Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/124472
The company was expecting a visit from a Chinese counterpart and needed a translator who had business knowledge. The faculty director of our full-time MBA program recommended a Chinese candidate; the company liked her so much they designed a job description for her. I was delighted to provide them with information about how to hire her. n We educate our students. While we're committed to easing the way for companies that recruit our international students, we know we also must educate students so they can help themselves. Early in their time at Weatherhead, we make sure to inform them about their employment options; we give them all the details of CPT and OPT, though we discuss H1-B visas closer to graduation. We tell them to let prospective employers know that hiring an international student for an internship requires no extra effort— and hiring one for full-time employment is simpler than they think. On the Drawing Board While all of these efforts have paid off, we continue to look for new ways we can smooth the path for our international students. Two ideas are particularly attractive: n Offering legal support. Many companies believe that the H1-B visa application process is costly and requires specialized legal knowledge. In fact, an in-house lawyer can handle all the paperwork—and even hiring a domestic candidate requires paperwork. The application fee depends on the size of the company, but the maximum cost is US$2,200. (Employers seeking premium processing can pay an additional $1,225, but this is not required.) A small company that doesn't 26 May/June 2013 BizEd Deloitte consultant and Weatherhead alum Amit Awati (standing with his back to the camera) returns to campus to participate in the school's first International Alumni Panel. With him, from left, are students Sijie Li, Swetha Sahini, Mehul Tolia, and Da He. have an in-house lawyer might have to hire a legal consultant to handle the paperwork, and this additional cost might deter it from looking at our students. I have proposed following the lead of the KATZPORT program at the University of Pittsburgh's Katz Graduate School of Business. The school has retained an immigration attorney who works with companies and prospective hires throughout the employment authorization process. More details are at hire.katz. pitt.edu/international.php. n Involving employers directly. We've recently been discussing a new idea with multinational employers who have branches in China or India, even if they don't sponsor H1-B visas. We have proposed that we share résumés of admitted MBA candidates with them so they can identify a few whose backgrounds—in engineering, for instance—suit their needs. The companies will offer these students fellowships; we also expect them to hire the students for an internship followed by a year of full-time employment. After those experiences, the students can return to their home countries to work for the same companies there. We believe a program like this would be particularly useful for students in our master's-level finance and operations programs. These tend to attract applicants from China and India—students who frequently boast outstanding academic backgrounds but little time on the job. The U.S. dollar has been strong, so students can enjoy an economic advantage if they work in the U.S. for at least a few years after graduation. They also become more marketable once they have work experience outside their countries of origin. Future Plans Going forward, we'd like to explore more new ideas for placing our international students with U.S. companies. We also hope to find additional ways to overcome employers' perceived obstacles to hiring them. We're confident that, if given a chance, our students will prove their quality. And we believe that companies will find that it's worth the effort to take the few extra steps required to bring these students on board. Meenakshi Sharma is assistant dean of career and student affairs at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management in Cleveland, Ohio.