Are you an international student starting your journey in a US University?

This is what you need to know about getting work experience:

A) Not being in an IVY does not mean poor opportunities

B) Not having an MBA does not mean you are cut from leadership roles

However, your new school has one main goal: to academically prepare you. As a result, you will be swamped.

Your amazing study habits will let academics fill every second of your time in the US until you graduate. It will feel good, even while the chance for actual work experience slips away.

The schools do mean the best for you, but will your habits hold you back?

My advice for new admits?

--Do the majority of your networking before you get to school.
--Get shortlisted for the fall interviews before they even open. Start this now.

Here’s a simple test to know if you’re in a good situation:

It’s Summer of 2021. Thoughts of Fall 2021 may be far off.

Just to be able get onto that plane would feel amazing, just...

Are international students getting screwed at the offer stage? Yes and No.

I help international students master the job hunt. The BIG BANG comes at the end when my clients don't have to be alone during offer negotiation.

Situation: Offered $70k, $72k LESS than the median.

Problem: Identified with client that JOB TITLE does NOT match responsibilities. Here, NOT a case of intentional malice, but definitely a low-ball based on playing games with the job title.

SOLUTION: Stage the discussion. Don't go right to salary. I stay behind the scenes guiding client while they:

1) Get agreement on job description (JD). We'll draft the JD, not wait for the firm to do that. DONE.

2) Share market data on comp for the agreed title. We'll not "say" we need more money. Point out the difference and engage. Big shift in salary will ensue.

Having a coach is not only investing in yourself, not only avoiding isolation. It's often about adding 5-figures to your annual salary.

Here’s the main thing: Don’t force firms to connect the dots between your GPA and how you can help them.

Firms will hire you when they see you ALSO want results that THEY want. It’s really just that simple.

I wouldn’t even call this a shortcut. It’s bigger. How else can I say it? It’s arbitrage - free money! Result without risk.

Shift out of the GPA focus and start caring about what your dream firms care about.

I’m skipping over some steps here: networking, interviews, cover letters, resumes. But this is the ONE thing that everyone seems to be missing, and may be the only thing you’re missing.

Are you looking to implement more “free money” / no risk secrets? Check out the Job Offer Secrets Library. You are literally just one secret away! bit.ly/joboffersecrets

My son plays minecraft. That means I do, too, as a dad.

And that means I know that the best healing item in minecrat is an apple surrounded by 8 blocks of gold. 

Now put that resume on a crafting table. What's the best it can become?

The best resume is the one one that wins hearts, not passes ATS screens. And those hearts are won in interview rooms and on zoom screens by how the experience is communcated. 

So we start witht the end goal in mind. We need the equivalent resume sounded by gold blocks. 

Starting with the end goal in mind

When we start with the goal of offers in mind. We immediately zoom in  on results, not skills. Experienced professionals and executives know this. New job seekers need to be told it's all about results and not about skills. 

This has a large impact on how we construct the resume. It means we need a resume built on results.

And when we've got a resume with every bullet point speaking to results, that means we've got...

The Job Hunt Status Quo

JP got into an average school and was completing an average internship.

He was "on track" with his peers. 

That's great when your peers are headed somehwere great, but on average the results are....well... average. 

The "average" for an international student is to get a diploma and return without work experience. 

JP still had the potential to earn $120,000 as an international student upon graduation, salary and benefits included.

But he didn’t know that, and who he looked to-  his peers-  didn't know that about themselves, either. 

At the moment, he was traveling the path of the status quo. 

As far as he or his peers knew, going to school, working on grades, applying online, this should be ALL he needed to do to get a job. 

 It was like we were back in 1900, thinking that smoking was fine. 

Shifting From The Status Quo

Today we realize that this was wrong, and the consensus view shifted: SMOKING CAUSES...

What is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning?

Do you immediately grab your phone and scroll? I definitely have. Whenever I do this, I feel overwhelmed and can’t stop until I have checked all my notifications.

In Napoleon Hill’s Outwitting The Devil, the Devil calls this “drifting”.

Drifting means we are controlled by circumstances outside of our own mind, while thinking that we are still in charge.

Written in 1938, Hill’s book calls out drifting as the main way the Devil keeps people from reaching their potential.

In 2021, that includes scrolling on your phone.

If I do that, I start my day with stress!

Instead, start with a clear head.

Instead of grabbing your phone, take 10 minutes and:

> [Ask yourself] What are you grateful for?

> [Ask yourself] What would make today great?

> [Write] Daily affirmations. I am confident that I can [achieve my #1 goal]

> [Write] 5-10 ideas that come to your mind about how you could achieve...

People will like your profile and resume when you reverse engineer the process in 4 steps.

Proceed in the following order: 

1. I want a great offer or offers
2. I want the interviews that lead to offers
3. Interviews are granted to those showing a fit with what the company wants
4. My resume will target the results that the companies want

By reverse engineering this process, we arrive at a THE source of interviews and offers:  a results-oriented presentation.

Even better: your results show an overlap with what the company wants. 

Best: you pick ONE industry and function, so that all work you do adds up. 

For every person who says they have no results, I can find them TEN to be very proud of. 

How would it feel to KNOW you have an amazing resume? 

Want help crafting one? 

Get The #StuartResume™

“DO NOT LIE” is permanently posted at the office space of a F500 company. I walk by it every day in my co-working space. 

What does that mean? Why would they say that? 

Honesty has been an issue inside the firm. 

So, what are firms really looking for when they are hiring talent?

They are looking for a certain skill set, but they are ALSO looking for:

     -    Honesty

     -    Attention to detail

     -    Desire to do good work

Not yet employed or have multiple years of experience? You have a lot of things in your favor.

If you have:

#1 The desire to work hard

#2 Hungry for experience

#3 Willing to take on more responsibility 

#4 Easy to be trained

And you can convey honesty.

Then it’s just a matter of reaching out to your dream firm and conveying your interest in helping them. 

If you have any questions, reach out to me via LinkedIn or Facebook. Let’s have a...

What if you only had “30 days” to get a job? Then your career center said this:

We don’t see your experience as relevant.
We don’t see your resume as “good enough”

Crushing, right?

What do we say about this kind of counseling?

Surprisingly, it comes from good intentions - wants the focus to be on doing well in school.

And it’s trying to be honest and “reasonable”: at this frozen moment, OK, the student doesn’t have experience.

At this frozen moment, the student doesn’t have a good enough resume. Fine.

But can this change?
Is the student doomed?

What if she took a step forward?

How might this career counselor handle a situation in THEIR life where things are new, untested, where she wasn’t “ready”?

Maybe it’s a new S.O. or a dream.

Would they offer that same self-talk? Can’t do?

What if from “I can’t” we shift to “I think I can”?

A rush of feelings, many...

Sometimes I would have this ONE interview on the calendar, drop everything, and then start acting like this ONE job would work out. When it didn’t, I would have to start over. It felt like my whole body was stuck in molasses and it was hard to get moving again.

Then back to that emotional rollercoaster of applying and getting rejected and trying to network. So unsatisfying! 

In the middle of this same experience, my student Ariel confided, “I will apply to a role, then on purpose I will choose to forget I had applied. That way I could reject the company before they could reject me”.

When things aren’t going well, we have all have these different mental processes going on to help us try to cope. 

Guess what? We’re in luck. We didn’t actually ever get rejected.

We just didn’t yet have our branding figured out yet. Or We just didn’t find the right audience. 

What’s your brand?
Who is your audience? 

My goal for...