the "apply everywhere" advice and international students
"Apply as much as possible. You should be sending lots of applications everyday."
In my junior year, this was being drilled into our heads. Teachers said it in class, over our shoulder while we worked, upperclassmen repeated it during lunch, and I swear my instant ramen whispered it to me at some point. I'd hate to question the noodles' wisdom, but I think a lot of students take that advice at face value and forget to do other things that are equally (if not more) beneficial to their career prospects.
Besties, if you've been ~on the hunt~ before, you know job applications take a long ass time to complete. If you apply to 3 different companies in a day, chances are you'll be spending a LOT of time getting it done, on top of any school work you might have due! Most companies will ask for a passionate cover letter, a tailored resume, a recommendation letter, industry references, a completed online form-- too much stuff in my humble opinion!! I wrote an extensive cover letter for Blizzard in 2017 that received 3 Pulitzer awards; alas, Blizzard sent me an automated rejection email 7 months later.
Listen, I'm not implying that you should stop sending applications because they take too much time. But I am seeing a LOT of students spend a lot of time on that, while their networking and social media presence look like ASS. It's a delicate balance!! A delicate balance...!!!
International Students and Online Applications
Being an international student adds another layer to an already shitty situation. The F1 visa thing really is a huge bummer, and it's surprisingly difficult to get people to understand how it works. Despite the fact that studios don't have to sponsor you while on STEM OPT, many hiring teams will piss their pants at the mention of a visa in an online application, or even just a foreign sounding name in a resume. That's all the more reason why making personal connections and ramping up online presence is invaluable for international students. Having immigration deadlines leaves very little room for error and we can't afford to focus our time on things that won't help us.
Steal those jobs my immigrant besties,
- Fernanda