The Office of Career Planning & Professional Development helps international students to develop a strategy for the U.S. job or internship search. International Students looking to work by utilizing their CPT or OPT should be in close contact with The Office of International Students about current requirements.
CP&PD Resources
Handshake is a platform where CUNY GC students and alumni can find job and internship opportunities, discover fellowship and post-doc positions, and attend events sponsored by outside companies and organizations.
Of special interest for international students is the option to filter opportunities according to the required work authorization. This filter allows you to search for jobs offered by an employer open to U.S. visa sponsorship, or that are open for OPT or CPT candidates. Use Handshake’s Job section, choose “all filters,” and select “jobs that are eligible for U.S. visa sponsorship” and “jobs that are open to candidates with Curricular Practical Training (CPT) and/or Optional Practical Training (OPT).”
Through Handshake, you can schedule appointments directly with advisers from The Office of Career Planning and Professional Development and access other resources provided by our office. Read the blog post An Overview of Handshake to learn more about Handshake’s useful features and how to activate your GC account in the platform. This guide will help you create a compelling profile. If you’re interested in attending events the platform hosts, then check out this blog post.
Additionally, view the CP&PD orientation webinar for international students: The Job and Internship Search for International Students: What’s Different.
And read our two-part series of blog posts for international students in the U.S. job market:
- Enhancing Your U.S. Job Search for International Students, Part 1
- Enhancing Your U.S. Job Search for International Students, Part 2
Identifying Companies that Have Sponsored or are E-Verified
The US Department of Labor releases yearly data on visa sponsorship applications. The H-1B Employer Data Hub offers a database of employers petitioning for H-1B employees. It allows you to search for H-1B sponsors by year, employer name, location, or NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) code. You can also view lists of employers that sponsor H-1B visas and other reports from U.S. DOL data on this site.
To help identify companies that are E-verified and/or have sponsored visas in the past (read product descriptions for nuances), you might also use these browser extensions:
On individual job postings on job boards and company career sections, search for the keywords like “visa” or “sponsor” by using Ctrl+F (Windows) or Command+F (Mac); then type in “visa” or “sponsor” to quickly check any posted policies.
Other Resources
Interstride runs many free webinars aimed at international students on topics such as the U.S. job market and working in other countries. You can also find articles on their blog.
For scientists, there are a number of helpful job search guides you might explore including:
- Help I’m a Scientist! Job Search Advice
- Thriving as an International Scientist
- Acing the Tenure Track Job Search
- National Postdoc Association: Going in with Your Eyes Open
On Campus Employment
As an international student, you could be eligible for on-campus employment. On campus employment opportunities include academic positions at CUNY colleges and non-academic support staff positions. A good place to start is looking at the listings in CUNY.jobs. Another option is applying for a fellowship at the GC or to work as a student employee at the administrative offices of The Graduate Center, the Mina Rees Library, and Information Technology. If you’re looking for information on how to apply to jobs within the CUNY system, check out our blog post on the matter. Be sure to check with The Office of International Students on requirements before applying.
Another possibility for employment as you’re striving towards your degree is adjuncting. It has become increasingly foundational to academia in the United States. As the availability of tenure-track positions decline, universities have become more reliant on part-time professors to teach students. Here is more information on the process if you’re interested in pursuing such a line of work.
The Professional Staff Congress has resources to help you understand your rights while you live and work in the United States as an international student. For information check out this fact sheet from the American Federation of Teachers.
Finding Jobs Abroad
When you’re on the precipice of graduation or exploring internships, our website has a collection of resources that can help you find academic and non-academic jobs, including a section on remote work.
There are a number resources for finding research and faculty roles outside of the U.S., including:
- EURAXESS | Researchers in motion
- Look for jobs in Canada – Canada.ca
- Research in Germany – DAAD Office New York
- Looking for an International Research Job (an excellent article from Inside Higher Ed)
In addition to using LinkedIn, Indeed, Idealist and other traditional boards for international roles, nonacademic positions can be found on sites like:
Remember, always contact the Office of International Students before exploring or accepting any job or internship position to make sure that it is consistent with your visa status.
This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
