Three ways to get to work for Americans - ForumDaily
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Three ways to get to work for Americans

The product manager, two designers and a developer told how they ended up in the USA or started working for American companies, why they need it and whether the move is always a professional upgrade.

Фото: Depositphotos

We decided to find out what motivates people to look for work in the States, talked to the cool guys - the product manager, designers and developer - and brought out three main scenarios for how to work for an American company, writes Vc.ru with reference to 6designers.com.

1. Get a remote job in an American company

It does not require desperate decisions, urgent visa leapfrog. If you differ, then it is likely that the employee who has been tested and has shown his effectiveness will be invited to work on the spot - in close cooperation with the team. In addition, this is an option for those who do not want to be tied to one place or who could not get a US visa.

Nikita Zimin, Senior Designer in Fantasy (San Francisco, New York): "It's not scary"

For nearly two years Nikita has been working in Fantasy, perhaps the most famous design agency, and lives in Barcelona. Prior to that, he was engaged in design for ten years: he started with printing, worked as a motion designer on TV channels RU.TV, Kommersant-TV, where, over time, he became involved in interfaces.

In a major Russian startup NPTV and in freelancing, I strongly developed skills and established my own studio, but I quickly realized that only state projects bring good money, and there was no desire to work on them. But there was a desire to feel global, not a local player. Therefore, I deliberately began to look for options for work in leading foreign studios. Updated his portfolio and LinkedIn.

Collecting a portfolio, putting in order LinkedIn, Behance, Dribbble is a full-fledged job, but it is also an investment that gives a conversion. And if you do nothing, nothing will happen.

On the platform Angel list Nikita and a small Dutch agency became interested in each other. 100grams. The agency liked the portfolio, they sent a letter and a test, and after a day they received a completed task and immediately offered to start working.

For the Russian-speaking agency name sounds funny - "stogramm". I realized that you can not give up on this.

In parallel with this work, Nikita was negotiating with Fantasy, where remote vacancies were opened. He had a friend already working there, through which he responded to the vacancy. It did not give any preferences, but greatly facilitated communication.

They got acquainted with the portfolio and offered to perform a test task, according to the results of which they were accepted into the staff. It is easier to get to large companies “through the back door”, because it is worth going over in the mind of colleagues and acquaintances who have settled in successful projects. Recommendations help speed up the hiring process.

Nikita did not set a goal to move to America, on the contrary, did not want to be tied to the place. In addition, I have long wanted to live in Barcelona, ​​for which reliable remote work was needed.

Photo: personal archive

The main difference of work in an American company from previous experience is the level of professionalism of colleagues.

Here people know what they want, they are friendly to each other, this creates a comfortable working environment. Previously, one often had to feel the vertical of submission. She, of course, there are in the states, but here we manage to create an atmosphere of complete trust and openness. It is very important. Well and in Fantasy high-level professionals work, here you constantly learn something new.

The advantages that work in world-renowned companies gives are, by and large, obvious, but everyone needs their last push. It is only important to understand that it is not scary.

Many fears are stopped by inner fear, they say, in the office they speak English, and people who are beaten down after Soviet schools are afraid to speak a foreign language. In fact, if there is any English, they will understand you. It is impossible to imagine that someone would say "fu", "ha ha ha."

For those who struggle with inner fear, Nikita gave the example of his colleague who came to Fantasy with very poor English. He always asked for an explanation, to translate the task, and did not participate in calls. At some point, it happened that Nikita and the others could no longer help him, they were transferred to another project, and he was left alone, without the support of Russian-speaking guys. Two months have passed - and now he is already texting and calling his colleagues.

Nikita emphasizes that smoothly and quickly does not happen, you need to understand this. Before the Dutch and Fantasy, he himself was preparing for a long time, there were many unsuccessful interviews, inadequate employers, often people disappeared, did not respond. In such moments, self-doubt can prevail, because you do not understand the reasons for refusal. Among these situations, you need to maneuver and not despair.

Here business is boiling, all design and IT are primarily developed here. And the work in Fantasy to some extent even opened my eyes to how the world and business work.

Photo: personal archive

2. Get a job in the Russian office of an American company

This option gives you a chance to be transferred to an American office or at least a useful line in a resume that will help you get a job in an American company after.

Iskander Samarkhanov, full-stack developer in Reddit, (San Francisco): "I thought, cool, you can try"

Iskander from Kazan, a year ago with his wife moved to San Francisco. Works in Reddit and has a telegram channel for friends. iskan francisco about funny moments overseas life. For example, about how Reddit “armed” as a summer corporate party, divided employees into two teams and arranged a shootout in the city.

I remember, I was watching a colleague, standing in the parking lot and occasionally shooting, one driver got out of the car and asked if everything was all right. I say, yes, we are playing spy games. If he caught my Russian accent, I do not think that my explanation calmed him down.

Photo from the telegram channel iskan francisco

While still a student, Iskander began working at Akvelon, a US outsourcing company that develops software for Microsoft, T-Mobile, Disney, Starbucks, Reddit, etc. Akvelon is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, and has offices in Kazan, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl and Kharkov. From classmate Iskander heard about Akvelon and the opportunity to go to work in the states, which the company provided. Then he decided, "why not try," and changed the Russian company in which he worked to the American Akvelon.

At Akvelon, they implemented it into existing remote projects without any interviews with customers, who at that time were all from Seattle, such as Microsoft. In parallel, Iskander was preparing for a potential project with a move to the customer’s office in America: he solved problems for algorithms, pumped the technical part — languages, technologies, trained English.

Photo from the telegram channel iskan francisco

After nine months, the company scheduled the first interviews, one of which he passed. But on the client side bureaucratic difficulties arose and they curtailed the process. After that, there were no open positions for another six months, but there was time to thoroughly prepare. A new interview turned out with Reddit, San Francisco.

In general, I was inspired because I dreamed of being there, and the opportunity to live and work appeared. Well, by some miracle I passed an interview with one of the most important people in Reddit - with a CTO (chief technology officer). I got a work visa, and now I live in San Francisco and work as a contractor with Reddit. From time to time I fly to Seattle to the main office of Akvelon. Well, here my daughter was born.

Photo from the telegram channel iskan francisco

3. Get an American company directly

The employment process is not fast, you have to spend a lot of nerves and, probably, money.

Anna Naumova, Product Manager, Blockchain-Startup BitClave (San Jose, California): "You can say it was a husband's dream, which I went to perform"

Anya moved to the USA two years ago. For nine years my husband played the lottery and finally won - received a green card. Prior to that, Anya worked at Odnoklassniki and Mail.Ru Group for ten years, the last three of which - in the position of product manager. She never suffered from the “American dream”, she always had a good life in her homeland. She moved to the states with her husband and daughter without offers: they accumulated $ 20 thousand and went.

Photo: personal archive

Sad statistics: the first job in the States is searched for a long time, the average period is six months, so you should be patient. You also have to say goodbye to arrogance and accept the fact of “nulling”: you are nobody here. The experience is not in the United States few people are interested. I was often asked if I was a Mail.ru ouner, that is, many people in Europe do not even know the largest IT company.

Anya found all her works here through acquaintances. She responded to hundreds of vacancies, but, as practice shows, only the referral program and dating increase the chances of being hired. First job in Boston in ridesharing application Fast found by local standards very quickly - two months after the move. With the co-founder of Fasten, the Odnoklassniki team did the project, even when Anya worked there.

Work in Bitclave was found in a similar way: a year earlier in New York, in the accelerator Starta, Anya met a co-founder. Getting an acquaintance with start-ups with Russian roots is usually much simpler than with classic American corporations: there is a similar interview process, it is easy to collect references to a candidate in Russian companies.

Looking for a job in the USA is such a meat grinder and such competition that it is bad for both employers and applicants. In large companies comes to several thousand candidates for the vacancy. Therefore, the most effective way is to settle through recommendations. Open LinkedIn and meet people from different companies. Russian community in the United States is very large.

Ani's husband works with QA (quality assurance) at Toast, a Boston software development company for restaurant orders. He had been looking for work for almost a year: he was not engaged in networking, and English was at a lower level.

Anya advises to tighten the level of English in Russia, and at least a year before the move it is better to switch to films, podcasts, interviews, shows, media and books in English only. In addition to classes with an English-speaking teacher, you can write or call any foreign support service and discuss imaginary problems. Anya pays special attention to this, because the main mistake is that she herself almost did not prepare. Engaged in English on Skype, but when I arrived in the states I realized how not ready.

A product manager is a profession that in 80% consists of communications. No one wants to work with a person who cannot express his thoughts, speaks unclearly, constantly asks, illiterately and rudely writes.

Here you have to compete with local guys from Stanford. If English is bad, no other skills will save (if this is not a Russian startup in the Valley). This distinguishes the search for a product manager’s job from developers whose English requirements are not as high.

Photo: personal archive

Moving to the USA has strongly strengthened me as a person. Now I seem to be no longer afraid of anything. I learned how to solve questions, open any doors, receive any information. I have improved my English, I can communicate with anyone without any problems. I can not yet say that he gave me a professional relocation.

From a career point of view, I seem to have rolled back. She worked in a top company on a cool project with a multimillion audience, and began working in small startups. But often it is necessary to take a step back, then two forward - I believe in it!

Evgeny Guschin, brand designer in Siegel + gale (San Francisco): “The work that you do here is the most modern products, technologies and management principles”

Eugene studied at the Higher School of Economics, when he was still in his third year, he began to combine his studies with the work of an assistant dean. In this role, he performed not only administrative work, but also a lot of design work - from icons to presentations for various events that took place at the university on a regular basis.

During his studies at the magistracy he received an offer from Gazprom, the company was engaged in the export and transportation of gas abroad. In the first months everything was in order, a lot had to learn. But soon the work became meaningless and mechanical: negotiations, bookkeeping, tracking. They paid very well, but it quickly became clear that the company was all about power and influence, not talent and hard work.

Six months later, the question arose of what he really wanted to do. The answer did not have to invent - design. After work, he began to attend courses, and the rest of the time he read design books. One of them was the book “Change by Design” by David Kelly, IDEO CEO.

What impressed me most of all was that IDEO hired people both with design education and with experience in completely different fields, from healthcare to the economy. This allowed IDEO to solve complex problems - from the development of the first graphic interface manipulator (computer mouse for Apple) to the irrigation system in Nigeria. I just felt that I should work on IDEO, at that moment it seemed that everything came together.

In the same book, Zhenya read that the best program for designers was the program of the Academy of the University of the Arts in San Francisco. A year later, he landed in San Francisco to study master's degree in graphic design.

Zhenya wanted to engage in creative work, to solve complex problems, to make the world a better place. Therefore, the question was not whether to go to study at the Academy or not, but how to do it. The Master program at the Academy of Arts was expensive - $ 56 thousand, but the family supported the idea and sold part of the property to cover the costs.

The master was the hardest test of my life. It was a time when I was so close to giving up for the first time, but did not.

Photo: personal archive

Studying was extremely difficult, and in 2014, the ruble collapsed, I quickly ran out of money. I worked as a waiter after class, worked at night, went to school after three hours of sleep. On weekends, he spent two full days driving Uber. For me it was a very difficult period in the States.

During his studies, he began working in a small design studio, where he was also involved in launching an online business selling design posters. This work gave a very different experience and removed the need to frantically search for a place of employment after graduating from the magistracy: according to the rules of a student visa, the search for a job in a specialty is given 90 days.

Brand studio Siegel + Gale itself contacted Eugene and invited to an interview. In addition to the online portfolio of students going traditional portfolio in physical form - a book with the works. All of them, as a rule, resemble each other and do not greatly interest the employer.

Zhenya approached the design of the portfolio creatively, spent time to get a decent result. He is sure that such a high-quality “design artifact” is a big bonus when applying for a first job. And in his favor, he also played experience - he could talk about real, not student projects.

In addition, Siegel + Gale needed hands because it was contracted with Wells Fargo, 4, the largest bank in the United States. Knowing this, when it came to negotiations about salary expectations, Zhenya allowed himself to mention a bold figure. The employer offered a much smaller one, to which Zhenya explained reasonably why he deserves the position of Senior Designer and such a salary. Siegel + Gale did not respond week.

I approached the whole process calmly enough. In parallel, I had several interviews with Facebook, Google, and Airbnb, and I still had a previous job. In general, a week later, Siegel + Gale offered me the position of a signor designer and an appropriate salary.

After had a hard time. When you ask for good money and a position partly in advance, then you need to work on it, and the reaction to the result of labor will almost inevitably be at first - “And we expect more.” It took his wife more than six months to prove to everyone that the company had made the right choice. Now the work is quite comfortable, but at the end of a high-profile project with Wells Fargo, Eugene is thinking about changing jobs in order to do more UX and UI, rather than brand design.

Regarding work and life in America as a whole, in spite of the multinationality of the Valley, the feeling of a wife does not matter if someone else is here: the language, the accent, the lack of understanding of the cultural aspects - all this is not going anywhere.

One of the feedbacks that I was given on the performance review came down to the fact that I was “argumentative”, that is, arguing and trying to prove a point. And the Americans say the same thing, but they clothe it in a different shell, and this suits everyone. Far from immediately you begin to feel these cultural features, then to understand and only after use.

Zhenya is sure that working here is at least to see a completely different approach to work: there is proper communication within the team, which helps to work together quickly to cope with difficulties, everything is very transparent, there is no prevailing hierarchy.

I understand that if I return to Russia or work in Europe, I can bring something to these companies that will help make things faster, more qualitatively, or think differently. This is an investment in yourself. Well, plus there is much more money. If you want to open your company - you can always find funding. Well, very good salaries: the difference between income and spending is much greater.

Photo: personal archive

Here I found the combination of creative and analytical work that I was looking for. I can firmly say that I love going to work and doing what I do; it makes me feel great. In the end, a passion for design is the main thing that moves me forward.

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