Startups: The VISA-Sponsored Jobs You're Overlooking | Karina Mazur | TEDxRoyal Holloway

Key Concepts:

Immigration experience, feeling like an outsider, visa sponsorship, startups vs. corporates, graduate visa, skilled worker visa, resilience, resourcefulness, adaptability, value proposition, Migrates (company), international talent.

1. Personal Immigration Journey and Feelings of Otherness:

• The speaker recounts her personal experience as an immigrant, starting at 6 months old when her family moved from Russia to Israel, and then to Canada at age 8.
• Despite Canada's acceptance of immigrants, she felt like an outsider due to "smelly Russian school lunches," an accent, and a fear of snow.
• She spent over a decade haunted by the question of whether she would be allowed to stay in the UK, constantly fearing deportation.
• She found solace and a sense of belonging in books, particularly the Harry Potter series, which made her dream of studying in the UK.

2. The Struggle for Visa Sponsorship in the UK:

• While studying English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, she realized she needed to secure a job with sponsorship to remain in the UK.
• This realization defined her university experience, driving her to fight for the opportunity to stay.
• She initially interned at Deliveroo (employee #89, a Series B startup with under 100 employees), where she learned the importance of working for a company that valued her ambition. The founder of Deliveroo, Will Shu, also started his journey in the UK on a skilled worker visa.
• She eventually secured sponsorship from multiple companies, including Cedars, before co-founding Migrates.

3. Startups vs. Corporates for International Talent:

• Large corporations are increasingly cancelling graduate schemes and making it difficult for foreign nationals to stay in the UK.
• The speaker highlights the common experience of receiving rejection emails stating "Unfortunately, we don't sponsor," even before having the chance to prove their value.
• She argues that large corporates often have rigorous application processes, multiple stakeholders, and HR policies that create barriers for international talent.
• She recounts her experience working in a corporate after graduation, realizing it was stifling and that her visa status was tied to a business where she saw no future. A manager told her "Your ideas are too innovative for our clients."
• She advocates for international talent to target VC-backed, early-stage startups that are willing to take a chance on someone with passion, ambition, and determination.

4. The Opportunity Landscape and the Role of Migrates:

• While only 2% of the 5 million companies in the UK have a license to sponsor international talent (12,000 companies), 60 new companies are added to this list daily.
• Migrates is a company that helps international talent find visa-sponsored roles in the UK and reflects these roles on their job board.
• 70% of Migrates members have landed roles in startups, with some even convincing employers to obtain sponsorship licenses.

5. Why Startups are a Good Fit for International Talent:

• International talent possesses qualities that align well with the needs of startups: resilience, hunger, and resourcefulness.
• Startups are adaptable, risk-takers, and problem solvers, mirroring the characteristics of international talent.
• She uses the Hebrew word "hutbah" and attempts to use the Arabic word "jura" (likely himma) to describe the drive and determination to make things happen.
• Startups hire faster, offer more direct impact, and are more likely to value and reward the contributions of international talent.

6. Success Stories and Examples:

• Ken: A Migrates member who secured a growth marketing role at a startup and obtained a skilled worker visa just before his graduate visa expired.
• Gisha: An Indian student who expressed her passion for operations and successfully landed an ops role at Borderless, a company known to Migrates.
• Rim: The speaker's co-founder at Migrates, who came from Morocco in 2014, studied at UCL, was sponsored by three different startups, and is now a British citizen.

7. The Value Proposition of International Talent:

• International talent creates opportunities and seeks out challenges.
• Their value is what allows them to secure jobs with sponsorship and prove their worth to startups.
• A traditional CV is not as important as showcasing their unique qualities and potential.

8. Conclusion:

The speaker encourages international talent to focus on startups as a viable pathway to securing visa sponsorship and building a successful career in the UK. She emphasizes the mutual benefits of this relationship, highlighting the resilience, resourcefulness, and adaptability that international talent brings to the startup environment. She stresses that despite perceived challenges, opportunities exist for those who are determined to prove their value and contribute to innovative, fast-growing companies.