How to Succeed as an International Student in the U.S - Part I
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In the past, I’ve discussed what skills you need to succeed in American classrooms, as a leader, and we’ve discussed what your success looks like to you.
Today, with the quickly changing landscape of international student life in the U.S, it’s important we take a step back and look at success more generally. As a student transitioning from school in another part of the world, to college or university in the United States, there are certain things you need to know and certain skills you need to develop, to ensure you’re successful throughout your time here.
Today, we’ll be looking at 3 of the 6 key skills and strategies that you should focus on as you progress through your post-secondary education and your personal development evolves in a new country. The next 3 will be included in part 2 of this blog, which will be posted at a later date.
These 3 skills are:
Networking
Proactivity
Confidence
The 3 skills we’ll discuss in part 2 are:
Knowing When to Seek Help
Relationship Building
Speaking in Public
Since I’ve touched on a number of these skills in previous articles, this blog will be a bit more general in nature. However, if you would like to be directed to the other articles I’ve written, continue reading ahead to find the direct links to each in their respective sections.
Networking
One skill that you’ll have a ton of opportunities to develop while in the U.S is your ability to network. When you really think about it, as soon as you land in the U.S and arrive on campus, you’ll already have started.
Making new friends throughout your first few weeks at school and throughout your entire post-secondary education is one of the natural and most important ways you’ll learn vital networking skills. Connecting with classmates, professors and other school administrators is the easiest way to practice these skills in a non-stressful environment. Take advantage of these situations as much as possible and you’ll notice you begin to feel more confident overall.
Now, for most students, when they think of networking they think of it as a tool to develop professional relationships instead of personal ones.
In order to land the job you want, you’ll most likely need to attend networking events on campus and interact with professionals from the company you want to work with. You’ll notice very early on that these events happen a lot on campus, so don’t think you only have one opportunity to get this right.
These events are used to build relationships between students and industry professionals, but they’re also an important part of your development. Your institution knows that these events are one of the best ways to improve the networking skills of their students and it’s a big reason they put them together and host them on campus.
You might not necessarily be offered a job on-site at one of these functions, but that’s not the goal. The goal is to just break the ice, open a line of ongoing communication and develop as an individual and professional.
You may feel like you’re being “thrown into the fire” at these events, but the reality is that the best way to learn to network is to actually experience it firsthand. Take advantage of these opportunities when you can.
Proactivity
Proactivity is another important skill you’ll need, and one of the few I’ve discussed in a recent blog. However, that blog was focused on proactivity in the workplace.
A lot of the same tips apply here, so let’s instead look at exactly why being proactive is so important to your success.
Being proactive is the opposite of being reactive. It involves taking the time to identify what you need to do to set yourself up for success and planning for any potential roadblocks before you actually hit them. This way, when issues arise, you can have a plan to deal with them, which will significantly lower your stress levels and tell you what you need to do next.
In university or college, this is one of the most important things you’ll learn. Throughout your education you’ll deal with stressful situations related to job hunting, exams, family relationships and much more. It can be extremely difficult to deal with all of these if you don’t have some sort of plan in place.
Make sure you spend time looking ahead to identify potential problems and setting up a plan to deal with them before they come to fruition.
For example, if you look ahead to your exam schedule and you notice you have 2 exams on the same day, plus that’s the week you plan to focus on job hunting, make sure you adjust and optimize your schedule accordingly. If you don’t look ahead and you find out a week prior, it may already be too late, or you’ll need to deal with a mountain of stress which won’t be conducive to positive results you might be looking for.
Confidence
I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “confidence is key” at some point in your life. You may have even realized how important confidence truly is through your own personal experience. The truth is, confidence can be the difference between succeeding in the U.S as an international student, and coming up short.
Now this doesn’t mean you need to be overly confident to do well. There’s a difference between being arrogant and being confident.
The most important thing to realize is that confidence will help you to develop a trust in your own self that decreases stress, creates opportunity, and increases the likelihood of significant personal and professional growth.
Some individuals are naturally more confident than others, while some need to work to develop this trait. However, it is possible.
The best way to increase your confidence is by putting yourself in situations where you can learn. Whether it’s at a networking event as discussed above, or studying alone in your room, confidence begins with a desire to learn.
If you think about situations you’ve been confident in the past, did they involve conversations about topics you knew nothing about with strangers you didn’t know how to interact with? Or, did they involve situations where you were discussing topics you had a wealth of knowledge on with people you felt comfortable with? Most likely, it was the latter.
Building up your knowledge and your experience will naturally increase your confidence because it will help you learn what to expect and it will allow you to trust yourself and your natural reactions.
Eliminate your self-doubt and enhance your confidence by increasing your understanding and exposing yourself to situations where you can solidify that understanding.
The Next 3 Skills
These are the first 3 skills you’ll need to succeed in the U.S. Keep an eye out for part 2 of this blog, where we’ll be discussing the next 3: knowing when to seek help, relationship building, and public speaking.
If you’re still wondering what the best option for you is to develop these essential skills, you may benefit from working with a student success coach!
To find out if I would be the right person to help you overcome your current challenges and succeed in the U.S., take the time to schedule a free call with me and we can discuss what you’re looking for and how I can help.
Over the past 10 years, I’ve helped countless international students like yourself achieve their goals and grow into the professionals they are today.
I hope to hear from you soon!
About The Author
Many years ago I came to the U.S. from Taiwan and studied in a field that rarely accepted “fresh off the boat” international students from non-English speaking countries. I’m Dr. Vivi Hua, Psy.D. and I help international students navigate the cross-cultural aspects of their experience in the U.S., so they can succeed academically and socially and build a life and career that they desire!