<p>The LAC my daughter has chosen sends a large fraction of its graduates to the Peace Corps and the Teaching Corps (label not accurate). I mused to my wife that I wondered how much of this volunteerism is due to ethos, and how much simply a fall-back position when graduate school or jobs are not available.</p>
<p>Now I think I know.</p>
<p>OP-Thank you for sharing your experiences. It appears that the “early bird gets the worm” scenario. If a student pursues their interests through internships while IN college/during their summers, then the success ratio for a paying job/career goes up when graduation comes around.
Remember in HS how you attended different clubs, found your niche, and then became more involved? Then when you applied to college you could show a wealth of EC’s-thereby making you a more likely candidate for different colleges? This carries on into college, and the payoff is a job upon graduation.
The OP has posted some very sage advice and insight. Use his experience to assist you with yours.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to argue with you APOL, but some people are late bloomers. Keep your chin up OP, it takes some people a while to find their way.</p>
<p>
Socializing and personal growth are integral to college; months squandered while ‘wasted’ has … consequences, and no amount of obfuscation of what a ‘party school’ implies is going to help.</p>
<p>Another option to find a job is to consider changing your zip code; that is, in the job searches, put [zip code] + whole country [even consider +whole world; there’s TONS to do 'round the globe; I believe there are opps with Teach America, too, where you don’t have to come up with big bucks to do this]. You 'll get more hits. </p>
<p>Also, A benefit of going away to college - even if you ‘partied’ - is that you have already changed zipcodes. You are used to being away from home. It is a trait or attribute that you now have in you. This is not trivial. I myself went to a commuter school and stayed around the same zipcode forever, never really severed those ties. I find myself unemployed, too, now, 26 yrs after graduating, and I find the hits outside the zipcode, but I find it difficult to go there. </p>
<p>Further, OP and grads, you have already lived frugally and in the equivalent of a prison cell for four yrs and loved it. You can do anything! </p>
<p>and OP, you have a keen analytical mind with the ability to express your thoughts well in writing. Others who have gone to college have this same talent, I bet. Even if you start out being a fry cook, you can be running the place eventually, then on to the regional office etc - <em>if you want</em>. </p>
<p>OP, What did you major in at Colgate? I have a friend who went to Colgate, majored in English, and is now doing quite well doing marketing.</p>
<p>@PandoraHearts: Personally, I think you’re better off with the school that’s a better fit.</p>
<p>Why? Fit is somewhat related to the effectiveness of your alumni network. If you graduate from a school that tends to attract people you’re incompatible with, then people in the alumni network will tend to be people you’re incompatible with. This makes it less likely that other alums will be inclined to help you, in a job search or otherwise. The alumni might also gravitate towards corporate cultures which aren’t your type of environment. We talk all the time here about finding a university that’s a good “fit”. But corporations have distinct cultures, and it will eventually be important to find a workplace which is a good “fit”.</p>
<p>For example, my alumni network is of minimal use to me. The university I graduated from tended to be homogeneous and socially conservative, which isn’t my thing at all. Alums are thus prone to gravitate towards employers with similar traits. If an alum somehow got me a job at their employer, I’d probably be in a corporate culture in which I’d be ineffective and might not even be welcome.</p>
<p>sledfish thank you for sharing your experience, everything you said was on the spot. I recently went through the same experience and I learned how tough the job market is.
The truth of the matter I was humbled, just I like I am sure you have been by this whole recession. We 09 grads were grilled by this whole mess and we bore the blunt head on.
I cant tell you how many college grads my sister is currently working with at Walmart, from great schools, and my sister, still a college student is making more money than them.
The only advice I can give you is please don’t give up. That is simply to easy and I am sure the person who wrote that wise cathartic message on the top wouldn’t either. it took Edison more than a 10,000 lightbulbs till he got the first fully functioning one that can be sold and marketed. Some would look at that story and see 10,000 failures by Edison but others like you might see it as a necessary and incremental step towards success. So please the worst you could do is give up. I promise you things will get better and you will see the things you learned from this experience because I certainly have.</p>
<p>I truly wish you the best and use every resource you have. Finding a job is a job. Sending out resumes might work sometimes but nothing can beat the vis-a-vis interaction. Be proactive contact the HR departments of these companies and keep checking to see if they have opening positions and whether you can be considered. </p>
<p>I truly wish you best of luck and Bonn Courage!</p>
<p>@ComradeD: I’m sorry to hear that university was so negative for you. I can relate to what you’re saying - I too have attended universities that weren’t enjoyable or rewarding.</p>
<p>I wonder if the payoff for attending university is overblown? University attendance is correlated with increased income. However, correlation does not imply causation. People who choose to even attempt to attend university tend to be more motivated and intelligent than those who do not. They would have been more likely to succeed anyway.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Writing long papers is actually a very useful skill. There’s a shortage of people who can communicate effectively in writing.</p>
<p>For example, I won a technical writing client by submitting a research paper I’d written at university as a writing sample. The client has paid me tens of thousands of dollars to date.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree that the employment situation is less dismal for those from Top 30 schools. However, even those who did attend Top 30 schools are not immune from today’s job market. For example, please see loveduke22’s post above - Duke is a Top 30 school.</p>
<p>I could not understand what Whistleblower1 was saying by- </p>
<p>“The stranger on here who takes your advice and succeeds has his success at the expense of another who would succeed had you not posted this”</p>
<p>May be someone can explain the difference in succeeding before reading the OP’s post and after. We need more messages like the one posted by OP so kids can open their eyes and see what is going on in the world around them- how they can strive to be leaders in recreating opportunities after the corporate management moved the manufacturing out of the US. How is the country going to cope up with the unemployed factory workers with high school education and the unemployed educated who got soft degrees? The young men and women of today have to rise to the occasion and be part of creative solution. If one cannot even bear to read the OPs post how can one face the realities of life.</p>
<p>Much of what sledfish says is quite insightful. I wonder, however, whether he tried to apply for positions in other geographical areas. The willingness to relocate and/or travel may give an edge in some cases. See also the reply from roderick.</p>
<p>There are plenty of people who, like sledfish’s friends, had a laser focus on some field in college and so are on their way in their field of focus. At the same time, the lack of such focus could be spun into a potentially appealing story: that his skills, rather than focused on a particular field, are adaptable to a number of fields. Perhaps he tried this, although his post does not indicate whether he had any success with it.</p>
<p>Sledfish notes the abundance of jobs in computer science, programming and the like. This is generally true, and perhaps he should take a course or two (there are some cheap ones at community colleges, for example) so that he presents himself with both some programming and some other skills. This is not an easy path either, but it might lead somewhere, particular if he picks up one of the easier programming certifications.</p>
<p>ComradeD, you should look up for jobs in Wyoming. Housing and groceries may not be cheap but you may find some job opportunities.</p>
<p>It can be a good idea to volunteer with virtually any organization where you can use your skills and develop more skills. By working hard and being proactive by creating volunteer opportunities for yourself, you’ll meet people and will get recommendations and contacts that can lead to jobs.</p>
<p>So often, getting a job is a matter of who you know, particularly whom you know who can vouch for your work ethic and skills and who has contacts looking for reliable employees.</p>
<p>I’m fixing to go to Texas A&M for engineering, any advice? I’m honestly not entirely sure what I want to do with my life, but I’ve chosen the school that won’t send me tens of thousands of dollars in debt, so I suppose thats a good start to whatever I end up doing. I have noticed from most of the posts that getting jobs is very much about who you know, so I’m assuming it’d be a good idea to try to get as many internships as possible?</p>
<p>“So often, getting a job is a matter of who you know”</p>
<p>my find-a-job-seminar my ex company paid for me to have said 80 pct of hiring is through networking. As Nstar mom says, it is not simply a nepotistic automatic kind of networking, tho that could be a part of it (hey, familiy is 1a in your NW), a NW is EVERYONE you meet and work with, as a volunteer or not.</p>
<p>@Matt516</p>
<p>Excellent choice re. debt.</p>
<p>Yes, you have it right. Keep your GPA decent (above 3.0, above 3.5 is great). Then get as many internships as you can. Do not waste any summers. If you can’t find anything to do in your first summer because you don’t have enough credits yet, take classes. By the second summer you should be working. If you’re interest in grad school by the end, take the last summer off from work to do research under a prof (sometimes you can get some funding for this, not as much money as an internship but it’s something). </p>
<p>Also, if you’re like most other people and taking class Fall/Winter then working during the summer, start looking for a May internship in December/January. Companies will interview in early February and by March it’s usually done. You have to be ahead of the game. Drop by your career office at the university to get advice and apply for jobs. If you have family member or friends in industry, ask them for help, ask them to drop off a CV, etc. No shame in it.</p>
<p>Once you get your first internship in you will find the rest will be tremendously easier.</p>
<p>And when it comes to hiring full time, companies will always take former good interns (lesser risk) over an unknown applicant.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Edit: One other thing re. experience. I found campus jobs (even TA) are awesome, but employers were not all that impressed by anything less than full time 40+hr/week work. So they are no substitute for internships.</p>
<p>“So often, getting a job is a matter of who you know”</p>
<p>yes networking is important, but who are the people you need to know? I’ve tried emailing alumni members and getting to know them, but alot of times they dont respond, give short answers to my questions, and almost never mention their department is looking for interns or full-time positions</p>
<p>at career fairs and info sessions, i try to follow up with the person i met, but they rarely respond</p>
<p>ComradeD, why don’t you start by thinking about what it is you truly want to pursue? And then work backwards in order to destroy your current cycle of lack of direction? Then perhaps you would start to feel less resentful of your earlier lack of vision in undergrad and pave your way towards a more meaningful endeavour in whatever field interests you. It really isn’t where you go but more of what you do with your credentials. Sure connections do help but they wont make you anymore fulfilled in life if you dont take the time to sit and ask yourself what is it you truly want to do.</p>
<p>"
yes networking is important, but who are the people you need to know? I’ve tried emailing alumni members and getting to know them, but alot of times they dont respond, give short answers to my questions, and almost never mention their department is looking for interns or full-time positions</p>
<p>at career fairs and info sessions, i try to follow up with the person i met, but they rarely respond"</p>
<p>People aren’t going to want to get to know you if it just seems that you want to use them as a contact. </p>
<p>The alum, people at job fairs have no reason to keep in touch with you since it seems that you only are trying to leech off them.</p>
<p>You get to know people by becoming active in organizations – not just showing up, but joining committees, and working hard on those committees including by offering ideas, solutions and the work to implement those things.</p>
<p>Join your alumni club and interview students, help raise scholarship money, help plan social events.</p>
<p>Get involved with your place of workshop and/or your political party, and/or volunteer for a cause or nonprofit that you care about.</p>
<p>Just being a member won’t help much. By demonstrating a work ethic, leadership skills, vision, commitment, responsibility, etc. you’ll meet people who will be willing to help you in your job quest.</p>
<p>You’ll find that often the people who are in leadership position when it comes to nonprofit boards, alumni organizations, church committees, etc. are also the most successful business and professional people in town.</p>
<p>This is definitely deja-vu for me. For years, I have strongly advocated that, although liberal arts should be a good minor, most kids should major in either science, math, engineering or some vocational major such as accounting, acturarial studies, applied art or criminology, all to no avail. Few paid heed to me. </p>
<p>I also noted that if kids did major in liberal arts, they should start making job connections through internships after their sophomore year. Again, few listened to me.</p>
<p>I have also advocated attending a school with either an integrated coop program or going to a large school that has a large number of alumni for connections.</p>
<p>Let me make a third suggestion to both the OP and others. Forget trying to get a job! Think about a product or service that would be needed and start your own business! There are literally thousands of franchises offered today that are in big demand and don’t always need a lot of cash to start up.</p>
<p>For example, there is a place by me called Zips dry cleaners that cleans all garments for $1.99 a garment. They are HUGELY successful and overwhelmed all competing drycleaners. However, there are only a few locations established as of yet. This would be an amazing opportunity for the right person.</p>
<p>Although Zips might require a lot of capital, there are other franchises that are a lot less capital intensive. Find something you are passionate about. Find something that you wished were around but isn’t. As an example, someone hated changing filters for his home airconditioning and heating. He thus established a business that comes in quarterly to change filters and light bulbs and is doing well. T his business should do particularly well among the elderly population. Someone else started a dog walking business. One big business was a company called “doggie poo.” It cleans up dog and cat poop and urine because many folks find this offensive.</p>
<p>One of my sons tutored math and accounting. He has a number of people who need his services. Consider a tutoring service. If you did well on the ACT, consider a thorough ACT tutoring service that lasts a full year. Few people are doing that.</p>
<p>Frankly, both colleges and our loved ones have cursed us into thinking that getting a job is vital in life. However, if truth be known, over 75% of the multimillionaires have started a business and most of the remaining multimillionaires were professionals such as lawyers, doctors, acturaries, accountants etc.</p>
<p>Be creative and you will be both secure and rich.</p>
<p>Not to offend the OP but isn’t all of this obvious? I’m a freshman (by year, soph. by credits) in undergrad and by no means have I ever thought that I can let my grades slip or not take internships/alumni relations seriously. I attend many “networking” opportunities and have a few internship applications completed for this summer.</p>
<p>Even though I am 100% certain about my post-collegiate plans (laws school to be a lawyer–not just for career advancement), I realize contingency plans are always necessary. I want to have a strong resume straight out of college in case circumstances change and for some reason I am forced to take a few years off and get a job. Though it would not be my preference, to me it was understood from day one that undergrad was important (your grades, your activities–not fluff, but real commitments, etc.). I enjoy a social life, but never forget that I’m here to study.</p>
<p>Just because you have a college degree doesn’t mean you “deserve” a job (as many of my college grad friends think). You should work hard for your opportunities semesters before graduation, because just as in high school because those four years do count.</p>