Sparticus515

Hi, sorry for making a thread which has probably been posted thousands of times but I'm finding it hard to get good advice.

I'm currently 18, looking to move to the USA after I finish Uni (so there is still a few years until any of this is definite).
I have an offer from the University of Cambridge for Computer Science, and I would like to move to California, as that's where a large amount of technology jobs are based. So I was just wondering which would be a better route for me to move to America.
Would it be easier to get a job with just a BA and hope an employer would sponsor me or would it be better to do postgrad studies in a college over there? Speaking to the staff at Cambridge they said that quite a few grads get jobs from the big American companies (Microsoft, Google etc) but would I be right in thinking those would be on temporary H-1B Visas? If so is there any way to 'progress from a H-1B to a permanent visa?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Sally Redux

H-1B is a non-immigrant visa but you would usually get your employer to sponsor you for a green card (Legal Permanent Resident) before it runs out.

Pulaski

To get from where you are to where you'd like to be, postgrad studies would be the most promising avenue to explore. Also keep your personal life unencumbered, because you might meet "that special person" over here and a marriage visa is by far the most certain way to get a greencard.

Hotscot

Education over here and the development of a relationship with a citizen sounds like a good plan.

If you want to chat more about high tech careers in particular PM me if you like when you have the privilege to do so. I've been through 15 years of high tech, small and large. (It's a tough job market/career, you can't coast along.)

Just realized Cambridge UK not MA?

Get a solid degree, develop industry contacts like hell, companies like Adobe, Microsoft, Intel...and if you like you could specialize, for example aerospace, energy, cybersecurity, finance....I think you have a bright future

S Folinsky

Hmm. There are two schools of higher education in Cambridge MA and neither one is called "University of Cambridge" last time I looked. That said, if OP does really well in undergraduate, there is an excellent school in Pasadena, California to do graduate work. All three of the schools mentioned here are not only excellent, but they give wonderful networking opportunities.

Hotscot

And close to JPL.

Sally Redux

I assumed Cambridge UK.

monfed

Cambridge alumnus here, class of 2009. One of my mates got an H1B straight out of graduating to work for, without naming the organisation, the government body responsible for space flight. So, it can be done, and without a first class degree at that. (He was an engineer).

Sparticus515

Yep, University of Cambridge, UK.

I know that we get on opportunity to study at MIT for a year as a part of the Cambridge-MIT exchange. Would this make me look better to American employers?

penguinsix

Networking-Networking-Networking.

Yes, a stint at MIT would be very valuable, but not because it's a nice line item on the CV but because you'll meet people who will be able to network you into jobs later in life.

If finances are there, is there a chance of doing your entire degree in the USA? Maybe at MIT or Stanford or someplace like that? Would cost a ton though.

Sparticus515

Unfortunately not, I can barely afford Cambridge as it is and that's with tuition and maintenance loans.

retzie

I would go with UK Bachelors with year abroad + postgrad in the US. Use the year at MIT to figure out exactly what/where you want to do the latter.

Tangential advice: keep up your math! Not all CS grads do, so it can really set you apart, especially with the current big data revolution. Think serious probability and all the calculus feeding into it, and linear algebra, at least.

Sparticus515

Yeah that seems to be the advice i get from most grads. It's one of the reasons why I chose Cambridge over Oxford, the Cambridge CS course is quite a bit more mathematical than most.

Hotscot

And make sure you take a technical programming component.

steveq

Make yourself informed about all fields of engineering, not just "yours", as HotScot points out. Programming skills are very handy too. Don't be like the mechanical engineering graduate I had that couldn't debug a basic electrical circuit.