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From: Bo Xiong <yawei@silver.ucs.indiana.edu>
Subject:      CND-US Job Series No.5, 01/31/91
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Status: RO

          *  *  *   C H I N A    N E W S    D I G E S T   *  *  *

			    January 31, 1991

	    Special Package on Visa and Job Hunting (Series 5)

        +-+-+-+- ( China News Digest,  US Section Service) -+-+-+-+

Editor's Note: This special  series is sponsored  by China News  Digest to
               assist Chinese students  and scholars in  U. S. in  dealing
	       with Visa  or Job  related problems.   It is  mostly edited
	       materials  which have previously  appeared on SCC (A Usenet
               discussion group).  CND suggests that this materials should
               only be used  for your reference rather  than authoritative
               answers.  You may contact your local  foreign student advi-
               sor or INS  for further details on related  questions.  CND
	       welcomes comments and contributions.
	       Contact	gxu@kentvm.bitnet  for	back issues of the series.

         - - - - - - T a b l e   o f   C o n t e n t s - - - - - -
No. Subjects							# of Lines

1. How Did I Get A Job in the US High-tech Company
   -- A CND Reader Tells His Own Experiences (Part I) . . . . . . . . . 80

2. Some Skills That May Make One More Employable . . . . . . . . . . . .40

3. Free Resume Forwarding Services Founded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70

4. PR and Job Opportunity:
   Do You Need A PR to Apply for A Job in the US? . . . . . . . . . . . 50

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1. How Did I Get A Job in the US High-tech Company
   -- A CND Reader Tells His Own Experiences (Part I) . . . . . . . . . 80
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From: cxie@fab1.intel.com   Date: Thu, 3 Jan 91 16:38:31 PST
 (INTEL, QRE DEPT., CHENG XIE, TELE.: 408-765-2102, PAGER: 408-239-9636)

Dear CND readers and fellow Chinese friends:

>From reading CND newsletters, I noticed the many concerns that some of our
Chinese friends raised towards job hunting. I truly appreciate the valuable
assistance that CND is offerring to the communication of such not-so-readily
available information. One of the things that I learned from my own experience
is that such information is really tough to obtain and things that are
suggested by campus placement personnel are rarely applicable to us foreign
students from the so-called Controlled countries.  What I shall share with you
is what I learned from my own experience and can by no means be taken as
universal. Besides, it mainly applies to people who wish to work for
industries.

Let me start with a little bit about myself, which can serve as the background
of all my tellings. I received an MS in Physics and an MS in Electrical
Engineering from US and started to work for a major electronics company last
July. An MS in Physics and an MSEE may sound to you a pretty good combination
for industrial jobs. The truth of the matter is that my B.S. from China was in
Nuclear Engineering, my physics MS was earned through non-major coursework
only and my thesis for the MSEE deals with nonlinear optical phenomena. And I
don't have any US industrial experience. But the four job offers I received
are all from semiconductor companies and the positions are all VLSI design
engineers. These offers on the surface have almost nothing to do with my
educational background. The point I am trying to make here is that even if you
start out from a seemingly very disadvantageous position, you can still come
out as a winner if things are done right.

I shall proceed in a Q&A fashion.

Q: What do you think are the most important factors to succeed in job hunting?

A: Resume and initial interview performance.

   Resume: Be honest and creative!

   Your objective(s) need to be well-defined, preferrably oriented to the
   general requirements of the position you are seeking. All the things that
   follow should only be those that support the objectives. Don't mention
   anything that might cause confusion. (Apparantly I did not want to stress
   to the semicondutor employers that my experience was mainly in optics.
   Also, Engineering Physics would certainly sound much more relevent to a
   semiconductor employer than Nuclear Engineering. Notice that I did not lie
   and you never want to lie or you will get back-fired.) Projects, including
   any task that you completed or were involved in doing your thesis or in
   taking a class, need to be described in fair amount of details. (I
   categorized the homeworks from one class and came up with the descriptions
   of three projects from them, which definitely looked better than a single
   class title. The contents are not changed but the ways of presenting them
   are totally diferent.) Try to use industrial terminology for your project
   TITLES. Don't sacrifice anything that you think might help just for fitting
   everything into a single page. Serious employers won't mind reading more
   than one page, as long as they're related to what they are looking for.

   Interview: Be confident and active! Never give up!

   Initial interview can take the forms of campus interview, telephone
   screening, conversation at a job fair and etc. and it can happen more than
   once. In combination with your resume, the result of the initial interview
   determines whether you will be invited to an on-site interview, or plant
   trip. One thing that I consider really vital was finding about your
   interviewer's background first, i.e. whether they are technical or
   administrative and whether they are low level or high level managers. What
   you need to emphasize upon during the coonversation can be very different
   depending on the interviewers' backgrounds. Consequently, the effect will
   be very different too. You can figure it out from their title, position or
   the department they are with or you can just ask. Don't wait for questions.
   Try to have some control over the interview by directing the conversation
   to the subjects you want to or are well prepared to talk about. It would be
   ideal if you know in advance about the company and the requirements as well
   as the natures of the opennings. If you don't, it's OK to ask and do it as
   early in the conversation as possible such that his attention will be where
   you want it to be. When confronted with technical questions that you don't
   have an immediate anwser to, keep trying and never give up. You can even
   ask for help or hints. Most of the time, they are more interested in how
   well you can think.

My time just ran out. I'll write more ASAP about where to look for job
openings, how to get in touch w/ employers and how to address Visa Issues.
If you have any question, e-mail to "cxie@aries.intel.com".

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2. Some Skills That May Make One More Employable . . . . . . . . . . . .40
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From: Zhiyong Shen <statcon3@ccs.carleton.ca>	Date: 6 Jan 91 16:40:58 GMT

Those of us who have found employment have moral obligations at least to give
some tips without warranty to the brothers and sisters who are or will be
struggling to do the same.  The following is just a summary of my chatting
with friends, so some ideas really belong to my friends.

Personal "networks" are important.  According to (ref. forgotten) statistics,
>75% job openings are never advertised.  Companies rely heavily on employee
recommendations.  Unlike "connections" in China, networking here is a way to
get best-qualified employees quickly and not a way to get unqualified nephews
and cousins. Otherwise foreign students would have absolutely no jobs.

Those who are good at math may find learning actuarial science a viable
alternative, as actuarians are in high demand.

Registered Nurses (RN) can apply for H1A visas and then obtain permanent
residency without going through the long process of getting the labor
certificate.  Therefore, spouses who are not in school might consider studying
it and trying to pass the exams.

Another thing one can do is to learn some Japanese.  I am saying this not out
of my own love of the Japanese culture, but because there is a great need for
people with bilingual Japanese-English skills.	The ideal candidates would not
be Chinese, of course.	But the salary in Japan is too high for skilled
Japanese to be attracted to the US, and few Americans learn Japanese, with the
demand so high (due to the intimate relations between the two economic
superpowers) that many companies have to use Chinese, Taiwanese, and Koreans
to fill the gap. For example, in my company, the majority of Japanese-language
positions are filled by other East Asians.  While writing skills are adequate
for certain positions, speaking is required if you seek positions in joint
ventures or trading companies.	Because my work involves processing scientific
information in Japanese language, I was often asked to recommend people who
can speak and/or write Japanese.  Another advantage for Chinese is that they
don't have to spend a lot of time learning Kanji (Chinese characters used in
Japanese) and there are common words for Chinese and Japanese.	I am not
recommending switching to the Japanese major, but if extra time and energy are
available, you may want to spend them on learning Japanese.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Free Resume Forwarding Services Founded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From: schen@paul.rutgers.edu (Shin Chen) Date: 16 Jan 91 16:38:14 GMT

1) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
As suggeested by many netters looking for computer professional positions,
"Jerry Network" will start providing "Resume Forwarding Service" to futher
the help to anxious netters.  Any interested netters or their friends may
mail their resumes thru US postal mail (sorry no email to this account)
to the following address:

			Jerry Network
			c/o Resume Forwarding Service
			1404 Raspberry Ct #11
			Edison, New Jersey 08817

Upon receiving a resume, Jerry Network will search thru its "Openings
Database" and find the most matched position and forward the resume to the
company. The applicants may send in more than one copy of their resumes; in
that case, the resumes will be forward to the companies with most matched
positions. The cover letter is not required since upon discover of a match, a
recommendation with the credit of Jerry Network's professional judgement will
be sent along with the resumes.

In the case that the resume is not well written or does not reveal enough
skills to the advantage of the applicant; Jerry Network will call and
discuss with the applicant to revise the resume.  Should the applicant wish
to have the professional comments on their resume in any case, s/he is urged
to send in one more copy of the resume along with the postage stamped self
address envelope.

This service is complimentary to all netters with no charge. -- Jerry

2) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>From: schen@paul.rutgers.edu (Shin Chen) Date: 24 Jan 91 21:00:34 GMT

To netters who may concern:

I recently talked to the companies participated in Jerry Network and found
out that the reply have been enormously.  They have been receiving over 1000
phone calls from our netters; more than 300 resumes have been received.
However, only fewer than 20 has been hired.  In addition to various reasons,
(or excuses) that they gave, such as no PR, English is not good, no experience
...etc., I believe the most important thing is that the way "Jerry Nework" has
been functioning in an Ad Hoc manner that did not open our netters to many
other potential employers.

Not long ago, we decided to launch a resume forwarding service; together with
our complimentary phone consulting and resume reviewing, we have seen some
encouraging result.  Till now, we have access to over 100 companies'job
requirements and specifications that we could be very effectively forward the
resume that we received and save both the applicants and employers much
recuiting cost.  A typical case is as the following:

Mr. Wong sent in resume on 1/23/91, we found a match and fax a copy of his
resume to 7 best matched companies right on the same day; today, 1/24/91,
we got a phone call telling us that Mr. Wong has been called and a phone
interview will be conducted soon.  In this particular case, we know in advance
that this might lead to a hire.

I urge netters who have sent resumes to nodes of "Jerry Network" be patient
and not dispointed with the result. If any of you would like to take advantage
of our new "Resume Forwarding Service", please send as many copies of your
resume as you want us to forward:

		Jerry Network
		c/o Resume Forwarding Service
		1404 Raspberry Ct #11
		Edison, NJ 08817
-- Jerry
p.s. If you would like a review of your resume, please enclose a stamped
     self address envelope together with one more copy of your resume.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. PR and Job Opportunity:
   Do You Need A PR to Apply for A Job in the US? . . . . . . . . . . . 50
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From: mtan@UAHCS2.CS.UAH.EDU	Date: 29 Jan 91 02:53:06 GMT
 (Maribel Tan, Computer Science Dept., Univ. of Alabama-Huntsville)

****************************************************************
The question is : do you need a PR to apply for a job in the US?
There were some changes on immigration law in 1988 or so that
require the employer to verify new employee's status.
****************************************************************

Employers in the United States are required to verify the proof of employment
eligibility from its prospective employees before hiring them.

The Chinese students who were already in the U.S. before April 11, 1990 can
apply for an off-campus employment authorization in the nearest INS office.

In some cases it helps, for example, my friend finishes her courses last fall.
She got an offer, she shows her employment permit as a proof of employment
eligibility, she worked for the company for 4 months (Sept-Dec) as a vacation
job (she had been enrolled for the past 3 quarters and did not take her summer
off), so she took fall off as a vacation and work full-time.  After three
months, she proved her skill to her employer and they agreed to get her a H-1
status, since it generally takes 3 weeks to get the H-1, so she simply take
the winter off on practical training.

In another case, the employment authorization does not make a big difference,
my friend is from India, he came to the U.S. for 2 quarters only and is
pursuing his master degree in computer science, he had half a decade of
working experience in India. So when he tried his luck applying for a job,
even without his master degree yet, an employer became very much impressed by
his history of work experience, they waited 3 weeks to get him a H-1 before he
started to work for them officially.

Take note that the application for H-1 is a case-to-case basis depending on
your educational background and work experience/history.  Proof of work
experience by former employers are generally required for those without a
master degree.

In short, it is illegal for the employer to hire someone without lawful work
permit, but it is not illegal for someone without employment status to apply
or look for a job, as long as you got the proper paper work done before you
officially start working.

For more information, subscribe to Chinese News Digest at
listserv@kentvm.bitnet	by dropping a line containing
"sub china-nn firstname lastname" to the above address.

If I said something wrong, correct me netters, I stand corrected.

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