Forging Career Pathways

At Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, a robust partnership between the Office of International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) and the Center for Career Exploration and Success (CCES) helps international students get a head start in their careers. 

The two units collaborate frequently, sharing information and planning activities to meet the professional development needs of international students. For example, Miami’s ISSS team helps the CCES staff understand visa requirements and work authorizations. And a CCES staff member offers regular advising hours within the ISSS office, making their services easily accessible to international students. 

With a collective understanding of each department’s responsibilities, “we have been able to shape our partnership—whether it be collaboration on programs, whether it be communication strategies to international students, or whether it be helping with the recruitment of international students to Miami,” says Shayna Smith, Miami’s senior associate director for diversity initiatives, which is housed within the CCES.

International students often choose to study abroad in hopes of boosting their career prospects, and the United States is their top destination. According to a 2022 study by FWD.us, 73 percent of international students want to live and work in the United States following graduation, and 38 percent hope to stay in the United States for at least four years. Data from U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement show that more than 475,000 individuals had federal authorization to participate in employment or training through Curricular Practical Training (CPT), Optional Practical Training (OPT), or STEM OPT in 2022.

That’s why Smith and her colleagues at Miami have carefully shaped a partnership comprising more than just an occasional seminar or career fair. For years, they have cultivated opportunities to engage international students and alumni in all areas of career development.

As a result, “we've increased our engagement of international students since I started working here in 2017,” says Smith. “We've seen an uptick in their engagement at career fairs and their engagement of landing [work] opportunities. … I could not do a good portion of the work that I do if we did not have those partnerships with different campus partners, including ISSS. We have really leaned into their expertise around international students to help inform the practice of what we do.”

Connecting International Students with Career Services

International students come to the United States with high expectations for obtaining internships, OPT, or CPT. From the time they arrive on campus, many are looking for opportunities to polish their résumés, sharpen their interviewing skills, and network with potential employers. Thus, connecting them with career services early and often is critical to helping them meet their academic and career goals. 

Even so, many international students—just like their domestic counterparts—wait until months before graduation to seek out career services. 

Many international students face challenges that U.S. students don’t, such as adapting to an unfamiliar culture and navigating language barriers. These struggles can be overwhelming, leaving little energy to reach out for career advising. Building a network between ISSS and the career services team can help guide students to the support they need.

Postgraduation work opportunities for international students also may be limited by U.S. immigration regulations, which often change. According to Bryce Loo, associate director of research for World Education Services (WES), WES research indicates that international students often struggle to find employers who are willing to hire them, typically due to misunderstandings about hiring regulations and process.

“It’s important to teach international students to advocate for themselves,” Loo says. “They need to understand the regulations well enough to be able to explain them to an employer [and] to convey their value, even if it's just for one year. And there's a place for the career services professional to help really develop a network of employers who understand the benefits and the regulations and to really counteract the misperceptions about things like OPT.”

Four Strategies to Build and Strengthen Partnerships

There are several ways that an institution's ISSS and career services departments can work together to equip international students with the information, skills, and connections that they need to successfully translate their academic achievements into a job after graduation.

Introduce career services early.

According to a 2017 WES survey, 43 percent of international students lacked an understanding of their institutions’ career service offerings. The ISSS staff can help facilitate greater outreach to international students, beginning during recruitment if possible. Include the career center’s team on the agenda for international student orientation, giving them a chance to introduce the services and resources they provide. Continue to reinforce the connections with these colleagues through joint programming and other collaborative projects.

“It’s important to get international students connected as early as possible to the career services office,” says Loo, “Sometimes you must explain to them multiple times and in multiple contexts the importance of seeking career advising early, rather than waiting until right before graduation. It takes time to write a résumé, learn to network, or connect with employers and alumni. And not all international students will stay in the United States after graduation, so it’s important to help them think about how they can get their career started wherever in the world they go—whether back to their home country or to a third destination.”

Keep lines of communication open. 

Developing strong connections between ISSS and career services can begin with an annual check-in, when designated staffers come together to share information about international students’ unique needs. For example, the ISSS team can be a wealth of information about work authorizations such as OPT and CPT. Career services professionals, on the other hand, understand how to map out a career plan and avoid the common pitfalls international students make when creating résumés or networking. Bringing together these areas of expertise creates robust opportunities for the students.

“Our team helps international students understand how they can work in the United States, if that's their goal,” says Amanda Connolly, director of Lehigh University’s Office of International Students and Scholars. “And we help to make sure that our staff in the Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD) has the right language around immigration regulations. It’s important that our career center understand what the landscape looks like for international students, why they might feel more frustrated with the job search, and why their options might be a little bit more limited than some of their domestic friends in the same major, so when they're advising students, they can use the right language that is inclusive of international students and some of the challenges that our students might face on the job market.”

Listen to students.

When it comes to cultivating a successful partnership between ISSS and career services, patience, consistency, and a shared vision are the keys to success, Smith says. Get started by finding out what international students want in terms of career development and postgraduation employment: create surveys, hold focus groups, or simply strike up conversations about these issues when international students drop by the office. Then, share that information with career services colleagues and use it to inform programming and services for international students. 

Another way Miami’s CCES has kept in touch with what international students need and want is by recently hiring an assistant director for global career development. That individual offers programming designed for international students and offers advising hours for them. 

“Listen to your students, because they’ll tell you so much of what they want,” Smith says. “And then reevaluate where you are over time every couple of years, because the students you have now may not have the same needs.” 

Tap into the alumni network.

International alumni make great partners for career development. They can work closely with both the ISSS and career services teams to offer networking and professional growth events, as well as participate in mentoring or job shadowing programs. These opportunities allow international students to build their résumés in order to obtain work authorization.

“Lehigh has a really strong alumni network, and a lot of them are connected to the CCPD,” Connolly says. “For our international students, having that strong alumni network that's connected with the career center is invaluable. I'm finding that a lot of our students go and work for Lehigh alumni.”

Engaging International Alumni as Strategic Partners outlines case studies and tactics to leverage the experience and expertise of former international students to help current international students with their career goals.

Making International Students Career Ready

The international student’s journey to employment differs from that of their domestic peers. But working together, the ISSS and career services center can guide students to rich, meaningful opportunities. An important part of doing so  is empowering international students to advocate for themselves.

“We talk with our international students about their value-add and how to communicate that to a potential employer,” says Smith, pointing out that international students have track records of adaptability, as well as language skills to offer. 

“It’s so important that students can engage with our office and have conversations with us about their values,” she says. “I think because of our partnership with ISSS, our staff has felt more comfortable engaging in these conversations with international students.”  •