How to find a job

US citizens and lawful permanent residents can work for any employer without restriction. Everyone else needs specific authorisation, and what you are permitted to do depends entirely on your immigration status.

Some statuses carry work authorisation automatically. Some require a separate application for an employment authorisation document. Some permit work only for a specific sponsoring employer, meaning a new job requires a new petition rather than simply resigning and starting elsewhere. Some permit no work at all.

Students on visas typically face limits on hours and on the type of employer, with separate provisions for practical training related to their field of study. Working outside those limits can jeopardise the status itself, which is a far larger consequence than losing the job.

Every employer must verify identity and work authorisation on Form I-9 within a short window of your start date, examining original documents you provide. You choose which acceptable documents to present from a published list — an employer cannot demand a specific document or reject valid ones, and doing so is itself unlawful discrimination.

You need a Social Security number to be paid and taxed correctly. It is free to obtain from the Social Security Administration, and anyone charging you for one is selling a free government service.

Being paid in cash without documentation is not a workaround. It leaves you without proof of income for housing or credit, without unemployment or Social Security credit, and outside the protection of employment law — and for anyone with an immigration status to protect, it can create serious problems later.

If you need sponsorship, say so early rather than late. Employers who cannot sponsor prefer to know at the outset, and discovering it at offer stage wastes everyone's time including yours.

A resume is one page for most people and two for those with extensive relevant experience. It is a targeted marketing document, not a complete history, and including everything you have ever done is a common mistake among applicants trained on European or Asian CV conventions.

Do not include a photograph, your date of birth, age, marital status, nationality, religion or a statement about your health. These are omitted deliberately: they invite discrimination, employers are generally not permitted to consider them, and including them can make a hiring manager uncomfortable rather than impressed.

Lead with achievements rather than duties. A line describing what you were responsible for tells a reader nothing; a line describing what changed because you were there tells them everything. Quantify wherever you honestly can.

Tailor it to each role. Many employers use applicant tracking systems that filter on keywords drawn from the job description, and a resume that does not use the same vocabulary as the posting may never be read by a person. This is not about gaming the system — it is about describing your experience in the terms the employer used.

Keep formatting simple. Tables, columns, graphics, text boxes and headers can be parsed badly by tracking systems, turning a strong resume into unreadable output. A clean single-column document is safer than a designed one for anything outside creative fields.

Cover letters are expected less often than they once were but still matter for competitive roles, and a short specific one is better than a long generic one. Address why this role and this employer, not why you want a job.

References are usually supplied when requested rather than listed on the resume. Ask permission before naming anyone, and warn them when they are likely to be contacted.

General job boards carry volume and are worth using, but they are also where every other applicant is. Industry-specific boards, professional associations and company career pages typically have less competition per posting.

Federal government jobs are advertised through a single central system, which is unusual in the US context and worth knowing about. Federal applications have their own conventions, including much longer resumes than the private sector expects and strict formatting requirements — the guidance published for that system should be followed exactly, because applications are frequently rejected on process grounds.

State and local government jobs are posted separately by each authority. Public sector roles often have transparent pay scales and structured processes, which makes them more predictable than private hiring.

State workforce agencies offer free job search assistance, training programmes and career counselling. These are publicly funded, genuinely free, and consistently underused.

Staffing agencies and recruiters are paid by employers, never by candidates. A recruiter asking you for money is not a recruiter. Temporary and contract roles through agencies can be a reasonable route into an organisation, particularly for recent arrivals without a US work history.

Networking is the dominant channel, and it does not have to mean events. It means telling people what you are looking for, reconnecting with former colleagues, and asking for short conversations about a field rather than asking for a job. A referral moves an application from a pile to a person.

Expect no response to most applications. Employers are not required to reply and frequently do not, even after interviews. This is a widely reported frustration and it is not a reflection on you.

Interviews commonly include behavioural questions asking for specific past examples. Preparing a handful of concrete stories about problems you solved, covering the situation, what you did, and what resulted, will cover most of what you are asked.

Federal law prohibits discrimination in hiring based on race, colour, religion, sex including pregnancy, sexual orientation and gender identity, national origin, age from 40 onwards, disability, and genetic information. Many states and cities add further protected categories.

That translates into questions employers should not ask: your age or date of birth, where you were born, your religion, whether you are married, whether you have or plan to have children, your ethnicity, whether you have a disability, or details of your medical history.

Employers may ask whether you are legally authorised to work in the United States and whether you will need sponsorship. They may not demand specific documents, treat applicants differently based on how they look or sound, or refuse to hire because your authorisation has an expiry date.

On disability, an employer may ask whether you can perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation. They may not ask about the existence, nature or severity of a disability before making a job offer.

Salary history questions are restricted or banned in many states and cities, on the basis that basing pay on past pay perpetuates existing gaps. Where such a ban applies, you are not required to answer, and giving your desired range instead is entirely reasonable.

Criminal history rules vary. Many jurisdictions require employers to delay asking until later in the process, and federal guidance restricts blanket exclusions that have a discriminatory effect. Background checks that use consumer reporting agencies must follow federal rules including notifying you and giving you a chance to dispute inaccurate information before an adverse decision is final.

Most US employment is at-will, meaning either party can end it at any time for any lawful reason. It is not unlimited — an employer cannot fire you for a discriminatory reason, for reporting illegal conduct, or for exercising a legal right — but there is no general requirement of cause or notice.

If you believe you have been discriminated against in hiring, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission handles charges, and there are deadlines for filing that are shorter than most people assume.

Get the offer in writing before resigning from anything. It should state the title, pay, whether you are salaried or hourly, start date, and benefits. A verbal offer that later changes is a common and painful experience.

Understand whether the role is classified as exempt or non-exempt, because it determines whether you are entitled to overtime pay. Classification depends on actual duties and pay level rather than on job title, and misclassification is a well-documented problem.

Check whether you are being hired as an employee or an independent contractor. Contractors receive no employer tax contributions, no unemployment insurance, no workers' compensation in most cases, and no benefits — and are responsible for their own tax. Being labelled a contractor while working under employee conditions is misclassification, and the test is about the working relationship, not the contract.

Ask about health insurance, retirement contributions and paid leave. The United States has no federal requirement for paid annual leave or paid sick leave, so what an employer offers is genuinely variable and is part of the compensation rather than a given.

Read any non-compete, confidentiality or arbitration clause before signing. These affect what you can do after leaving and how disputes are resolved, and their enforceability varies substantially by state.

Job scams are widespread and specifically target new arrivals, students and remote job seekers. The defining signal is money moving in the wrong direction: any job requiring you to pay for training, equipment, a background check or certification is a scam. Employers pay for those things.

The most damaging variant sends you a cheque, asks you to deposit it, keep a portion and forward the rest. The cheque is fraudulent, it bounces after the bank has released the funds, and you are liable for the full amount and potentially for participating in fraud. Never accept a job that involves receiving and forwarding money or packages.

Other reliable indicators: an offer made without any interview, a request for your Social Security number or bank details before hire, an interview conducted entirely over a messaging app, an email address that is not the company's own domain, and pressure to decide immediately. Verify any suspicious offer by contacting the company through a number you look up yourself, not one supplied to you.