| Finding an internship can suck, can't it? I'm going through similar issues myself. Mediocre (but above 3.0 GPA), little luck, getting discouraged. HN can be pretty unhelpful about finding internships. HN has a bias towards the Ivy League/successful/US Citizen types that have few issues getting hired. So what can you do? 1) Breathe. You'll find something. You're working in the hottest field in the world right now. Somebody once told me that anxiety is simply looking too far into the future. He said that if you start thinking far enough ahead, you'll realize how little control you have. You still have plenty of time. 2) Realize the holidays are here. That's great for two reasons. One: nobody is hiring right now. Very few interviews are going out and virtually nobody is sending out offers. Wait until the new year to begin the search again. Two: you have a whole break to better your resume. Build a project, contribute to open source (this one's a biggie), learn a language. You have a free pass to better that resume of yours. 3) Submit your resume on this thread. Hopefully, HN can give you some tips. 4) Use connections. Start with your parents (although it sounds like they might be overseas). See where they work and look for internships in your field. Have them refer you. Then do the same for friends who have interned, their parents, their connections, professors, anybody. Start knowing where people work and ask for favors. It takes a minute or two of their life to send your resume to HR. 5) Don't be afraid to go after "bad jobs". This has been my biggest issue. I've been going after the biggest, best companies out there. And that's fine- to a point. A big-name internship sells itself when job hunting. A smaller, less sucecssful company internship can too. You just have to work harder to sell it. Now, I haven't addressed the elephant in the room - your citizenship. That's an issue. Very few companies are willingly to go through the effort to get you a visa. Fear not, you have a couple options. You can try to get some kind of visa on your own, although I'm not an expert with that. You can find a company that has overseas offices. Work overseas for your internship, then transfer to the USA for a job. Or you can simply get an overseas internship. That experience will hopefully help you get a job here. Quite the novel. I know it can be depressing to not have something just yet. Especially when friends have their dream jobs. I must say that writing this has been very cathartic. But don't focus on this too much. Study for finals, go drinking, play video games; just get your mind off of it. Any job search is going to have more negatives than positives. You only need one yes. Every no is one less until you get your yes. |