<p>Honestly, if I knew how to get around, I would. There are no buses here – you absolutely need a car, and it’s something I’m not allowed to use. Even if there were cabs, I wouldn’t be able to afford them at all right now. I’ve spent many years already working the “less than stellar” jobs to put myself through college. I wouldn’t be making this thread if I still had ideas – I was able to get myself into a top college and support myself in any way that I could while figuring out how I could cover the expenses. I’ve worked extremely, extremely hard. Any friend of mine who you could ask personally can attest to this fact – I’ve done a LOT for myself. Yet I am literally out of ideas concerning this situation.</p>
<p>If I could show up in person to interview, I would – but I can’t physically get there or afford it. It’s why I’m trying to find someone who may be willing to hire via the phone, which I know is not unheard of.</p>
<p>If you have not contacted any recruiters, find one to work with. Manpower is a good start and they have a Manpower Professional division. You need to find something even if it’s a temp contract job, to get some financial feet under you as well as some actual job experience. If you took accounting, managerial accounting, financial accounting, operational accounting, etc. make sure the recruiter knows that you have basic ledger knowledge. Unfortunately the economy is horrible and you are but one of thousands of college grads out pounding pavement. Wharton might get your big toe in some door, but it is not a ticket to a job and I fear you will find that recruiting is quite often regional and you are not “in your college’s region.” You might also consider getting a job in a restaurant. If you’ve never worked in a restaurant, you could bus or wash dishes. If you are 21, and can bar tend, you can do that. Dinner hour generally punches in late afternoon which would give you all day to do the job hunt and you’ll get a meal free or cheap everyday. My oldest did that in high school and finds a job in a day in restaurants no matter what city he’s in. Finally, frankly, I would look up all the major companies in Austin and check their individual websites, you may be able to get a paying internship with someone. We had several kids this summer who had just graduated college and some companies have interns all year 'round. If you aren’t using Indeed, start. You can put Austin, TX in it and everyday it will pop up all the latest job postings from websites, newspapers, etc. It won’t have the “hidden” jobs that aren’t posted by companies, but it should give you a long list. Lastly, find out if your college has an alumni association chapter in Austin and if you can get a contact list. If they do, send them all a very short note, tell them you’re a recent grad and tell them you are job hunting, don’t attach a resume, however. Make sure you have an e-mail address that is some approximation of your name and somewhat business-like and a working mobile phone or phone number where messages can be left. Review your resume and make sure that it clearly indicates any previous jobs, internships and skills that are applicable to the workforce over a list of “classes.” If you did a capstone project you can give that a bullet, too. Most employers are looking for “fit” so when you respond to their postings make sure you address their qualifications and support what you have done that meets those qualifications and focus on that in your cover letter or e-mail, then you can address the job description, but they are going to take your resume or dump your resume based on the job qualifications, not the job description so address every single qualification. So cover those qualifications bullet by bullet. Do not address your GPA in your resume. If they ask, tell them, but if they don’t ask, why bring it up. Hope this helps alittle. It’s brutal right now, but seriously if you aren’t putting at least a couple hours a day into the job hunt and I might suggest 20+ hours per week, you need to. Your job is to find a job. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>I’m confused…what happened to the job offer you had? Or can you call New York back and tell them your other opportunity fell through and see if they still have an opening?</p>
<p>I’ve been spending every waking moment on this job hunt - literally all day, every day. It’s driving me insane.</p>
<p>Again, I don’t mean to be an annoying broken record, but I have no means of transportation. The nearest restaurants are too far to walk to by far. I have called various places nearby, but none of them wanted to hire me because they weren’t looking to hire. They didn’t really care about anything on my resume. I also applied to over 30 commercial banks – no replies from any of them, even with one followup given to each after a week.</p>
<p>I’ll definitely try looking for Austin alumni – that sounds like a good idea.</p>
<p>ReadyToRoll: The $120K job was, as it turned out, actually a scam. When I was in Philadelphia, I went to interview with them even though I hadn’t checked them on Google first. That $120K figure was misleading for a variety of reasons – I also found out that there was no actual offer from that firm. It was all smoke and mirrors, really.</p>
<p>The $50K offer from Chicago, however, is one I addressed at the top of this page. They’ve been slow in correspondence. At one point, they had the offer extended (they said they’d get back to me in a week with details), but had to put it on hold because of some internal rearrangements. Ever since then, it’s been in limbo.</p>
<p>Oh, two last thoughts. Linkedin. Get your profile together for Linkedin and start connecting. Plus, you can research and get actual names of people within companies this way so you are not blindly sending resumes. Think of it as the Facebook of “working people.” There are also job postings on Linkedin. And finally, isn’t Dell somewhere near Austin (I know squat about Texas)…I’ve known several young people who went to school in the NE and Mid-Atlantic who went to Dell. If you haven’t, hit their website and see what they have posted.</p>
<p>If you are living with someone with a car, ask them to drop you off at the nearest bus stop on their way to work. Or bike to the nearest bus stop. You have to have SOME way to get around. I live in Austin, so I know the transportation issue is not good, but you are NOT going to find a job sitting around home. Use your problem solving skills to break that one first- how can you get to where some jobs are?</p>
<p>Remember big companies like IBM,Google,Microsoft, Xerox, etc have huge financial departments which rival some of the financial firms. Make sure you send your resume to them. They have entry level positions. </p>
<p>Obviously, the very first thing you need to work on is getting some transportation. Because that will really open up your opportunities. You have to figure that out, beause, frankly, how are you planning to get to work if you can’t even get to interviews? Take out an ad in craiglist or something “will do your taxes for transpo” or something like that.</p>
<p>anxiousmom: I’ve really, really tried, and I’ve even suggested that. The nearest bus stop would require him to go over 10 miles out of his way on the way to work. There’s literally no way I can get around. I’m not making this stuff up – I seriously have no idea how to get around.</p>
<p>I’ve applied to Dell, no response though. I’ve applied to Google and MS, but my GPA is not at all good enough – needless to say, no response. The regional banks I’ve applied to also gave no response (even with followups).</p>
<p>The best web-site I know for job hunting in [Job</a> Search | one search. all jobs. Indeed](<a href=“http://www.indeed.com%5DJob”>http://www.indeed.com) … it is a metasite that has postings from job sites (monster), professional organizations, newspapers, and companies themselves.</p>
<p>My experience as a hiring manager is similar to others on this site … we would not pay for travel to interviews for entry hires or deal with phone interviews either … there were to far too many viable candidates who could press the flesh. So I’m back to trying to brainstorm ways to get transportation to find work in Austin … is there a grandparent, favorite aunt, best friend who might be able to loan you bucks to get a car … not a 2009 big SUV … a 12 year old rust bucket clunker that starts every time you turn the key (which can be had for maybe $250)?</p>
<p>No. My family does not financially support like that. I’d have to go to friends, but that seems like a horribly awkward and beggarly can of worms to delve into, especially if I wind up not getting the job and thus without the money to pay people back.</p>
<p>I don’t even have $250 for an old clunker, let alone pay for gas (my experiences in high school taught me very well how much gas actually costs… there’s no way I could afford it here). I’m literally at a very desperate end right now in my life and I really don’t know what to do – are you absolutely sure phone hiring/relocation is out of the question? I’ve applied to so many places, placed so many calls – there are just so many variables working in the opposite direction. The crisis, the timing of the year, the GPA, the financial issues, the location – it’s all a kick in the face. I’m trying to do all I can.</p>
<p>I made some incredible friends in business school. If you did the same, then I would ask one of them who lives in a city (and has a job) if you could crash on their couch for a month while you job search. Can you afford groceries? Offer to buy them for the month for you and your friend.</p>
<p>I don’t have enough for groceries. If I could afford such a deal though, I’d definitely be doing it. Problem is, I’m over here in Austin with all my stuff – I need to be able to ship my stuff somewhere AND fly AND find work.</p>
<p>I really feel for you, but as many have said, unless you can get a car so you can drive to jobs, I don’t know what you can do. You’re going to have to figure out transportation, then get a subsistence for now job (probably more than one) in food service, a grocery store, a Wal Mart, anything that will give you enough money to feed yourself. Then you need to be looking for unpaid (or paid if possible) part time internships and reaching out to alums in your area. Without a network, you will be lost. You may feel like after Penn you deserve more than an unpaid internship, and you’re probably right, but there are students with master’s degrees out there begging for them, so you’re going to need to lower your expectations. You need contacts, especially in the business world, in order to get going. What would be even better than an internship is if you could sign up with a temp agency. THose are GREAT way to find permanent opportunities, especially if you are a hard worker and willing to apply yourself, there are temp to hire positions to be had. However, in Austin you will need transportation to get to those. </p>
<p>Once you’ve got some money coming in, either from temp job or subsistence job + internship, then you should stay focused on going out for informational interviews with alums, keep applying to big companies and cehcking the websites or think about graduate school. </p>
<p>It all boils down to, you will either need to leave Austin (which I’m guessing you can’t afford to do) or get transportation. Do you have friends that live closer to the city center that you could maybe crash on their couch for a little while while you looked for jobs and saved some money? I think if you’re only eating a few times a week, the time to be worried about awkwardness and seemingly beggarly has well passed.</p>
<p>Is there another relative you could live with? This one sounds less than supportive. Does your relative understand that without transportation you are basically paralyzed?</p>
<p>legendofmax: can you contact any of the local churches in Austin? There has got to be at least one with a community outreach program. I once belonged to a church which gave away donated cars to people in need. That was unusual, I know, but maybe you could ask a church organization for help with food at least, which would free up any remaining money you have for transportation, newspaper ads, etc. If I were you, I would pray and ask them to pray for you. Impossibility is the best condition for a miracle.</p>
<p>SmithieandProud: Right, I currently can’t afford to leave on my own. I’ve basically been spending my free time applying to as many firms/positions as I can think of. Unfortunately I don’t know anyone here in Texas other than my relative. My friend back at Penn told me that, absolute worst case scenario:</p>
<p>(5:52:50 PM) Anonymous: it’s hard when you’re under a ****ton of grey cloud, but remember the beautiful days will come again, and they’ll definitely be worth it
(5:52:57 PM) Anonymous: and ABSOLUTE WORST CASE
(5:52:58 PM) Anonymous: like
(5:53:06 PM) Anonymous: you get kicked out, no place to go etc
(5:53:13 PM) Anonymous: i’ll get everyone to pool some cash
(5:53:20 PM) Anonymous: we’ll fly you up here, and you can get an apt in philly
(5:53:28 PM) Anonymous: find a university job to pay for the housing
(5:53:39 PM) Anonymous: at least that way you’re self-sustained and can look for jobs while in a city</p>
<p>The problem is that I really don’t want to have to resort to that (and I’m not even sure if it’s even something that could be pulled off, nor would I want to ask this of them). It’d be different if I knew someone else down here in Texas, but I do not.</p>
<p>I’m definitely going to try hitting up the alum network in Austin to see if I can’t find work through that route. I’m eagerly awaiting the responses from the Career Services people at Wharton, who I just emailed today.</p>
<p>Okay - forget the bus stop - where does your family member work? Are there any places near his/her work that might have jobs? If so, get dressed neatly and go into work with relative every day. Pack a peanut butter sandwich. Throw a bike in the trunk if you have one or can borrow one. Go to work with relative, and apply at all places nearby, then get on the bike and ride around the area looking for work. Sell blood plasma if you can. visit the library and use that as your base, then head back to family member’s work and ride home with him/her. Do this daily as you persue any job leads.</p>