A Proposal Presented to the Associated Students of University of Oregon

A Proposal Presented to The Associated Students of University of Oregon:

A proposal to start International Student Job Opportunity Club in order to offer UO International Students more job and internship opportunities and provide the full college experience.

INTRODUCTION

Hunting jobs is always very crucial for every student when they get into college. Since the US job market is very competitive, it is very difficult for students to find jobs after graduation.  Particularly for international students, they have much harder time than domestic students when searching for a job. We are a team of students from BA 352 and doing research to prove the difficulties that international students face when trying to get a job, which shows the importance  to address this problem in the University of Oregon. Therefore, we are proposing to set up International Student Job Opportunity club on campus. The new club would effectively offer international students more knowledge and skills about job preparation in the US, which helps international students to be better prepare and behave in their future career life.

SITUATION ANALYSIS

There has been several efforts that the University has implemented in order to solve this issue, some of those efforts are: Workshops, DuckConnect, and Career Fair.

Workshops allow students to get acclimated to the differences between the US cultures and their own cultures. In addition, it also allows students to gain knowledge and to familiarize themselves with the differences of the US working cultures and their country’s working culture. Moreover, there are plenty of workshops throughout the year and students are able to attend different workshops.

DuckConnect allows students to look for internships or job opportunities from various job categories. It enables students to look for a job opportunity in different countries or in various states around the United States. It is highly useful for students or alumni to assist them in getting opportunities.

Career Fairs allow students to get one on one conversations with company representatives and to also gain more knowledge and information regarding companies that students might be interested in working for. Career fair also enables students to build connection with other students or with various companies.

Although those programs are highly important and influential for international students to get a job, there are still some issues surrounding those efforts.

First, though the career fair has been instrumental in getting domestic students job after graduating college, the same cannot be said for international students. One of the problems regarding the career fair is that there are only a handful of companies that would look and hire international students and that makes the event ineffective for international students. Furthermore, as Ethan Mapes, student advisor and orientation coordinator, stated that employers are often ill-informed regarding international students’ working eligibility and therefore wouldn’t hire international students. If we’re able to inform employers that hiring international student is no different than hiring domestic students, then more employers will hire international students.

Second, even though most University of Oregon students have used the DuckConnect service, most international students still have limited knowledge regarding DuckConnect. One of the students that we interviewed actually thought that DuckConnect was a business website and not a job-seeking website for students. Only 1 out of 3 students knew DuckConnect. Even though it’s a small number, it potentially shows that international students don’t have the same knowledge regarding DuckConnect as domestic students.

Lastly, though there have been dozens of workshops throughout the year, attendance is still low as there’s a lack of promotion for those workshops and lack of coordination between departments. As Ethan Mapes stated that every department had their own workshops and made it difficult for the staff to coordinate those workshops. In addition, students generally don’t attend workshops because they have no information regarding those workshops. For example, there’s a resume-building workshop held, however it is held after the career fair instead of having the workshop held before the career fair. If there’s better communication between departments, it will be more effective

OBJECTIVES

Our objective is to help international undergraduate members to search, prepare, and get a job interview through both competitiveness improvement and relevant external assistance from different University department. The following are the goals we pursue to achieve.

1. Competitiveness Improvement (Goals)

• Increase more than 50% of international students to understand the hiring process in the US better than before
• Achieve 90% of attendance for each club meeting/ Alumni lectures
• Change 50% of international students’ attitudes about employment in university
• Influence 80% of international students to approach job opportunities, resources, and information through social media
• Within 90 days we want 90% of  international students to feel that feedback from alumni is useful in US job market.

2.   External Assistance (Goals)

• Bridge the gap between among educational departments
• Provide a community that will build long lasting friendships and connections

PROPOSED SOLUTION

We proposed to the creation of an International Student Job Opportunities Club that will be led by current college students, our club aims for increasing international students on-campus employment by

• Inviting volunteer Alumni Guest Speakers
• Coordinate career workshops
• Utilizing social media as platforms

Alumni Guest Speakers

First, we will invite volunteer International student alumni as our club guest speakers. International alumni will share their personal stories of getting a job or internship in the US during club meetings. These alumni will also give recommendations to help each international undergraduate member search, prepare, and get a job interview. In addition, international alumni will invite companies to club meeting that are specifically giving job opportunities to international students so they can speak about the job opening and what international students need to do in order to apply. This part of our solution will provide valuable feedback from the Alumni to each participant and will give them the opportunity to speak to employers more personally about a job position opening at these club meetings. 

Coordinate Career Workshops

Second, we will coordinate career workshops with International Affair Office, Career Center, as well as other departments that provides working opportunities for international students. Normally all other departments have their own schedule for workshops.  Our International Student Job Opportunity club will bridge the gap between different departments in order to make these different workshops more efficient for international students and better prepare them for school career fairs. We will have a series of workshops that will be held each term before the career fair. For example, our club will coordinate workshops such as Employment Types & Visa Information workshop, Curricular Practical Training (CPT), and Optional Practical Training (OPT). Our club will also coordinate resume & cover letter workshops, job interviews, job search and networking workshops. This part of our solution will provide a community that will build long lasting friendships and connections.

Social Media as Platform

Third, we will utilize social media as a platform to share the job/internship openings and build up an internal referral system for international students. Our club will use LinkedIn, Facebook Group, WeChat, and email to deliver timely information about job and internships opening on (or off) campus. Using the social media as our club platform will be highly efficient for international student job searches, as well as building up an internal referral system that gives opportunities for international students to recommend their peers. This part of our solution will make it easier for international students to find job openings and also build connections and friendships.

In conclusion to our solution, having an International Student Job Opportunities Club will not only help international students understand the hiring process in the United States, but also provide a community that will build long lasting friendships and connection for international students’ professional development. By inviting the Alumni guest speakers, coordinating career development workshops and visa type workshops, and utilizing social media to share the job opening opportunities to build up an internal referral system for international students, we plan to effectively provide international students more knowledge and skills about finding jobs in the US, which helps international students prepare and be more confident about their future career.