Advice on summer jobs in the US with a J1 Visa travelling from the UK?

Question

I'm a full time university student and a part time waiter looking for waiter/server jobs in the US for Summer 2013.

I have paid and joined a programme called Work America 2013 as part of BUNAC Working Adventures Worldwide. They provide me with their in house online job seeker tool called Job Zone which I have used to apply for all waiter/server jobs on offer but out of 10 jobs, I have only heard back from one so far which was to say we are still waiting on applications.

I have rang BUNAC and while they do acknowledge that a job can be found upon landing in the US, I want to do as much as I possibly can to ensure I get a job before I fly over next June.

I have joined job agencies such as GetJ1Jobs and Monster.com and attached my resume but with some chain restaurants (TGI Fridays, Red Robin, Pizza Hut), they have job agency sites where they need a Social Security and a Phone Number which, as a UK citizen, I do not have.

Has anyone got any advice about securing a job in the US from overseas?

I would greatly appreciate your comments.

Answer 1

I cannot offer you much advice on what to do, but I have a couple observations that hopefully can help you. I noticed that some of the online job agencies that you are using are very popular (e.g., monster.com), and therefore will have millions of people trying to find a job. Is there a way that the agency that helped you get your visa can also help you to contact the places you want to work directly? I suspect that you are just getting lost in the crowd on some of these online sites. The next thing I noticed is the types of places where you are applying might present a problem for you. If you are applying to mostly chain restaurants, they have a huge turnaround of workers. Millions of Americans are working in places like TGI Friday's all over the country. Again, you're probably just getting lost of the maze of prospective workers. Unfortunately, some of those places might not have the most adept managers who handle the hiring (I speak from experience as an American who has worked at places like this in the past!). With these types of places, it's easier to get a job if you actually walk in and have a face-to-face interview, but I don't know if travelling just for a few interviews here in the States is in your budget. Or maybe you can see if your agency can help you apply to a smaller, more "mom and pop" type of restaurant? There are also many of what we call country clubs, i.e., fancy places where people have membership to go golfing and eat a fancy meal, or they host weddings at exorbitant prices, etc. In regard to giving phone number and social security information, I would think that the prospective employer would be able to figure out why you don't have such information available upon looking at your application (unless you're only dealing with those pesky online applications that won't go through unless you have particular information). If that's the case, you can also contact the place directly and see if you can mail them a paper application the "old-fashioned" way (yikes, I feel old saying that). I hope something here helps! Good luck, and I hope you have a wonderful time here and a rich learning experience.

Answer 2

What might want to be acceptable might want to be some style of operating vacation visa, yet regrettably there is not any contract for those between the U. S. and uk (both way). The non everlasting worker visas are very certain and the reason you aren't to any extent further constructive which one you would possibly want to qualify for, is that you do not qualify for any of them. you aren't to any extent further coming to as a preacher/as a sportsperson/as an artist/component of a suitable cultural change or to volunteer unpaid for a charity. Sorry to assert yet there is not any longer any way so that you are able to attempt this straight away. have you ever appeared on the Bunac internships contained in the united kingdom? it truly is the in basic terms way i can see might want to be a probability.