Knowing this changes everything” - Idia, international student

Let’s talk about stopping the OPT clock. I’m joining you here from my house where the OPT clock is NOT ticking for my students because we have learned how to effectively stop it.

“The OPT clock” is this concept that once you graduate and have declared a OPT start date, you have 90 days to get a job. And if you use that time in your job hunt, and it runs out, you must leave the country.

That 90 day clock is cumulative. This means that if you get a job and use 10 days of the OPT grace period clock in the process for that job hunt, and then you lose that job or finish that job if it’s an internship, you have remaining 80 days to find the next job.

What happens for most international students? They approach graduation and job hunting in sequence - meaning they do one and then the other. They focus exclusively on graduation and grades and let the job hunt slide or wait until the end. They plan to graduate but don’t plan be...

Ever considered attending Grad school? Ever wondered whether that is a good move for you now?

I went to grad school. I went to probably too much grad school!

I did a grad degree when I was doing a startup (just to kind of hedge my bets) - and it kind of worked out: Company, worked out, we listed it publicly - and I ended up getting a master's degree.

Then some years later after work, I went to a dual degree MBA program. 

“I probably have too many masters! As a result, I'm qualified to talk about the subject - having three of them.” 

Now here is what I see as the three top reasons to attend grad school.

Reason #1: Going deeper in a field where you already have some experience 

The first reason is that you have worked for a couple of years and now you want to go deeper into that subject. Do you love finance or do you love electrical engineering? You've done it?  Do you want to go deeper?

All right. You actually have some experience and grad school is that vehicle that is de...

“Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”― Abraham Lincoln

"One Day or Day One, You Decide!"

“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” – Babe Ruth

“We need to accept that we won’t always make the right decisions, that we’ll screw up royally sometimes – understanding that failure is not the opposite of success, it’s part of success.” – Arianna Huffington

“Magic is believing in yourself. If you can make that happen, you can make anything happen.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“Your passion is waiting for your courage to catch up.” – Isabelle Lafleche

“You can either experience the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The choice is yours.” – Unknown

“Smart people learn from everything and everyone, average people from their experiences, stupid people already have all the answers.” – Socrates