Where should I work as a computer science major?

Where a Computer Science graduate could work part-time while getting a PhD at Caltech?

• Some people at my university are going to Caltech while they are in their PhD in our country. The thing is, I have better grades, but I don't have the money to support myself for 1 year in US. So, what are the companies that could hire part-time Computer Science graduates near Caltech?

• Answer:

  Sorry, but this verges on impossible. First, for fields where graduate work is funded - and CS is one of them - expectations are correspondingly intense. To keep up with the pace of coursework and research requires more than a full-time job's worth of time and mental effort. Few people have the energy to work the 90-hour weeks (that's 90 fresh hours, not 90 hours running yourself into the ground) to be a full-time grad student plus a part-time employee. Second, you didn't say what the tuition costs for your year at Caltech would be. I recall in 2006 (when I was finishing my Caltech bachelor's) seeing some of my friends get into Caltech for a master's in CS but be denied funding. The offer quoted the tuition, which looked similar to undergrad tuition. In other words, it was expensive. I estimate you'd need US$60-70K to fund a very modest lifestyle in Pasadena plus pay full-time Caltech tuition for one year. I seriously doubt that a student-level employee can pull this much working 20-30 hour weeks, especially since both grad school and conventional sorts of employers would both expect to see you around during regular business hours. And where is your work authorization coming from? Most outfits outside of organized crime won't pay top dollar for black-market labor, nor will they sponsor a work visa for a high-cost part-time employee. If the year at Caltech were tuition-free or involved steeply discounted tuition, this would be vaguely more possible. Paying only student fees, medical insurance, and personal expenses like rent and food, your costs would be closer to $20-30K. That's more possible with a very high-skilled part time job. Still, it would require an amazing amount of hours and hustle. To relate a personal story, one of my cousins came to the US from India via an unfunded master's in EE at the University of Southern California. He lived in a modest apartment shared four or five ways near campus. USC is in South Central LA, which is nothing like South Central Pasadena (zing!); it is a dangerous part of town. He worked part-time in a dining hall to help make ends meet, which had the key advantage of free meals. And his support still came mostly from his parents: all of the above was just to mitigate the financial burden.