[HN Gopher] Is my job search situation doomed? I'm losing hope a...
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Is my job search situation doomed? I'm losing hope and getting
desperate
I'm a 20 y/o bootcamp grad with no college degree and 6 months of
professional experience. I've been out of employment since May this
year, and since mid-September I've been applying for entry-level
software engineering positions across the US. Also I'm from Europe
and I'm currently living in SF on a tourist visa, meaning I would
need sponsorship for an H-1b work visa. Let's assume for a moment
that I'm job searching correctly; I'm applying to places that I
would actually want to work at with a relevant resume and a well-
written cover letter, I'm networking on Linkedin and setting up
phone calls with engineers and recruiters, I'm leveraging my
existing network and reaching out to almost everyone I know, etc.
So far I've had zero responses, despite me having referrals to a
bunch of companies. After getting speedily rejected from FB, even
with a relatively strong recommendation, I managed to get feedback
from the engineer that it's basically because companies aren't
willing to sponsor for entry-level positions, especially if the
candidate doesn't have a degree. Is this true? Is there a limiting
factor of my situation here? Why am I being ignored? My resolve is
starting to break because I have zero visibility on _what_ exactly
is going wrong. If it's something about my situation that doubles
the bar, then that's fine- I'll go work in Europe for a few years,
and I'll be back in the US soon. No hard feelings. But because I
know that I'm more than competent enough to hold down the positions
I'm applying for, I wonder if it's something about my situation or
something that I'm doing wrong. What are the conditions that
companies offer sponsorship on? Is there a hard limit on the # of
times a company can sponsor? Am I not being taken seriously because
I'm too young? Or because my only experience was a 6 months? Is my
job gap a problem? Regardless of these questions though, my single
biggest fear is that I'm wasting my time. I don't care about comp
or prestige, I just want to work and build things. But I've had to
instead spend the last few months writing fucking cover letters,
using all the businessy buzzwords. It's so cringe and debilitating
to me. Am I doomed? Or am I being too fragile? Should I keep calm
and carry on? I can do that, but I have a vauge sense of angst that
I could be wasting my time without knowing it. What do?
Author : 666b20753a29
Score : 9 points
Date : 2021-10-25 22:14 UTC (47 minutes ago)
| jimmaswell wrote:
| Companies aren't going to sponsor an entry-level candidate and
| you don't have the credentials to immigrate on ability alone. You
| probably need to get a degree, either here or Europe, or get
| years of work experience in Europe.
|
| What was your motivation for the tourist visa?
| DrNuke wrote:
| > I'm from Europe and I'm currently living in SF on a tourist
| visa.
|
| > since mid-September I've been applying for software engineering
| positions across the US.
|
| > Let's assume for a moment that I'm job searching correctly.
|
| You are not indeed. This is a showstopper, even before having a
| look at your resume to try and figure a fit.
| rossdavidh wrote:
| 1) I have never had to get an H1B, so take anything I say with a
| grain of salt
|
| 2) sponsorship is more of a commitment (in time at least) than
| hiring someone without sponsorship, so you might need more than 6
| months' professional experience to convince someone to do that
|
| 3) remote work might be a lot easier to get now, if you are
| willing to go back to Europe for a while, and if you've been
| doing remote work for a given employer then in a year's time they
| might be a lot more interested in sponsoring an H1B because they
| will know you're worth it based on having worked with you
| remotely
| kevinventullo wrote:
| I generally agree with what others have said so I won't give any
| prescriptive advice, but I will say that yes, the combination of
| little experience, no degree, and needing an H-1b are probably
| working against you and set the bar higher for recruiters to get
| back to you. No degree in particular tends to shut doors at big
| companies in my experience, especially for full time roles.
|
| That said... dude, relax. You're 20. No one has job experience at
| 20. If building stuff gets you excited, then build stuff. It will
| make you happier, and having stuff to show off on GitHub tends to
| be a good investment in your career.
| gregjor wrote:
| Looking for a job in the US while visiting on a tourist visa is
| legally questionable. You're not only asking prospective
| employers to sponsor you for a limited number of visas that can
| get complicated and expensive for them to obtain, but you will
| probably have to leave the US while waiting to get that visa, and
| maybe explain to USCIS why you were job hunting while in the US
| on a tourist visa. At the very least you're competing for one of
| the limited number of H1-B (or other visas that allow working in
| the US) with a large number of more qualified/experienced
| candidates.
|
| Sending in resumes and cover letters is not the correct way to
| search for a job, though it's the most common approach. With no
| degree and only six months of experience you are entry-level at
| best. Right now the demand in the US tech industry is for senior-
| level people. There's no shortage of entry-level US
| citizens/green card holders looking for first jobs.
|
| You're not doomed, but you should realistically assess where you
| are in your career (the very beginning) and how that looks to
| companies desperate for more senior people. Add to that the
| complications of not having the right to work in the US and you
| can start to understand why your applications get ignored. The US
| has limits on H1-B visas, with exceptions for people who have
| advanced degrees or specialized skills. I can't imagine a company
| going to the trouble sponsoring a visa for an entry-level
| candidate. I know at places I've worked candidates who didn't
| have US work permits were ignored -- it's simply too much trouble
| to sponsor a visa and not worth it for entry-level/junior
| positions.
|
| I'm trying to give you helpful advice but I realize I'm painting
| a bleak picture. Large companies like Facebook don't have a
| problem attracting candidates and they can sponsor visas for more
| experienced people (or people with degrees). Smaller and less
| sexy (not tech-oriented) companies do have trouble attracting
| candidates, but they are likely unfamiliar with and skittish
| about hiring a foreigner. Companies used to post "US
| citizens/permanent residents only" in their job ads but that
| seems less common now -- perhaps the employers (or recruiters)
| worry about lawsuits for "exclusionary" hiring practices, or they
| don't want to take the chance of missing a truly great candidate
| they might sponsor.
| gregjor wrote:
| As a US citizen I haven't needed to get a visa to work in the
| US, but I did try getting jobs in Europe (UK pre-Brexit,
| Denmark, Sweden, France) while traveling on a tourist visa. I
| had almost ten years experience at that time, but was told
| several times that I was not allowed to even interview for jobs
| while on a tourist visa, and would have to apply from the US
| (which I eventually did, and then got a job in England, after
| two months of fast-tracked work permit paperwork my employer
| paid for).
|
| I spent six years as a so-called "digital nomad," working for
| US companies remotely while living overseas. That's also
| legally questionable but harder for governments to enforce. I
| suggest you either go back to your home country and apply for
| US jobs from there (so there's no question about you violating
| your tourist visa and implicating a prospective employer), or
| freelancing remotely for US companies for a while, which
| doesn't require a work permit/visa.
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(page generated 2021-10-25 23:02 UTC)