In the evening of December 17, Ron Watkins -- assistant dean of the business school affiliated to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gave a lecture on studying abroad in the US and career development plan for business graduates of the US in Room 104 of Siyuan Building, proposing some suggestion about how to become a successful student in the US and about career development of the international students in the US. A number of undergraduate and graduate students from College of Economics & Management participated in the lecture and actively gave speeches.

For a start, Ron Watkins introduced the current situation on employment faced by international students in the US. The international students not only have to overcome the weakness of non-native language, but also have to compete for the visa in a limited number. Last year, the number of people applying for visa granted by the US reached to 886052, but the number of visa actually granted was only 80000. Besides, companies in the US need to bear high costs  for visa application made by the international employees. Thus, the employment situation of Chinese exchange students is not so optimistic.

Next, Ron expounded to Chinese students ready for studying in the US on how to increase their employment opportunities, including how to consult the employment center at the university, improve English expression skills, participate in extracurricular activities and etc. And then, Ron offered some advice on getting employed to international students. Since recruiting process generally started in three weeks after a new term and basically came to an end in twelve weeks after the new term, students shall make active efforts to look for work opportunities at the beginning of the term. Instead of just focusing on schoolwork, students shall actively build their own social network and widen their interpersonal relationship.

Finally, Ron Watkins provided some tips on how to select a university in the US which is helpful for international students to get employed. First of all, such universities must be in a large scale and have a large number of international students, because such universities are usually associated with companies tending to recruit international students. In addition, such universities shall have good employment guidance centers which will provide effective employment advice for international students. Chinese graduates shall consider the job markets both in China and the US.

This lecture provided students in our college wishing to go abroad for further study with a channel to understand labor market in the US and increase their employment opportunities. The humorous, vivid and comprehensive interpretation given by Prof. Ron Watkins delivered great help to the participants on choosing universities in the US and career plan.