Jobhunting

[Elephant]

Well, now that I've graduated from college, I have a much less pleasant task ahead of me: Finding a job. To me, it's really annoying because it seems like getting a job in the first place depends so much on sales skills, even if the job itself has nothing to do with sales tasks.

I've had a few interviews this year, but I wasn't quite what the companies involved were looking for. Unfortunately, it seems like nearly every job I see advertised has prior experience required. Given that I don't have any prior work experience for the types of jobs I'm seeking, that makes it difficult to get started.

Does anyone have any ideas about how I could get my career started? I'm a recent Computer Science graduate living in St. Paul, MN. I'm bright, hardworking, passionate about technology, and easy to get along with. Unfortunately, being rather shy and meek makes it hard to get my foot in the door.

If nothing else, wish me luck!

 

[Umbran]

Does anyone have any ideas about how I could get my career started? I'm a recent Computer Science graduate living in St. Paul, MN. I'm bright, hardworking, passionate about technology, and easy to get along with. Unfortunately, being rather shy and meek makes it hard to get my foot in the door.

If nothing else, wish me luck!

Definitely, good luck. Being without income stinks.

Question - are you willing to move out of St. Paul? Because it isn't like Minnesota is the high-tech capital of the world. Comp-sci jobs may be a little more scarce there.

Shy and meek are certainly not selling points. You may have to fake it - develop an "interview face". I find it helps if you consider the interview a bit like acting (or role-playing). Take the role of someone more confident than yourself.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

Shy and meek are certainly not selling points. You may have to fake it - develop an "interview face". I find it helps if you consider the interview a bit like acting (or role-playing). Take the role of someone more confident than yourself.

Just don't scream "You want mercy? I'm Chaotic Neutral." during the interview.

 

[wmasters]

Yes, definately good luck. I'm in the UK, so take my advice with a pinch of salt - I don't know what things are like in USA.

When I graduated here I found a similar problem - everything needs experience. I went into jobs that I was overqualified for, admin etc, at the time to pay the bills, but in practice it helped with job applications as well, just having done things like worked in an office.

That said, it sounds like you're getting interviews, and if you're doing that then you're being considered depsite a lack of experience. In that case, it's just the interview you need to work on. There's a list of things that you've probably heard before, but it all works -

Smile, firm handshake, deep breath and be confident and enthusiastic. Know what you want from a job, why you want it, and how it matches the job you're going for. Have questions prepared.

And get a glass of water at the beginning - if you need to think at any point then you can take a sip and buy yourself time to think about an answer.

As Umbran said, being prepared to move and look afield gives you a load more options too (that's true over here too, although obviously distances are rather shorter!)

 

[der_kluge]

Couple of questions:

Are you willing to relocate?

Does your college have a recruiting system in place?


For a new college graduate, I would think the best means would be to work within your college system. I would think it would be very difficult to find a job on your own without any experience. It's a tough market.

That said, there are all kinds of jobs out there, you just have to know where to look.


You could start with monster.com - search for St. Paul/Minneapolis. Choose "Information Technology, Computers - Hardware & Software, and Internet E-commerce" as your categories.

Examine the list of companies who are hiring. You can sort by company. You could email all o this. For a college resume, I would keep it to one page, and put all your relevant skills with bullet points in the top 1/3rd of the page.

Email it to as many people as you can find. You could even call the recruiting agencies and just sort of feel them out for who might be hiring college graduates. Chances are, most recruiting agencies won't be interested in working with you directly, but they might know who is hiring, and who knows - some might be willing to work for you. It can't hurt to talk to them.

Good luck!

 

[dragonhead]

MOVE NOW, if you want to work for a high tech job, try for gaming industrys in california

 

[Umbran]

Just don't scream "You want mercy? I'm Chaotic Neutral." during the interview.

That depends on where you're interviewing.

No joke here - I had brunch this weekend with a friend who just got a new job (completely unrelated to rpgs in any way). In the interview, he was handed a D&D character sheet, and asked to assign himself stats and class and such, and explain why he made each choice...

 

[der_kluge]

That depends on where you're interviewing.

No joke here - I had brunch this weekend with a friend who just got a new job (completely unrelated to rpgs in any way). In the interview, he was handed a D&D character sheet, and asked to assign himself stats and class and such, and explain why he made each choice...

What the heck kind of job did he interview for???

 

[Hijinks]

I agree that Monster.com can be a good tool for jobhunters. But I'd recommend taking their other advice with a grain of salt.

I've been looking for another position here in Iowa. Monster.com recommended sending a "follow up letter" that explains why I'd be suited for the job, saying thanks for the interview, etc. I sent a nice, formal, professional letter for my last interview (as opposed to my first instinct which was a thank-you note), and it did NOT go over well.

Also, Monster recommends always asking a question in your interview; even if the job questions you have are answered, ask something unrelated, like "Why do you like working in this industry" to the interviewer. I tried this and it totally failed - they seemed offended that I asked the question at all. Of course, it could have been the question or my personality that they didn't like.

In Minneapolis, i.e. a bigger city where recruiters and hiring managers may be more used to these things, they may be ok. But in Iowa, such things don't seem to work very well.

 

[DaveStebbins]

Don't be afraid to take a job below or outside your skillset/education. Experience of almost any sort is valuable; it proves you can work well within an organization and work well with people. It is also a good source of examples and anecdotes when interviewers ask questions about compatability and people skills.

My background is in Engineering, so this may not be universally applicable, but the best advice I heard in college was from a retired VP of Fisher-Price. He said that all of this stuff we were learning was nice, but that almost any job we got would only ever be about 15% actual Engineering. He went on to say that about 85% of any job would be dealing with people so, for God's sake, learn how to deal with people. It was excellent advice and has served me well over the years.

Good luck in your search!

-Dave