My first day as J1 Visa: It was a challenging and long journey but finally, my dream is coming true and I am staring this incredible experience of working at Handel Architects in New York!
While studying and working for renowned architecture firms in Vienna my interest in working for an international practice got stronger. After graduating in February 2017 I decided to work and live in New York, an inspiring environment for growing professionally as an architect.
I worked hard to prepare my portfolio making my application as good as possible. The fact that I would need a Visa made the application process very difficult because most of the company’s that I applied for were not familiar with the visa process and were avoiding candidates that would need it. Even after receiving very good feedback for my portfolio and qualification it did not work out because of the visa issue.
At that point, I decided to participate in the Architect-US Career Program and join their pool of candidates. Their experience within the field with professional contacts and partner company’s was extremely helpful.
They offered me a lot of interesting job options and I selected the most interesting ones for me. I was invited to a couple of interviews which were very enriching and helped me to improve my communication and my portfolio before having the next interview. In the end, I received multiple offers and had the chance to chose to work at Handel Architects.
My first day as J1 Visa and my first two weeks were very intriguing and I feel that I will learn a lot within this cutting edge architectural practice.
Never give up on your American dream even if it can be a tough way, believe in yourself, always continue to improve yourself and it will be worth the effort it in the end, or new beginning 😉
