As graduation gets closer, many international students have already filed their Optional Practical Training (OPT) status with Duke Visa Services. Here is what I have found out about OPT and what it can do for me:

Let’s say I got a full-time job offer and my employer requires that I start working prior to October 1, which is the start date of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) fiscal year, which is also the start date of any newly granted H-1B visas. So there is a gap in my visa coverage between graduation in May and October 1. OPT is here to fill the gap, with a slight twist, however. Since H-1B visas are in high demand, once they are open for application in early April, they are gone usually before the end of summer (this year the cap was reached in just 5 days after USCIS started to accept new H1-B fillings). In this case, I will need to be on OPT for one year. During OPT, my H-1B application should be prepared for the next year’s filing. So, for example, if I get an offer in 2013, stay on OPT for 2013 – 2014, then apply for the H-1B in April 2014, and change my visa status from F-1 with OPT to H-1B on October 1, 2014. Even though there is another gap between 2014 summer (end of my OPT) and October 1, 2014, my OPT should still be valid since USCIS has recognized this issue and fixed it with “Cap Gap,” which provides student work authorization until the H-1B takes affect.

If I don’t have an offer by the time of OPT application, I can use OPT as a buffer to continue job search after graduation. Since the grace period after graduation for every F-1 student is 2 months, with or without OPT, a student can theoretically stay in the U.S. for up to 5 months after finishing his/her program. This is because OPT grants students 3 months to continue job search. If I find a job within 3 months of receiving the Employment Authorization Document (EAD), I may continue working until exactly 12 months after getting the EAD. However, if I can’t find a job or internship within those 3 months, my U.S. visa status will expire.

Duke Visa Services is an extremely helpful and trusted resource. The staff members there have assisted Duke international students, workers, and scholars for many years, and thus have seen all types of passports, visas, and “weird” visa situations. Check out the visa office’s website. Going over FAQs is what I found the most useful.

Remember: Each international student may have his/her own unique situation, and it may not fall into the aforementioned scenarios (for example, you have used part of your OPT time). For the latest and most accurate information, please refer to the Duke visa office website and the USCIS website.

Each student is assigned to 2 VACFs, a primary one and a secondary one. To start with, we conduct an informational interview with our primary VACF, and then a mock interview. After a few weeks, we conduct another mock interview with our secondary VACF.

The program is very useful because you are in a safe environment where you are expected to learn from your mistakes, and the VACFs are here to assist you. For example, after my primary VACF asked me to go over my resume with her, she pointed out that I needed to focus on explaining why I did the things I did, rather than merely telling her what I did. Then, she used my resume and retold my stories as if she was being interviewed. It was so good that it almost didn’t sound like me. Point being, your VACF knows what interviewers are hunting for so he/she can help you sell yourself better.

Of course, mock interviews are just half of the deal. The other half is more fundamental. Take me for example. I’m interested in working for technology firms, but I have no technical background, so I couldn’t be an engineer. That’s fine, because every tech firm has its business side, which includes all sorts of roles in sales, marketing, finance, project management, etc. I was frankly confused as how these different functions work and where they would lead me in my career. But hey, my VACF is an expert on this, after all, we were paired up based on my career interest. Naturally, I sought her advice and did more research; over time, my confusion gradually went away. This discovery process turned out to be great preparation, too, as I found myself chatting with more tech folks and having more meaningful conversations.

The VACF program is safe, handy, and filled with serendipities, and it’s one of the MMS-specific resources that Fuqua offers. I’ve learned a lot by working with my VACFs.

Professionalism is the key to MMS.

Unlike undergraduate programs, MMS is entirely hosted in The Fuqua School of Business, where faculty members and professionals from all industries visit, work, study, and interact with one another. In other words, Fuqua is more of a workplace than just a school. During undergrad years, students can dress casually in jeans, T-shirts, and sandals. However, at Fuqua, we are strongly encouraged to dress like business professionals. Most of the time we wear business casual attire, unless there are presentations or corporate events, in which case we really suit up. Of course, there are times when we just feel like dressing down; no one would stop us from dressing that way as long as we maintain professionalism at school.

Another example — at the beginning of the program, we each received a box of business cards, which serve as leave-behinds at networking events. For most of us, it was the first time we had cards with our own names on them. We learned to ask for and give out cards in networking sessions, informational interviews, and even coffee chats. If you treat MMS like undergrad, you are likely to ignore exchanging business cards, which is crucial to networking for jobs and following-up.

Everyone comes to Fuqua with a professional goal in mind.

Depending on the program section you are in, classes can end fairly early, leaving usually half a day to yourself. These are the times when workshops, events, and team projects take place that can help with your professional goals. If you treat MMS like undergrad, where you go home and have fun once class is over, you are getting less than half of what Fuqua has to offer. Outside of the classroom, a lot of learning and career opportunities occur. For example, companies usually present at Fuqua a few weeks before they interview candidates. Attending these presentations can give you a leg up if you land an interview. In addition, both MMS and MBA professional clubs generally host events during lunchtime or in the evening. One such event was The High Tech Symposium (Nov. 6). The event included panel discussions and networking events with representatives from Deloitte, Google, Oracle, IBM, etc. — great companies to learn about and interact with.

To rephrase what our Associate Dean Kathie Amato once said, the students who make the most of this program are the ones who treat MMS as if it’s a full-time job. By presenting the best and most professional side of ourselves, we are not only upholding the traditions of Team Fuqua, but also getting the highest ROI for ourselves.

On a recent Wednesday, Fuqua’s Career Management Center organized a corporate visit trip to Richmond, VA, where we were wowed by the beauty of Capital One’s gigantic campus and the laidback working environment of CarMax. Both companies are mature, yet youthful and creative, and they both employ MMS alumni.

On a campus tour of Capital One.

We left around 7:30 in the morning and got to Capital One’s campus after a 3-hour bus ride. We sat in on a panel with several MMS alumni and they told us about their company. Capital One is less than 20 years old, but it has grown to be one of the top 10 banks in the U.S. Thanks to its unique corporate culture, Capital One has stayed fairly agile like a young company. One thing that struck me was that Capital One has a relatively flat structure: people work in the same setting with their supervisors and each employee can be promoted quickly within his/her own role. This is often seen in the IT industry, but rarely in traditional fields like banking. Moreover, the Capital One folks are young, energetic, and sharp. One thing that the panelists kept stressing was the fun they have working with each other. They are all problem solvers who learn fast and think on their feet. They are also competitive people, but they all agreed that there’s more of a collaborative culture at work.

Lunch at Capital One was great. We couldn’t help comparing it to what the Fox Center cafeteria offers at Fuqua. As one of many Capital One’s employee perks, the company offers discounts on healthy meals and gym memberships to encourage employees to stay fit.

In the afternoon, we headed over to CarMax’s headquarters, which is about 5 minutes away from Capital One. It has only one building, in a post-modern warehouse style. CarMax Strategy Group is the internal consulting office that’s responsible for strategizing CarMax’s day-to-day operations. Analysts work on problems such as how many cars CarMax should stock in its inventory, what the resale prices should be, whether the company should expand to another state, etc. It is absolutely amazing to think that CarMax is a blend of an IT company and a used-car dealer. It definitely has the IT company feel to it (the warehouse, the work space, and the vibe) but it also has the operations of a traditional business (the tangible cars it sells each day, the mechanics it trains, and the customer-oriented services it provides).

At this time, neither company recruits international students, but the trip was still valuable because during the course of the day, I constantly asked myself: Is this the kind of company I want to work for once I graduate from MMS? Is the culture a fit for my personality? I realized that the trip was a lot like a college campus visit — you have to actually see and feel what it is like to decide if you can be happy there. I learned that regardless of how famous a company is, you will not enjoy yourself unless there is a good fit.

Both Capital One and CarMax seem like great companies. They carry the seriousness of business as well as the playfulness of young talent. Both companies not only offer great career opportunities, but also a nurturing environment for personal and professional growth.

One good way of answering this question is to make the answer about you, not the person you want to become. And don’t give an answer that you think people want to hear, because that’s not going to help them to remember you.

For me, the answer boils down to two words: it fits. MMS fits with my personality, and it fits into my career progression.

I’ve heard many people say that business school is a laboratory and that you should take the opportunity to experiment. This is exactly how I feel. I’m a tirelessly curious person, and I simply want to try EVERYTHING, just to know what it is and to decide if I like it. Fuqua is not only a place to try out different industries, but it’s also a great platform to meet more people and extent my network. To use my teammate Suejin’s words, Fuqua is like a bag of M&Ms, in that every Fuquan is an M&M, and each color represents an industry. Living among this diverse crowd, the last thing you can do is be a lone wolf.

In terms of career opportunities, MMS fits nicely into my career progression. I graduated from a liberal arts school with a degree in economics, but I didn’t feel confident to start working full-time, partly because I didn’t want to join an industry or take on a job function that I didn’t like or know much about. MMS gives me some time and a place to validate my interests, while improving my professionalism so I know that I will be job-ready even before graduating.