Ask HN: Masters thesis at US company as European CS student?

2 points by yscodes 3y ago ↗ HN

I'm in the last year of my Informatics Masters at a reputable European university (QS top 50 international).

I'm interested in moving to the US (West coast!) next Summer to do my Masters Thesis at some company there, and potentially get a full time position as a software engineer after graduation. I'm fairly confident in my abilites as a developer and software engineer with a solid CS foundation, so I'm not worried about that part.

As for my motivations, here are the main: - explore opportunities & get experience - make more money than I could here in Europe, for the same kind of work (yes I know the living costs are higher but not crucially it seems to me) - get to know US and its people (yes I know there seem to be higher crime rates in the west but idc) - prove my abilities to myself

I'm just seeking advice on how to best skew the odds in my favor and where/how to best start going about it.

What would be the best way to go about doing that? Has anybody here pulled that off and how?

1 comment

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wmf 3y ago ↗

You should email people at the target companies who have an academic background (PhDs or former professors). I would bet that most hiring managers in the US are not familiar with the European system and aren't motivated to understand it.

I had a German masters student work for me at IBM Research and it was great.