Hi everybody,

I would like to ask you to share your experience in a job search.
I'm in Fairfax, Virginia. I got my green card and now I'm loking for a job. Even before I got my green card I started to applay for jobs. Until today I probably applied for about 80 positions and at 5 different employment agencies (2 month period)...nothing. I have Bacherlors in Business from Croatia and 3 semesters of Masters in International Management in Germany. I came here before I was able to graduate. I speak fluently English, German and Croatian. I can get by with my Spanish too
Most of the positions I applied for are entry level, nothing big.. I'm not sure what I'm doing here. People I know here are working mostly in the goverment agencies and they would love to help but I'm not a US citizen or don't have experience working with the goverment.
I even applied online for JC Penny and some other Departement Stores, nothing. Should I apply in person? How is that different? I know everybody keep saying that what really counts is work experience acquired in the States. Will working in retail really give me experience good enough to find the job I want? I mean, my degree is in business, it's the same everywhere in the world. It's not something specific that I wouldn't be able to applay in the States.
How long does it take to find a job? Is it different for the immigrants? Does anybody have experience with the job fairs?
I would appriciate any experience shared and be sure I'm on the right track . I think this is a great place to ask

Have you tried Monster, Careerbuilder or Hotjobs? Those are pretty good and you can apply online. Most stores watn you to apply online, and even if you go in person they have a computer at the store where you have to apply online anyway. How about a bank, maybe as a teller?

My husband has a degree in IT/Computer Science but he doesn't speak English and had to settle for a job at a chain store. It took about 1-2 weeks for them to call him for an interview, I went with him and he was hired on the spot. He started a week later.

It takes time but you have to remember that looking for a job should be your full-time job for now if you want to find something soon.

Good luck!

Diana

Thank you for your response, I appriciate it. The jobs I applied for I found on Monster, Careerbuilder, Washington Post etc. I guess it just takes time, I just need a little bit of an encouragement and info on how it is for the other people. I don't have anybody to ask here really, that's the problem.
I was thinking about applaying at the bank as a teller, that's a good idea but I'm totally scared about beeing a victim of a robbery or something like that, I know it's silly but I guess I can try that.

Have you tried going to a career center in your area? Look up your unemployment department and they should have links to some sort of a career center. My husband's been going there to get advice on interviewing and sprucing up the resume but the best part is that they are connected with certain companies who periodically come in and interview people on the spot, which leaves out the whole submitting resume and waiting for them to call for the first interview thing.

The jobs are not always great but once in a while they do get some good opportunities, like for sales positions. Good luck!

I would suggest applying for a job at one of the many universities in the DC area - seriously, there are usually lots of openings in a variety of entry level positions, the benefits tend to be good, and the atmosphere is great (at least from my experience). If you can speak other languages, so much the better - try the language or foreign service/international studies departments.

Just off the top of my head, here's a short list:

George Washington
George Mason
Georgetown
American
Catholic
Howard

Not to mention all the graduate schools associated with them, and the state/community colleges.

Also, go to your local library and get a Resume writing guide - my US resume and my UK one look very very different.

Thanks!!

I applied at George Mason University for a position as an Office Manager to work with international students. I would love to do that job and I hope I made that noticable in my cover letter I just have to wait now. But I'll try to search oppenings at other universities you suggested, thanks.

Considering my resume few people did take a look at it and they liked it. But with US resumes there is always something you could add or remove Writing the US resume I got the opportunity to remined my self what I actually did in my life, unbelivable how you can forget some things you did at your previous jobs.

I would also say that it's good to get a USC to look over your resume and application. Some of the words I use for instance don't mean any thing to an American. I often find that when my OH looks over my application letters or similar, he has quite a different idea of what should be in there.

And of course it's good to have a second pair of eyes just for grammer and spelling mistakes!

Thank you everybody, I really appriciate your advice. I got a call to attened a pre-screening sesion for an airline job (customer service). It could be interesting and challenging job to do and they have good benefits, like flying for free. We'll see how that works out.

Working for airlines can be challenging at times but the free airfare and buddy passes you get are priceless. I have a friend who's husband works at United and they fly to London and Paris for like $40, it's great. I also knew of a couple of guys who worked as baggage handlers part-time just for that same reason.

Good luck!

Diana

Hi,

Glad you have a lead on a job! It's tough at the moment, and I can't help but think sometimes that people just throw my resume away automatically because I don't have any experience in the US. I've been on 4 interviews in the 3 months I've been looking but nothing so far. I try not to let it get me down - I tell myself that if nothing else, at least I'm getting experience at interviewing!

Another suggestion I have (this is my latest plan) is to get a part time (retail?) job if you can afford to do so, and send out a letter to companies you really want to work for saying that you will work for free part time in order to gain experience. Also, check out http://www.volunteermatch.org/ - I got a job once a week for 4 hours volunteering at a communications dept which is really the area I want to get into, so I'm able to get a bit of experience there and feel like I'm doing something good! I'm hoping someone will want to take advantage of my "work for free" idea, I mean who would turn down free work?? At this point I'm getting a bit desperate and discouraged because it seems my degree is not paying itself off yet

It's ironic and annoying when people won't hire you because you don't have experience, but you can't get experience because nobody will hire you! I don't know if it's specifically an immigrant thing or if it's just the job market at the moment.

Good luck with the airline job!

That is a job market thing, believe me. USCs have the same problem at times.

My husband got a job recently though starting as a volunteer. He did such a good job as a volunteer that they just offered him a paid job a few days ago.

Good luck!

Thank you! I know it will work out good for most of us. It takes time, uf..anyway, good thing is that I can affored to look for any job which is not the case for a lot of people.
The thing is I don't have an experience in one field, I worked as Executive Assistant, then Accountant, and at the end Web Development Manager I have so many different skills but not enough for certain jobs. Anyway, I'll find my perfect job. I don't think it's the problem just for immigrants, maybe sometimes it's easier for US citizen because they can applay for some positions immigrants can't for example jobs with the security clereance or proofreading and excellent grammar skills.
Netwiorking is the most important thing not just in the states. In Croatia I got excellent job offeres just because I know a lot of people and they know me and that I would be invaluable asset to their company, same is in a lots of countries.
But, at the we all face a great deal of challenges in our lives and this is just one of them, although sometimes really frustrating

Ok, this is horrible, I'm in the hurry and didn't have time to check for typos and spelling but you'll get the point

I am thinking you may want to leave your degree OFF your resume because you seem to be overqualified for some of the jobs you mentioned. They probably think you don't really want the job, and you'll be gone as soon as you get one that you're qualified for!

sounds about right.

Well, I was thinking that may be the problem but what's the job I'm qulifed for, I don't have any experience here and I usually look for entry level jobs (degree or no degree) where they offer possibility for growth, that's really the best I can do for now. Anyway, you would think if I applay for the job I do want the job Crazy

Good luck with your interview(s)!

I haven't received my EAD but I'm already forward planning towards the time when I'll be legally able to apply for work. I live in a small college town so, I believe, my highest prospect is to also look for work at the big University here. I hope I won't get discouraged so quickly if things don't fall into place. I think it's made harder when I left my DREAM JOB in Australia - how does one replace that?

I know excatlt what you're talking about, and I realized my dream job wouldn't be a dream job without my other half When he learns Croatian maybe we'll move there because he would really like to live there, but there is still a dangeour when you bild your life in a new country, it's hard to go back, I'm aware of it.

see now you can't say that, and not tell us what the DREAM JOB was??????

True

I had the perfect job in the UK (driving), but gave it up to be with the wife ! Been looking at getting back to driving here in the USA, boy is it bloody hard to get a foot on the ladder when you have no work history here sucks to say the least.

You'd think that a clean record of driving in another country would count for something in another country, but it seems not to be the case here. Oh, and I passed my US driving test here with 100% clean sheet.

The next step is to look at taking the comercial A / B licence here to open up my choices.

Try to get even a temporary position, even if it is lower level work, with an employment agency. Often they are looking for people to have in their pool of "on-call temp" workers who are willing accept non-permament assignments. It gets your foot in the door and gets you a beginning work history here.


Craigslist is good a resource for finding work....

I found two jobs through Craigslist.

I worked for an Australian Govt. project which enabled me to work with the large INGOs (eg, UNICEF, OXFAM, CARE, etc, etc). I just found my job ever changing, exciting and worthwhile - I believe that's what makes it a "dream" job. I was exhausted and drained about 10 months of the time but I never really looked at it as or felt it to be a burden. And I had a great group of people that I worked with. That's what made it my dream job.

It probably doesn't sound that exciting to anybody else