New To USA on H-1B–Important Things To Do

 

• Get Your Social Security Number and Card
  
• Start Building Your Credit History / Rating / Score - Bank Account – ATM/Debit and Credit Cards
  
• Job Hunting on H-1B Work Visa
  
• Preparing Your Resume / CV
  
• Create Dice Profile, Recruiter’s Response, Selecting Mobile Carrier, Billing and Package, Voice Mail Settings, Leaving Messages
  
• Understanding Employment Types and Tax Terms
  
• Preferred Vendor, Direct Client and Subcontracting
  
• Initial Screening, Telephonic and Face to Face Interviews
  
• Finding an Apartment on Rent
  
• International Driving Permit, Foreign Driver License, Interim Permit and Learner Permit

Job Hunting in USA on H-1B–Initial Screening, Telephonic and Face to Face Interview

 

Usually the selection process starts with Initial Screening by the recruiter. In initial screening, recruiter will call you on your phone and will go through your resume/cv verifying what you’ve mentioned in your resume/cv regarding your education background and work experience.

Recruiter might also setup a first telephonic interview with one of the technical staff member from recruiter’s technical interviewer’s panel, to make sure you score well in end client’s interview.

Technical interviews, be they telephonic or face to face, can include:

• Typical What-is questions – What is OOP?
• Copy-paste bookish questions – How IoC is different from DI?
• Real-life troubleshooting questions
• Scenario based problems

[ Click to view list of topics for Java Developer roles (under section “Selection and Interview Process” ]

Make sure you know every single thing that you’ve mentioned in your resume/cv.

Make sure you state clearly, if you are guessing some thing and are not sure about it, honesty is very very important in such interactions.

It is recommended to always go for the face to face interview option; it is far more effective than telephonic or video interviews. You can communicate more effectively when you are interacting directly, you can make long lasting impression, you can establish more effective connections.

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.

Job Hunting in USA on H-1B–Preparing your Resume/CV

 

You should have to two sets of Resume/CV – a brief one and a detailed one. Wherever you apply, you should use your brief Resume/CV. If, they need more detail, they’ll ask you and then you can send them the detailed one.

You should not mention any personal information in your resume – like:

• Date of Birth
• Age
• Nationality
• Religion
• Race/Cast
• Passport#
• Marital Status
• Languages

As for your educational background – use terms that are known in USA. For example:

In USA	In Pakistan
School - Grades 1 - 5	Primary
School - Grades 6 - 8	Middle
School - Grades 9 & 10	Matric / Matriculation / SSC / O-Level
School - Grades 11 & 12	Inter / Intermediate / HSC / A-Level / FSC / FA

Do not mention the location of your School/College/University. For example:

B.S (Computer Engineering) in 2001 from Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi, Pakistan.

Similarly, in your work experience, do not mention the location of your workplace. For example:

Java Developer – May, 2001 to Mar, 2003 – Al Ghanem Net LLC, Karachi Pakistan.

If you have worked in companies who are known globally or in USA or have a representation in USA, then also mention them. For example:

Senior Software Engineer II – Northstar Technologies Inc. (Sibisoft Pvt Ltd)

Make sure, you have clearly mentioned following in your work experience:

• What role you played in each of the projects you worked on
• What technologies and tools you used in each of the projects

Make sure you’ve mentioned your primary email and mobile/cell number clearly on your resume/cv.