Landing The Overseas Job

We asked you to help us give advice to A.M., a recent grad in Lebanon who's trying to get a job somewhere else, and you all didn't let us down. Here are some of the best pieces of advice you gave. We think they're useful not just for overseas journalists trying to get a toehold in this country but for any bilingual media people and, to some extent, nearly anyone seeking a media job. From Catherine Kustanczy: As a Canadian journalist with an active online presence (Twitter, blog, Linked In) seeking work in New York City, I can advise A.M. to definitely reach out to people via social media. Also, volunteer in areas that you want to enter into and see if there's a way you can offer your skills via telecommute. Yes, yes, yes. Twitter and the blogosphere are incredibly democratizing places and let you reach almost anyone instantly. Seconded and thirded! From Furhana Afrid, who is a master networker if we ever saw one: Since the recession, it is nearly impossible to get a news company to sponsor you on an H1-B visa. These are visas that give foreigners the right to live and work in the U.S. My understanding is that CNN, the AP that once sponsored visas for foreign journalists have stopped doing so. I am uncertain if this has changed. Even after you get a sponsor, you have other challenges ahead of you. Its hard to change jobs because your next employer has to be willing to sponsor you. Ultimately your career development suffers. Besides, the H1B visas have restrictions, it is expensive and your immigration circumstances change very quickly if you lose or get fired from a job. In the event you lose your job, the immigration law requires you to get another job within a few weeks or else you have 60 days to pack up and go home. Your leverage is your Arabic language skills and your location in the Middle East. Learn how to shoot video, edit and do online reporting. Multimedia skills are in demand. Build your site and get some content on it. Blog and share your expertise. This will help create your personal brand. Use social media to get the word out. Sign up for tweets, follow journalists and news companies especially international news outlets that would be interested in hiring you as a freelancer or foreign correspondent in Lebanon. Al Jazeera is hiring. You can look up job postings on Mediabistro.com. Get an account on LinkedIn and Facebook and do the same. Build your network. With social media, you have a world of information you can access. Most of all you will meet humble and generous journalists who are likely to help you. If you need further information or have other questions I am happy to help anyway I can. From Jon: I would advise to try Europe before the U.S. As you already know Immigration law here has tightened significantly. Especially towards people from the Middle East. Save yourself the drama and trouble and start off in the UK/France. I hear they are much more welcoming than we are, at least when it comes to legalities. As hard as it will be to immigrate to a European country and work there legally it will be 10 times harder to come here. Baby steps. From Lynn, who goes by "Journgo": Until recently, I'm a foreign correspondent for a Taiwan based TV News Network and have been covering the Western United States for almost 20 years. When I started my career many years ago after I got my journalism degree in the U.S. I decided to go back to Taiwan, where I was born and raised. I first worked at a English radio station and later moved on to Chinese TV. I was sent to the U.S. because of my bilingual ability. Here I conduct interviews in English and report in Chinese. I love it. My suggestion to you is to highlight your bilingual/ cross culture ability and begin by looking at Arabic language local media in the States, if that doesn't work, go back to the region and work really hard to build up your resume, and then you have more options if your final goal is to work in New York. You can also look up VOA or RFA, they always look for talented bilingual reporters/editors. Good luck to you! And last, from TalineLA, a sobering reminder that no matter what, "easy" is not a word you could apply to this task. Although I'm an American citizen, don't need sponsorship and have substantial work experience, I am having a very hard time even generating interest in the U.S. I was based in Paris for many years and I thought that would be a plus on my resume, but apparently potential employers seem to use the fact that I've lived outside the U.S. for so long against me. I'm contributing to some online magazines but I feel like I have to start my career all over again from scratch.

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Landing The Overseas Job

Rachel Kaufman

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Rachel Kaufman