MS in US - Internships Guide

- Manjeeth Kolli
Hello there! I am positive that many of you must be having Deja Moo going through this guide.
For those who don’t know what Deja Moo is, it’s the feeling you get that you have been through
similarly written bullshit before. For those of you who don’t know me, I am Manjeeth Kolli. I
don’t know when it all started but one fine morning I decided to help as many MS aspirants I
could, especially the ones stuck in Construction Management. I am a second year Masters
Student in the Building Construction Management Program of Purdue University. I am currently
also working as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the same program. I have previously helped
out, at least I think so, or at least assisted a decent number of students with their MS applications
starting with profile evaluation until SOP reviews. I have written two guides until now, namely,
Fall 17 Guide for Masters in USA and Fall 17 MS in US – VISA Guide. I am glad that they
really helped out everyone in whatever manner it could. The links to these guides are attached
below:

Fall 17 Guide for Masters in USA - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1b-

rI3vOYpuWWtCZnNLbU9TNFU/view

Fall 17 MS in US – VISA Guide -

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1b-rI3vOYpuNTdPUmFDUFRKOVk

Now that we are done with the introductions and formalities, let's get down to the real deal as to
why you are reading this today. Internships! Your first step you will be taking towards your
career in the US. Before we start off, I want all readers to understand that this guide was written
in such a way that it would be helpful for all streams and disciplines. However, there are some
sections which are specifically made for Construction Engineering/Construction
Management/Civil Engineering students. But again, as I mentioned, I will try to keep it as much
as broad as possible. But if any student has any specific doubts he/she wants to clarify or any
problem I could help you out on, feel free to go ballistic on my contact information anytime.
Giving my Facebook link, doesn’t mean I can accept thousands of requests from everyone. So
try to understand and just send me messages of your queries, which can be done even if we
aren’t friends on Facebook. If I didn’t respond on social media, that would be because I am
hiding away when Liverpool loses, so then WhatsApp me.

Contact Info: https://www.facebook.com/manjeeth.kolli

Phone Number: +1-440-502-1372
Mail id - mkolli@purdue.edu

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I know, I know! I will keep this guide as much precise and to the point, if possible. I will try not
to talk too long. They say it is best to leave your audience before your audience leaves you.
Hopefully, you will find this guide useful and enjoy it and thank me. If not, thank me for having
a good nap. I understand that many of you must be having doubts as to what gives me the
qualification to write this guide. I will let you be the judge of it after you read this guide. But if
you still want to dissect my profile, I have been through this internship applications for eternity
(lol), feels like eternity although it was six months’ time. And I have literally seen everything I
can, in the interns applications/interviews, at least in the construction industry. I have applied to
700+ companies and had given 14 interviews and secured 3 offers. I have worked with Webcor
Constructions in San Francisco, California this past summer. And no, Webcor is not anything
related to the CS industry or web development startups -_- Damn you, Webcor. My mom still
thinks I have ditched Construction Management for Computer Science because of your name.
Anyway, even if you think I am not qualified enough to write this, let me tell you one theory
which will be useful forever for you. You know where good decisions come from? Good
decisions come from experience and where does experience come from? Experience comes from
bad decisions! And I have done enough bad decisions to know which sunk my boat and done
some good decisions which made me stay afloat. Frankly, if you ask me, not doing bad moves is
more important than executing good moves. So, never underestimate someone who has failed
something. They probably know a bit more than the guy who has won it with no struggle.

Now that we are done with pleasantries and sweet talks, let’s get down to business. First, I will
give you an overview of what all topics/issues/problems I will be dealing with, in this guide.
Issue/Problem/Topic Page Number

1 Welcome to the United States 3

2 Course and Subjects recommended? 5

3 TA/RA/GA opportunities 7

4 Importance of SSN and Credit History and part time jobs 9

5 My Internships applications Saga 11

6 Textbook Application Process- Apply on Websites, CPT 13

7 How to polish your resume? 14

8 How to use off campus resources for internship applications? 16

10 Construction Companies list in the US 24

11 Endnote 25

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 1. Welcome to the United States
You have probably heard this a lot, but I don’t say this in the clichéd notion of inviting you to
US. I say it with the notion that what you have done till here is appreciable, but it is much more
important as to what concentrate on what is ahead. Think about where you were a year or two
ago. You have probably just decided to apply for MS and you had no clue as to where to start.
You started researching, knew about universities where you needed to apply, what profile you
should be having, polished your profile accordingly and applied to all of them, and when I say
applied to all of them, I know how meticulous the process and what a pain in the ass, it could
turn out to be. And does it end there? I know how painful the process of waiting is and how
agonizing and heartbreaking a reject from your dream university would be. At the same time, it
feels so contented and delightful to get into another dream university. And does it even end
there? The fucking overhyped VISA interview. I know many of you must have had smooth
interviews which is cool, but I know people who felt depressed when such a small thing halted
your whole MS plans. And still they made it here after bouncing back. After all this, you have
entered US. It’s like a tedious marathon, it doesn’t matter who runs fast and how fast he runs, all
that matters is, at the end, who still stood up until the end and made it. Remember, it’s not the
fittest who win marathons, but the toughest who do. So, pat yourself on the back. You are one of
the toughest who has made it till here unlike dropping out midway and taking the coward's way
out. Now that you have appreciated yourself, let’s slap some reality onto ourselves. Do you know
what has been the constant shittiest drive which has led us until here? The notion that you need
to study and work hard for just next 2-3 years and that you would enjoy. As much as I hate to to
admit it, that’s what kept us pushing until here. Every single one of us were told that if we
excelled in our 10th exams, we will have a future. And then came 12th exams, and I was told the
same thing. It went on for our undergrad exams too, that if I worked hard for my placements, I
can enjoy later. Then we come for our Masters, and I will tell you the same. However, I would
be lying if I tell you that. Because this fucking circle of life will never be over. Even after you
graduate from Masters, you have to work hard to get a job. And do you think that job is the
breaker of all chains or breaker of the wheel (Daaayum, did he use a GOT reference!!) No, you
will have to constantly satisfy our manager and earn dollars for our Boss who throws us pennies
for that work.

I know it’s depressing to hear this, but come on, let’s not kid ourselves. We always knew that
this was what job life was like. This was the notion which has always pushed our lives onto the
next level of progress. Now that you have understood it, let me say you gotta work hard now
again to get an internship. I know that you have just arrived in the US, before I complete this
sentence, let me say that you will be hearing a lot of “I know”. That’s because I have been in
your shoes before personally and know how hard things are for an Indian Student who came to
the US and had to do everything on their own from scratch. So, I don’t want you to go through

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that same route. I want you to know the, what to do’s and what not to do’s of the Internships
process. You can learn from my mistakes and know what to take care of and what to be aware of.
Because I know how you may think and how you can falter, I use a lot of “I know” statements.
Anyway, I know that you have just arrived to the US and still have no clue about what to do,
when to do and how to do. Don’t worry, every single one of us were in the same boat. It’s okay
to be clueless and be blank as a white paper. Remember, the best stories were written on a plain
white paper and not a scribbled one. I can understand how difficult it is to start everything
suddenly when you have come to the US, just a month ago. But don’t worry, you have got ample
time to study this guide and start your internship search process. Go through this guide and
follow my suggestions and if you put in enough hard work, you will certainly get what you
deserved. Yes, you will get what you deserve. But is life that simple? Obviously no. Sometimes,
we don’t get what we deserve. But I just want you to understand, EVENTUALLY you will get
what you deserve. As I said, it’s not the fittest and fastest ones who survive, but the toughest
ones. So, before starting your process, I first want you to get this thought imprinted in your mind
that you will receive a lot of rejections in mail and on your face too. Accept everything. Don’t
ask the question, “Why me?” If you didn’t ask the question “Why me?” when you succeeded,
you don’t have the right to ask the question “Why me” when you failed at something. No one got
their internship in their first application, or even first hundred applications. Even if someone got
it, they will never know how sweet and satisfying it would be to get after applying to
innumerable companies. Trust me on this blindly, if given a chance to relive my whole internship
application saga, I would do everything the same way, including the bad moves. If not for my
bad moves, I would never know my mistakes and learn my lessons. So, you would want to
experience them. As I said before, good judgement comes from experience and experience
comes from bad judgement. I would do everything the same, even getting my offer letter after
my 700+ applications, because it was those blood, sweat and tears which made the success even
tastier. I know it may come off as arrogant, but that’s what it is. I am about to start applying for
full time job applications and I don’t know if I will be having a job offer when I graduate in May
2018, but thanks to the stressful internship application saga, I am confident and I know this is not
what determines me or tells me what I am. However, it shall certainly tell what you are made of,
an egg shell or a shield of adamantine? So, the choice is yours. Give your best and prepare for
the worst and nothing/no one can crack you.

TLDR Version: You have achieved good until now, but there is more to achieve. That means,
putting in more hours of work and vigor than you have done until now. To achieve something
you never had, you have to do something you have never done. Be strong, if you let some mere
intern application depress you and determine what you are, you cannot last long in this world.
Give your best and prepare for the worst, only then you can enjoy what you achieve even better.

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 2. Courses and Subjects Recommended?
I think it must be probably a bit too late for me to talk about this considering the fact that many
of you must have already registered for courses. However, still I would like to talk about it
because you can be aware of these while taking courses for next semester or upcoming
semesters. I have had many asking what kind of courses to take? Honestly, ANYTHING.
Remember, the US work system thrives on the perception that importance and preference should
be given to the ones who are willing to learn along while working, rather than a skilled person. I
can comfortably and confidently say that many companies, especially and primarily in the
Construction Industry, don’t give dogshit about what courses you have learnt, but the takeaway
factor they would want to look out for, is how far are you willing to go if you want to learn
something and how open are you to learn something you do not know? Truth be told, in the
construction industry, things happen a lot differently in practicality rather than in theory. Most of
what you have learned in the courses goes down the drain, once you enter the office/site.
Whatever skills have been acquired by any professional in the construction industry, has been
through practice and not through studying a textbook in their undergrad/grad. I wouldn’t
complete strike the fact that whatever you learn here will be used in your work. It will be, but
you would wish you joined the job right away after your 12th class rather than going through
undergrad and grad and then joining the job because you’d prefer spending those educational
years in learning through working on the job. Sad shit is, no one would give you the damn job if
you don’t have the degree.

But that doesn’t mean I would want you to study Computer Science courses while studying a
Construction Management degree. I really want you to study relevant course for your degree and
your work field. So, first suggestion I would give and is simple is, stick to your work field and
related streams. You could go deviating but ask yourself, can you justify yourself and your boss
how this course helped you do your job/will do your job better. Let me portray it this way. I am
pursuing a Construction Management degree. I can take courses in Civil Engineering
Department and in Structural/Construction Engineering streams and even can deviate to the
School of Management courses and possibly even take Strategic Management course in the
Department of Technology. But all it boils down to, is that I can justify why I have taken the
course and how it can help me become a better skilled person at work. But can you do the same
thing when you take a course called “Advancement in Sociology and Politics” while pursuing a
Construction Management degree. You can take that certainly if you want to explore your
options and want to increase your knowledge about an interested area. But do you really want to
do that when you just have 3 or 4 semesters in your hand and when you have good stream related
subjects you can take? At the same time, I would also like everyone to explore other streams or
other departments for any subjects which might be related to your work field, if you can do that.
Some programs allow you to take courses from any dept. in the college and still it would count

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under your credits. Some don’t have this flexibility. If you belong to the former category, I
would suggest you to exploit it. This would help you give a different perspective altogether. Let
me give you an example, there are two departments in my university, namely Construction
Management and Construction Engineering Management. The first has courses related more on
the managerial side and deals with integration of construction stakeholders etc. and is preferable
for management/engineering students and the second deals with the technical side of
construction and is tailor made for engineering students only. I am in the former dept. and our
dept. gives me the flexibility to take any course in the whole university, even if it’s a course on
dancing. Obviously you aren’t going to take dancing, unless you want to dance like your boss
wants to, which you will, lol. Anyway, having such flexibility, we try to take the second
department courses and management school courses. So when we are giving our interviews and
talking to a potential recruiter, you could always say that you like the field so much that you
wanted to explore different perspectives of the same field and you went to the extent of taking
courses in another department. The recruiter also would perceive that you have multiple
perspectives and can have a better judgement. For example, taking managerial along with
technical subjects will help you make better decisions and call as opposed to only taking
engineering/technical subjects. So try to have a diverse set of courses in your course curriculum
if you can, but at the same time ensure that you can justify how it has made you a better
employee and how it can help the company you work for and how it’s related to your work field.

Now, let’s talk specifically about the construction subjects. People related to non-construction
field, now is your cue to skip to the next paragraph. Everything from here is dothraki language
for you. (Dayumm again, what is it with this guy and GOT, can he give a break to the GOT
references). I have seen many people dissing undergrad subjects like Scheduling and Estimation
here. Remember, the way things transpire in US construction and Indian Construction is very
much different. So whatever you learnt in Indian Scheduling is a lot different than how things
happen here. So, try to take one or two courses related to technical side of construction like
Scheduling where you would have a chance to improve your software profile and get to learn
new software. Being a TA for Scheduling, I myself am learning a lot of new things along with
the students that take this subject. Especially software. If it can strengthen your resume, go for it.
But that doesn’t mean you go for random software which even recruiters have no clue what’s it
about. So take some technical subjects along with managerial subjects. And look out for wide-
scoped subjects. When I say courses with wide scope, I mean those subjects which have
discussions in class as primary evaluation components. Let me put in a better perspective here, I
took a subject called “Topics in Environmentally Sustainable Construction”. It till date stands out
as one of the best subjects I have taken. Courses like these which have a wide scope of
knowledge and when their primary evaluation component is class discussions, it really elevates
your knowledge to another level. I know communication is normally not an average Indian’s cup
of tea, but isn’t our weaker areas what we should be focusing on. If you aren’t improving

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yourself in your weak forte, what is even the point of progress? And as for those who are good at
communication, imagine the amount of knowledge you would develop by sharing and gaining
knowledge. The diverse set of topics you would be talking about in such a class is unimaginable.
In this class of ours, we would start with Construction, move onto Sustainable Construction and
then Climate Change and then onto Politics affecting Climate Change policies, and how Trump
is fucking up the climate change campaign and what is the reason Trump got into the chair, in
the first place. So, imagine what kind of information you would be gaining from such sessions.
Such wide perspective. However, if you are someone who is not made for such courses, feel free
to ignore the suggestion. Anyway, such topics will give you a wide perspective on things where
you can talk on for hours and hours. Again, such subjects will be really entertaining if your
professor is a chill one who wants diverse knowledge to be shared in the class. This class
professor didn’t mind us at all, talking about the most random thing, as long as we were focusing
how it would affect the issue at hand. So, check who the professor is and take a decision to
register or not. To know how the professor is, there is no better judge than your previous batch
students. They will certainly know how the professor is generally or how the subject grading is
and how the class discussions would proceed and how the subject will help you improve your
skills. So although my logic may be specific for my university, try talking to students who have
taken that course before and prioritize their judgement.

3. TA/RA/GA Opportunities
I am positive that I don’t need to explain about this much since everyone wants this so badly that
you will certainly do your own research. But for those who still need some clarity on the
distinction between these, let me explain. Teaching Assistantship is a position where you would
be assisting a Professor in teaching a specific subject. Typically, you would be helping him by
grading exam papers of undergrad students and also filling in the class, if he takes a leave. As for
what could be helpful for you to get this position so that it waives your fee and provides you a
stipend is, if you have prior experience in studying or teaching this subject before that would
certainly give you an edge. First, I would advise you to check which courses have currently TA
positions in your department and who is currently working as TA for that and check when that
person is graduating. If he is your immediate senior, typically you would enter 2nd year of
Master’s program by the time he graduates. So the position would be vacant when you join 2nd
year. So, at least you would be assured a teaching assistantship position for 2nd year which
would waive fees for the next year. Also, preferably try getting a TA position for subjects which
are offered every semester. That would help you get consistent waiver of fee for continuous
semesters. And as for tips on how to get it, try to stay in continuous touch with the particular
professor who has TA positions. Try to let him know at some point, how you would be interested
as working a TA under him. Remember, there is a thin line between desperate and interest. Make

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it look like you want that position and not need that position. Although your need may certainly
drive the professor, it may also make you look desperate which you certainly don’t want to look
like. Also, if you do know the current TA, he can also recommend you to the position after he
graduates. Professors do give a bit of weightage to the current TA’s recommendation since he
may know him better than the professor. Now onto the next position, RA. RA is a research
assistantship position where you assist a professor in his research on a particular topic/question.
First, I am going to put two scenarios here. If you have taken a thesis and if it’s a compulsory
thesis in the program, try asking your thesis advisor to fund you through a research topic he is
okay with. Remember, by working on a thesis which is on a topic suggested by the professor,
you are helping him out more than he is helping you. You are writing a thesis which potentially
would get published later with his name as well. So try to negotiate that well by getting funding
under him for that research topic. Again, just because I ask you to negotiate doesn’t mean that
you stride into his cabin and godfather him by saying “I am going to make you an offer you
cannot refuse”. He would probably ask you to stfu and gtfo. So, try to put it in a delicate sense
and work your way through it. This above scenario is in a program where thesis is compulsory,
like BCM program at Purdue. Now let’s consider the second scenario in which thesis is not a
compulsory thing, but you are still pursuing it. In this case, you should surely be funded with a
RA. Or else why the fuck are you working on something which is not going to benefit you at all.
Please don’t give me passion bullshit. Unless until you did not come here for a job and want to
do research genuinely, please think about yourself selfishly and put your cause above anything
else. So when you are not required to do a thesis and if you are still doing one, make sure you get
a RA position under the professor for what you are doing and get funded. Remember as the great
Joker once said, “If you are good at something, never do it for free”. (Can this guy give a break
to the movie references already?) So now that we are done with scenarios involved with thesis,
let’s move onto the last scenario which doesn’t involve any thesis. This is where you select a
program in which you typically graduate within 3 semesters. In this, I wouldn't advise you to
keep hopes on RA. You can only get a RA without a thesis, if you are working on a crazy project
which has crazy funding. And such things are straight away given to PhD students who can do
projects, alongside their thesis. But you can always give it a shot. As I said, persistence always
pays.

Okay, onto the third position, GA. GA is a graduate assistantship position where you assist in a
typical office position in a department which has a lot of redundant paperwork and can be
handled by a student too easily. The main trick involved with GA positions is that you will never
know all GA positions completely in your university. So you gotta keep digging up and poking
your nose in every department and ask if there are any vacant or potential GA positions up for
taking. For example, let’s take the department of sustainability in any university. If it’s a huge
university, the department of sustainability in that university will take up the work of getting
LEED certifications for qualified buildings in that university. If they probably have a GA
position, and at the same time if you have a LEED GA/LEED AP certification, you will certainly

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have edge over others. So keep inquiring in every department. Even departments like department
of chemistry or statistics would probably need a GA and sometimes you don’t even need
qualifications since you will deal with the non-technical work. So try networking a lot internally
in your university and keep an eye out for such things.

4. Importance of SSN and Credit history in the US

and part time jobs
Part time jobs are really essential to survive in the US if you want to manage expenses on your
own. I know how difficult it is for a person if you don’t have an assistantship to manage and
survive. Trust me, I have lived for a year that way and its worse. But I feel such circumstances
prepare us for the much worst times ahead, when you are jobless. Lol, I am kidding. Don’t
worry, you will get a job. Anyway, part time jobs include a lot of variety. Firstly, try applying for
jobs which look really good on your resume. For example, I was talking to this friend of mine
today who got this job at the Academic Support department as a peer to peer advisor. Although it
may not look excellent on your resume on a first glance, you can talk about the good things of
your job and project them as your strengths. For example, communication and placing yourself
in others shoes are some of the strong points you can project when talking about the job during
your interview and where ever it’s applicable. Now that we are done with jobs which are
important to your resume, let's move onto jobs which are important for our survival. Part time
grader jobs in your department. I am not entirely sure if all universities and departments in univ
have these jobs. They are similar to Teaching Assistantship positions with the only difference
being this part time grader job doesn't involve fee waiver. This is basically just undergrad paper
correction. Additionally, I cannot guarantee if you can avail all 20 hours within this job.
Although some professors don't care how many hours you log into your timecard saying you
corrected papers for 20 hours, some professors are particular and you have to carefully log in
time which would be sometimes lesser than 10 hours too. So careful about that. However that
problem wouldn't arise in the third category of part time jobs, which help you survive happily. I
know that survival and happiness don't go well in the same sentence often, but it does when just
the thought you are surviving and staying afloat makes you happy. So, these jobs are the
hardworking and blood-sweat-tears jobs like the dining jobs which really tire you out. Pros are
you can login 20 hours if you want to. Cons are, it's not easy to log in and work 20 hours. So
don't try to stress yourself out and break yourself just because you want to manage expenses.
Sometimes, how much ever money is needed, some things aren't worth it. At the same time, if
you want to challenge yourself in time management, do try this out.

For those of you who have part time jobs currently, I don’t need to explain to you much about
the importance of SSN here and what you need to do to get it. But you certainly need to pay
attention here because, it also deals with information about how to maintain a good credit history

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here which would ensure better interest rates later for you in the future. First, SSN stands for
Social Security Number which in raw terms is like United States’ Aadhar Card. This 9 digit
social security number gives you a unique identity in the states and is what is used to recognize
you. First, if you start a part time job, you will have to do a lot of paperwork with your
university’s business office after which you will be required to take a SSN Appointment with the
local federal office. After 1-2 weeks of your SSN appointment, you will receive your SSN in
your mailbox address. This is when your record of work in the US is registered and you will start
a credit history line. It’s very important to have a credit history for many reasons in the US.
Firstly, US loans and credit cards have very low interest rates ranging from 1%-8%. And when I
say loans, I don’t mean the typical loans we take back in India. I am talking even about the credit
card debt you have to pay. Even the monthly car installment or monthly house mortgage. Again,
you may say, that would be valid if I am thinking of settling in the US. True, but to an extent
only. Unless until you are not going away as soon as you graduate, I would suggest you to start a
good credit history by getting a SSN. You will probably take a car once you graduate to travel to
work. And unless until you are filthy rich, you will take it in installments of $350-$600 per
month, including the car insurance. There is interest also incurred over the period until you pay
off the whole car. This interest is alone determined by your credit history in the US and trust me,
you want a very low interest rate so as not to be burdened. So first get this into your head, if you
are going to stay in US even for a little period of 3-4 years, ensure you have a good credit
history. So even if you feel your part time job has become stressful and you cannot work, just
hold back until you get your SSN in hand. Quit it as soon as you get your SSN. Many friends of
mine did dining hall part time jobs just to get their SSN and once it arrived, they quit the jobs.
Okay, let's say you have your SSN in hand. Now you started your credit history. How to take
care of it? First, please clear out this misconception in your head that if you don't your credit line
balance at all, your score may improve. It’s wrong. You certainly have to use a partial amount of
your credit line allotted to you. But the key is you have to pay it back constantly. Let's say when
you start, you are typically given by banks a credit line of $1000-$1500, depending on the
bank/organization. Don't think that you can increase your credit line by not using your credit
card. You always have to use it. The key is you should know how much amount to use and how
you have to pay it off. The most ideal thing always recommended is to use 30%-40% of your
credit card line and pay it off completely by the deadline/due date. Many people do this mistake
of using $900 of $1000 credit line. There will be many consequences of this, first your credit
score may have a chance of dropping due to excessive usage. And you can pay back this $900
debt in monthly installments of $30 as decided by the bank. But it would take quite a bit of time
to repay and may affect your credit history all this time. So, the idealistic thing to do is, if your
credit line is $1000, use only 35% of it. I use my credit card to just pay rent of $350 by setting up
auto payment and I pay back the whole $350 by the due date. This really shoots up your credit
score. So key note takeaways about credit score maintenance is constantly use the credit card
every month for 30%-40% and pay the whole thing back every month deadline. And apply to
credit cards you are really sure you know you will get them. So every time you apply for credit

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cards or a car installment or loan or debt anywhere and submit your SSN, they check your SSN
for prior credit history and this is called a credit check. When you are applying for credit cards or
loans/debts or when deciding interest on your car/house mortgage, a credit check is bound to
happen, no matter what. So since it's bound to happen, and there is nothing you can do about it,
the best thing you could do is make sure the credit check turns out positive. If you apply for a
Chase Gold/Platinum credit card, which needs high credit score, you have less chances of getting
it and if you get rejected for that, you have a credit check on your SSN and it didn't turn out
positive too. So, apply for safe cards in the starting and slowly build up your credit score and
take it step by step. For more details about which cards to apply and all, keep talking to your
seniors/relatives in US. For step by step guidance about this, check out creditkarma.com or
install credit karma app on your phone. It gives you a detailed history of how your credit score is
changing and how much you should use and when you should really stop overspending and step
by step guidance. Only thing I would be cautious in credit karma is the credit cards it suggests
because its gives a too safe process by recommending us to take cards in which we pay some
security deposit and some high interest rates too. So ignore its cards suggestions but use it to
track your credit score as to how it's progressing and how much you are using and how you
should be using.

5. My Internships Applications Saga

Okay, I will start in a chronological fashion, how the whole thing went down. I did my first
application around in the time of September 2016 when I realized we actually had the fall career
fair coming up. Truth be told, I had this feeling that I was going to get it easy, probably even in
my first hundred applications or in the fall career fair. We had our fall career fair in mid-
September and it went very bad. I didn't get any calls for interviews and my online applications
submitted prior to the career fair also were rejected. Once the career fair was done, I put the
whole thing aside and gave it a break, although I didn't start shit and got nothing done. It was
again in November when I started the whole thing. Normally, if I do anything, I always have do
it in an organized and planned fashion, thanks to OCD. So, this time, I made a plan of what I was
going to do and how I was going to do it with a timeline running alongside. I kept two weeks of
November completely gathering list of construction companies in the US through all resources.
This is where you need to pay attention. When I say resources, I mean two important ways. First,
being career fairs. Not your career fairs. But career fairs happening all over the US. So one good
thing I had before coming to the US was a network of Construction Management students in Fall
16 batch and they were spread almost across all universities (At Least top 20). So I got into touch
with them and shared this idea of sharing the lists of companies visiting both universities (theirs
and mine). It was a quid pro quo thing. You win and I win too. So I did this with all top 15-20
universities and gathered a master list of companies which visited all the universities for fall
career fair. Now onto the second way of resource gathering, ENR lists. So ENR stands for
Engineering News Record and is a list of top contractors/firms for the specific field and is

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released every year for all sectors. So I have collected ENR Contractors list of 2014/2015/2016
and assembled them together. Now that I have a list of companies visiting all top univ in USA
and also top companies list in USA, I had to the most obvious thing. Combine them and create a
Company Master List sheet in Excel. Now comes the hardest part. Many of these companies
would be open to hiring internationals and some may be not. Although the companies which visit
career fairs tell if they hire international students or not, I didn’t trust them because they didn’t
seem to be true when checked later. So, I will explain how to do it. Now that I had the Company
Master List, I used a very reliable website to check if the company hires internationals and
sponsors them for H1B visa. This is the website:
https://www.myvisajobs.com/Search_Visa_Sponsor.aspx
You can search the company name and know the statistics of how many people they have
sponsored until now and the typical salaries. As much as it's a hectic process, I used this to
shortlist all the H1B sponsoring companies. Along with that, I used a few trustworthy seniors of
mine and sent them the list and they clearly marked out the ones they know which sponsor
internationals students. After you have done that, finally you have a list of top companies which
are open to hiring international students. Good, Now that we have our targets, now we move
onto the part where we load our guns. I didn't want to sharpen my sword after entering the
battlefield, so I got my resume checked by seniors and professors and professionals in the field.
Now that I had everything ready, time to fire the guns. Little did I know that the first 600 bullets
will be misfired. Lol. Anyway, it was December first week when I started officially applying
with all ready to go. Any internship application just had three types of routes:
1. Apply -> Instant Rejection through some generic bullshit mail.
2. Apply -> They respond with a neutral statement wanting to know more about you -> Rejection
3. Apply -> They give a chance to phone interview -> Skype Interview -> Rejection

It used to be either of the above three. In the starting, I have to admit it, it felt pretty depressing,
which is why I want you to prepare for the worst. But after a point, you get used to the rejections.
I won't say it will stop, but you will feel numb after a point. This went on like this for February,
which is when I had my spring career fair. Now I had a separate strategy outlined for 10 days
before career fair. I took the list of companies visiting the career fair and concentrated on them
alone. I mailed them even before they came and established a rapport before I met them and
applied for the position on the website because last time they came for fall career fair, they gave
this generic reply to apply on their website. So I wanted to be prepared this time with an answer
that I already did apply on the website. That time they will understand you have done some prior
ground work and are really interested in the job and aren't just lingering around in the career fair.
So, I have mailed all people associated with the company in LinkedIn and got them to kind of
recommend me to the ones who are visiting for career fair. So by the time I met them at career
fair, they have already seen my resume and knew a bit about me. Again, remember be delicate
about it. Don't push people around asking you to recommend you. Don’t irritate them.
Understand when you have to stop. After talking to them at career fair, I immediately got

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interview calls the next day. And after the interviews, leave a thank you note for them through
mail and let them know how genuinely you are interested in the position. After the career fair
happened and after I thanked them through mail, there was no update for around two weeks
which is when I decided to again pressurize through off campus resources. This is where
networking is helpful. I used LinkedIn to contact current project managers of that company and
told them about my interest. Then accordingly let them know that you have met them at career
fairs but due to the fact that you believe in the importance of persistence and determination, you
decided to talk to him. You gotta carefully put words into their heads and mouths without their
knowledge. Then, they recommended my application and sent my resume again to the person
who interviewed me. After two weeks of this, I then got my offer letter and then another two
offer letters too. I accepted the one I wanted (obviously the one which offered more money,
honestly who doesn't love money). Later, I knew that the off campus pressurizing through my
LinkedIn contacts of that company really got through to my recruiter and which is when she
actually considered me. So give everything you can. You never know which bullet will hit the
target. So keep firing all of them and more importantly when firing each bullet, act like it's the
first and last bullet you will ever get. Treat every chance individually like it's the last. This is
how my whole thing went and ended in March with a happy ending. However, as the wheel
cannot be broken, the struggle and the cycle again start this September for me with search for a
full time position after graduating. Hope it's going to be successful. I wouldn't ask it to be less
painful, all I would ask if for what anyone would deserve for the work they put in. So do what
you can and then ask for it.

6. Textbook Application Process - How to apply on

websites?
Seriously, do we need a separate explanation for this too? Just google the company name and it
should have a website in which you would want to visit the careers page and apply for the
relevant internship position. However, there are some questions even though which look easy,
are doubtful sometimes. I would want to address them here. You will be asked your VISA status
and honestly answer it as F1 if you are an international student. And also, if you are asked if you
need sponsorship at a later time, do say yes. I have seen many people under this misconception
that if you say you don't need a sponsorship, you will be hired. BULLSHIT. Every company
hires interns with the idea of converting them into potential full timers and recruiting them back
when they graduate later. So do you think a company which does not hire internationals will take
an international for internship? The companies always see interns as potential full time
employees. So truly say that you need sponsorship. And rest all should be basic textbook
answers which should be easy to answer. I suddenly can't seem to remember what may be the
tricky questions. But if you feel stuck anywhere, which you shouldn’t, feel free to contact me
anytime.

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As for the background rut which happens in internships is the VISA status and OPT and CPT. I
am positive that many of you must be knowing about OPT, but what you need to know for
internships is CPT. CPT stands for Curriculum Practical Training and is simply OPT for
internships/co-ops. CPT cannot be for more than 365 days and if it is, it will affect your OPT
later, which is why you don't see anyone doing summer internships/co-ops for more than 1 year.
Once you get your offer letter and when you present all documents to your university, they get
your CPT initiated when you start your internship. There is not much to worry about here, but it's
good to know.

7. How to polish your resume and cover letter?

Any tool is a weapon if you hold it right. It doesn't matter if you have awesome work experience
and if you can't project it in the right fashion on your resume. So, first thing I need you to get
into your head is resume is one of the most important things on your internship application. This
isn't like the simple resume with which you applied for your Masters. This is like the Statement
of Purpose with which you applied for your Masters. Your resume is the only way through which
the recruiters are going to read you. And as for cover letter, I never saw a genuine need for cover
letter, although I did draft one. I have seen many students ask me what is the recommended
format for a resume. If you can't find the recommended format in what you want your recruiter to
see your resume, I don't what else to say. You should be resourceful enough to search resumes
on the internet and know which the most used one is and which appeals to the recruiters. Try
attending the peer review resume sessions conducted by your university and see how sample
resumes are. There is no standard format for a resume. All it depends upon is how neat and
decent it looks. No one can ever tell how a resume should look but anyone can tell how it should
not. Not too verbose, no decorations, no nonsense stuff. Should be straight and simple. Once you
have your name and contact info in the opening header of your resume, now come to the
Summary/Objective. This should briefly tell in three lines what is your background and what
position you intend to work in and what are your general traits. Now comes the second part of
educational experience which includes your undergrad college and grad college details. Please
don't go to the extent of writing down your 10th class marks. It would be embarrassing, even if
you topped high school. Just mention your university, graduating year and what was your GPA.
Now onto the work experience stuff. This is where you should carefully know what to put and
what not to. Don't write stuff about your part time jobs where you worked in a dining hall. Does
it matter to the company which is hiring you about what skills you gained working in a dining
job? No, so don't. Write about relevant stuff only. And now that we are writing relevant stuff,
write what could impress/appeal to the recruiter’s interest. Let's say the company you are
applying to is a general contractor. GC’s generally want their employees to act as a bridge
between the owner and subcontractor and also deal with architects. So, I would try to highlight
the points in my previous past work experience where I supervised the sub-contractors in fields

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and gave regular updates about work to the owner and also had review meetings with architects
constantly. Just because I said these above words doesn't mean, you write the same in resume.
Use words which really show you have worked on it and not only work, but also gained skills
through it and exhibited interest in the work you do. Stop using simple words like did job walk
on site, supervised sub-contractor work and did document control. Instead, use words like review
specifications, prepared submittals and communication scope changes, archiving logs and
maintaining document control log. Although it may convey the same meaning, the latter clearly
tells what you were working on and how deeply you were working on that. With not too many
words, you could still tell specifically what it is you are working on. Try searching articles on
LinkedIn which explain how you could polish your resume and start using attractive words
instead of clichéd boring words. Next is where you exhibit your technical proficiency by
showing the software you worked on until now. And then comes the extracurricular. Here, just
try mentioning the ones where you actually had the chance to demonstrate your individual
qualities/traits. Typically a resume should not be more than a page, or else it would appear to be
overselling. Unless you have really huge experience and lot of diverse work to talk about it, keep
it under one page. And when you are keeping under one page, you cannot write all of the
extracurricular, tracking back to when you helped a dog on the road and did some first aid on it -
_-. So try to be sensible and include REALLY IMPORTANT information in your extracurricular
which stand out like posts where you have been President, Vice President, Secretary and any
technical posts you have held. Just mentioning that you were the President wouldn’t do jackshit.
You have to explain what your role jobs/duties were, although many know what a President
does. Again, please don't make it sound clichéd. When you are giving interviews and talking to
recruiters, you will have to explain all the work you have done and how it has brought out the
leader in you and how it has improved you a person, in terms of leadership or communication.
Don’t just say you conducted this event and that event, tell how conducting those events was a
challenge and how you still made it happen. Tell how you overcame challenges and give some
examples of them during your tenure as that post holder.

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8. How to apply for internships through off campus
resources?
You will often hear this word of applying with off campus resources and must be wondering
what exactly it implies. Remember, anything you do by applying through college, be it career
fairs is on campus application. Frankly, if you ask me, even applying on the company’s website
also is considered as on campus. Off campus internship applications typically and essentially
contains the work you do through LinkedIn and cold-emailing them. Although your internship
applications on websites and in career fairs gives you fair amount of chances, the real deal is how
you work with your off campus resources and how much amount of hard work you put in that. I
would say that both are equally required. You first need to initiate the whole process by applying
on websites and attending career fairs, but you can’t expect to get the whole work done by just
doing these and sitting idle. After that, is where the actual work begins. Okay, now that we have
understood the basic meaning of this, let’s go into depth. First, when you apply for a company on
website and attend it after the career fair, the next best thing you gotta do is to send a thank you
note back to them. You have to make sure they remember you constantly. This doesn’t mean you
keep mailing them until they put you in their spam list. Two days after your career fair is done
and when you feel that they have gone back to their company in a different state and are done
with the career fair, mail them by saying how glad you are that you had a productive
conversation with them and how you came to know about the company through them and how it
made you realize that you would want to associate yourself with the work done by this company.
You need to be really specific about your conversation details as to what you talked with them in
career fair about construction opportunities in that company, so that they can recollect your
conversation and associate you accordingly. As I said, thank you notes are must. You gotta let
the recruiters remember you. Keep taking their visiting cards in career fairs. That’s how you
keep their contact info and keep in touch with them later too. Since we are talking about career
fairs, let me touch up on that part too.

Career Fairs. One of other most essential chances where you could land your internship. Doesn’t
matter what you heard or what you didn’t. Make sure you attend the career fairs happening for
your stream/department in your university. This should be the Mecca for you. But before starting
and attending you career fair, try to research the company and apply for the relevant internship
position online on their company website. This way, you would be ready with the answer to the
clichéd question of asking to apply on their website. This also shows that you have done your
ground work. When I say research about the company, don’t start reading their company history
from A-Z and start reciting it before them. If you start telling them about their company, what is
the point of them putting up a stall for their company in their career fair? So, learn enough that
you could start a conversation about what kind of work the company is involved with and what
are the potential opportunities available in that kind of work and. Once you start the

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conversation, it will lead to various topics and you can pick up those topics and talk on them
spontaneously. Here, it’s easy to understand if you are reciting your lines or are actually
speaking spontaneously. So don’t underestimate the recruiters. Again, don’t do too much
research that you end up talking more about the company than them. Remember, you are here to
know about the company and they are here to know about you. So, first you need to tell about
yourself after which you need to open up a two-way conversation about the company which
would lead to many questions, potentially and then you could conclude saying how you could
see yourself fitting into a role in their company. Okay, let me give you an example of what you
should be doing before attending a career fair. Ten days before the career fair, I would first visit
the company website and see what all relevant internship positions are available on their career
page and I will finish applying to them. Now that I have completed the official process, we
would start using our off campus resources. Try understanding what sector in the construction
industry the company is working on and on what factor do they lay high emphasis on? This helps
you open up a good conversation between you and the company recruiter and he would
understand that you did some work prior to talking to him. For example, let’s say the company is
a general contractor who works in the medical facilities construction sector and lays huge
emphasis on sustainability/green construction and work-life balance of the employee. Now that I
know their goals and pillars, I will first move to LinkedIn and search if there are any other
internships jobs applications listed on LinkedIn, which aren’t in their website. If so, apply to
those. When I say this, you have to understand that you can search for jobs in LinkedIn too. I
can’t stress on how important LinkedIn will be for your job search. THE BEST PLATFORM
EVER. So, make use of it and exploit every chance in it. You can search for your job titles you
want to apply and apply for them. Now search for different employees working for that company
in different locations. If you search for the company name in LinkedIn and visit their social page,
you can see that they have a list of all employees working for their company. This is one of the
most treasured things you would want to loot. So check that list and try talking to as many as you
can. I understand that you have thousands of employees for each company and obviously it is
difficult. So to reduce that load, what I do and would suggest to do is talk to Project Managers
and Superintendents and Senior Project Managers and Project Directors and HR Personnel of
that company on LinkedIn. Still, this would just narrow down the number to hundreds of people
over tens of locations over the US. Now, what I would do is select a bunch of people from each
company location in that city and mail the Sr PM, PM, PD, HR personnel etc. Make sure you
interact with every level of hierarchy in that city/project location of that company. For example, I
make sure I talk to the director, HR, Manager, Sr Manager in Chicago and do the same to San
Francisco, Dallas etc. Again, you can’t trust just one person in that hierarchy level. So talk to as
many as you could in each level until you feel that your resume is being circulated. When I say
talk, obviously it doesn’t mean the awkward conversations you do where you take days to
understand each other. This is not a matchmaking matrimonial website conversation. You have
less time to establish a rapport. So keep it to the point and get your point across the table to him,
with clarity. What I did and would also recommend, is create draft messages in sticky notes. I

17
would just change the names when I am copy-pasting it to people and tailor it accordingly, if
needed. This would really save out on a lot of time and can spend that saved time on other people
again. So keep those messages saved in sticky notes and tailor info accordingly and send it to
people. Again don’t send it to every person in the organization that they can see that you have
sent the same message to every single person and copy pasted it. That would backfire completely
then. So careful about that. And as when about to connect (Hitting the connect in LinkedIn is
similar to sending a friend request on Facebook), you have an option to “Add a note” to that
person. This helps the person understand why you sent him a request. When he gets a request, he
can also see in his message box about the note you added. It’s always helpful and nice on your
part to let him know about your intention before you start the conversation. This would make
him understand why you want to talk to him and will help you get to the point even before
starting the convo. And that “Add a note” only has 300 characters to fill up, so carefully draft a
good message in your sticky notes which you can copy paste frequently, explaining the reader
why you are messaging him and how you would like some help from him etc. For example, try
this,
“Subject: Summer Internship.
Hello Clarke,

I am applying for summer internships in the XXXX Company and came across your profile on
employee network of XXXX Company and was wondering if you could help me out. Take a
look at my profile and let me know what you think. Thanks”

Obviously, there wouldn’t be a dumbest person than you if you tried to copy paste this message
and try for your internship chances. Because I have almost sent it to every construction
professional out there and even it reaches out to a person who has received it before from me, it’s
going to look really bad on your part. Just saying.

So, keep this note precise and to the point. Once the person accepts your connection on
LinkedIn, now wait for a day and see if he responds seeing that note. If he doesn’t, that means he
didn’t see the note while accepting your request. So that is your cue to strike back again. Now,
there is no limit to the characters you want to send in the message, because you are his
connection on LinkedIn. So send a message introducing yourself and why you connected to him
on LinkedIn and how you have already applied to that internship position on the website and was
wondering if he could forward your resume and make sure your resume falls in the right/relevant
hands. Again, just because there is a no character limit doesn’t mean you write a love letter to
him explaining how you are head over heels in love with their company and exhibit your
desperation. Try sending a short message for which he would certainly think you genuinely want
to work with them. And when you say you would want him to take a look at your resume, don’t
attach immediately. Remember, we want two way conversations. Everyone hates
Facebook/LinkedIn conversations where your messages are read and not replied. So keep your

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message short and simple so that when he replies, you slowly gotta lead the conversation further.
Then you send your resume and he will remember you certainly because of the fair amount of
messages sent back and forth. You may get replies saying he is not the relevant person, then try
asking him if he could help you by sending your resume to the right person and he may say that
you should apply on the website and then your reply should be you already did, but you believe
you gotta hit the extra mile and wanted to leave no stone unturned, which is why you wanted to
talk to him. This may make him sense that you are really determined to work, which is a good
thing. Such are things you gotta pay attention to. You should never think what your perspective
is, but think about how the recruiter may perceive you and how he should perceive you. When he
says to attend the career fair where the company will be having a stall, yes you will attend and
tell him that you will get back to him after that. Now that you have talked to various people in
the company and have understood the company’s goals and talking points better, now you can
comfortably attend the career fair. There is even a good chance that you can know which
recruiters in that company are visiting your career fair and even a fairer chance that the people
who have talked with you would have forwarded your resume to those recruiters even before the
fair started. So you will have a foundation ready on which you just have to build your argument.
Now onto what to do in the career fair, when you approach to talk with someone in the company,
first greet them and ask how they are doing and which location have they come from and
pleasantries. The least we could do is thank them for coming all the way from far off locations
sometimes. Now, hand over your resume and give them few seconds to take a look through your
resume. Once you feel that they have gone through yourself, now is the time to talk about
yourself. Showtime! Game face on! Explain them your background and how you have come to
this field and what was your educational/work experience until now. Don’t just talk what you
have written in your resume. Your resume is supposed to be a headline of what you are talking.
So when a point in your resume says you have dealt with submittal processing and reviews,
explain in detail what kind of submittals you worked and how it expanded your scope of
knowledge and how you are the best kind of person to deal with this work. Imagine every point
you are speaking from the recruiter perspective. You have to genuinely convince him that you
were the best at what you did until and will be the best at what you do at their company. Again,
doesn’t mean that you oversell yourself and overkill it. It has to contain a subtle notion of
convincing them and putting words into their mind/mouth. Don’t again go for the textbook
definition of resume and just explain what you did. Explain how you did it and how you
improved what used to happen and in what way did your work help the company. Explain your
strengths and how you could use your strengths for the company’s progress. When asked to
explain weakness, keep it honest and simple, but not too honest. For example, you can tell you
have no relevant work experience, but again you have to fill up the hole by saying you are a
quick learner. You can’t say “I am a lazy worker” and hope to fill the hole by saying “But, I get
motivated with money”. So careful with your words and use them strategically. As for explaining
about extracurricular, talk about how those positions/extracurricular brought out different
dormant traits in you and converted your weaknesses into strengths. So, key points in talking

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about career fair are good pleasantry exchange and intro in start, hand over resume, give it a few
seconds, then start about yourself, don’t just recite your resume, explain what you have done and
more importantly, how better you have done it, and how it has changed you for the better. And
when you feel that you have spent a fair amount of time on explaining yourself, now is the time
for the two way conversation to start. Start off by asking where the company has locations and
when he asks, explain your location preference (which is, literally anywhere in the US, but don’t
make it sound so desperate, instead you want it to sound that you are open to any location
because you are not concerned where you are working but are more concerned about what work
you will be working on, which is why you selected this company to come and talk to. The
recruiter should feel like you want to apply to just a bunch of companies and you should make
him feel wanted. So, keep that in mind.) Once he explains about the location, start off by saying
you have looked up the work of XXXX Company and you could see yourself associating with
such kind of work in the future. See what sector it is specifically concentrating on and try to
align your work experience/educational experience in that sector. Also, try asking the recruiter if
there is any project he worked on under the company. If he is HR personnel, obviously pointless
asking that. But if they aren’t HR, they can explain what projects he/she has worked on and are
currently working on, try to delve into that project details and ask more and more questions
about it. That reminds me, remember to always ask questions in the US. This is not India, where
we are looked down upon when we are asked a question. In fact, if you are asking questions, that
means you are inquisitive about the topic and want to know more. That is the notion here. So
keep asking questions. Not only for this, but generally, be hungry for more and more
information. Remember, a person who asks a doubt is stupid for a second, but a person who
doesn’t ask that doubt and keeps it within himself is stupid for eternity. So, you know what to
choose. Try making the recruiter talk more and more about the company and ask what kind of
work a typical intern will be given and what kind of potential opportunities you can expect your
career to turn into etc. At the same time, don’t talk about these questions if too many students are
asking the same ones. Genuinely try to ask various other questions too. Try to keep the
conversation informal too. Ask about how the work life culture is in the company. As I said
earlier, you know what the goals and pillars of the company are, so try relating it to the person’s
project and ask questions like, “I see that XXXX Company lays a lot of emphasis on
sustainability in its projects and focuses on work-life balance for employees. On those lines, how
are these aspects covered in your project?” This will tell the recruiter that you have absolutely
done your background work and also want to know further genuinely. When closing down, try to
bring some informal topic. For example, I see that a lot of recruiters who come to that university
are alumni of that univ because the company sends alumni to recruit from the same univ. So ask
how things were here, back in their time? You could have funny conversations if you and the
recruiter had the same professor. And please, please don’t bitch about your professor near the
recruiter. Rookie mistake. That would explain your character to the recruiter. So project yourself
in the best way possible. Remember, every move of yours is being judged. You are being
watched (Dude, now you gotta stop with the TV Show references. Now it is Person of Interest. I

20
know you watch a decent amount of TV shows because you are jobless, literally and figuratively.
But it looks like you are showing off. Lol, Obviously, I am). Anyway, just find a common
ground of sensible banter/humor and reach to an ending statement and thank them for listening
out and for having a productive discussion and ask them for their contact info, which is when
they will give their visiting card and take leave then. This is how I would recommend your career
fair thing to go down. But again, just because you feel that it went really good and according to
the script/syntax doesn’t mean you are going to get an interview call. You gotta be patient.
Patience reminds me of a quote a senior said to me and I will never forget it for life, “In the US,
if you want a job/internship, you gotta apply to 1000 companies (through all resources) and then
you get 100 positive replies out of which you may get 10 interviews and then 1 job offer. This
doesn’t mean that if you apply to 1000 companies, you only get one offer, but it means if you
want that one job offer, you have to apply to 1000 companies.” That statement is what made me
survive the whole prolonged period. So prepare yourself that you will apply to hundreds of
companies and you won’t even get a response rate of 10%, but you just gotta keep applying
despite the responses, but at the same time, see what is not working out and rectify your mistakes
accordingly. As Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting a different result”. So keep correcting whatever you are doing wrong and you will
improve over time, if everything goes fine and one fine day, you shall see an offer letter sitting
down there in your mailbox. And every second of pain through the last few months, although
you remember every bit of it, will vanish like pooofff! Trust me, it’s worth the pain. It’s not just
done with the career fair. After here, again starts the real deal. I know there are multiple real
deals I have been telling, but I promise this is the last, lol. Now wait for a day or two after career
fair and mail them thanking and reminding them of the conversation you had and how their
inputs have confirmed your intuition that XXXX company is where you would want to work for
and explain that you would love to discuss further about the job position and how you can see
yourself as possible fit, if given a chance to interview. This will, not exactly but kinda, put you
on their radar. Now you have done everything you can in regard to the companies which have
visited in your career fair. But what about the ones which haven’t. Remember the Master list I
have prepared by collaborating ENR lists and companies which attended other univ, now is the
time to put that to work. I always have this standard policy I follow for each company in that list.
I consider 4 tasks for every company on the list and strike out all 4 tasks for each company. They
are:
1. Ask for your network contacts/seniors for referrals, if they are working in that
company.

Referrals are really helpful and they bypass your resume through a lot of redundant stages
and put you on the top of stack, sometimes. This is why I say networking is very
important in the US. You never know with which contact you hit it off and if it’s a Senior
PM, who has got a good command in the company, he will make it happen for you. So
try to maintain good rapport and contact with every professional out there in the industry

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 and ask if they could help in referrals AFTER establishing rapport. I know it’s awkward
to start convos randomly with people out there, but if you aren’t pushing your comfort
zone, what the hell are you even doing anyway? Also try talking to alumni who have
graduated from your univ and are working in the industry out there now. They have been
in your shoes and can refer you to relevant personnel in the company they are working. If
we aren’t helping our brethren and sistren, why do we even do the Indian pledge then?

2. Message all contacts on LinkedIn.

Remember how you did talked to people for the companies which visited your univ for
career fair, follow the same process, but now just remove the variable of career fair from
this equation. So that would remove the clichéd replies of recruiters to tell you to attend
career fair etc. Talk to as many employees of different hierarchies in different locations
of that company and tell them how you are interested in a particular position. Just follow
the suggestions I have given above in pages 17-19 as to how to talk to and whom to talk
to. You can even search for people working in a specific position in a city for a company.
Try using different words accordingly. Sometimes HR go by terms like recruiter etc. So
finish searching all word possibilities of the position and talk to everyone you find.
3. Finish applying on their website and postings on LinkedIn
As I explained previously, see if they have any postings listed on the company website,
job website platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed.com etc. and apply to all of them. LEAVE
NO STONE UNTURNED.

4. Try cold-emailing employees of the company

This is something which I haven’t explained previously and I would like you to pay close
attention to. Cold-emailing is one of the most important techniques you have to get
yourself used to. This is where you randomly mail a relevant person in the company like
how you did on LinkedIn, but they key part would be LinkedIn is a social platform where
such sort of messages are expected. But email id are supposed to be personal. So you
would have to frame the mail delicately so that the other person isn’t offended by your
invasion of his privacy. Where do I get the email id, you may ask? Through various
resources. One would be the company website where they list out all the mail id of
relevant personnel and also try mailing to the generic hr@xxxx.com too. You can also get
mail id of relevant people from LinkedIn when you contact irrelevant people. In that case,
you can mention in the email that you got this person’s contact from the one you
contacted in LinkedIn. I used to create draft emails for cold emailing people and tailored
them accordingly and copy pasted it to various people. So create drafts first. Here, I have
to explain something important. During the time I did applications in the fall, I went in
complete formal mode. I don’t mean the suits and all. I used to write mails in a formal
manner with subject line of “Summer Intern Application 2017” and used boring
matter/content which received less responses. Nothing in the content was offensive but I

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am imagining there must be thousands of students like me out there with the same subject
lines. So, I realized I needed to stand out from others. So when I decided to change my
way of approach in December, I changed the content and subject lines completely. My
Subject lines used to vary hugely ranging from “You Need Me” to “Make America Great
Again” to “Awesome Intern Alert!!” Yes, those were very risky. But I took the chance.
Because at least these kind of subject lines used to grab the reader’s attention and made
him read the content. So make your point in as much as less words you can. Your readers
want to scan through their inbox quickly. Sometimes subject lines that use only a word or
two can stand out and get the most engagement. You tell me, do you want to read a mail
with subject line “Do my wicked email ways work in intern applications” or “Application
for Summer Internship 2017”. At least for me, I would open the first one immediately.
Doesn’t mean you overkill it too. So find an optimum balance between humor and
essentiality of mail. Also, the content should also resonate the frequency of subject line.
You can’t keep the subject line so interesting and have boring content in the mail. So I
used to make different draft mails where there are movie references/ subtle humor/ how
they would not want to lose out on me. Because there was Trump context back then when
I was applying, thanks to Trump, I banked on him a lot. Never in my wildest dreams did I
think I would thank Trump. But here, I am. Anyway, that is what I would want you to do.
But again, this is your own decision. It has its own risks of you appearing arrogant too. I
have been told by many peers that’s its too risky and may look arrogant and they
certainly have a point too, but I have got tired with the formal way and the statistics
comparison showed me that the crazy way got some responses at least. Again when they
respond back to you, you gotta keep up with the hype. They shouldn’t sense that you
have had crazy subject lines just to grab attention for once. They should feel that you
always can keep up to such expectations of being humorous. Coming to the subject line,
maintaining subtle humor and confidence about yourself, when I say subtle confidence,
let me quote you a line from my draft email, I used this line saying “Grab me when I am
available on the market before Trump does”. This was put in the Trumps’ misogynistic
quote reference (hides face) and also rips apart his immigration policy and also shows
that I am confident about myself. So keep everything subtle and not too offensive or over
the line. Your email should have three things covered primarily. The first paragraph
should be direct and what you are and should set tone for the rest of the mail. The second
para shows how you see yourself fitting into the company role and how your traits are
well suited for the job profile. The third para reinforces any holes you missed out earlier
and should link your first para and second para and should conclude. When I say
paragraphs, it doesn’t mean 10-12 lines para. The whole email should be done within 10-
12 lines with your resume attached in it. Don’t make the email too short that the reader
doesn’t know about you at all. Don’t make the email too long that the reader wants to
know all irrelevant info about you. Spell and spill out enough in the mail about yourself
that the reader would want to go through your resume and he should want to talk to you

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 further. Remember, you are always interesting as long as you are mysterious. Once
people figure you out completely, you are nothing to them. So don’t reveal too much that
people lose interest or don’t reveal too less that people don’t even develop an interest.

Again, don’t use the subject lines or content I have already said above. My emails were
forwarded amongst construction recruiters hugely that even if someone who has seen my
content and if he catches a whiff of yours, he can sense it and it won’t bode down easily
for you.

So, that is all about using off campus resources for internship applications.

As for suggestions about phone interviews, if you didn’t have prior contact with them like in
career fair, talk to them exactly how you would do in the career fair as I explained above. And if
it’s an interview which you got through the career fair, I am positive you have managed well
until here that you can take it up from here alone. The interviews in US aren’t like India where
you will be asked technical questions. Most of them, at least the ones I have seen in our industry,
are HR-based and personal development questions and they want to know more about you than
your knowledge. Always remember, you have to drive the conversation. There is a senior who
told me this, the one who drives the car is responsible if it wins the race or crashes out. And you
are always the driver of your conversation. So it all comes down to you as to how you will
lead/drive the conversation. Anyhow, if you still want any suggestions/tips, feel free to contact
me as I said. Although I know its irrational for me to not talk much about interviews considering
I explained every other thing here, I think sometimes everything shouldn’t be spoon-fed. But if
you still feel you want some guidance, you know whom to talk to.

10. Construction Companies list in the US

I have explained before that I have created a construction companies list in the US and how I
have obtained it by combining lists of companies attending different career fairs and ENR lists in
page 12 of this guide. So I would recommend everyone do that this year as well. But I am
sharing my list I have compiled last December as well. Only thing you have to do before
selecting each company and working on applying it from the list, is checking if it sponsors
international students. I have explained how to check that as well before, in page 12, by using the
website: https://www.myvisajobs.com/Search_Visa_Sponsor.aspx

Use that and shortlist the international student sponsoring companies and work on them
accordingly.

Drive Link for Master List of Construction Companies in US:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1b-rI3vOYpudHJGM2dLN1Zwelk

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End Note
I think I have covered every issue concerned with the internship applications here. Now, it’s up
to you how you will be using my experience to help your cause. Don’t think your skills and
intelligence/knowledge alone will save you always. Success in almost any field depends more on
energy/drive/hard work than it does on intelligence. That explains why we have so many stupid
leaders. No offence meant, lol. But remember all I can suggest you is your hard work is going to
be repaid back to you as success one way or another. Not getting an internship, even after
working hard, is not the end of the world. When I said you will eventually be paid back, I mean
the network you make now during this process of applications will be helpful to you during your
full time job search. At a point in February before receiving my offer letter, I remember telling
myself, these rejections are not what determines me. I know what I am. If not now, my job
search will probably be more fruitful because of the solid network I have made until now. So
don’t stress out yourself. Accept whatever may come your way. As Niebuhr said and I quote, just
pray that you have the serenity to accept things you cannot change and courage to change the
things you can and wisdom to know the difference. Indians are known to be patient considering
we have been under the rule of stupid leaders since the Big Bang. I never will say, your life in
the US is going to be a smooth ride. I don’t know with what intention you signed up for this, but
I always knew it was going to be a rocky ride. But what you can best hope for is, as you slide
down the banister of life, hope that all splinters are facing the right way. You have no idea how it
feels to come to the end of another brilliantly and exquisitely written guide. Unfortunately,
neither have I. So that ends this guide. Ladies and Gentlemen, there are two types of speakers:
those who never stop to think and those who never think to stop. I sincerely hope I haven’t been
either.

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