internship

What are the things computer science students value the most (collectively) in an internship? What is YOUR wish list and why?

As Jacqueline Smith said, the things Computer Science value the most in the internship is full time employment opportunity(51%), job orientation and training (42%), good employer reference (29%), challenging assignments (20%) and flexible working conditions (19%).That is a good list, pretty reasonable, nothing to add here.

My wish list is much shorter. As an international student, my biggest goal is to stay in this country after graduation, so the things I value the most in internship is an opportunity for full time employment and working visa. Long story short, after graduation I will have 12 months ⅄to get a job or I am going back to Russia. Going back to Russia is one of my biggest fears. It would be completely pointless to spend 5 years in United States on getting my degree in Computer Science here, right in the Silicon Valley and after that go with that skill set back to the country, where IT industry is getting worse and worse every year. The government is full of incompetent fools, whose entire purpose is make people’s live harder. Lastly it touches a lot of people from IT industry, since government is constantly releasing a new idiotic laws… Also, the salary in Russia even in top IT companies are lower than what baristas in Starbucks have here. So yeah, no way I am going back to Russia.

And even if I will get a full time job here, in Silicon Valley, it is not a guarantee that I will get a working visa. Getting an H1-B visa costs a fee ranging from $825 to $4000 and not a lot of companies are willing to pay that money for international employees. And even if employer is willing to pay for that, US government has limited the amount of accepted petitions of H1-B visas to 65,000 per fiscal year. According to the Institute of International Education (2016), there are 974,926 international students who studied US colleges and universities in 2014/15. Approximately fifth part of that students are graduating each year. Doing simple math, 974,926/5 - 65,000 equals approximately 130,000. Two third of all international students are not getting working visa and have to go back to their country. For some international students it is ok, since they came to US without intention to stay here after graduation in a first place. Well, I am not one of these students. I want to stay here and an Internship is one of the most important steps in order to achieve that goal.

WORKS CITED

Institute of International Education, Inc. (2016). International Students [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.iie.org/Research-and-Publications/Open-Doors/Data/International-Students

Shao, H. (2011, Feb 13). Work Visas Confine International Students in US Job Market.Retrieved from http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/2/17/international-students-h1b-visa/