After reading everything so far, you may find there’s a lot you haven’t done yet. But I don’t want you to finish this handbook remembering only a long list of what you’re missing.
For many international students in the US, getting this far is already hard. You left a familiar environment, you study and job hunt in a second language, and after you apply, you live with uncertainty for a long time. Being willing to keep preparing and keep going to interviews is itself worth giving yourself some credit for.
Effort Matters, and Luck Is Real Too
No one can decide every outcome through effort alone. You can prepare well and still run into a team that stops hiring, a role that changes, or another candidate who happens to be a better fit for what they needed at the time.
Knowing this helps you separate what you can improve from what you can’t control. A project question you couldn’t answer is something you can go back and work on. A team canceling a position isn’t something you can blame entirely on your own lack of ability.
But admitting luck plays a part doesn’t mean all you can do is wait. Reaching out to more relevant people, applying for roles you qualify for, and practicing consistently all make it more likely you’ll come across an opportunity. You can’t decide which email will get an answer. You can decide whether you write it carefully and send it.
When students used to ask me what the odds were of landing their dream job, I’d sometimes ask back, “Are you someone who manifests things?” What I wanted to talk about was whether they followed through once they decided they wanted something.
If someone always feels she isn’t good enough and doesn’t dare apply or reach out, she’ll naturally come across fewer opportunities. When I say “The bolder you are, the better your offers,” I’m encouraging students not to cap themselves before anyone else does, and also to close in on their goals step by step with concrete preparation.
Don’t Let Other People’s Judgments End Your Attempt Before It Starts
I’ve worked with many women who are capable and prepared but have a habit of stepping back when an opportunity appears. They’ve heard “that’s too hard,” “you can’t do it,” and “it’s too late now” so many times that they start saying it themselves.
I’ve recommended the film Young Woman and the Sea before. What moved me about it was the idea that you shouldn’t let other people decide so easily whether you can do something. You don’t need an achievement like the one in the film to give yourself one more try at the things that matter to you.
The mentors on our team have all taken their own detours. I want to pass those experiences on to students: to tell them why something is hard and what preparation it takes, rather than just handing them the verdict “impossible.”
If you’ve looked into the requirements and know what you’re still missing, work on those specific gaps. Don’t decide you have no chance at all just because you haven’t yet found a success story from someone with exactly your background.
When There’s No Standard Way In, Try Creating One
Sometimes trying one more time means finding a different way for an opportunity to show up, instead of sending the same resume out again.
One of my students wanted to work in Growth or go-to-market (GTM) at a US startup after finishing her undergraduate degree. When she came to me, her LinkedIn was nearly empty and she knew very few people. If she had only waited for a posting on a company website that matched her background exactly, she’d have seen very few opportunities.
We started by filling out her LinkedIn and having her follow VCs, founders, and people working in the space. A lot of startup hiring never goes through the big campus recruiting systems; investors and founders post openings within their own networks. She also turned what she had actually done in past internships into posts, so anyone who clicked on her profile could see her experience and her judgment. At the same time, she started posting regularly on X and kept going to in-person events.
Eventually, at one event, she talked with two or three founders, and one of their companies offered her a chance directly. Three months after graduating, she had a Growth/GTM role. There’s no “hack” here that works for anyone who copies it. What made the difference was that she didn’t limit her search to job sites and went where opportunities get created.
Another student of mine had no connection to Singapore at all, and in 2022 there was no standard playbook for how an international student in the US could go work in Singapore and stay. We decided to test one possible path: seek an internship under whatever work authorization she qualified for at the time, try to convert it to full-time employment with the company applying for the required work pass, and then consider permanent residency when she became eligible. This was her plan, not a general or automatic route. Singapore’s training passes are time-limited, conversion to another work pass is not automatic, and eligibility to apply for permanent residency does not guarantee approval. Check the current rules from Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower and Immigration and Checkpoints Authority before relying on any timeline. She didn’t wait until she’d found a success story identical to hers before acting. Once she understood the rules, she turned a path with no ready-made template into several steps she could try.
When I say “creative,” I don’t mean you have to come up with a method no one in the world has ever tried. It might just mean asking whether a role’s requirements are open to discussion, meeting people at the events where your target industry actually gathers, or putting together a proposal first so a company can see what problem you can solve. None of these guarantee success, but they mean you’re no longer stuck waiting for someone else to open the door.
When There’s No Answer Yet, It Gets to Me Too
I once wrote about what my life felt like at the time: like sending signal after signal out into the universe and being left on read every time. I was waiting on jobs, waiting on messages, sending out one application after another, and still hearing nothing.
Back then, every time my email notification went off, my heart would jump. Eventually I couldn’t take it and turned notifications off. After a while I turned them back on, still thinking the next one might be an interview invitation.
So I know “be patient” is easy to say and hard to live through while you’re actually waiting. You’re used to seeing feedback after you do something, but a job search often doesn’t give you any, so you can’t tell whether you’re almost there or completely off course.
At times like this, check what can be checked first. Once someone has looked at your materials, you’ve reviewed your interviews, and you know what to change next, keep going with that plan. Checking your email many times a day won’t make the answer come any faster, and it makes it hard to rest.
You can still go out, have a meal, see friends, and do things that have nothing to do with that reply. Not having a result yet doesn’t have to take over your whole life.
If you’ve worked hard, kept adjusting your direction, and luck still hasn’t shown up, then let yourself wait a little longer. Right now the luck is someone else’s. In a little while, it’ll be yours. That’s a bit of comfort I’m willing to offer myself and my students, not a promise with a guaranteed date.
Take the Long View
Getting an offer is the result of one stage. Establishing yourself in an industry, and building up experience, judgment, and relationships, is a much longer road.
I often use the flatbread comparison: if the seventh flatbread is the one that fills you up, that doesn’t mean the first six were wasted. A job search builds up in a similar way. Earlier conversations, practice, and attempts may not have led to an offer yet, but they leave you better prepared when the next opportunity comes.
Of course, not all persistence pays off automatically. A direction that doesn’t fit needs adjusting, and a method that isn’t working needs a closer look. But don’t write off everything you’ve built up just because you don’t have an offer today.
The mirror exercise from Chapter 5, daily speaking practice, and seeking out information on your own, as covered earlier, are all things that build up over time. You’ll know better than before how to ask questions, be bolder about reaching out to people, and have a clearer sense of what in your experience is worth talking about.
I hope what you get out of your job search is more than a job. I hope you also come to know yourself better and learn how to go after opportunities in an unfamiliar place. You’ll keep using those abilities long after this.
Give yourself more encouragement. When you feel you can do something, back it up with action and learn as you go. Over time, you’ll feel more and more sure of yourself when you say, “I can.”