<p>Thanks everyone. She has taken the GRE. She is on Linked In. She definitely needs to focus as Shawbridge says on tailoring the resume every time she applies for something. Although she has had a few hits from Monster.</p>
<p>She has some ideas about what she does and does not like/want to do. In my initial post, I mentioned RAND Corporation. It actually has jobs that are designed to expose young people to lots of different things and only last a year or two. Then those people move on to grad school.</p>
<p>She also is regretting not doing engineering as an undergrad, but we let her do what she wanted, and she really wanted to study Japanese. It is really difficult to combine an Asian language and engineering.</p>
<p>Rand would be good as they’d value her technical skills, I’d guess. Has she done some programming or taken programming courses?</p>
<p>Nova, the GRE now works for some B-Schools (Harvard and Stanford I’m pretty sure). I’m guessing (but don’t follow this) that most high-end schools have followed suit or will. ShawSon took the GREs because he was unsure whether he would want to go to grad school in econ or applied math or B-School. He still is, though he may wonder about either.</p>
<p>I taught English in Japan about a thousand years ago. All you need is a bachelors. All students have taken the reading/writing portion of english for years. </p>
<p>It’s not teaching kids and often it’s one on one with people like engineers. My work was primarily working with companies assisting their employees with conversational business english skills–for example, NT&T (Nippon Telephone and Telegraph). I know others who have done it more recently through the JET program but China is probably more of a hot destination now.</p>
<p>It was a great experience and looked great on resumes. Also, the Japanese aren’t super extroverts (unless drinking) so introverts/shy isn’t likely as big an issue…</p>
<p>I suppose she’s applied to NASA Goddard Space Center for an internship/job.</p>
<p>Is she set on an engineering career? FWIW, there are voluntary internships for people with Japanese studies / Asian studies background in DC and even a position for a Japanese speaking administrative assistant in a DC law firm (search on WashingtonPost.com). I realize that these positions would be taking her in a totally different direction.</p>
<p>She has looked at teaching in Japan. Teaching professionals would probably be much more appealing than working with kids. Tempemom, did you go through a program or did you apply directly to the company? </p>
<p>She needs to get a paying job. She does not have loans, but she needs to work and get paid. She has looked at Goddard and the Applied Physics Lab, but I do not know whether she has applied. An old HS BF of mine works at Goddard. Hmmmm.</p>
<p>The law firm job sounds interesting. She was looking at patent law firms for researcher jobs. </p>
<p>Way back in 1989-90 I got the job through A NEWSPAPER AD (remember those?) in the japan times after moving with my life savings of well under $2k. And I (technically, cough cough) worked illegally…which about half the massive ex pat community and most employees at my employer did.<br>
The JET program is the most reputable but there are other programs. The reputable programs help you find housing etc.</p>
<p>Does she have any job at all right now? If not, I would encourage her to take whatever she can get even if it is just part-time at Starbucks or a retail outlet. Waiting and looking and hoping for a career-worthy option might not put any money in her pocket for a long time yet.</p>
<p>I think she’s asking the wrong question - it’s not “What grad program should I do?” but “What do I want my career to be, and do I need a graduate degree to do that career?”</p>
<p>To answer that question, she should do whatever looks interesting to her. She should apply for jobs that she’s qualified for, and that look like she may like them. Then just work. If she doesn’t like them or wants to move on/advance, apply for the next. Rinse and repeat. When she hits a wall - as in, “I want to move to THIS job next, and I want to be doing THIS thing in 10 years, but they require THIS degree” - then she’ll know what grad degree she needs to get.</p>
<p>But that may not happen in 1-2 years - it may happen in 3 or 5, or 10. I feel like 1-2 years isn’t enough time for someone who has NO idea what they want to do next. 1-2 years is for someone who knows they need/want X degree and are taking the time to prepare for it by beefing up the application a little. You need more time to discover and then prepare for apps. It sounds like your D has a lot of different ideas about a lot of different things, and 1 year isn’t going to be enough time for her to narrow it.</p>
<p>I know it sounds like a long time, but it takes a whole year just to apply for grad school, so if she wants to go even in 2 years that’s only one year for her to figure out what she wants and then she has to be ready to apply again by this time 2014. Not enough time. The worst thing to do is go get a graduate degree (and spend a lot of money) and then realize 3 years out that you really want to do something that requires a different graduate degree and you “wasted” all that money.</p>
<p>Somebody mentioned this to me: It seems that Craigslist has several listings for Japanese speakers in the Seattle area. Your daughter should be able to pickup some software languages and web construction fairly easily with her background. She might consider looking into that.</p>
<p>Most such firms from what I’ve seen and heard from friends who are hired for such language skills prefer Japanese nationals or foreigners who are not only proficient in the Japanese language, but also have been seasoned by deep cultural exposure from spending at least 2 years studying/working in Japan or equivalent experiences*. There’s also a preference for that experience to NOT be spent living/mostly socializing with fellow American/English-speaking international students in order for that time to be more culturally/linguistically immersive. </p>
<p>One friend who has been doing translation in Chinese & Japanese for nearly 30 years has been able to do so because he was born and spent the first 10 years of his life in a Chinese speaking nation, continued those Chinese language/cultural skills at home with family and school, picked up Japanese in HS & college, successfully completed the 2 year JET program in an isolated rural village school with practically no other American/international students, and then worked in Japan for 10 years before coming back to the US. </p>
<ul>
<li>4+ years of college language studies usually doesn’t qualify, especially if it is all in the US.</li>
</ul>
<p>Interships at companies are mostly used to interest those still in college in evetually working there. Once you graduate, it would seem to make more sense to be looking for a full-time job. She will probably need to work on becoming more outgoing, since that will certainly count against her in any job where she has to interact with others. Being outgoing is often a major factor in considering candidates for jobs. </p>
<p>It seems that many of the things you are asking should have been thought about while she was still in college. Did she have any part-time jobs or internships while in college?</p>
<p>Cobrat, you are correct with the language skills. Her study abroad hopes were swept away with the tsunami a couple of years ago. The math major also made study abroad complicated and it just did not work.</p>
<p>As far as thinking about things while she was in college, she did attempt to work. As mentioned earlier, she had an internship lined up that was cancelled because of the federal budget. Her first summer, she completed her year two of Japanese in a 10-credit program, so no job. Last summer, she took one class in electrical engineering and worked in retail in her college city.</p>
<p>Her other work includes lab assistant volunteer work and some work as an editorial assistant. She also was a math/physics tutor for the athletics department at her school this last year. Her junior year, she was a product placement rep ( for a huge Japanese company whose name you would all know) for her university. It is not as though she has no experience. </p>
<p>My initial query was about internships. It seems as though there are internships and there are internships. The federal government, through its Pathways program offers internships to new graduates that puts them on a fast track to go through the 5/7/9 rank or even 7/9/11 ranks fairly quickly. It is set up to train young people with technical backgrounds. Government opportunities are quite limited right now. </p>
<p>T.Rowe Price also runs an internship program for graduates in engineering and math. The program has a couple of different tracks. What my initial post was asking was about those types of internships because here are jobs that are called internships that are for grads not current students. </p>
<p>Thank you, though. You have given me some ideas for her work this week.;)</p>
<p>Our gifted (turned 17 fall of freshman year in college) son majored in math with some comp sci courses- pure, not applied, math appealed to him. Honors courses, had the credits to graduate in 3 but wisely chose 4 years to take courses beyond the minimum. Misapplied to only top grad schools and didn’t get into any. Cancelled graduation and spent the 5th year completing the comp sci major. Was able to get a software developer job at a major national player in its field- often math majors as well as comp sci majors are eligible for these. He knew his programming skills were not strong but the company obviously knew his other abilities made him worth their training. Two years later he changed jobs to an elite player in a different field- now his job designation is software engineer 1. Unfortunately he had stated he was sick of school and has no current plans for grad school. He’s only 23 so we’ll see how things play out. These days a PhD in STEM fields doesn’t always mean a job. Son is working with very smart people according to him- since he is a harsh judge I believe him.</p>
<p>Your D has an applied math degree- jobs should be out there. She may need to look beyond your area and government jobs. She should be looking at “real” jobs and not temporary jobs. Many in her field have a lot of turnover so planning to work for two years before moving on is not unusual at her age. Of course she won’t tell any prospective employers this but they don’t expect forever commitments.</p>
<p>She sounds like she needs to work first and then decide which direction to direct herself. Son’s field is filled with introverts like himself. Also- very few women, sigh. Many young adults have intentions of grad school but not immediately.</p>
<p>I am willing to divulge more specific info in a PM.</p>