10 Best Websites for Job Search

Job search in itself is a full time job. Once students graduate, they will come face to face with reality of job search. It will usually take 1-2 months time to understand how big the job search market is and what techniques and strategies needs to be followed while searching for jobs. Job search is long journey, you never know where the road leads. Here is the list of job search sites that I like in the order listed.

1. LinkedIn.com ( Job Search Guide Using LinkedIn )
2. Indeed
3. SimplyHired ( LinkedIn.com)
4. Yahoo! HotJobs
5. Craigslist
6. CareerBuilder
7. Monster
8. ComputerJobs
9. Dice (IT jobs)
10. Bio Space ( Biotechnology, Molecular Biology)

Photo Credit : Brenbat

10 Jobs That Start at $50K+

Almost everyone applying for Graduate School in U.S. at the end wanted to know how much they can earn after completing Graduate School. To gen an idea of salary for Entry Level Jobs, here are list of Top 10 Jobs that will pay more than $50,000 per year.

1. Investment Banking Analyst. $59,084

2. Business Analyst, Computer Software. Typical Starting Salary: $50,727

3. Forensic Computer Analyst.
Typical Starting Salary: $51,852

4. Junior Associate Attorney.
Typical Starting Salary: $52,678

5. Physical Therapist.
Typical Starting Salary: $52,573

6. Nurse Practitioner (ARNP).
Typical Starting Salary: $67,166

7. Electrical Engineer.
Typical Starting Salary: $54,401

8. Software Engineer. Software engineers design, write, and test computer programs. Computer networking and information technology are hot fields that are here to stay.
Typical Starting Salary: $56,795

9. Pharmaceutical Sales Representative.
Typical Starting Salary: $51,104

10. Veterinarian. Do you love animals?
Typical Starting Salary: $59,084

Source : Yahoo Hot Jobs

Education Requirements to get Above listed Jobs

But the next question is, how much can I save if I earn $50k per year. Well, it depends on where you live. Cost of living is a major factor in U.S. For example, 1 Bed Room Apartment rent in New York will be around $1500 per month, whereas same size apartment in Texas, Florida will be less than $600. But, in general, Salary will be more in New york and other metro areas where Cost of living is high.

Entry Level Student Resume : How to highlight your skills

I don’t have work experience, what shall I include in my resume? How do I highlight my skills?

Well, you are not the only person who is trying to find the answers the above questions. Over past few years, I read few books on Resume Make Over and how to highlight your academic experience in the resume to get that job interview. I know its tough to get your resume apt for the position you are applying. I had written about students in OPT looking to get job and H1B visa and many students reading this blog are entry level students. So, I figured, some tips on their resume will help.

Resume is an evolving process, it keeps changing over the time, to get started, find the resume template, that you fell attracted and start working on its contents.
I worded on my resume daily, making small changes and trying to get it right. There is no magic behind getting perfect resume, the first time. You will have to invest lots of time in preparing your resume. I enjoyed the resume preparation process and here are few tips

Resume : Objective or Professional Summary

For entry level students, listing your accomplishments would be a great way to start, instead of including Objective. Most of the resume objective states what students want rather than what they can provide to the company. Watch the following video, it will explain few things on what qualities to highlight in your resume as Entry Level student.

As you can see from the above video, try to write down any experienc3es in your college that you can use to explain your skills. For example, you might have worked as part of 4 member team preparing presentation, that experience can be included to highlight your team work skills.

• Presented a paper on Wireless communication as part of 4 member team
• Lead the team of 4 in designing and implementing the Mechanical Design Project.

In a sheet of paper and list all the experience that you can relate to team work, communication skills, deadline oriented work, .. and frame sentences and include in the project description.

Image Credit : Daquella Manera

How to make your Resume look good

I Stumbled Upon this very useful web page about Resume makeover. I was glad to see such a detailed description on how to change your resume. They have explained with sample resume template. If you are looking for job or internship, this is a good tutorial on Resume Make Over from Life Clever.

Top Mistake in Entry Level Student Resume

In the last article, I wrote about 28 questions students ask while writing resume.. To find a job U.S. after Graduate Degree, itself is a full time job. Resume plays a important role in the job search. When the student looking for the job dosen’t have any job experience, then things gets really interesting. But, having resume that attracts interview call is important and in this article, I will discuss about the top mistake made by the students while writing the resume.

I was reviewing few resume last week and I saw almost all the resumes I came across had one common mistake. Resume, I was reviewing were from Entry Level students with no job experience. When students don’t have job experience, their project experience and internship experience will help their resume stand out from the other entry level student resumes.

Employee’s will try to match the experience you had, working on college course work projects, team work, communication skills and technical skills. It has to be reflected in the resume. Resume has to be crafted to say what you have accomplished. Combined with good resume template, it will help you get that job interview call. I call those resume as “winning resume”

Project Description vs Project Accomplishments

Project Description and Project Accomplishments are completely 2 different things. But, majority of the resume, students write about Project Description. Employees are not much concerned about Project Description. They are looking for quantitative project accomplishments.

Example Project Description

• wExpose for Windows: wExpose for Windows is the tool that replicates for Expose feature of Mac OS in Windows OS.

Example Project Accomplishment

• Designed and Implemented wExpose for Windows OS using Perl.

You will see the difference in Project Accomplishment. Quantitative values can also be associated to the project accomplishment.

• Implemented the wExpose for Windows using Perl in 1 week.

Employers will be looking for: what students have accomplished in the past and evaluate if their actions will fit in the company’s culture and work environment. So, when writing resume. Make sure you include the project accomplishment, not the project description in the resume.

That’s the another reason why resume are more than 2 pages in length. When students write about project description, it exceeds 2 pages. I have seen resumes from students with 1-2 years work experience and then applying for Master’s program, have 5 pages resume. The reason being, they write description of the client, description of the project and no words explaining, the accomplishment in the resume. those kind of resume usually turn the employees interest down.

In mean time if you haven’t started job or internship search, you can look at most effective way to search of jobs using linkedin and 10 best sites to for job search.  Job search must start as early as possible. So, you will know what to look for, where to look for jobs and how to search. I have seen students struggle when they start the job search after they graduate. So, go ahead and get started. I will be suggesting different ways to search for jobs.

28 Quetions About Resume

I have listed some of the common questions students will have to find the answer while writing the resume. If that’s the first resume writing experience, I’m sure they will have at-least 90% of the questions I have listed below.

1) What should be the length of the resume

2) Which resume template should I select?

3) Where should my educational details go, before or after the project, academic experience section.

4) I have low GPA, should I indicate that in the resume?

5) I have filled contents of resume only for 1.5 pages, can I leave half page blank?

6) I don’t have any work experience, can I add few work experience, since there is space left in the resume?

7) Should I list when I graduated from school?

Do I list summary of qualification or objective section to start the resume with?

9) I want to write a good resume, but my mind just freezes when I start to edit the resume, I really don’t know how to proceed further.

10) I applied for some 50 or more jobs, I haven’t got any response, should I change my resume template?

11) What is the difference between functional and chronological resume?

12) I’m entry level student, I don’t have any work experience, can I have 2 ore more page resume?

13) My friends has good looking resume template, can I use the same template?

14) Do I have to list all the people who gave reference about me in the resume?

15) Do I need to write about the company I worked for in the resume?

16) I know what C programming language is, and have written 2 small programs, can I list C in my skills set?

17) How do I make the resume fax-able?

18) I have less then 1 year work experience, but my resume is more than 5 pages, do I have to reduce the length of the resume?

19) Description of the project I worked in school is 2 page long, how do I explain it in 3 lines in resume?

20) Do I need to change the resume for each job I apply?

21) I have certification logo, can I use that in the Microsoft Word format resume?

22) Do I need to have special format resume to upload resume in websites like Yahoo Hot Jobs (10 best web sites to search for jobs)

23) Do I need to keep updating the resume?

24) Can I print the resume in 1 paper on both sides or on 2 separate sheets of paper?

25) What is the best font size and font family to use?

26) How do I create a ASCII format resume?

27) How to make MS word format resume scannable?

28) Will tis resume format, contents is sufficient enough to get me a job?

In future posts, I will write about resume and also answer to all the above questions, including job search tips, internship search tips. Hope you enjoyed the article. To find better jobs, I recommend Yahoo Hot Jobs. More details on job search engines in future articles. Good Luck in your job search.

Different ways to search for jobs and internship - 1

Did you know there are at least 10 different ways to search for jobs and internships?

I have added new link to write about job search and internship search for students. Students who are currently in school must have some exposure about job search and internship methods followed by their circle of friends. When job search is not done in the way it’s supposed to be done, students will usually end up giving the job search within 1 or 2 months and start looking for consultants.

Did you know?

I will be using job search and internship words interchangeably. Most of the student who are currently applying for student visa and admission have assumed that companies visit campus and they get job through campus placement. But, that’s not the actual case in majority of the universities. Students have to actively ( I would say pro-actively) search for jobs, else job search itself will look like a big task.

I knew few of my friends, who didn’t apply for any jobs and when their OPT period was about to end, they found some consultants to process the H1B visa. Also, I know few who didn’t even think about searching for jobs, after graduation they went to consultants and found some job through them. I always favored Permanent Employment then contract positions.

Job search is itself a full time job. Couple of my friends, when in their OPT period were very desperate to find a job and time was running out from their OPT period. They always get up early, start looking for jobs, and they had learned at what time email has to be sent to HR people, what modifications to resume to be done while applying for jobs and much more. Finally they got the job that they enjoy now, even after 3 years.

Current students looking for jobs will know how difficult is to get an interview call, but once they have that first interview, then things will fill in their way. But, getting that first interview call is that matters and it take lots of effort. But, there are so many different ways that are available that will help student to get the jobs and interview call much faster and much worry free way.

In the series of post, I will be discussing about different job search and internship search ways available and how to use them effectively. In mean time you can create an account with Yahoo Hot Jobs. I recommend Hot Jobs to other job search sites and will explain the reason in coming articles.

Job in U.S. after Master’s Degree

Have you ever asked yourself, can I work after Bachelor’s degree or attend graduate school in U.S., if so, what are the job opportunities in U.S.?

Well, it was not tough decision for me, I was much determined to study in U.S. and never did think about finding job after Bachelor’s degree. So, many students have asked me, how much will I get paid after Master’s degree, can I find a job ‘easily’ after graduation. Job search is another big topic to talk about and soon I’m going to write articles for current students on internship and job search.

But, from my job search experience and from what I saw how my friends got job, I have a good idea on how to get a job in U.S. and how long it would typically take for a student after graduation to find a job. Answer to that depends on what approach student takes to find the job. There are so many ways to look for job. First thing that would come to person mind is Google search and then move on to other job posting sites. but, they all end up getting the job.

So, job search itself a job, but the fact is you can find a good job, high paying one, even with no work experience. There is no shadow of doubt that, student will have to go back to native country without finding a job during OPT period ( 1 year after graduation ). Some student get low paying job, some find high paying job and it really depends on the location, job nature, company performance, …

To answer the question from the first sentence of this article, I strongly recommend students to study in U.S. The exposure you get, research projects you get to work with, technology to learn is much more when compared to studying Master’s degree in India ( unless its IIT, ..). Students will get hands on experience in implementing research projects.

I have told many times to my friends that amount of knowledge I gained by working in one project in 1 course in 1 semester is much more than what I learned in Bachelor’s degree in 1 semester. That’s the nature and quality of the of the education in U.S. colleges and universities.

Do, subscribe to email updates to be informed about other interesting articles related to job search, internship opportunities, when and where to look for internships, and much more.

Free Resume review

 

I’m planning to review two of your resume and suggest changes to resume format and useful links where you can find resume examples, professional resume templates and also, guide to resume writing and other useful tips for student resume. You must be aware of that fact, resume format that is followed in India wouldn’t help you.

Most of the resume I have seen from students are very long and doesn’t have elements that will catch the employers or professors attention within first few seconds after looking at the resume.
certain fields of resume must be in certain place and they don’t have time to read through all the pages of each resume. Hope you guys will use this opportunity.

In order to get your resume reviewed , all your need to do is this

1) Comment on any of the posts.2) 2 top comments will get their resume reviewed.

3) Make sure to leave your email id in the comments.

How to find a part time job

Part time would definitely make student life easy. It will pay your monthly living expenses atleast. But, you must be aware of the fact that, it must be of least priority in your list for finding way sot meet your financial ends. Order of importance would be as follows

1) Research Assistantship
2) Teaching Assistantship
3) Scholarship
4) Part Time job

In this article, I’m going to talk about part time jobs. As an International Student, you are allowed to work 20 hours per week within University Campus. Any work outside the campus, like gas stations, restaurants, hotels, motels, is considered illegal. It can lead to deportation from U.S.

One of my friend was working in an restaurant nearby the university. One of the International Student Advisor was at the restaurant for lunch, and he happened to his waiter. Couple of days later, he went to IO for some paper works, and same International Officer happened to meet him. He advised him to quit working at restaurant immediately, without any adverse action. This was few years back.

So, there is very good chance of getting deported back to India, if you were found working outside campus. But, do student take that risk? Yes, of course. But, I feel its not worth the risk to work off-campus jobs.

Requirements for Part-Time job:

If you don’t have RA/TA, start looking for part time jobs oncampus, from Day 1 you reach U.S. Because, it will help you in many ways, like

1) Part Time jobs will get you an SSN
2) That will indirectly, help to get Credit Cards, Driving License and build Credit History and Driving History.
3) Above all, will pay for your monthly expenses.

You would need…

• One Page Resume for part time jobs.
• Know where to look for jobs
• Know who is right contact person for that job
• Know few seniors who has part time job, who will give your pointers
• Be proactive during job search

Some schools, finding part time is very difficult. Especially, when number of International Students are more in the University. Not everyone will get RA/TA. Also, number of jobs that will be available will be very less. If that’s the case, you need to be looking for all possible opportunities to find a job.

Some job will pay you like $10 per hours and some will be $6 per hour. Look for jobs in Library, Multimedia Labs, Computer Labs, Department Offices, College Cafe, Football, Basket Ball ground, Administrative departments, Registrar Office, … I have heard that in Texas A&M @ College Station there is an RA position for feeding and observing the research animals like pig. They pay around $1200 per month.

If you attend big schools in terms of students strength ( > 35,000), more chances for you to find the part time job very easily. If there is medical school, look for jobs over there too.

I will have to talk about significance of One Page Resume in future posts. If you like this post, I would appreciate, if you can pen down few comments. Thanks!