I went to an engineering school in France. In France it takes 5 years to get a master degree.
Each year we must do an internship that varies in length between 1 month in first year to 6 months in the final year.
While I was in school, one of my friend and me, created a small game server hosting company (Minecraft, counter strike, ...). We started with 0€ and ended up with ~2k/month each, more than the minimal salary, while being students. We were working on that after school and during the week ends. It was technically challenging and we both learned a lot quickly (Rails, how to manage and promote a company, how to handle customer service, ...) .I remember we even used the first versions of Docker to create game server containers.
Thanks to that, I got an internship in Switzerland during my 2nd year.
That school requires that during your 3rd year of study you have to do a 3 months minimum internship (up to 9 months using your 4th year) in an english speaking coutry.
Most of the students go to the UK or Australia, because they are cheap options, but thanks to my job in Switzerland I had tons of money and I wanted to go to New York so I sent hundreds of resume to companies in New York. I finally got contacted for an internship offer but in San Diego. I had no better option so I accepted. I didn't even know where was San Diego.
I worked during 9 months and I loved this city. I went back to France to get my degree and instead of doing my final internship in France, like everyone does to get a job, I sent a couple of resume to companies in San Diego.
It was way more easy this time due to my first experience and I was able to get an offer from one of the best company in San Diego.
I worked well and after I got my degree the company wanted to switch me full time, so they applied for an H1B. I did not get it the first year but got it the second time. I had to work remotely for ~9 months because my intern visa (J1) expired but I finally went back to San Diego. Now I'm waiting on my green card (EB2).