<p>I was talking to a few friends who just graduated from a top public university and they’re struggling when it comes to jobs because they literally have nothing to write down on their resume. No internships, no jobs, no research, no nothin’.</p>
<p>How the heck is that even possible? How do you come to an institution for 4 years (or 2 if you’re a transfer) and do absolutely nothing?</p>
<p>For those of you who had “nothing” to write on your resume, what did you do?</p>
<p>Not in that group but I would guess that “Partying” would not look good on a resume.</p>
<p>Some people can’t find anything during school. My brother, for example, has not been able to get an internship for the past 3 years. He is going to be a senior this year. He has applied and applied and never gotten anything. Even I have not been able to get an internship. We both do engineering and both have been forced to do research, but even that has been pretty difficult to come by.</p>
<p>I’ve been looking for a job since I was a Sophomore in high school. I still haven’t gotten one (and I’m a rising Junior in college). When I go looking for internships this fall, I have no idea how I’m going to swing my never-had-a-job status. No idea at all. It’s immensely frustrating, especially when my competition is so stiff.</p>
<p>As someone mentioned, in most cases it is due to partying/not taking school seriously. Unfortunately, in some cases, such as my own, it is due to going to a very poor school and/or a school that does not “fit” the student.</p>
<p>If you go to a poor school, it can be highly difficult to get an internship in the first place, and extracurricular activities, such as professional organizations relevant to your degree, may not even be available (such as was my case) that are “standard” at good schools. Furthermore, if you go to a “poor fit” (also my case), you may not be able to find activities that interest you. My school was largely both a commuter school and slacker school. I was a hard-working ambitious student living on-campus (the complete opposite of almost everyone there…always looking for the minimum to “get by” and rushing to get off campus every day).</p>
<p>I also had to deal with additional issues that required summer classes in order to graduate just a little late. I now realize that employers prefer someone who took six years to graduate over someone who took 2-3 years less and has summer internship/work experience. Wish I had knew that earlier. It’s a silly bias, but a bias nonetheless.</p>
<p>Anyway, I worked hard to accomplish whatever I could when I found the opportunity, and as a result I created a full resume, but the extracurricular and work experience are very lacking.</p>
<p>The lesson for others: Don’t go to a school that is not a “fit.” There may be reasons not to go to your “best fit,” but never go to a school that is flat-out not your style. And school prestige/reputation is very important and should never be discounted. The “you can do anything you want from any school” line that I have seen some around here try to convey is propaganda. There are always exceptions, but the entire point of getting a four-year degree is often because the odds overwhelmingly say it is necessary for long-term success, and the same is true for school reputation/prestige.</p>
<p>Alright, but even if you can’t find a prestigious internship with a big shot company, you should at least be able to find a campus job working at a coffee shop or something. I mean those jobs are literally a dime a dozen. I find it hard to believe when I see people that have never worked in a job that involved at least some customer service.</p>
<p>@ron</p>
<p>Actually, at a lot of schools, campus jobs are only available to those on work study. Then, if you are in a college town, off campus jobs are literally impossible to find. </p>
<p>That said, tbh, if you’re so great and you worked nights at jpmorgan whilst graduating with an engineering degree, good for you. Less competition. So don’t rag on all those who didn’t work - they’re practically doing you a favour. Or did you not work either and are hoping that somebody will stroke your ego and tell you that it’s fine?</p>
<p>It surprises me the number of students who don’t really get involved in anything. Like, not even an on-campus club. My roommate this last year didn’t leave the room except for meals, which he ate alone. And he did okay grade-wise, but not amazingly.</p>
<p>I know a lot of people who just didn’t seem to do anything besides class–and often they didn’t really excel there. For a lot of classes, you put in your due diligence, and it just seems like further study doesn’t help that much (i.e., diminishing marginal return). A lot of people just obsess over grades and beat themselves up, even when it’s clear that they’re trying their best and that another hour in the library just isn’t going to do anything.</p>
<p>Unless you’re pre-med or pre-law, I think it’s best to balance solid academic performance (~3.5 range) with great extracurricular and job-relevant experience. And if you intend to go for a PhD, exceptional performance in your major and research experience is probably better than obsessing over a 4.0 GPA overall.</p>
<p>Even if you’re pre-med or pre-law, it’s pretty crucial to future success for you to do more than just take classes! In my experience, on-campus involvement helps far more than just giving you a way to not be bored when you hit your studying saturation point. If you develop a passion for stuff you do on campus, you’ll be able to get onto leadership, and that is going to help your resume quite a bit! Academically, it is relatively well established that people need well-timed breaks from studying (and, later, working) in order to maximize their efficiency - it’s a lot easier to study for an hour and a half, go do something else for an hour and then come back to study for another hour and a half than it is to study for three hours straight! Plus, all of that aside, it’s tough to meet people in college if you don’t participate in anything. I don’t understand how people could truly enjoy their experiences without doing ANYTHING except go to class and study.</p>
<p>I had a real thing to say about this but the ****ing website lost the post, so I’ll say this: </p>
<p>The problem is that universities spend all four of those years encouraging you to focus on your academic career and establish a respectable record. Problem is, employers respond far better to experience and connections than they do to excellent academic careers. The degree is just a technicality, whether you graduated with high distinction or you barely made it out, it’s just a degree to a prospective employer. So those who excelled and focused end up much worse off in employabilty. In some cases even worse off than someone who went straight to work after high school.</p>
<p>I think the balance between GPA and stuff outside of school is only a problem for people who have no direction. Like, if you’re just getting good grades because people tell you to and you don’t really think about where and why you’re going, you’ll have problems after graduation just because the freedom of IRL is so much to handle for somebody could before survive without thinking. Whereas if you need a high GPA for whatever reason, then there’s no shame in forgoing other things in favour of GPA.</p>
<p>"Actually, at a lot of schools, campus jobs are only available to those on work study. Then, if you are in a college town, off campus jobs are literally impossible to find. "</p>
<p>Very true. I believe kids on financial aid and work study get priority for on-campus jobs at my school. My major (business) doesn’t really have much in terms of research compared to science majors. Off-campus jobs are also hard to find. I don’t own a car so that narrows my options for where I can get jobs considerably, since I don’t want to spend two hours a day commuting by bus/metro to a low-wage job. </p>
<p>I applied for stuff last summer (between freshman and sophomore year) and didn’t get anything, so I did summer school. I applied for stuff this summer (I start my second semester of junior year this Fall) and didn’t get anything, so I did summer school again.</p>
<p>I’m hoping I can get a decent part-time internship this Fall so I can have SOME professional experience. Otherwise I better start getting in shape because judging from the failed economic recovery, my only option is gonna be the military after college.</p>
<p>OP:
I agree, students who have nothing aren’t trying hard enough. With that said, there are plenty of awesome students who have a hard time getting what is typically thought of as professional/relevant experience. </p>
<p>Get involved on campus, join clubs. If there are no clubs, start a club…etc. There are plenty of ways to create interesting things to put on your resume (even if it’s not the types of things for which you would have hoped for). </p>
<p>Saying, “I applied and applied but couldnt get anything,” when your interviewer asks you what you’ve been doing for the past 4 years isn’t good enough. Make sure you have SOMETHING interesting your proud of…</p>
<p>“Problem is, employers respond far better to experience and connections than they do to excellent academic careers. The degree is just a technicality, whether you graduated with high distinction or you barely made it out, it’s just a degree to a prospective employer. So those who excelled and focused end up much worse off in employabilty.”</p>
<p>erm… grades are VERY important in many (most?) fields. C’s might earn degrees, but an A student is more likely to get the interview & job. But, like others have said, it is not the ONLY thing that matters. Alot of business schools give you Friday off for professional development. Students are supposed to take advantage of it but most just use it as a 3-day weekend unfortunatly.</p>