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IT Internship In the US For a Foreigner?
grk writes "I am from Europe, studying Business Informatics. I have plenty of IT-related work experience (from my part-time job and summer jobs) ranging from Project Management and Software Planning to Programming. In the 5th semester my curriculum has scheduled an internship for February 2009 preceding bachelor examinations and bachelor thesis. It will last for about three months. I would like to do my internship in the US, but I do not know how to start. Is it common to send unsolicited applications to companies in the US? Try the big corporations? Should I go for an employment agency? Which ones to choose from? What about the pay? Where I come from it is common to pay only a fraction of what your work is actually worth if it's called an 'internship.' Does this apply to the US as well? Any other recommendations?"
We seem to have lots of room for foreign workers around here. At the University of Alberta we've seen a noticeable increase in foreign researchers for the past several years, especially as the US tightens its borders and makes it harder and harder for people to be trusted with a visa. I wonder if coming into the US with "bioinformatics" would raise eyebrows...
"You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help" -- Calvin
I hear this often that no Americans apply for internships, but in reality they are never externally posted domestically, so no US citizens know about them.
Its the usual ploy for more excuses to fire Americans for dirt cheap I-9 labor, when complete outsourcing can't be done in a department.
I think your tinfoil hat is on too tight. We pay interns the same whether citizens or not, same for new college hires (I don't know about other positions). Our college recruiters go through the normal channels to post jobs. All of our interns came from external postings.
The point of an intership program is to find smart young engineers, not cheap labor. Interns are never worth what you pay them, so they don't count as cheap labor - they're an investment in hiring top talent.
There are certainly companies that focus on H1-B labor, especially on exploiting young workers who don't realize how easy it is to change jobs and how much they're underpaid, but those seriously aren't companies you'd want to work for, even to break into the industry.
Meanwhile, look at the population of CompSci masters students in the California system. I did. It's almost entirely foreigners here on student visas. That's not some conspiracy of evil companies, it's just reality.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Our college recruiters go through the normal channels to post jobs. All of our interns came from external postings.
That's your problem right there, college recruiters. If they're like the ones at my uni, they're ignored 'cause they blend into all the other recruiters.
Seriously though, I understand where the gp is coming from. I know that there are lots of internships available 'cause I actively seek 'em out or scan the piles of letters/emails/posters that advertise 'em, but I know that most of my classmates are utterly clueless about what's available 'cause it's just so badly handled in my school.
Internships are either announced in emails (which would be useful 'cept the person in charge can't seem to figure out how to use groups and filters, so she constantly sends out positions in a specific engineering discipline to the entire school, rendering all her emails spam to most everybody) or posted on a wall nobody visits. Oh, and occasionally the career center gets word of something or there's a job fair, but those are few and far between.
What I'm trying to say is that I can imagine that many other schools ('specially others ones without insane budgets) would be having the same problems, so often even if it seems like you're getting the word out, your target audience may not be getting the message. Though yeah, your target audience probably will be foreigners anyway 'cause yeah that's most of the people in the average comp sci. program.
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The pay for the jobs is way too low to create enough incentive for any rational US person to consider it a real opportunity.
Well, what we pay interns is what I was making 5 years into my career. Of course, you never can tell in California, but I *think* we're paying a reasonable wage.
The idea that there arent enough US persons in math, science, engineering, graduate programs, etc etc is total bunk...a myth created by firms that want to pay people less for more output.
Have you *seen* the makeup of a CompSci masters program in the California university system? I have. It's 85% Indian, 10% Chinese, and 5% Other in my estimate. While some of that 95% might be citizens, of course, conversations with our interns about this suggested otherwise.
Another interesting data point: we asked the interns over lunch in an informal setting "why did you choose this field". 100% of the replies were "my parents chose it for me".
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Hey, I'm planning on doing an internship in Europe too, (probably UK or Germany). Can you tell me a bit more about your experience there. Like which country did you go to, did they pay OK, how did you apply and what kind of work did you do?
we mostly look at Masters students [...] we didn't have a single American citizen apply for an internship last year
Ah, I think I see your problem.
You want to hire, as interns, people who have already gotten their BS and have the option of taking a "real" job with most other companies (at least, most companies outside Silicon Valley).
But don't worry, absurd expectation or not, it will still look good when you have to justify using all H1Bs.
Now, you didn't mention what your company does... If you specialize in something like bioinformatics and want non-CS Masters/PhD people, I withdraw my vitriol. But outside academia and pure research, higher degrees in CS should stand out as a red flag, not a resume greenlight.
Jobs in Taiwan do. But then, they actually still make stuff there. Even the salesmen have at least B.Sc.
So, basically people aren't bothering to look for work, then are complaining that 'foreigners' are taking their jobs?