Whether you are graduating this May, or this is your first year in college, planning your life after graduation is important. This is especially true for international students because they have to follow certain immigration regulations to engage in employment opportunities.
SEVIS SAVVY provides A to Z about the employment authorization programs that include CPT, OPT, and STEM OPT programs for international students. Some of the examples can be found below and the entire list of articles can be found on CPT, OPT, and STEM OPT pages respectively.
Related blog post 1: How to file Form I-765 online for OPT, STEM OPT
Related blog post 2: Must-know 4 eligibility for student visa OPT
If your OPT or STEM OPT application is approved, now it is time to step further into the job-seeking process. As a job seeker, it is important to know what companies want from the international student applicants to brainstorm how to present yourself, how to write a resume and cover letter. Thankfully, the new research-How College Contributes to Workforce Success: Employer Views on What Matters Most– which was conducted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) gives us insights into this.
This blog post will summarize the research to learn what employers value and their preferences over the e-portfolio. Based on my own experience of getting unanimous votes to get the current position as a DSO despite my short U.S. experiences, I will share how I created and organized my e-portfolio as well. If you are an international student studying in the U.S., you will learn insights into how to present yourself to U.S. employers.
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Contents
- What employers want from international applicants
- 90% of employers prefer e-portfolio
- E-portfolio examples
- Step by step guide
What employers want from international applicants (values)
The research conducted by AAC&U surveyed nearly 500 executives and hiring managers from the fields that include technology, financial services, manufacturing, professional services, health care services, and construction.
According to the research, most employers agree upon the value of college degrees. Specifically, employers think higher education is important because college graduates are expected to learn critical thinking and analysis, problem-solving, teamwork, and communication through writing and speaking. In addition, more employers responded that “college degree holders are “more effective at explaining what they bring to the table.”
AAC&U research also points that “fostering mindsets – like work ethic and persistence -matter for workplace success,” as far as employers are concerned. What is more, employers prefer candidates who have global learning experiences. Therefore, having an international background is actually a plus and it is all about how you effectively showcase your skills and values.
In this frame, what would be the best way to show that you have these values? Would the transcript that shows a high GPA be enough? In the next paragraphs, an e-portfolio that nine out of ten employers preferred will be discussed.
90% of employers prefer e-portfolio
For some students, the concept of having a portfolio might not sound familiar, or they might ask isn’t a portfolio just for art major students. Let me share how I, as an education major, created the portfolio and how it helped me to get Graduate Assistantships as well as the current full-time position.
Having a portfolio can be a great weapon for international students and I have taken advantage of it throughout my graduate years and until now. When I was taking interviews for Graduate Assistantship positions, I printed all the works that I created during my undergraduate and put them into one folder. Based on the job description, I categorized my works into several keywords that include organizational skills, programming skills, and social media skills.
During the interview, I told them I brought a portfolio with me and they were willing to look at it. It made me easy to explain my strengths and interviewers were able to assess the values that they were looking for. They were impressed and I was able to get the position.
While I was studying for my Master’s and working as a Graduate Assistant, I created the website where I kept all my writings, presentation slides, social media examples, and screenshots of Excel spreadsheets. I also took screenshots of my website just in case I cannot connect to the wifi and brought it with me when I was having an interview for the full-time position. During meet and greet with the office members, I passed along the iPad to showcase my works, and later my current colleague told me that I got the unanimous vote for the position.
What would be the secret of having a portfolio? Having a portfolio is a great way not only to show you have certain skills and values but also to show that you are ready and you are very interested in the position.
Circling back to the AAC&U research, it “has found again and again that employers do appreciate electronic portfolios in the hiring process.” Almost 90% of employers prefer ePortfolios over transcripts to see outcomes and more than 50% of employers responded that it is”very likely” to click on the ePortfolio if a link is provided.
What is an ePortfolio? Simply speaking, it is a personal website. The report says “An ePortfolio is a personal website used to deepen student learning through reflection on, and curation of, work products produced across the college experience.”
How it can be used? “These portfolios can be used by graduates to showcase and communicate their educational achievements,” the report says.
How can you make it? You can use online website builder services like Wix or WordPress. Don’t worry- creating an electronic portfolio doesn’t require any coding experience, although it will be helpful. As I mentioned, as an education major, I didn’t have any computer science or graphic design background, but I could easily create my own internet space using Wix and WordPress.
E-portfolio examples
One of the best personal portfolio examples is Gary Sheng‘s website. He did a great job showcasing his past experiences on one page. To keep the website simple and concise, he added hyperlinks to his Linkedin posts and other websites.
Another good example of a personal resume website is Pascal van Gemert, who’s from the Netherlands. He used 5-star ratings to illustrate his proficiency for each skill, language, and tool. He also linked to his previous projects so that employers can have a sneak peek of his works.
As I mentioned earlier, having an electronic portfolio can be a great advantage for international students as they can add more than just texts. Quinnton Harris mostly used images to share his stories which are very powerful. Then, he added his official website at the end of his story and I had to click it! You can also add images and share what made you come to the U.S. and what are the things you like about your major.
Step-by-step guide
My first website was built with Wix.com. It was intuitive to create the website but a huge downside for me was the domain. With the free account, the site address will end with wixsite.com. For example, if I wanted to use sevissavvy.com/, the site address will be sevissavvy.wixsite.com/. To me, it doesn’t look or sound professional. Since I was using WordPress at my Graduate Assistantship position and it is free, I decided to switch to WordPress instead of upgrading my Wix site to Premium.
When you build a WordPress site, you need two things: Domain (site address like sevissavvy.com) and hosting services that allow you to access the website. Coming up with the domain address was fairly easy as I could use my full name or the personal brand name. In terms of the hosting services, after my initial search, it was obvious to go with Bluehost for the hosting service for the following reasons:
- It costs less than $3 per month and it offers a free domain for a year.
- I can cancel it at any time without penalty (minus the cost of domains if canceled after three days).
- Bluehost is one of the largest and most respected web hosting providers in the world.
- Bluehost supports more than 2 million websites worldwide.
- Bluehost has been one of WordPress’s top-recommended hosts since 2005.
For students who would like to create their personal website and curate what you have learned from courses and example of your work, I will share a step-by-step guide. You can follow the steps and you will be able to get your personal website in 30 minutes! Again, I didn’t have any coding background but now you are looking at this blog, so anyone can do it!
Choose the domain, hosing plan and create account
- Go to the Bluehost website
- Click the “Get Started Now“
- Select the plan based on your needs (The basic plan should serve your needs for creating an e-portfolio)
- Search available domains and select your domain
- Create your account by entering the following information:
- First and last name
- Business name (you can skip this as it is optional)
- Country
- Street address
- City
- Postal code
- Phone number
- Email address (Emails asking for the confirmation will be sent to you. Therefore, make sure to check your inbox regularly and verify your email.)
- Review package information and choose the account plan
- Review package extras (I didn’t choose any of the services-Bluehost SEO Tools, 1 Microsoft 365 Mailbox, SiteLock Security)
- Provide payment information and click the submit button
- On the next page, click “create your account“
- Enter the domain name, create a password click “Create Account“
- On the next page, click “go to login“
- Enter your login credentials and log in
Now the basic step to use Bluehost is completed and it’s time to create a website. It will ask you about your goals, what is the purpose of the website, etc.
Once you are done with selecting, click “My Sites” on the left navigation bar. You will see the default WordPress site and to access your website, click “Log in.” Finally, you will see the back-end of your website. You can enter the manager site by going to Bluehost or by simply adding /wp-admin at the end of your website address.
Change the setting language if you prefer
After you log in, you can set the language as your native language. You can do so by going to…
- Go to “Settings” on the left navigation bar
- Click “General”
- Click “Site Language”
- Click your language
- Click “Save changes”
Choose the theme (how your website would look)
Now it is time to work on the most fun part, which is choosing the theme of your website. WordPress.com recommends the following themes for creating portfolios.
If you chose your own theme, follow the steps below to download and activate the theme.
- Go to “Appearance” on the left navigation bar
- Click “Themes”
- Click “Add new”
- Explore various themes and click “Install”
- Once it is installed, click “Activate”
Customize the theme
Once you have activated the theme, you can customize the theme to serve your needs.
- Go to “Appearance” on the left navigation bar
- Click “Customize”
- Click each menu to customize your blog
- Site identity: You can change the site title, site logo, and icon.
- Layout: You can change the width of the site, header, and footer layout, as well as menu, contents, and side bar layout.
- Colors: You can change the site background, text, link, and the color of the posting title.
- Typography: You can change the typography for the body, and each heading.
- Menu: You can change the homepage menu.
- Widgets: You can change the widget in the sidebar.
- Homepage Settings: You can choose the landing page (options: recent posts or the page that you choose).
How to write a blog
Once you decided on the basic design of your website, it is time to work on the contents. My go-to strategy is to search for good examples and use them as samples. To write a blog…
- Go to “Posts“
- Click “Add new”
- Enter a title and start writing
- On the right navigation bar, you can customize…
- URL Slug which will be the address for your post (for example, the URL slug for this post is what-90-of-companies-want-from-international-students-en and the address for this post is https://sevissavvy.com/what-90-of-companies-want-from-international-students-en/)
- Categories to organize your contents (for example, I am going to place this post into Life/Study Hacks)
- Featured image
How to change the menu
Follow the steps to add a menu on the homepage. For example, this website has 8 menus (Home, About, 한국어, English, 中文, F-1 Visa Info, CPT/OPT and STEM OPT/H-1B).
- Go to “Appearance”
- Click “Menus”
- You can add a menu and organize the menus.
- Click “Save Menu” when you are done
This blog had a look at the research outcome that employers value problem analyzing & solving skills and communication skills with a global mindset. Also, more and more employers ask applicants to see if they have an e-portfolio. From my own experiences, I also believe that having an electronic portfolio will be a huge plus for international students to visualize their works and fascinating stories.
I used WordPress because it is free, versatile and it’s easy to use once you get used to it. As it needs domain (site address) and hosting services, I provided a step-by-step guide to create Bluehost accounts, download the theme, write a blog and create the menus.
If you followed this guidance and created your own website, make sure you leave the comments here so that I can have a look! To read all the life and study hacks for international students, go to the F-1 visa info page.
