As an OPT (Optional Practical Training) International Student, I had been in the same shoes are you were few years ago. I graduated from Chemical engineering from Bangalore University. I saw the trend was to start reading GRE and Toefl and plan to go to USA. Well since the job market in India was not that great, so thought why not follow the trend. Landed in US and joined master’s program in Computer Science. With 9/11 and bad economy, there were no chances of funding or even getting on-campus jobs. Somehow my luck favored and I got my first on campus job in few months. Then got my Assistantship, then my Internship and was ready to graduate.

Job market was still worse. More then job market I didn’t have a mentor to guide me through the OPT/CPT job search process. My friends were in the same boat as I was. Some were looking for Internships(CPT); some were going to Indian consultants, few landed with big corporations and got jobs.

One this which I noted was that when economy was good, it was easy to get jobs. People with no or some experience can get a OPT jobs or OPT work. The reason being, companies have more money to try new people. But when economy is bad things gets tougher. There are few jobs and chances of taking risk are minimal. Companies are looking for very specific skill sets, so that results can be produced in small time frame. This makes the process even more tedious.

read more...

With the consulting regime conquering the IT scenario, many OPT (Optional Practical Training) employers are in the fray to make a quick buck. So one needs (especially OPT students) to be very cautious and careful while choosing an OPT employer or OPT work. Having a good employer is very vital so as to avoid any legal, payments, and immigration issues in the future and of coz getting work assignments at reputed companies by not being on bench for too long.

Before you set about stumbling upon an OPT employer, one needs to ascertain what his/her short-term goals are. Is it huge pay / getting placed soon. Many OPT employers entice employees with good % billing rates. One should never fall into such kind of traps especially when you are starting your career in consulting. The following are the important features one needs to consider when he/she chooses an employer:

First decide on which field you want to pursue as a consultant and search for employers who expertise in marketing/training in your field of choice.

Once you came up with a filtered list (may be about 20-30), get some info about the employer from any blogs, friends, employer website etc.

read more...

--- Read all articles ---