negotiating with. Understand their motivations, limitations, positions, interests and priorities. Search Google, social media and other publicly available sources of information as part of your research. Within reason, reach out to people close to the negotiating party and learn as much as you can. Information gathering is not limited to learning about the counter party. It is equally important to understand your own motivations, positions, interests and priorities before beginning any negotiation.

Some information to gather before entering a negotiation includes:

• Who are the competitors to the company?
• What is the typical salary range for similar jobs?
• How much are people in similar roles making at the company?
• How well is the company doing?
• Who is the hiring manager?
• How many people are applying for the same position?
• Is there flexibility for negotiating a salary? If not can bonuses or other perks such as vacation or work from home be negotiated?

Understand the Constraints

The very nature of a negotiation implies the existence of constraints. It is absolutely important to establish for yourself the minimum you would accept in a negotiation. It is equally important to understand what the other party is willing to offer or accept.  This is called the reservation point.  It is the point beyond which a party will not go. We will use the purchase of a house to illustrate this point.

The reservation points in a real estate transaction for a seller is the minimum price at which they would sell a house. For the buyer it is the maximum amount of money they are willing to pay for the house. The bargaining range is the distance between the two reservation points. It is also called the Zone of Possible Agreement.

Another potentially limiting factor in a negotiation is whether or not one is negotiating from a position of strength. Usually the person with the most time, money or options has greater leverage and may not have the incentive to compromise. For example, if you are desperate for a job you will probably not have much leverage when it comes to a salary negotiation. To counteract this, make sure you find alternatives in preparation for the real possibility that you may have to walk away. Also make sure that you understand what you bring to the table and your own constraints. I recommend creating an inventory of your best qualities and constraints so that you do not sell yourself short or ask for a pie in the sky.

Build Relationships

A recurring theme we observe in our everyday experiences is that good relationships are a fundamental requirement for a successful life. People will walk through fire to make things happen for you if they trust and like you. The deeper the relationship, the greater the probability of success in almost any endeavor, including negotiations.

We advise to play the long game when it comes to negotiations. As much as possible, take time to cultivate relationships with the other party. Pay into a charity or support a cause they cherish, help them organize a volunteer event, or comment on their blog posts.

Optimal Salary Negotiation Tactics

A question we get asked a lot is, “What are the best tactics to use during a salary negotiation?” We invite you to come along for the ride to discover some key negotiation tactics. This chapter is based in part on insightful studies on negotiations at MIT. For a more in-depth look at this and other topics please visit MIT Negotiation Basics.

Step 1:

Write down your interests and reservation points (the minimum salary and conditions you are willing to accept).  Things could change so revisit these points as you gather more information or your situation changes.

For example, if you are seeking a salary of $130,000 and are absolutely determined not to accept a salary less than $100,000, a life situation or circumstance could force your hand one way or the other.  On a positive note, you could come up with a business idea and decide that you are no longer available on the job market and will go make millions for yourself; on the other hand, a medical emergency could cause you to accept a lower salary than your preferred minimum.

I strongly suggest doing a pre-mortem and imagining what could go wrong or what your options are if you don’t get the job. Always think about a Plan B in advance.

Step 2:

Research the interests and reservation point of the employer. The reservation point for the employer is the maximum they are willing or able to pay. A good starting point is to use online resources such as Glassdoor.com, Payscale.com or Salary.com to find out the range of salaries offered for similar positions and locations. In some cases, an employer cannot offer a salary beyond the range posted. In all cases, remember that the salary is not the only thing you can negotiate. Complete your research on vacation, bonuses and other benefits and keep these in mind.

Step 3:

Ask for an amount as close to the reservation point of the employer as possible (preferably a range with one amount is two percent lower than the employer’s maximum and 10% higher than it). This is especially true if you have all the relevant qualifications for the job and leverage.  For maximum leverage, I recommend having more than one job offer at hand and starting your job search before you need actually need to. It’s no fun having to find a job while struggling to pay the rent and other bills.

Knowing who the company’s competitors are or what the market pays for the position is critical. However, it is important not to get hung up on the salary alone. In some cases, it is possible to negotiate items like longer vacations, student loan assistance, scheduling and more.

Step 4:

Seek a settlement as close to the reservation point of the employer as possible. However, be willing to move your own reservation point if circumstances dictate that. For instance, the salary may be less than what you want but the job itself may open the door to much greater opportunities.

Step 5:

Seek a win-win situation by doing your best to ensure both you and the employer are satisfied with the outcome. This may not happen right away, so try to keep your employer’s interests and constraints in mind.

Step 6:

In a perfect world, you would get everything you ask for and happily go on with your life. Unfortunately, reality requires some give and take in negotiations. See the big picture and be willing to compromise within reason. In cases where a compromise cannot be reached, be willing and ready to walk away.

Keep in mind the incredibly powerful lyrics from Kenny Rogers famous song the gambler:

“You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
Know when to fold ’em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run”

Mahama Nyankamawu

Author, Career 3.0

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There are many of you who are working in India after completing their Bachelors’ degree, and looking to get a job abroad. But they do not want to study there. They want to work abroad without studying abroad. Let me start off by saying that it is very difficult to get a job in another country without having a physical presence there. This is because employers have hired people who were not local before, only to have the employee cancel because he was not willing to move. This has happened so many times that a lot of companies have a policy against hiring people stationed outside of the country.

The only exception to this is if there is a complete dearth of talent in a particular field. Even then, in a lot of cases the workers are given a permit to move to the country and search for a job. The “blue card” program in Germany is one such example of this.

The employers are more willing to hire someone who has already moved. However, if you are not willing to take the complete your higher studies abroad, you will not be able to physically interact with employers. There are two paths that people generally take to achieve this objective:

Work in a Multinational that will post you abroad

This career advice is the best path forward as you already have a job in line. Look at the employers in your field who have bases abroad in your country of choice. Then talk to people who are working there, and check on your chances of being posted abroad. If there is a history of employees being posted abroad, then you have your company. Companies like Ford and Opel in automotive engineering have a decent record of placements. There are several more in the IT field that are open to placements abroad.

If the people you talk to say that it is difficult to get placed abroad, then move on. You can use LinkedIn or ProfessionGurus to find the relevant professionals. You can use the LinkedIn search to find the relevant professionals, and use ProfessionGurus for career advice. For example, if you are a mechanical engineer, Ford and Opel have a history of posting people in America.

Apply for a green card or permanent residency

Countries like Canada, Denmark and Australia offer permanent residency based on a points system that considers your age, education and work experience. Check out their immigration website and see if you qualify for a permanent residence. Germany has a blue card program which lets you search for a job for 6 months. Once you have permanent residency status, you are in a great position to get a job. You do not require sponsorship and have a leg up on the others who are on a student visa.

The only downside of this approach is that you are not on campus as a student, so you don’t interact with employers directly. You will have to work hard networking with employers at professional events, professional associations etc. to make this advantage work for you. You may have to take a part time job (that you may not like) before you get your full-time job.

I would like to list a few tactics that have been tried before that may hurt you in the long term, and I would not recommend you use at all.

Use a tourist or business visa: I do not recommend this piece of career advice as this violates visa policy of the countries involved. However, I thought it would be useful to mention several individuals have used it to meet companies and interview for a job.

Go through work abroad consultancy

There are several of these that have mushroomed across the globe that may get you onsite, but these are very risky and fraudulent. Some of them ask for money to process your h1b visa (this is an illegal practice). No individual should pay for this. You may be on the bench abroad, with no pay and no work. I would avoid using these consultancies at all cost. They suck your money dry and waste years of your life, just so you can say that you did work abroad and live abroad.

At the end of the day, your best bet is to obtain a permanent residency (green card) and then start a career in an interesting field that has fast growth. That would give you strong access to most available jobs, and you will also be eligible for a lot of the local scholarships. That is the best way to work abroad.

If you are reading this post, however, you do not want to study; so I would suggest that the best option is to work in a multinational company that will post you abroad and let you work abroad.

Tags: career advice, work abroad, work abroad without studying

Note:

Are you struggling with interview or spending too much time preparing for an interview. I have designed a guide that covers everything you need to research regarding the company you are interviewing, your fit in the company and also questions that make you stand out. I have it written down in a 30 minute template that you can fill out the day before the interview. You can get it for free here.

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Organizing information in a systematic way is seen by most people as the most boring aspect of our daily lives. Whether it is organizing a grocery list, making a list of projects at work, or a list of things to do over the weekend; it is not the part of the day that we look forward to. However, organizing is a key to success in business and personal life. Making sense of the chaos in our personal and professional lives; and simplifying down to a list of items is the first step to getting control of your life.

In the same way, modern day job search is a chaotic mess. With millions of job listings and job seekers in multiple online and offline sources, it can be an intimidating proposition for a lot of people. Most people rely on a few common sources of jobs (Careerbuilder, Monster etc.) to avoid the greater mess around. They apply to every single job that they find online and clutch at straws. A few rely entirely on their network and on newspapers. Through 30 years of combined job search experience, the authors have come up with a road map to organize your job search. It takes into account your current skills, your dreams, the current job market, your training needs and your network. This will improve your job prospects.

Abhishek Kumar

Author, Career 3.0

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The job search roadmap above is a systematic method of linking your current skill set, passions and available jobs and gives you a framework to achieve your dream job.

Each aspect of the road map will be explained in detail throughout the book. Insider secrets on how to prepare for interviews, access the invisible job network and negotiate your job are of utmost value.

There are nine steps in the job roadmap:

1. Determine what you type of job you are interested in

You will need to look into all the previous jobs that you have held. If you are looking for your first job, look at your class projects. Determine what you enjoyed the most about each project. For example, if you loved the accounting class, you may either enjoy problem solving, or working with numbers, or working with money. List all the items that you have enjoyed. You may find that there are common elements in your previous experiences. Make a list of the top five items

2. Research relevant industries

Determine what industries match with your interest. For example, working with money would indicate a career in business or finance; while working with numbers can be used in a broad array of engineering fields.

3. Complete Skills Matrix

Investigate a few jobs in your industries of choice that match with your interests and passion. Using the Skills Matrix, determine what skills you possess and what skills you need to learn. Set up a training plan for the skills you need to master.

4. Update Resume and Portfolio

Update your resume such that the skills you value that match with your dream job are clearly highlighted in the resume. For example, if you love accounting because you work with money; and you have previous experience working with money; expand on the project in your resume. I would also recommend a one-page description of the project / projects in your portfolio. Your portfolio should reflect all the experiences that the job requires.

 5. Reach out to Current Network

Talk to your friends, family, acquaintances etc. to see if they know people in your relevant industries. Do an informational interview with the contacts to learn more about the position. Ask them for jobs that might be available.

6. Access Invisible Job Market

80% of the job market is hidden, where the jobs are not posted in public job boards. Through your network access the jobs that will give you an edge.  There are other methods to access the hidden job market which i will reveal in a later blog post.

7. Apply for Jobs

Apply for the jobs that fit your future goals and skills; using your updated resume and portfolio.

8. Interview

Prepare for the job interview and land the job that you deserve.

9. Negotiate and accept the job

Evaluate the job offer both in terms of financial compensation; and how it ties to future roles in the company.

Abhishek Kumar

Author, Career 3.0

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1. Choose your industry

What should you do when you start to choose your career? Which industry should you choose? This is a million-dollar question. Many highly successful people have actually fallen into a field by chance. However, given the technology available currently, it is much easier to analyze the different available fields and choose your dream career.

• Which careers are growing?
  • Career Databases such as onet.com have a list of all industries with growth rate and average salary
  • Google search “fastest growing careers”
• Which careers are you passionate about?
  • Which courses did you enjoy most at school?
  • What did you enjoy doing most at your last job?
• Which careers closely relate to your previous experience?
  • What skills do job postings in different careers require?
  • What transferable skills do you possess that can be used in those jobs?
• Which careers do your family and friends work in?
  • These are industries in which you have one foot in the door.

Come up with a list of careers, and sort them by level of interest.

2. What are the essential skills?

• Search for the ten jobs in the careers you are most interested in using Monster, LinkedIn and CareerBuilder. These jobs must interest you.
• Make a list of skills that you need for these jobs. Also include number of years of experience
• In this list, decide which skills you possess.
• Using b and c, fill the Skills Matrix chart.

3. What skills do you have?

• Make a list of “I Have Skills”.

  • These are ones you should emphasize in your resume and portfolio.
  • Make a list of interview stories for these experiences using “STAR” format.

4. What skills do you need to train for?

Also come up with a list of “I need Skills”.

• This will form the basis of your training plan.
• If the Skill is a degree such as “Bachelor of Science in Engineering”, then you do need to look at getting a degree in the field.
• If the Skill requires a certain number of years of experience, you can look at training yourself online. There are a few ways in which you can gain experience which can be of interest to employers:
  • Do a few pet projects that demonstrate your expertise and document them clearly. Be able to explain them in “STAR” interview format.
  • Apply to internships in your area of expertise.
  • Volunteer your skills to employers in your industry that interest you.

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Step I: Choose your Industry

Which fields are growing?

Bob visits www.onet.com and spends a few days researching the different fields that are growing. He realizes that computer analysts, wind engineers and programmers are very fast growing fields with 10-15% growth per year, and has a healthy median salary.

Which careers are you passionate about?

Bob has been interested in computers and programming since high school, before he chose electrical engineering.

Which careers closely relate to your previous experience?

Bob realizes that all he could use some of his electrical engineering skills as a wind engineer; especially in the electronic controllers. He also has done several projects programming machines for his previous company.

Which careers do your friends and family work in?

Bob’s close friends work as programmers in different industries. So he calls them and asks them about the pros and cons of the job; and how it differs from his current job. He also does an informational interview with a solar engineer and a computer analyst; and asks them a lot of questions about the job and the industry.

Bob has done a lot of research into what his preferred career should be. Based on his research, he is confident that he should either become a wind engineer or a programmer. He decides against being a computer analyst because that is very unrelated to his current field, and he is more passionate about the other two fields.

On doing the informational interview, Bob realizes that as a programmer, he can move between a variety of industries based on his interest. He could program wind mills at a later stage if needed. So he now moves on to Step II.

Step II: What are the essential skills?

Bob looks up 5 different jobs in CareerBuilder and makes a list of the requirements. He enters the requirements on the Skills Matrix shown below.

Bob list all the skills that he needs in red and the skills he has in green. The skills in brown are the ones that he has been trained in, but needs further practice.

​​

Step III: What skills do you have?

In this step, Bob documents how his previous skills and career can be used for his dream career. This is the best step of the process. He realizes that he is closer to his goal than he previously thought. He browses through all his old projects and documents to check for previous work examples. Bob spends almost a week to finish this step.

He first makes a list of all his green/orange skills that he possesses:

• JavaScript
• JQuery
• HTML/CSS

Then he creates a portfolio of work examples for each of the above skills. All skills are documented in the STAR interview format. He also documents the skills in his resume. To learn more about this, he reviews our blogs regarding resumes and cover letters.

Step IV: What skills do you need to train for?

This is the hardest step for Bob. He realizes the time and effort needed to change careers. He makes a list of skills that he lacks, and calls his friends in the field to ask them what it takes to learn them. Then he prioritizes the skills using skills prioritization matrix and then comes up with a training plan. The prioritization matrix takes into account the number of times the required skills shows up on the Skills Matrix and the value (1-5) that a seasoned professional assigns to the skill.

The skills that he requires are:

• VB .Net / C# .Net
• MVC
• Pearl
• Python
• Entity Framework
• iOS Apps SQL
• SharePoint

For the Prioritization matrix shown below, Bob counts the number of times each skill occurs on the Skills Matrix and gets a “Skills Prioritization Matrix” for each job, shown below. Then he asks his programmer friend to rank each skill for importance from 1-5. The total of both values marks the relative importance of each skill.

Bob decides that he wants to train on the first three skills first. He sets up a training plan that involves going to a programming boot camp and practice pet projects as well after that. He decides to pay $16000 for the boot camp for three months; though he had the option of learning it free online or paying $80000 for a four-year college course.

The training plan will differ for different people based on their needs and field of interest. Make sure that you take into account the cost and time involved for each option.

Abhishek Kumar

Author, Career 3.0

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I was struck by an experience during my summer internship in Chicago in 2011 that has stayed with me. The ‘big boss’ came to meet that year’s cohort of interns – 15 of us in total. He asked each of us how we found out about the internship opportunity and 13 interns said they knew someone working at the company. He couldn’t help but wonder aloud why almost nobody had come in through the company’s online application process and the many career fairs they had organized. I was shocked by this apparent ‘nepotism’ and my first response was, “I thought this only happened in poor countries like mine with have high levels of corruption”. However caught myself and the outrage quickly disappeared when I remembered that I got in because the CEO of the company gave me a personal referral.

The types of jobs open to most job seekers can be found by anyone on job boards like  indeed.com, monster.com e.t.c. – let’s call this the ‘visible job market’.  However, as we’ll see later, these account for less than 20% of all available jobs. The remaining jobs can be found on the ‘hidden job market’ or ‘invisible job market’. In this blog, we will use the two terms interchangeably. Probably the best definition for this was provided by Carrie Krueger of the Jobfully blog. She defines the term ‘hidden job market’ as  “jobs that are revealed through channels other than advertisements or job board postings”. Another good definition of the term, provided by the Simply Hired blog,  is as follows: “The invisible job market refers to the untold number of job openings that never appear online or on any public website”

In future blog posts on this subject, I will be exploring the workings of the invisible job market and why, for the most part, applying for online job postings is a big waste of time. I will also explore the best known strategies to quadrupling your job success. I’ll introduce effective, but little known tools, for unlocking the invisible job market.

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Mahama Nyankamawu

Author, Career 3.0

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