Recent graduate and unemployed

[isnata]

Hello everyone,

I am a recent electrical engineering graduate with three co-op work terms. I have a decent mark and good employer appraisals. I am both a theoretical and technical kind of person. I am a hard worker and have a strong drive to be successful. I have been applying for five months now, to many positions both online and in-person. So far, I have got a couple of interviews but non of them seems to work out. I do practice for interviews and research about the companies and their competitors, before going for interview. I have tried contacting the recruiters or senior engineers to get their feedbacks but non have got back to me. I spend a great part on my day researching companies and, writing cover letters/resumes. Additionally, I am an international student, on a student visa. During my undergrad, I learned from first hand, what it takes to land a co-op position. You basically need to hustle and put in strong efforts till the closing date.


Here is my question:
Most of you guys here are experienced engineers and some of you might have gone through a period or situation like this at some point in your career. What advice can you give to a person in this situation? Should I take a break to change mindset about the whole career thing? I would love to go back to my former employers but most of them are downsizing their operations and in need of more experienced engineers. I have been advised by close friends to relocate to other locations with more engineering firms. Will relocating make a difference since all applications are done online? I am also worried about the risk of relocating and getting disappointed at the end of the day. Any advice on this? I have been considering to take on a sale position while relocating to this region, to help support myself while living in this new location. Please can anyone suggest any alternative to this? Has anyone done this before? Thank you in advance for your time and attention.

 

[IRstuff]

The H1b visas are intended to fill shortages of specifically required skills. Since there are typically lots of eager, non-H1b applicants, the typical H1b job specification will be extremely detailed and obscure so that only a foreign candidate can satisfy the requirement. The two H1bs that we had at a previous job had very specific job requirements that even I, as a senior engineer would not have met the requirements, even though they were junior engineers.

Think of these like sole-source justifications that have to be filled out for buying a specific, say, oscilloscope. If you have a specific oscilloscope that you want to buy, you dig through the specs looking for the one feature that your desired oscilloscope has that no other scope has to justify the purchase of that specific scope.

TTFN
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[moltenmetal]

H1B is NOT intended for fresh grads.

Here in Canada we have the "Canadian experience class" of immigration to permit employers to take in some of the foreign students and longer term temporary foreign workers who want to stay. But in an era where our own students, often the children of immigrants who took crap work to provide a better life for their kids, are having a tough time finding entry-level positions in their chosen field, offering instant immigration to foreign students is a dumb idea in my opinion.

 

[IRstuff]

There is nothing that says a new graduate is excluded:

http://www.h1base.com/content/h1bvisarequirements

http://www.immihelp.com/visas/h1b/h1b-visa-requirements.html

TTFN
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[KENAT]

From what I've seen H1B certainly gets abused, and with the new grad thing it's hard to imagine many cases where there is really no one already in the country that could do the work for the right price.

Even in the cases of Phd where claims are made about how their field of research etc. makes them uniquely qualified I still think the definition of 'uniquely qualified' gets stretched a bit too much a bit too often.

However, the topic of H1B being the modern indentured servant has been discussed before and is a bit off topic.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[IRstuff]

By law, the employer must pay prevailing wage for the occupation. It's easy to search, so no H1b should be bullied into slave wages.

http://redbus2us.com/h1b-minimum-wage-or-lca-prevailing-wage-for-a-position-in-an-area-in-usa/

http://www.flcdatacenter.com/OesQuickResults.aspx?code=17-2011&area=31084&year=14&source=1

TTFN
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[KENAT]

Except defining prevailing wage is rather subjective and open to abuse.

For instance you employ them as an Engineer 1 & pay them at the bottom of the scale, even though they're doing work of an engineer 4 in a high cost of living area ...

Plus I'm not saying they get paid slave wages, just not quite the prevailing rate and because of their limited ability to look for alternatives they aren't in as strong a position come pay raise negotiation etc.

Posting guidelines faq731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

(probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484​

 

[CivilEngineer401]

I never heard of having prevailing wages for h1b workers. The wages listed are ~20% higher than what companies around here pay their regular employees so on that basis alone, no one would not hire you.

 

[Tunalover]

Call this inflammatory if you want, but companies hire immigrant workers because they work for lower wages than citizens and are usually unwilling to ask for more. Payroll records are closely-guarded and are usually disclosed only under court order.


Tunalover