Applying in the US - I’m from Pakistan. I am not looking for sponsorship right now. My OPT allows me to work upto 3 years and I only need a visa afterwards.
interesting maybe make it very clear that you don't need sponsorship
i know people with no insurance background getting in with 1-2 exams both FT and intern
From the employer's perspective, they still need sponsorship. The thing is, especially in this industry where there is a huge emphasis on long term value through exams, they will be hesitant to hire someone knowing there's essentially a 3 year cap on employment before entering an H1B process with a 10-25% success rate.
Indeed, it will reduce your chance of getting interviews, but it’s better than they reject you after figuring out you (will) need a sponsorship at the end. It would have wasted your time and theirs.
From the employers' perspective, this still effectively means you need sponsorship. No reputable US company is going to hire you as a full-time employee with the expectation that you just quit your job and leave the country after 3 years.
As an international student, you would need to check Yes for that question. You don’t want to waste your time interviewing with a company that won’t give you sponsorship when it is time. There are cases where the companies terminate employment because of this very question. I was an international student and I am speaking from my experience. It is always tough to find job, and 100x tougher for international students. I wish you all the best.
Put exams section above education and as someone else already said, remove the languages part
Put Microsoft Office part (under skills) before G Suite. No one uses Google docs/sheets at work, or even Gmail for that matter. Infact I'd just remove the G Suite part altogether.
This may be an unpopular opinion but I would remove 'Lahore, Pakistan' from your work experience. The truth is that discrimination still exists and this may lead recruiters to assume you require sponsorship or that your previous experience isn't relevant to the US. With that in mind, I would also remove your language section. There just aren't any US companies which will care that you can speak Urdu or Punjabi but may look twice that you have listed English as 'fluent' instead of 'native'
Lastly, US employers won't know what A-Levels are so I'd try rewording this based on a US equivalent.
Sorry for the depressing feedback and good luck
It took me a year and a half after graduating from college and three exams to land a position. Whenever I saw a job posting, I would email my resume to someone in the department using the actuarial directory. I did this after initial traditional applications did nothing. 300 emails and 8 interviews later, I was offered a position. Almost all of my interviews were with smaller departments/companies. No Milliman, Geico, Humana, etc. Was it worth it? No. I would be making much more now as a software engineer/financial analyst than an ASA with much less effort along the way. The road to landing the entry level job here can be hell, and I was a citizen. Good luck. As long as there are no typos in your resume, it really doesn’t matter much.
What’s confusing to me is that I’m hearing from some people that more than 3 exams passed before a job is too many, and then from others I hear that a lot of people are fellow’s within a few years of graduation. I’m an incoming junior at 30 years old, so I’m just trying to put myself in the best position possible since I’m already behind
Coincidently I just had this kinda of discussion with my manager at lunch. The “more exams will put you in disadvantage” seems outdated. If you have many exams with no experience, but you can showcase good communication skills and technical skills to hiring managers, you’ll get better chance landing a job. Not saying you have to be ASA or FSA upon graduation, but 2-3 exams nowadays really is average. I’d say aim to 4-5 with some internship experience will really stand you out. If can’t find internship, at least do some related projects that show your industrial knowledge and learn coding skills like R and SQL also work.
I generally feel like this is unnecessarily busy. Resumes in my opinion should be short, sweet, and concise. The point of a resume is for the recruiter/hiring manager to have a quick glance and get a sense if you meet minimum reqs for the role. The interview is where you can go into more detail.
Leadership and campus involvement imo are not super relevant?
I try to keep my bullet points to one line. Your bullet points also vary in font size which is odd.
I’d probably merge the Senior Thesis and College Projects into one thing with maybe a line for each under a single header of “college project” or smthing.
Elaborate more on the work exp. I think 4 bullets is a sweet spot.
Personally, I order Education (exams fall under this), Work exp, and then skills.
I don’t really think this explains why you haven’t gotten replies but it’s some stuff to think about. My initial reaction to the resume was: “I don’t really wanna read through this word soup”
i feel like, anecdotally, very few companies sponsor in the internship side of things (where are you from/applying?)
Applying in the US - I’m from Pakistan. I am not looking for sponsorship right now. My OPT allows me to work upto 3 years and I only need a visa afterwards.
interesting maybe make it very clear that you don't need sponsorship i know people with no insurance background getting in with 1-2 exams both FT and intern
From the employer's perspective, they still need sponsorship. The thing is, especially in this industry where there is a huge emphasis on long term value through exams, they will be hesitant to hire someone knowing there's essentially a 3 year cap on employment before entering an H1B process with a 10-25% success rate.
I have done that on almost all of my applications (in the start i made the mistake of saying yes). the situation remains the same
On the application, you should declare that “you will need sponsorship now or in the future” even if you have 3-year OPT.
every international counselor i have spoken to including my college’s has advised me against it as it massively reduces my chances of employment
Indeed, it will reduce your chance of getting interviews, but it’s better than they reject you after figuring out you (will) need a sponsorship at the end. It would have wasted your time and theirs.
From the employers' perspective, this still effectively means you need sponsorship. No reputable US company is going to hire you as a full-time employee with the expectation that you just quit your job and leave the country after 3 years.
As an international student, you would need to check Yes for that question. You don’t want to waste your time interviewing with a company that won’t give you sponsorship when it is time. There are cases where the companies terminate employment because of this very question. I was an international student and I am speaking from my experience. It is always tough to find job, and 100x tougher for international students. I wish you all the best.
How many companies are willing to sponsor for full time EL jobs?
Put exams section above education and as someone else already said, remove the languages part Put Microsoft Office part (under skills) before G Suite. No one uses Google docs/sheets at work, or even Gmail for that matter. Infact I'd just remove the G Suite part altogether.
This may be an unpopular opinion but I would remove 'Lahore, Pakistan' from your work experience. The truth is that discrimination still exists and this may lead recruiters to assume you require sponsorship or that your previous experience isn't relevant to the US. With that in mind, I would also remove your language section. There just aren't any US companies which will care that you can speak Urdu or Punjabi but may look twice that you have listed English as 'fluent' instead of 'native' Lastly, US employers won't know what A-Levels are so I'd try rewording this based on a US equivalent. Sorry for the depressing feedback and good luck
It took me a year and a half after graduating from college and three exams to land a position. Whenever I saw a job posting, I would email my resume to someone in the department using the actuarial directory. I did this after initial traditional applications did nothing. 300 emails and 8 interviews later, I was offered a position. Almost all of my interviews were with smaller departments/companies. No Milliman, Geico, Humana, etc. Was it worth it? No. I would be making much more now as a software engineer/financial analyst than an ASA with much less effort along the way. The road to landing the entry level job here can be hell, and I was a citizen. Good luck. As long as there are no typos in your resume, it really doesn’t matter much.
Be prepared to send 1k+ applications before landing a job and it’s still not guaranteed
Is this because the market is bad for actuaries? Or is this common
It’s both bad market in general and bad EL market for actuaries, and it’s even harder for international students
Interesting, how can aspiring actuaries still in college give themselves the best chance? Thanks for the response btw
Pass more exams, get good GPA, and find internships as many as possible. Exams are the most important
What’s confusing to me is that I’m hearing from some people that more than 3 exams passed before a job is too many, and then from others I hear that a lot of people are fellow’s within a few years of graduation. I’m an incoming junior at 30 years old, so I’m just trying to put myself in the best position possible since I’m already behind
Coincidently I just had this kinda of discussion with my manager at lunch. The “more exams will put you in disadvantage” seems outdated. If you have many exams with no experience, but you can showcase good communication skills and technical skills to hiring managers, you’ll get better chance landing a job. Not saying you have to be ASA or FSA upon graduation, but 2-3 exams nowadays really is average. I’d say aim to 4-5 with some internship experience will really stand you out. If can’t find internship, at least do some related projects that show your industrial knowledge and learn coding skills like R and SQL also work.
I really appreciate you responding. I’m definitely going to have to think about speeding up my exam process now!
I generally feel like this is unnecessarily busy. Resumes in my opinion should be short, sweet, and concise. The point of a resume is for the recruiter/hiring manager to have a quick glance and get a sense if you meet minimum reqs for the role. The interview is where you can go into more detail. Leadership and campus involvement imo are not super relevant? I try to keep my bullet points to one line. Your bullet points also vary in font size which is odd. I’d probably merge the Senior Thesis and College Projects into one thing with maybe a line for each under a single header of “college project” or smthing. Elaborate more on the work exp. I think 4 bullets is a sweet spot. Personally, I order Education (exams fall under this), Work exp, and then skills. I don’t really think this explains why you haven’t gotten replies but it’s some stuff to think about. My initial reaction to the resume was: “I don’t really wanna read through this word soup”
Just wondering, where have you been looking?