What are the work options for a Ph.D student in california?

Hi Kumar & Saurabh,

Hi, my name is Shweta, I’ve applied for a Ph.d course (Spring intake Jan,2014) in an university in California (waiting for acceptance). About me, I’ve completed my BE and then worked for 1year, then went to London,UK to do an MS (Security and Digital Forensics). Completed and came back to Bangalore,India. I’ve done some private works, freelance work, counsulting postions etc in the last 1 n half year. I want to do research work in forensics and also get my Ph.D from there (work in US if good opportunity comes along).(I still have a valid PSW UK visa)

Now my question is in USA, unlike UK we cannot work ouside of campus on a student visa. On campus also its a limited period of 20Hrs. I want to know if there are any options available under my condition for me get work experiance in my domain while continuing with my Ph.D (Whatever experiance I’ve in my domain is very entry-level, I need to get good experiance to complete my Ph.D properly. So having good work experiance while studying is essential.) Please give some light into this matter. Or what kind of options are available. (Working is also imp to have financial support).

P.S: I don’t know have any immediate resourceful person to clarify these issues with. I would appericite any help u cn offer me!!!

Thanx.

Cheers,Shweta.

Shwetha,
In general, when you apply for PhD program and get admission, Universities typically offer you some kind of funding. Read this : CPT vs OPT. With CPT you will get real time experience. Be careful on how you use it, you will not be eligible for OPT after your PhD, if you do it full time for 12 months.
In a nutshell, for now, do not worry too much about it…PhD is for about 5 years and you have time to get enough work experience on CPT in the mean time while the school is in session and also you can work full time during summers in an internship to get full experience.