Foreign MBAs: Boost U.S. Job Odds

MIT Sloan School of Management – Ethan Baron photo

To have a “we don’t sponsor” policy from the start is a bad strategy. There’s something quite magical that happens in the brains of international students. The cognitive boost that multicultural individuals possess has been extensively validated by credible research. Our international students are able to see patterns and business nuances and complexities that sometimes only bicultural individuals can notice. Sometimes our international students don’t have the best handshakes. Sometimes they are even a little hard to understand from time to time. But if you are the type who does not judge a book by its cover, and if you’re looking for a steady high-performer for your firm, then hiring an international student may end up being a very smart decision.

How does the large enrollment of international students across U.S. business schools impact the work of career services?

Career services was never envisioned to be an organization ready to be responsive to address the job-search needs of international students. My colleagues in career services have worked very hard over the past few years to create services and solutions that better address the job-search needs of our F-1 and J-1 students. I monitor what schools are doing on a daily basis, and I know we have made tremendous progress. With that said, I believe that most would say we still have a long way to go before we can confidently say that we are adequately addressing the career development needs of our international students. With some business school programs averaging about 40% international, for example, I am sure this will continue to be a top-of-mind issue for higher education professionals going forward.

The MBA is a fast-paced program, and MS programs, many filled with international students, are usually even shorter in duration, making it very hard for career services to decide just how much to provide to international students in terms of information and training that could make them stronger job seekers. Throw on top of that the unwillingness of many U.S. employers to sponsor, and the high expectations international students normally have from career services, and you can quickly see how difficult it can get for career services professionals who work with international students. It’s rewarding but tough work.

I encourage career centers to review what they are doing for international students from the standpoints of advising, employer relations, internal operations/student experience, and international-alumni relations. Breaking the discussion into four buckets has proven helpful in the past. Though far from perfect, career services are a strong component of a U.S. education and they normally offer fabulous programs and services that international students should leverage during their studies. If you are a career-driven international student and you’re not engaged with career services, you’re making your already difficult journey as an international job seeker harder than it needs to be.

In your book, The International Advantage: Get Noticed Get Hired, you indicate that international students have unfair advantages when looking for a job in the U.S. How can this be possible when sponsorship barriers are so huge?

We could sit here all day and dwell on the fact that so many companies don’t sponsor. I could similarly talk to you non-stop about my feelings about the H-1B program, just how broken I think the program is, and what the real cost to the U.S. is every time an international student needs to leave the payroll of an American firm because he or she did not get lucky with the H1-B lottery. While some of what I do professionally has to do with trying to address business concerns related to the H-1B program, this is not a conversation I have with international students who are trying to secure jobs in the U.S. We cannot allow our international students to feel victimized by the current visa situation.