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 . So try not raise your expectations so high that would hurt in the end . 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.

Receiving and Accepting the Offer from H-1B Work Visa Sponsor

 

This post is a part of series of posts that makes up “The Complete Process Trail for H-1B Work Visa”.

Once you clear the technical interview and are shortlisted by the H-1B Work Visa Sponsor, your second and last interview will be scheduled with the HR/Management. This interview serves a mean to interact with the management/HR of the company and sort of an introductory knowledge session about what company is all about, their vision, mission , future roadmaps etc.. It is very rare that a candidate who qualifies the technical interview, got rejected because of the evaluation results from his management/HR interview.

Next, the Sponsor will extend an offer to you verbally, which details your role, job description, salary, benefits, etc.. If you agree or after final negotiations, they will send you an Official Offer Letter on company’s letter head, which will be a proof of employment for you throughout your H-1B Work Visa processing.

Make sue you discuss and have a clear understanding on all of the following before accepting the offer:

1. Contract Type – Consultant or Employment
2. Sponsor’s % and your % in case of Consultant Contract OR per month Salary in case of Employment Contract
3. General idea of rates/salaries in prevailing market
4. General idea of Tax Deductions & your Take Home Salary

H-1B Work Visa Sponsors and their Selection Process / Criteria

 

This post is First of a series of posts that makes up “The Complete Process Trail for H-1B Work Visa”.

How to find H-1B Work Visa Sponsors?

So how you will find an H-1B Sponsor who sponsor candidates with similar expertise and skill sets as yours? There are different ways in which H-1B Sponsors float sponsorship opportunities in the market.

1. Join Local Office for some duration  – Some sponsors publish their local job vacancies with H-1B sponsorship as an “added” advantage. So once you are selected, you will have to join their local office for a year or more (depending upon your specific case) and thereafter they’ll process your H-1B. Also, some sponsors tie the processing of H-1B sponsorship with your performance in their local office, so it is not necessary that once you joined their local office, you are also selected for the sponsorship as well.
   
   So, in order to find such sponsors, refer to my post “Companies who Sponsor H-1B Work Visa for USA in Pakistan” and follow Job Opportunities from these companies on:
   
   Rozee.pk
   pak-jobs-IT
   Company’s own website
   
2. Trusted References Only – Some sponsors do not float their ads directly in the local market, they work through their existing established local trusted references. So, in this case, you have to leverage upon the professional and social circle you are in. In my opinion, I could be wrong, professional networks like LinkedIn.com or Rozee.pk might help in this case. Because your complete professional profile is visible to your contacts and they can see if you are a good fit for the opportunity or not.

Selection and Interview Process

In first case above, the selection process is pretty much the same as with any other selection process for local Job Opportunities. Therefore, I’ll now discuss the second case in detail below.

If an H-1B sponsor is interested in your profile, they will schedule your technical interview. The interview duration will be 30 to 60 minutes in which you will be evaluated in following technical and non-technical areas:

1. Technology (Java/.Net/C++/etc)
1. Hashing
2. Serialization
3. Collections
4. Multi Threading / Concurrent Programming
5. Network Programming
6. JDBC
7. Exception Handling
8. etc.
2. OOP
3. Frameworks
1. IoC (Spring, etc.)
2. MVC Frameworks (Spring WebMVC, Struts 1/2, etc.)
3. ORM Frameworks (n/Hibernate, etc)
4. Web Services (REST, SOAP)
4. Databases
1. SQL
1. Joins
2. Sub Queries
3. Views
4. Stored Procedures / Functions
5. Triggers
6. Query Performance & Optimization
2. Transactions & Locking
3. Big Data Handling concepts like Sharding and Partitioning
4. High Availability concepts like Clustering, Replication, etc..
5. Problem Solving – Scenario based
6. Communication
1. Command over English Language
2. Clarity of Thoughts
3. Confidence
4. Attitude
5. Mental Presence and Attentiveness
6. Punctuality

Besides above, you can be asked about any thing that you have written in your resume/cv.

As far as interview scheduling is concern, you can either receive an email or a phone call confirming your interview time and date. They will also let you know how your interview will be taken i.e. it could be over:

1. Skype
2. Your landline or Mobile phone
3. Goto Meeting Session
4. etc.

The interview could be Audio only (most probably) or both Audio and Video. Some important tips for the interview are as follows:

1. Make sure you are online/ready 5 minutes before your scheduled time. Save yourself from the embarrassment of last minute hiccups.
2. Make sure you are in a safe and sound place, where you can attend your interview peacefully with out kind of interruptions.
3. If you are giving interview on Mobile Phone, make sure it is fully charged.
4. If you are giving interview on Skype or Goto Meeting or any online audio/video service, make sure your Mic/Speakers/WebCam/etc. are all working correctly. Better make test calls to make sure every thing is fine.
5. Speak naturally with a medium pace (not too fast, not too slow) and slightly louder than normal voice.
6. Avoid short answers and very long explanations. Be specific with enough details to satisfy the interviewer.
7. Be prepared for the time when they ask you “if you any questions for us?”, keep a couple or more questions handy for the that time.

You’ll probably be notified within a week about the result of your interview and whether you are shortlisted or not. You will either receive an email (most probably) or a phone call.

In my next post, I will discuss what will happen once you pass the scheduled interview and make it to the shortlisted candidate?

H-1B Work Visa USA–Recent Trends–Candidate Profile/Skills

 

So what kind of candidate profiles/skills, H1-B sponsor companies are interested in? I’ve depicted the most recent visible trends (in the last 3 or 4 years?) as follows:

Technology

1. Java Platform ~ 70%- 80%

2. .Net Platform ~ 15% - 20%

3. Others ~ 1% - 5% (Oracle DBA/Functional/Technical, SAP, etc.)

 

Job Role

Software Engineers / Senior Software Engineers / Software Developers / Team Leads / Technical Leads etc.

In short, they are interested in people who do “LESS TALK & MORE WORK” and their definition of “WORK is CODING”. A word of caution for you; if you have highlighted your Management experience and skills in your resume or cv, chances are that you will not make it to the shortlisted candidates.

Why is that so? my investigation suggests that there are numerous factors involved. First, “Demand leads the way” i.e. technical resources who are hands-on and can be productive from the very first day are actually in great demand in USA. But, don’t get me wrong, other job roles also have a demand, like:

Product Managers, Program Managers, Project Managers, Project Coordinators, Scrum Masters and other PMO related roles.

QA Managers, QA Engineers, Senior QA Engineers, Testers, QA Automation Engineers, QA Leads and other QA related roles.

But, typically those who are pulling resources from Pakistan or India or China, are bent on hard-core developers.

Second, developers rate are usually higher and hence better profit margin.

Third, communication is often a problem area with majority of Pakistani or Indian or Chinese resources and effective communication is a key requirement for any managerial or senior level position.