This year I moved from Europe to the USA, my background is in consulting, business analysis and product management. I went to a top uni in Northern Europe (fully accredited, also on the US standard), I took credits at Ivy Leagues in the USA to supplement by degree and I have a work experience from an American big tech company. I have a ton of certifications in cloud, data and CRM space. While in Europe I had an extremely easy time getting a job, basically almost all companies I applied to got back to me (including FAANG). After coming to the USA it has been a dead silence and a series of a horrible experiences. I came to the US because of my partner, and I couldn’t not transfer internally from European team to the US team because I have not yet been in that particular company for 3 years (they had was the rule). So I had to quit my big tech job in Europe. What I have been doing to increase my chances: After coming to the US I have sent out around 800 job applications, and changed my resume probably 30+ times, I also hired a recruitment consulting company through which they adjusted my resume to fit the ‘American’ standard, and they also scanned through my LinkedIn. Overall service price was around 1,000$ - which resulted in nothing. I briefly got a job at a startup. I found out later on that the startup was extremely strapped for money, no revenue for a few years (not even a 1$), and my compensation was at a minimum wage. Founder promised to increase my salary to a market rate after some time, but never did, so I resigned (among other reasons). Additionally since coming to the US, I have been working for free for a non-profit as a Product Manager, and I have registered my own LLC - an AI startup with one other engineer. We got lucky and we got accepted to a startup accelerator program provided by one of the FAANG companies. Plus, I completed a 6 months long, part-time, coding bootcamp - to gain more tech skills and I started to blog on Medium about tech and product management. I am almost at 1,000 followers. So, despite still looking for a job, I have been very busy and was able to add a ton of new experiences and projects on my resume. Results: In terms of full-time offers, I got nothing, almost no responses, bunch of rejections, out of all of those 800 applications I got only like 5 companies that actually got back to me. With 2 of those I made it to a final round, but got rejected. I am not just applying for FAANG, I am applying to anything - small companies, startups, not well known companies. I am also reaching out to people on LinkedIn directly, I have been sending invitation to connect to network, and I have been cold applying via LinkedIn and Indeed. I also got some referrals, which resulted in nothing. Timeline: It’s been around 8 months of job search Current TC: 0$ Years of Experience: 5 (Big Tech, MedTech, media investment & startups) Education: Bachelor’s + Master’s + Coding Bootcamp + bunch of tech & PM certifications. Both master’s and bachelor’s are in tech/business fields. Language: Fully fluent but have an accent (not too bad of an accent). Have a foreign name both first and last. Visa: I have a green card - so visa sponsorship is not an issue. Socials: LinkedIn is polished, have 1,000+ followers, up to date information, semi-active - occasionally make posts. Jobs I am targeting: product manager, tech product mgmt, product specialist, senior business analyst, CRM Consultant + whatever is related to these roles. What could it be, and what else can I do? #unemployment #hiring
This year has been pretty bad for hiring. People have been getting in via referrals, and even that's competitive. If you have companies on your resume which American employers won't recognize, that may be hurting you. Foreign university is fine, certifications don't matter very much (unless you're an SFDC Admin or something). Foreign name and accent also shouldn't count against you - plenty of immigrant workers in US tech. Basically, just keep trying. Hiring should pick up in Q1. I'm sorry you're having a rough time. I know people who got laid off 6-12 months ago (very good people) who are still looking for work.
Thank you for your comment. I do have SFDC Admin cert and bunch of other certs from Salesforce, but no luck on the job market despite that.
PMs were mostly laid off, probably difficult to find a role now. Even engineering is getting squeezed
It’s just the market, not you. With companies throwing so many bodies on the street while tightening the belt, this is the outcome. Q1 will start looking better. Don’t lose hope.
Northern Europe universities are not up to par with US top schools. Also certifications are next to worthless.
My uni had partnerships with Ivy Leagues/high ranking universities in the US, so students could just go on exchange year to Columbia, Cornell or Duke etc. They were only about to do that because my university was on the same level as top US universities - but it didn’t have partnership with Harvard - so it was not on that high of a level
PM is brutal right now. Also brutal for those if not currently employed. Your resume prob seems random and unrelated to just one role. If I were you I’d try to target program management instead of PM , and heavilybtailor your resume to just that job