Derya Yavuz (SEAS ’21)
BE, computer engineering
My name is Derya Yavuz, I am a Class of 2021 graduate from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and I majored in Computer Engineering, with a minor of Engineering Entrepreneurship. I was born in Turkey and am a Turkish citizen.
I am employed currently and have been since 2021 at Praetorian Security in Austin, Texas as a Senior Security Engineer.
Companies being willing and able to sponsor international students definitely was a huge and deciding factor in my job search. During my job hunting period which was mainly the summer of 2020 with COVID at high, I specifically targeted tech companies that were sponsoring as a high priority, and being an international definitely changed the amount of jobs available for us to apply. It was challenging but I was lucky enough to land a cybersecurity job that I love.
I attended a bunch of resume and cover letter writing workshops at Penn, both organized by the ISSS as well as the engineering school. These were extremely helpful in reviewing my current accomplishments and how to best present them for employers to see. I tried to make sure my resume highlighted the technical classwork and important projects that I had taken part in a concise manner.
I came across this particular job posting on Penn’s Handshake portal, during a time where I was examining postings on every single page available. After seeing the posting, I looked up the company to get a better idea of the position and submitted the resume immediately.
The initial application for the post-completion OPT was rendered pretty seamless thanks to the resources ISSS has posted and made available, be it the videos and articles with detailed guides on how to fill out forms and OPT workshops. During the OPT reporting process, ISSS has been helpful in answering questions and assisting if we needed additional information such as our I-20s, etc. My company signed on my training plans in a timely manner and I was able to submit them with ease to iPenn.
I personally did not go through any initial salary negotiations as it seemed to be enough for the lifestyle I was pursuing straight out of college. They also offered a stipend for me to relocate to Austin, Texas so that was helpful to get my feet on the ground.
So far, it has been a rollercoaster of fast-paced projects and non-stop learning opportunities, a constant challenge in the best way to improve myself, my technical abilities and my professional skills. It helped that the company is relatively small, around ~100 people so I could interact with many individuals without the need to go through bureaucracy and express my wants or feedback. While I am a senior security engineer and my day is mainly composed of performing penetration testing and technical security reviews, I am also performing a consultant role where I get to interact with a ton of clients on a daily basis and do my best to perform my tasks to give them the most value. The combination of technical work as well as client interaction can sometimes be a lot to handle but it has been the greatest learning opportunity.
Words of Wisdom:
I would definitely advise students to apply as early as they can in order to have time to research various companies and their missions, as well as to prepare properly for the potential interview rounds, especially technical stations. If possible, find out who the hiring manager is to connect with them and contact them in order to express interest and let them know you applied. Disclose your need for sponsorship right away (if you need it) to be on the same page, just in case. Also, attending career fairs might be fruitful since at my company I have been recruiting at a couple of them and we do end up getting a lot of candidates from face-to-face interaction!