Year or two between undergrad and grad school

Parent Cafe
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<p>Not to hover too much, but DD has graduated from college and plans to go to graduate school in a year or two. This kid has always been good at everything and though that is a great problem to have, she is struggling with what to do now. She majored in applied math and has minors in physics and Japanese and completed a certificate in Asian studies.</p>

<p>She has been applying for jobs and as had a few nibbles. My question is this: do any of you know of internships that would help a young person kind of figure out what degree she should pursue in grad school? She thinks that she wants to do electrical or mechanical engineering, but she would like to work in the field a bit.</p>

<p>She is applying for Pathways with the govt. and we know about Rand’s internships. Any other ideas?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

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<p>I don’t but do they not have those programs anymore in school that give you a good idea of what kind of career you’d like/fit well with? </p>

<p>Back in the olden days we took a long test and then it said things like you’d be good as a reporter or tax specialist etc. It ranked maybe 100 jobs from most like you to least …and that gave a starting point (“OH! I never thought of that!”) and some specifics. I did not in fact become a reporter or an internal revenue auditor but I did become a lawyer…so I think they weren’t far off on their analysis. </p>

<p>Foriegn services maybe?</p>

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<p>Our daughter did a two year Peace Corps appointment. She had a friend who did americorps. </p>

<p>I wonder if your daughter could get a job in an engineering firm as a “gopher”. My husband’s old hired young people to do,things like copying, filing, and general clerical work. But they also,we’re sometimes tasked to one of the engineers for work specific to a job (organizational…not engineering).</p>

<p>If you have friend’s who work in engineering firms ask them. These types of jobs usually go to relatives or friends of workers. Availability is by word of mouth within the firm.</p>

<p>If she is interested in working abroad, she might see if there are any NGO’s who might be interested in her.</p>

<p>Foreign service appointments require the taking of the foreign service exam and are not internships…but are government jobs. They are highly competitive.</p>

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<p>Thanks. She has decided against foreign service corps and has no interest in inPeace Corps or Americorps. She is an introvert and has little interest in working with people! Nothing like me.</p>

<p>The test may be a good start. I work at a community college and I might be able to get someone to let her take the test.</p>

<p>We are doing lots of brainstorming and her resume has been handcarried lots of places. The govt standstill is really mucking up the works for this kid.</p>

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<p>Thumper, yes I hear the exam is rigorous but I know a couple of women who are in the FS and was just brainstorming future career paths that might fit. (smile)</p>

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<p>Almost every kind of internship I can think of will require working with people…especially in a field with which your daughter has little training or expertise. She would need to interact to become familiar with the field.</p>

<p>Engineering requires working with others. It is not a solitary pursuit.</p>

<p>I guess I’m now confused. What exactly is she looking for!</p>

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<p>Foreign Service would be a very good fit for this kid and she did look into taking the exam, which I think is administered just once a year.</p>

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<p>She shouldn’t go to graduate school to figure out her potential career. Did your daughter work at all during summers in undergrad? If not, that was mistake number 1. She should be looking for a full time job now rather than an internship. Forget the gopher positions as those aren’t going to teach you anything and really aren’t suitable for her level.</p>

<p>What has the career placement office at her college suggested? Personally, I wouldn’t be looking at the govt now because of their limited budgets. What types of jobs do applied math majors do? Can she program? The time to apply for jobs was in Sept of last year (mistake #2). </p>

<p>For what it’s worth, my nephew did the same thing and was mystified when he didn’t have a job coming out of a prestigious school with high GPA in engineering. Eventually he found a job but it took a long time once he was outside of the college placement hiring calendar.</p>

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<p>This is horribly backwards. She should figure out what she wants to do, then consider if grad school is way to pursue it.</p>

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<p>Thumper, had to look up NGO. That sounds like a good thing for her to look at.</p>

<p>Thanks Chris. What she couda, shoulda, woulda done isn’t really the topic. Her school did not offer much guidance for her major. She is a bit different.</p>

<p>This kid had an internship lined up two summers ago with the government and the boys in DC cut the money. A company stepped forward with a job and she was tentatively hired, only to have that fall through because of a hitch with her clearance (dad who holds clearance was not born in this country). </p>

<p>She volunteered in a lab at Hopkins one summer. She has also done some mathematical modeling work at her university.</p>

<p>She just found out that she was not hired for a job that she applied for early in the year. This definitely is a learning process for a kid who has usually gotten everything she applied for.</p>

<p>She is not going to grad school for at least a year or two.</p>

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<p>She is applied maths, introvert, not doing grad studies! OK, ask her to take some computer science courses (programming which are in demand) such as JAVA, JAVA script, etc. The best job for an introvert is programming job. Highly paid. If she like4s it, she can do MS in computers Science. Yes, she doesn’t need BS in Comp science to do MS.</p>

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<p>Has she considered NSA in Maryland or contractors who work with NSA? They hire many math majors.</p>

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<p>She should be able to find something that takes advantage of her quantitative skills and language/area studies. How about the CIA? A Japanese company in the US or Japan? Would she consider taking a job in Asia? Lots of people get jobs teaching English in Asia, although it sounds like that would not be her thing.</p>

<p>I think she should be looking for a “real” job, not an interim job, since she doesn’t have a burning interest in one academic field that would lead her to grad school in that subject. Who knows: she may end up going the MBA route if she finds a quant role in business.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the suggestions. She does have multiple apps in for govt. jobs, but as has been noted, not much is happening there. She kind of focused on govt. jobs because we ( well really hubby) have many contacts.</p>

<p>There are quite a lot of analyst jobs. She would like something that would expose her to engineering, but she has always been so good at looking at the big picture and figuring out how things go together that analyst jobs make sense whether they are in business or intelligence. </p>

<p>Thank you for the suggestion about looking for a real job, not an interim job. We are pushing for any job that will get her some relevant experience.</p>

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<p>How about contacting a Japanese embassy and see what if anything they can recommend? Any firm doing business with Japan could use her language skills (assume she speaks and reads Japanese). Govt jobs might be hard to find with sequester. Private contractors doing business with Japan might be interested. How about spending a year over in Japan teaching?</p>

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<p>The career center at her college should be able to give her online access to the career exploration assessments mentioned earlier. I found them to be a waste of time and the tests recommended careers that I had no interest in. On the other hand, the process of thinking through the questions can be useful (i.e., interested in working with people or not).</p>

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<p>My instinct on this is to use the assets she brings to get a job that challenges her. I suspect the suggestion of building on applied math/physics and a good brain by taking a couple of programming courses and then getting a job doing that – maybe in a place that values the math skills (bioinformatics, hedge fund, big data analysis, etc.). She’ll learn more by doing about what she likes and dislikes than in lots of internships (even if they were available).</p>

<p>I don’t know how the Japanese fits in. Western firms will want folks who speak Japanese but that is often more in a sales or support function (not likely to fit your D). Japanese firms maybe would be happy with Americans who speak Japanese, but again I don’t know if they would integrate them into more technical functions.</p>

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<p>How about a few business courses or an internship at a financial firm for actuarial work? This is why I worked full-time to get an idea of what I wanted to do before going to college.</p>

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<p>Is she applying for jobs correctly?</p>

<p>Many larger engineering companies use computers to pick the first round of applications to look at.</p>

<p>There is a description of the job opening on line. An applicant MUST use as many of the key words that the job position states in their application as possible. The computer picks the applications with the most hits. These are sent on and the person hiring probably picks 20 or so of these and interviews maybe 10 of these.</p>

<p>Find a job in a company that will pay for continued schooling. That way she can build up her retirement, savings and experience.</p>

<p>Most engineering companies don’t like to see more than a two year gap.</p>

<p>Also she should have her resume on linked in and find a head hunter who might help her.</p>

<p>Has she taken her GRE yet? If she has nothing to do she can study up and get this done.</p>

<p>Apply to as many jobs as possible and take a reasonable offer. Always moving forward by learning your likes and dislikes.</p>

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<p>I think now would be a good time for her to break out of her comfort zone and try jobs that will help build upon areas she may struggle or be uncomfortable with. You say she is an introvert - I assume you mean shy, or prefers solitary activities/jobs? But in order to succeed, today’s businesses are less about what you know (the resume, cover letter, GPA, etc.) and more about who you know (networking). </p>

<p>It sounds as though she was hoping to feed off of your husbands connections, but she also needs to start building her own. That will require good communication and people skills, teamwork and building long-term relationships, and becoming more comfortable and confident in such settings. She should look for work that will challenge her and build upon these skills while also utilizing the skill set she already has. Employees feel most engaged when performing meaningful and challenging work. It helps them to grow personally and professionally. She sounds like a go-getter, so why not keep trying to build on things she hasn’t yet mastered, even if the thought makes her uncomfortable at first?</p>

<p>I am not saying to put her in front of a classroom if she hates attention and make her teach everyday for a year. But jobs that might involve giving presentations at meetings, working in small teams rather than alone, etc. can be a start for someone who cringes at the thought of such things (if she does - again, I don’t know how you were defining introversion as it’s a commonly misunderstood term). Then when she’s strengthened these skills and developed a large, diverse network, she can go in any direction and know people that can help get her there. </p>

<p>I don’t think she should be thinking, “I want to go to graduate school, but for what?” Graduate school is a means to an end, not a place to explore interests like undergrad may be for many people. She should be thinking, “How do I utilize my knowledge and skill set to perform meaningful work?” …and once she knows what she wants to do, ask, “Do I require a graduate degree to obtain such a position?” If the answer is no, then she may be just as successful, or maybe more successful, without graduate school for her particular field. If the answer is yes, then she’ll already know exactly what programs she’s looking for. But right now graduate school should be the last thing on her mind, and finding suitable employment (not an internship) should be the focus. </p>

<p>Also, to comment on sax’s response, I would not be studying for the GRE at this time. If she would decide to go the route of business, some programs prefer, or will only accept, the GMAT. It is time consuming and expensive to do both. I would wait until she has a clearer idea of her goals to determine which test (if any) is most relevant. It wouldn’t hurt to study some of the vocabulary aspect as that would be useful for both, but wait until she knows which test, or whether graduate school is even necessary, before investing time and money in study manuals and courses.</p>