Thursday, May 30, 2013

Job Hunting in USA on H-1B–Dice Profile, Recruiter’s Response, Mobile Carrier, Billing and Package, Voice Mail Settings, Leaving Messages

 

Although there are a number of job portals and services available online free of charge, but as per my personal experience, Dice.com alone would suffice. There are hundreds of posting on this website on daily basis, so much that you would exhaust all your energy and won’t be able to just review all of the posting – and I’m talking about filtered posting that matches your area of expertise, say for example Java or Dot Net.

So, my recommendation for you is to create a profile on Dice.com and upload your both versions of Resume/CV – brief one and detailed one. Make sure your profile is searchable and you have mentioned valid cell/mobile number. If possible provide an alternative number as well.

After creating your profile, even if you don’t “apply” to any of the job postings on Dice.com, you’ll still receive plenty of calls from recruiters/employers. The response from recruiters/employers will be so overwhelming that you might lose the ground under your feet Open-mouthed smile. So try not raise your expectations so high that would hurt in the end Smile. Be reasonable!

Make sure you have mobile carrier that works best in your area. My personal experience with Verizon is that its coverage is good and quality of signals are great. Whether you are inside a building or on the go, it connects very well. It is important in this phase of your job hunting because you will be receiving lots of calls on daily basis.

For those of you who are from Pakistan, there’s a significant change the way mobile service providers bill in USA. In Pakistan, we only pay for the outgoing calls and not for incoming calls. In USA, you will have to pay for both incoming and outgoing calls. For example, if your incoming and outgoing calls are 20 minutes and 28 minutes. Then in Pakistan you will only pay for 28 minutes of outgoing call, while in USA you will have to pay 48 minutes of incoming and outgoing calls altogether.

I would recommend you to select Unlimited Package from your carrier’s Package offerings. You need that because, you will be receiving a huge number of calls daily. Plus, your initial screening will be done via phone by the recruiter/employer. And may be, your first interview might also be done on phone. So you will be engaged in calls of longer duration.

Make sure the Package you choose have a Voice Mail option. Although it’s very common and is almost available in all Packages.

Make sure you setup your personal Voice Mail greeting/message in your own voice. Do mention your full name and make sure you are loud enough to be heard easily over phone.

If your Voice Mail have a limit on number messages to archive, keep deleting old and unwanted Voice Mail Messages to have space for incoming messages.

Whether you are calling a recruiter/employer or returning a call and if the person is not available, record a brief message with your full name and your primary phone number. If you also mention the current time, that would also help the receiver.