Indian woman on F-1 OPT visa lost job offer days after graduation. Here’s how she bounced back
The Indian woman on F-1 OPT visa lost her job offer days after graduation. She spent nine months searching before landing a full-time role.
An Indian-origin woman on a student visa in the US saw her job offer rescinded just four days after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania. For 26-year-old Palashi Singhal, the setback triggered a months-long struggle to find stable employment while racing against visa deadlines.
According to a report by Business Insider, Singhal completed her master’s degree in behavioural and decision sciences in May 2024. To celebrate her achievement, her parents had flown in from India, and in June, she planned to start a full-time job as a behavioural sales and customer support specialist at a tech startup. However, just days after her graduation ceremony, the company pulled the offer, citing a reassessment of its hiring needs.
“My spirits dropped from 100% to negative 100%,” she recalled. The loss was particularly devastating because her F-1 optional practical training (OPT) visa required her to quickly secure full-time employment to keep living in the US instead of returning to India.
With only a few months to find a new job before her visa status was at risk, her family cancelled a planned post-graduation trip across the country. They stayed home to support the 26-year-old as she launched into what would become a nine-month search for full-time work. “That’s the source of the most stress that international students have in the US - the clock ticking in the background and having to find a job,” she said.
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Struggle of job hunting
Singhal shared that her journey to find full-time employment began years before her offer was rescinded. After earning her degree, she first began working as a part-time, paid research intern. She said she couldn't work full-time until February 2024, which was the designated start date tied to her OPT visa approval.
Then, once her OPT was approved, she began seriously looking for full-time employment. When she finally received the full-time job offer, she said she stopped looking for work. "I stopped doing any networking or applying to jobs," she said. But when she learned in late May, after her graduation, that the offer had been rescinded, she had to start looking for jobs from scratch.
She began closely monitoring job boards and applying for jobs. She used LinkedIn to search for posts about job openings and reached out to company employees who shared them.
Then, after months of rejection, Singhal finally secured a temporary research analyst contract at a consumer goods company in June 2024. The role bought her time and kept her visa status intact. She hoped the role would become permanent, but it ended in January 2025, pushing her back into the job hunt.
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What helped her make progress in job search?
A breakthrough came soon after through her network. A classmate from her master's program connected her with the founder of Dolphin Digital, an adtech startup. In the interviews, Singhal impressed by proposing solutions to company challenges, leading to a part-time role in February. Singhal said that the role gave her a chance to learn the company’s needs and prove her value. Then, at the end of her first month, she said she was offered her current full-time role.
Nearly nine months after her first offer was withdrawn, she finally found stability. She said she feels great about her current job and that it has given her he chance to grow.
Her advice to recent graduates: “Don’t hold out exclusively for a full-time role. Part-time or contract work can be the foot in the door that leads to something bigger.”
“If you come across a really good internship or part-time position, just go for it and see what happens,” she said.
