dan20

I'm a trained strategy consultant, aged 28, with five years' good experience of developing fast-growing businesses. Having lived in London for six years I want to move to the USA, especially San Francisco as I'm particularly interested in internet and new media firms - though alternatively New York.

Is anyone aware of any friendly recruitment firms to UK nationals or lists of which firms sponsor visas? Most seem to be uninterested without authorisation, seems like a Catch-22. I thought another idea might be local networking organisation - whether sector-based or expat.

Someone has suggest internships might be a way forward, to try and get a job while over there.

Any information much appreciated! Been in the south east for 15 years, love America, and desparate to get out there!

Dan

Manc

to be blunt. I think you're pissing into the wind.

Duncan Roberts

You will find that a lot. 5 years experience is not enough, there are too many IT professionals here and it costs a lot both in time and money. As far as I know, a recruitment firm can't sponsor a visa unless you will be working directly for them.
Accept it now, you wont get a visa unless the immigration laws become much much looser. It will save a lot of time, effort heartbreak in the long run. By the way, you still need a visa for an internship.

dan20

why? i actually interviewed with one internet firm who were prepared to sponsor me, but ultimately the fit wasn't right.

Manc

because of what Duncan said above.

fatbrit

You have little chance anyway, so why make it smaller by restricting your field of view to Frisco and NY?

dan20

OK, I know about the number of IT professionals. I'm not an IT professional though - I'm on the commercial side, so looking for corp dev / strategy / product mgt / special projects roles.

Manc

what's your degree in?

dan20

economics and law from Cambridge

Duncan Roberts

Doesn't matter, unless you are a nurse you have a better chance of shagging the Queen than you do of getting a visa.
You are basically asking a company to pay thousands of dollars to apply for a visa that you probably will get turned down for and if you do get it they would have to realistically wait a year or two for you to start. Put yourself in their shoes, would you do that or hire one of the 10,000 people that could start in a couple of weeks with no initial cost?

dan20

Fair enough, it does happen though! Especially where companies are expanding overseas and want foreign expertise at HQ. I know at least one big internet firm in Silicon Valley who are doing it.

Isn't the visa for internships easier to get, depending on the length of the internship?

anotherlimey

I think you'd have more luck in the long term by getting a job with an international company and then getting transferred.

Just my $0.02.

steppke

Hi Dan,

Whilst you shouldn't under estimate how difficult it can be to get the right job and visa sponsorship, it is possible, but you may have to be prepared for a long haul. Couple of things for you to consider:

If your experience is predominantly with British/EU companies that is of limited interest to US based businesses unless they have expansion plans in that direction.

Biz-Dev people really are two a penny here, particularly in SF and Silicon Valley, you have to have something really stunning on your resume to get attention and your resume needs to be tailored to the US market.

Maybe consider coming across and doing a couple of years at a US college for a Masters degree,or some additional post grad work, that way you could at least have sometime to network and intern to get some contacts. You would have to show sufficient funds to support yourself however.

It can be done, but you have to be creative and patient about the way you do things - same rules don't apply here in terms of your skill set, experience and education, be flexible and prepared to take a couple of backward career steps in order to get that start.

Hope that helps

Steppke

Duncan Roberts

It realistically doesn't happen any more, it used to. Now you have to have 2 or 3 times as much experience as a minimum.

Yes, but you basically have to be a student or just graduated and there is a 2 year residency restriction. Basically your chances of getting that visa are slim too, it is valid for a max of 18 months, the job has to involve training and has to provide a training schedule and when it expires you have to leave the country and can't get another visa for 2 years unless you can get a waiver. I would give up on that option as well.

Bob

Set up a business your self if you've got the hard cash....investment visa's are shite though really, especially the long term.

Best bet is with any connections you might have, being an un-known in the US market, someone will have to know you to take the gamble.....see if anyone you know is linkedin?
www.linkedin.com