Ayomideji searches off-campus for an internship opportunity

Blogger Ayomideji Israel-Akinbo, an engineering science student from Nigeria and South Africa at Jamestown Community College in New York, is documenting his employment journey while he’s studying in the USA. This is the fifth and final post in his series — read the previous posts about: getting his first on-campus job, maximizing his allowed work hours, and securing a job over winter break, and about filing U.S. taxes.

Having an off-campus job as an international student is a more complex procedure than one usually expects. To work off-campus you need to receive work authorization under your SEVIS record; however, you can only be approved if the job relates to your major. This is known as curricular practical training (CPT). So no you can't be an engineer and hope to work at McDonald's. This narrows the available jobs you can search for as they have to be related to your field, mine being engineering. 

My summer job search begins

My job searching for the summer started around the middle of the spring semester during a Career Fair held on the Jamestown Community College (JCC) main campus. This is where I meant representatives from SKF, a military contractor for fighter jet parts. I held discussions with them about potential internship opportunities which was reciprocated with multiple engineering positions open for the summer at a decent wage.

The discussion was going positively and upon seeing my resume they were interested in taking a further discussion towards the hiring process. It was at this point I had disclosed I was an international student, and the joy quickly fell away. They sadly stated that the hiring of an international individual requires security clearance, which is a long process and would take up to 6 months. For a summer internship, it was simply not worth it. 

The search continues

The next opportunity came when I was discussing the outcomes from the SKF internship with Kerri Brown, Global Learning director at JCC, and she mentioned that a business vice president had come in  that very morning and was looking for summer interns, preferably an engineering student.

It was as if the stars had aligned for me at this moment. I swiftly forwarded my resume to Kerri to forward it to the company, even calling the vice president to confirm he had seen my resume. To this day I haven't received a reply from them. :(

Another opportunity arises

Another opportunity came out of coincidence. We went on a shopping trip with Rudi Andalora, Global Learning project manager, and on our way back we were driving past the Jamestown power plant. I pointed to it and said I wished to intern there for the summer. At this moment Rudi looked at me and asked if I was being serious. He went on to say that the manager of the power plant was his neighbor and last summer they were interested in getting a summer intern but unfortunately, the student had backed out at the last minute.

It seemed perfect, but at the time I was still waiting for the reply from Kerri's contact. I have two jobs lined up, and if I received an offer from one I could leverage it to get better wages from the other. After forwarding my resume to Rudi, he forwarded it to the manager of the power plant. I received a quick response but it was not positive. They were not looking for an intern that summer, bummer. :(

Finally, something solid

The following week I came into the Global Learning office to check in on Kerri's contact to see if she had gotten a response, but I got an even better answer. She said that Julie Page, the Career Services coordinator, has a family engineering machining shop called Miles Machining, where her husband is the vice president. He’s looking for a temporary hire for the summer, and I was the first person she thought of since she was aware that I was on the job search for a summer internship.

I leapt on the opportunity and went to Julie's office to show interest in the role. She was delighted and set up an interview with Mike for the role. A few days later I got interviewed and hired on the spot. 

The details were easily managed!

Since Julie is coincidentally the HR for Miles Machining, getting the paperwork for me to sign was quick and convenient since I already work for career services, under Julie. Furthermore, since Kerri needed documents from the company to approve my CPT, and Julie is nearby, getting my work authorization was also done quickly since they're in the same building. In hindsight this was the best outcome as I didn't have to wait long for approval and any missing details could be quickly sorted out without delay or fuss.

Ayomideji Israel-Akinbo is an engineering science student from Nigeria and South Africa at Jamestown Community College in New York.