Hi HN,<p>This is going to be long, but please stick with me here..<p>I came to the US to do my MS in EE and graduated in 2011. After graduating, I started working at a company in the Bay Area, which wasn’t e-verified at the time, meaning that I could only work for 1 year on my student visa using OPT. To add to that, they botched my H-1B application, resulting in my employment with them terminating when OPT ended, which was by the end of 2012.<p>As a result, I was forced to go back to being a student for a year or so, after which I got married and came back to the US on an H-4 visa. Thanks to the new H-4 EAD rule that was passed in 2015, I was able to obtain an EAD in September via my husband’s H-1B visa.<p>Now, I am legally allowed to work for any employer, but I just haven’t been able to get any calls from any company that I’ve applied to so far (both big companies and startups). All in all, I’ve probably applied to 100+ companies over the last 6 months, but I haven’t received a single call back.<p>Though I have an EE background through my MS, my work experience was in C++ and Matlab development, and I have focused on sharpening my Java and Python development skills over the past year or two. I’ve mainly been applying to Java and&#x2F;or Python development positions, or just SW Developer positions in general.<p>Recently, there was an initiative by Braintree (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;hire.jobvite.com&#x2F;CompanyJobs&#x2F;Careers.aspx?nl=1&amp;k=Job&amp;j=owj61fwG&amp;s=PPpage) that fit my profile to a T, but I received a reject from them as well.<p>At this point, I’m willing to try anything. Do you have any clues about why it is this hard to find a job? Is it the 3 year break? I have a MS from a decent school, have done several research projects and have a year of experience in the industry.. I also have a profile at CodeEval, and I plan to continue solving problems there and keep coding every day.<p>Any advice and&#x2F;or help will be sincerely appreciated.
Ask HN: Getting back to the tech industry after a 3 year break