How to choose course for education in USA?

[iloveny]

Hi Friends,
My first post here:))
I intend to join a M.S course here in U.S.
A little about my back ground: 4 years work ex in IT(India).Completed B.E. in India. Moved to USA 6 months back .

I want to go back to school to get a master's degree. I am in NY. Not keen on M.B.A,although I may consider it. I am looking at finance/Accounting as my major.
I want opinions from you all on whether this will be a good move. I want to move to the finance side of things. Will work upon getting my CFA/CPA later on. How are the jobs out there for finance guys? An additional issue for me is my visa status. I would need a H1B to work after my college.
or is it better to go ahead wit ha master's in CS/MIS/IT etc?

Please provide me with any kind of opinons you guys have. Wil be very helpful for me

[purple1]

First thing first.

Get a job first. Most of the jobs are in IT. You can easily get an H1b by Desi companies if you are in IT and have found a project on your own. Come on H1b with a job and then you can explore education opportunities.

Did your company sent you on L-1; why not carry out with them for long term - assignment if possible to get US work - ex? Else will you be changing status to F-1 for education? But H1 with job is better.

[direstraits88]

First thing first.

Get a job first. Most of the jobs are in IT. You can easily get an H1b by Desi companies if you are in IT and have found a project on your own. Come on H1b with a job and then you can explore education opportunities.

Did your company sent you on L-1; why not carry out with them for long term - assignment if possible to get US work - ex? Else will you be changing status to F-1 for education? But H1 with job is better.

This is a mistake that many spouses do. That lure of immediate money.. I would suggest to do MS. MS in IT is perfectly fine or MS in your core engineering if you graduated in electrical/electronics/computer science. Immediately after completion, you'll be placed from Campus and don't have to depend on small desi companies for contract positions making up skill set.

Forget MBA from small schools. MBA is all about networking and not really add value in terms of opportunities for an immigrant.

With a US masters with 4 year IT experience, you'll be able to fast track into consulting or Management. Lot of big companies come onsite for recruitment. And you with 4 year IT experience will have a huge advantage.

And getting that MS will also put you in a different H1 category depending on your status at the time of graduation. Being in NY, don't fall for some shady desi company tricks of promising to teach you SAP over 4 weekends.

[purple1]

This is a mistake that many spouses do. That lure of immediate money.. I would suggest to do MS. MS in IT is perfectly fine or MS in your core engineering if you graduated in electrical/electronics/computer science. Immediately after completion, you'll be placed from Campus and don't have to depend on small desi companies for contract positions making up skill set.

Forget MBA from small schools. MBA is all about networking and not really add value in terms of opportunities for an immigrant.

With a US masters with 4 year IT experience, you'll be able to fast track into consulting or Management. Lot of big companies come onsite for recruitment. And you with 4 year IT experience will have a huge advantage.

And getting that MS will also put you in a different H1 category depending on your status at the time of graduation. Being in NY, don't fall for some shady desi company tricks of promising to teach you SAP over 4 weekends.

This is not a mistake and not the lure of immediate money.

Getting a job is what that matters either you do MS or you don’t. Unless, one is doing MS for pleasure. Even, PhD. would be better, so that there is lot of value addition and you can enhance your skill set.

Again, management positions are hard to come by. It’s not easy as it sounds. Offshore development centres are taking a big chunk and Indian IT companies are just sending people from India for contract work in US while displacing workers, here.

People having years of experience were laid off from Oracle, Sun, Bea, MS, Google, etc and yet are having difficulty finding jobs even transition to different jobs is difficult.

I don’t think getting job in IT is so rosy after doing MS (unless one does MS from IVY leagues or top notch universities). You are well aware of companies laying off people in Bay area. Oh! If it was so easy to get placed from campus in IT and there would be no problem.

There is consolidation going on in IT industry in America and finding a job and sustaining (stability) is not easy.

Lots of big companies come onsite for recruitment and they sponsor Green Cards, too. But, the question is what’s their criteria. Is it piece of cake to land a job in Google, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, etc when one has no US experience? To sell oneself is tough.

Yes, cooking up resume with fake 5 years+ experience is unscrupulous. Also, purchase and sale of Labor and GC is unethical but that’s how the system is working; that’s why the backlog is existing in EB-2 and Eb-3.

It’s foolish to even assume that one can be taught SAP, Oracle ERP, etc. in 4 weeks or some one can just train people.

[Lakshya]

Hi Friends,
My first post here:))
I intend to join a M.S course here in U.S.
A little about my back ground: 4 years work ex in IT(India).Completed B.E. in India. Moved to USA 6 months back .

I want to go back to school to get a master's degree. I am in NY. Not keen on M.B.A,although I may consider it. I am looking at finance/Accounting as my major.
I want opinions from you all on whether this will be a good move. I want to move to the finance side of things. Will work upon getting my CFA/CPA later on. How are the jobs out there for finance guys? An additional issue for me is my visa status. I would need a H1B to work after my college.
or is it better to go ahead wit ha master's in CS/MIS/IT etc?

Please provide me with any kind of opinons you guys have. Wil be very helpful for me

OP

My 2 cents.. Finance/Accounting CPA is not IT. You will have real hard time find someone who can file your H1. Also its not your core area so even if you pass CPA you will start from scratch. Unless you find someone who want your IT skill + Accounting/finance knowledge. You may find some Desi CPA firm who will file your H1(to suck you) or Big 4 may file your H1 but if you are close to 30 you are too old for Big4 its time for people to get out from Big4. On side note your Master in Accounting finance will be useless if you go for CPA, so don't waste money on master just get enough credit and go for CPA. If you do not have high level of accounting experience 1 or 2 Paper will give you hard time. But if you have time on your side you can do it.

Good Luck..