If you have a degree from overseas and you worked and have experience in your country of origin, you will need to take some steps before you can utilize your degree and experience in the US. This is a lengthy process that requires patience and hard work. There are available resources starting on how to build a professional resume to how to get your credits transferred through a recognized accreditation agency. Here some common steps that you may need to take for building your career path using your foreign degree assuming that your English (if not go back to the first menu) is really good:
- Accreditation: Need to change your degree to the American standards. There are many companies that do this with varied requirements. We are not endorsing any of them, you need to check for yourself. Here are some accreditation companies : World Evaluation Service, Foreign Degree Accreditation, or Foreign Credential Evaluations
2. Resume: Need to build your resume using the American format (i.e it is not recommended that you list your birthday, or picture …). You highlight the relevant information and experience. Don’t confuse professional reference with character reference (i.e if I know you that doesn’t mean I know your qualifications …needs someone that knows your quality of work). You can use some of the free online resume builders and resume templates like: Free online resume.
3. Shadow Program: Volunteer in your field even for few hours a week or find an internship. We know that some of the successful examples volunteered for for free for months. Even if the place you volunteer is not closely related to your area still it is good to learn about the work culture.
4. Certificates and Workshops: depending on your field you may need to certify (i.e get a special corticated or license ) by the State of Virginia. For example, engineers regardless of their foreign experience still need to certify so are nurses and teachers. Physicians have slightly different.
5. Applying for Jobs: If your filed doesn’t require any special certificates or licenses besides your degree (e.g. you are a computer programmer or such), then you can start practicing writing cover letters ( a very brief one page letter addressing your skills and how they fit the advertised position you are applying for). There are many job websites where you can search such as Indeed and places where you can upload your resume like the careerbuilder or manpower. It is important that you keep track with the jobs you and places you applied for, to learn a bout them.
6. Interview: If you are called for an interview, you need to prepare for the interview by learning how to present yourself . Yes, it is a form of marketing. Then most important thing is to learn about the company you are applying for. People prepare hard for interviews even those who graduate form US universities. To learn how to prepare for your interview chick this out. There are many
One last tip, finding a job in your field requires patience and persistence but it is really worth it at the end. You need to have a plan, where you need to balance putting food on the table and investing in yourself. Unfortunately, we know many of our brothers and sister who are trained engineers, teachers, even physicians from Kurdistan -Iraq , Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, and many other places who are highly qualified but they just go with the shortcut as a temporary solution then it becomes permanent. But we also have many successful examples-without mentioning names, who worked hard at the beginning and they are now engineers, doctors, dentists, teachers, even professors and such.
7. Education: The application requirements of enrolling in graduate school (master or PhD) depends on the university (which is also called school). For example, most of good universities require GRE or GMAT but there are many ways for getting a waiver. If you are interested in graduate this we are happy to help. Just contact us.
