One of the most critical issues (and sometimes the most frustrating) is finding out which companies hire foreign MBAs and which don’t. Very few companies explicitly state their policy towards this issue, and sometimes when they do, it is not accurate.

Most Placement Offices now survey the recruiters to find out beforehand who will hire foreign MBAs. Doing this, they have found out, significantly saves time and effort for everybody. Every time a company interviews a non-US citizen, while their policy is not hiring them, everybody looses: the company time and money (and the opportunity to interview another candidate), the student time, and the placement office effectiveness.

The problems are:

– Many recruiters don’t bother answering the surveys.

– If they bother, they don’t take too much time and effort.

– Many companies have a whole team of recruiters, very often located in different places all over the country. Some of them may not now about this issue.

– The surveys are not always well designed or well understood.

– Many recruiters just don’t want to disclose their policies.

– As you may have guessed, many employers do not have policies.

In the following sections, we will outline some basic rules. However, keep in mind:

– Rules are written to be broken. Even if a company states explicitly that they do not hire foreign MBAs, if you are really interested, give it a try. We have heard of several cases where they have broken the rule.

– Rules change with time, place and circumstances. So take them for what they are: general guidelines.

– Talk to second-year MBA’s (or alumni, if you are a second-year). They have the latest news about who is hiring foreigners, and which industries are hot.