I’m from Australia and will be attending Monash or Melbourne University for my undergraduate course in either BEng(Honours) or BCom - I may also choose to complete a double degree for both of these at Monash. I’m interested in civil engineering and also finance so I may want to switch fields early in my career, or if I struggle to find a job.
Anyway, my main question is, is it worth going to a top American business school(top 25) to complete a MBA? One of the main reasons I want to complete my MBA abroad is because of the plethora of networking opportunities hence a better chance of landing a job.
Obviously the networking would be mainly focussed in American companies but I’ve also noticed on other posts that it would be hard for me to live in USA just for work. Is this true, is there any way around this? The engineering field is pretty saturated in Australia so I wouldn’t mind working in the USA, they also value important jobs more than Australia(software engineers and computer scientist).
Edit: I’d like to work in a senior management position in a well-known company for engineering or business.
After you have completed your undergraduate education, and you have at least two years of increasingly responsible work experience, that would be the time to start thinking about whether or not you want to complete an MBA program and where you would like to complete it. This is not a decision that you need to take just yet!
If you do come here for an MBA, you will have a student visa, and you will be entitled to a total of 12 months of training time (OPT) that you can use after your studies end. Some MBA graduates do manage to find a work (H-1B) visa sponsor when their OPT expires. Most don’t. You need to be ready to go home, or to another country where you have work permission if you don’t find an H-1B sponsor.
Thanks for the reply, I agree that I’m thinking about this too early…
I have an additional question, should I go for a MEng. or MBA?
That is something to worry about later too.
OPT is longer (18 months???) for students in engineering and some other science/tech/math fields, and it has been somewhat easier for engineers with good experience to find H-1B visa sponsors after completing and MSEng and using up their OPT. However, working here past the end of OPT is not guaranteed. And, if you let slip that that is your goal during a visa interview, you won’t get your student visa. You have to be able to look the visa officer in the eye and say that you fully intend to return home after your studies are over.
Canada, like Australia, is much friendlier for international students when it comes to work permission than the US is. If you really want out of Australia, read up on Canada’s immigration policies.
Do you want to proceed down a career path the leads to senior managerial responsibilities or senior technical oversight? That’s the crux of the MBA or MSE/MEng issue (not to suggest that crossovers between these two career path are at all uncommon). However, here too, you’d be wise to wait several years before making this decision.
As I’m from Australia as well (albeit a high school student) facing the same visa issues if I choose to pursue a US education, I have done a little research on this subject. For finance, apparently a few years ago when the big banks were still receiving TARP money from the Federal government during the financial crisis they had to severely cut down on their H1B sponsorships of foreign students. However, this situation should be improving gradually. In addition, as an Australian citizen you can ask companies to sponsor you for the E3 working visa (http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/e-3-certain-specialty-occupation-professionals-australia) and its annual quota is never filled (unlike the popular H1B). It’s much easier to attain and there’s no limit on the extensions