Just landed first job out of college

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: Dissipate

didn't even check my transcripts or diploma.

They said that they discourage working after hours or on weekends.

looks like I'm on one heck of a gravy train.

keep your resume updated and ready.

 

[AlgaeEater]

Originally posted by: pulse8

Originally posted by: ironwing
A year from now one of two realities will exist: 1) the company will be out of business or 2) you'll be working your ass off and have completely forgotten this week. Each time I've started a new job the first week or two were "read this, read this, read this, and familiarize yourself with this". Then the third week rolls around and you find yourself up to your nether regions in work.

Yup. First week of a new job is like the first week of a new school year. You don't do much while you're getting up to speed, but once you hit the ground you hit it running.

That's quite an apt analogy! :thumbsup:

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: nick1985
I bet your excitement about your job will wear off in 20 years.

I plan on retiring in 20 years.

I plan on never having a typical job, sitting around in an office seems like a waste of life.

how old are you? do you have a job now? if so, what is it? if not, what is your plan?

 

[Nerva]

sounds like a posh job. they discourage work afterhours and on weekends!? man i wish my employers did that. weekends here are bonafide work time.

sounds like you should just relax, do your job.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: nick1985
I bet your excitement about your job will wear off in 20 years.

I plan on retiring in 20 years.

You and every other recent college grad.

 

[richardycc]

welcome to real world, you passed your test(4yr college), its all downhill from now on.

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: nick1985
I bet your excitement about your job will wear off in 20 years.

I plan on retiring in 20 years.

I plan on never having a typical job, sitting around in an office seems like a waste of life.

how old are you? do you have a job now? if so, what is it? if not, what is your plan?

22, working part time for my local county government doing maintenence work. Going to Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in January (If I get accepted). Not your normal career path, but I think it will suit me nicely

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: nick1985
I bet your excitement about your job will wear off in 20 years.

I plan on retiring in 20 years.

I plan on never having a typical job, sitting around in an office seems like a waste of life.

Wow. What an utterly stupid thing to say.

 

[FallenHero]

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: nick1985
I bet your excitement about your job will wear off in 20 years.

I plan on retiring in 20 years.

I plan on never having a typical job, sitting around in an office seems like a waste of life.

amen to that brother!

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: nick1985
I bet your excitement about your job will wear off in 20 years.

I plan on retiring in 20 years.

I plan on never having a typical job, sitting around in an office seems like a waste of life.

Wow. What an utterly stupid thing to say.

Awww no love? :brokenheart:

 

[oznerol]

October 2 I hit my 1 year mark with my company - I am still in the same boat you are in, Dissipate. The whole "after 1 week it ends" deal never happened for me. It all depends on the company, really - and I think moreso your personal level of dedication. There is always work to be done if you actively look for it. If not, some places let you cruise through so long as you stay under the radar.

I choose not to, partially because my job is boring, but mainly because I'm lazy. However, I am currently looking for a new job which interests me more.

So to summarize - if you get bored easily, then ask for more work. If they give you more work, do it. If you like getting paid to lounge around, then enjoy it for however long it lasts and/or until you get bored of it.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

I've been at my new job for 2 months and am just starting to get some real work on my plate. I"m getting paid $70k too.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: nick1985
I bet your excitement about your job will wear off in 20 years.

I plan on retiring in 20 years.

That's pretty tough. Try supporting yourself for another 50 years after that. Fun huh? Unless you plan on tripling your income, I don't see anyone retiring that early as an engineer.

 

[chuckywang]

Originally posted by: OneOfTheseDays
I've been at my new job for 2 months and am just starting to get some real work on my plate. I"m getting paid $70k too.

Yeah, in Cali.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: DLeRium

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: nick1985
I bet your excitement about your job will wear off in 20 years.

I plan on retiring in 20 years.

That's pretty tough. Try supporting yourself for another 50 years after that. Fun huh? Unless you plan on tripling your income, I don't see anyone retiring that early as an engineer.

QFT, it's not going to happen unless you do something very out of the ordinary like start a very successful business or something. Just do the math and you'll see for yourself. Although that could be the motivation for a career change later in life.

 

[Funyuns101]

Originally posted by: ducci
October 2 I hit my 1 year mark with my company - I am still in the same boat you are in, Dissipate. The whole "after 1 week it ends" deal never happened for me. It all depends on the company, really - and I think moreso your personal level of dedication. There is always work to be done if you actively look for it. If not, some places let you cruise through so long as you stay under the radar.

I choose not to, partially because my job is boring, but mainly because I'm lazy. However, I am currently looking for a new job which interests me more.

So to summarize - if you get bored easily, then ask for more work. If they give you more work, do it. If you like getting paid to lounge around, then enjoy it for however long it lasts and/or until you get bored of it.

Sounds just like me! Except I completed my 1 year on August 1st; however, I do occasionally ask for work but my boss has no work for me to do... I'm then instructed to go read training manuals :frown:

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: Dissipate

Originally posted by: nick1985
I bet your excitement about your job will wear off in 20 years.

I plan on retiring in 20 years.

I plan on never having a typical job, sitting around in an office seems like a waste of life.

Wow. What an utterly stupid thing to say.

no its pretty spot on.

 

[steppinthrax]

Originally posted by: Dissipate
So I landed my first job out of college, and have been at this company a week as of tomorrow. I graduated in June with a bachelor's degree in computer science.

I told my current boss who interviewed me that I had barely been exposed to MySQL and Perl, which the company uses extensively for it's web servers, but they hired me anyway. It wasn't even much of an interview. They asked me a little bit about the classes I took at my university and the rest was more of just a conversation I had with some of their software engineers. They didn't even check my transcripts or diploma.

I have done nothing for the past week except read books on Perl and MySQL. The company is paying me $52,000 a year, with stock options, a health and dental plan, 2 weeks paid vacation, a 401(k) with matching and 13 paid holidays. So essentially I have already made $1,000 just sitting and reading books.

Not only that but this place is extremely relaxed. They said that they discourage working after hours or on weekends. Also, there are no time cards. You come and go pretty much whenever you want and everyone is on salary. Their Internet access is completely open. There are no filters and I doubt that they are monitoring anything.

There are two guys that I share an office with. One of them is my boss, and the other is a marketing/sales guy(who will be moving to another suite tomorrow). The sales guy went out of the office for awhile today and then when he came back a co-worker stopped by. He told the co-worker that he had just taken a nap in is car!

Can someone explain any of this? They are paying me $1,000 a week to learn Perl and MySQL when they could probably hire some bozo with certificates for a lot less.

In any event, it looks like I'm on one heck of a gravy train. I guess it's really true, just go to college, get a piece of paper and boom, companies hire you even if you don't even know the technologies they are using.

This is very common. I to have the same problem and am having the same problem right now. I graduated in 05 with a B.S. in Computer Science. I got a job as a Systems Analyst at this hospital. I make around 50K a year and I just had a 3.5% pay increase. The 1st year I worked here was no challenge to me. Even to this day I would honestly say I'm not being challenged enough.

The deal is this, the projects you do in school and the work you do is trying to match what you possibly could be doing as a job. Your graded and tested again and again on the subject matter and it's taken seriouslly. When you go to work it's a different story. Most companies care only when the job is DONE. However way you arrive to that finished job is up to you. Your probably in the mindset that you need to be always doing something like you did when you were in college. Work is not always that situation. In fact the more specilized you become the less and less you will be doing. Management is even worse.

Your degree is more/less an understanding you boss at least knows you have WORKED with the stuff he needs from you. Your degree is looked at mainly that you have enough schooling where you can make good decisions and your reasoning sound. It dosen't necessarily mean your good at programming and such.

I would honestly say in my job in a given work day I do honestly about 2 hours of work in a given day. My boss does even less.

You will also understand in the office there are very basic office politics that go on. I.E. My co-worker boss and his boss all surf the web when we don't have shit to do. It's not right but no one will say anything even though it's a rule. But as soon as someone complains that so and so is not doing some project then your boss will start analyzing and seeing what your doing at work.

Furthermore, I'm highly likely the way your company is working is the way it will always work unless there's some change in the management structure. You might find doing very little thoughout the whole experience. I'm not planning to stay at my company. I'm currently taking MSDBA cert courses and my company is also paying for my M.S. degree. So as soon as i'm finished I'm going to try to milk some more from this place before I go somwhere else making 20 to 30K more....

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: Svnla
OP, remember these words:.................. The calm before the storm.

Just to make sure that you read/train as much as you can so when it needs be, you will be ready and make a good contribution.

OP, don't let my post scare you, but please keep it in mind.


What Svnla wrote could be true. It also may not be completely true depending on where you work. Some companies make you study for a little bit then all the sudden they expect you to reach the performance level of a programmer with 2 years experience after you are with them for 3 months. I know it sounds stupid, but it is true sometimes. Employers often forget or simply don't understand what a new college grad with a CS degree really knows. Even more importantly, they do not understand what you don't know. This happened to me. I performed the best of my abilities at my first job, but I got let go because I was unable to meet their expectations as quickly as they had hoped. It really didn't have anything to do with my effort. It was all about what I could or could not do after 3 months. It was all about how much I justified my pay check. I didn't understand that at first and it got me down because I really tried my best.

If it works out for you, then that's great! It works out for a lot of people who try their best. However, if it happens to not work out then do not let it get you down. Remember, it is your employer's responsibility to understand what is needed to fulfill their vacant position. Not yours. If they really needed a programmer with 2+ years experience to sit in that chair after 3 months and they hired you instead because they were attracted to your price or they "thought" they could invest the time it takes to train you properly and failed then that is their fault.

With that being said, let me offer you a quick tip which I wish was told to me when I first started. While this may seem obvious to many people, many graduating CS students do not know this. Learn to use Google and learn to use it well. Remember, almost all knowledge is knowing where to find the information you need. College teaches you the basics of programming which is essential but the internet has all the answers if you want to produce work that your company will deem satisfactory. A CS degree does not prepare you enough to be successful in the software industry even at a beginners level simply because what they teach you is not enough to produce work that is worth money in the modern world. Learn to use and rely on Google to answer your questions before asking your co-workers, but do not be afraid to approach them if you need help too. You will be shocked at how much code is out there for you ready to copy and paste with only a little modification needed to get what you need. If you need good websites on particular languages, ask for them here or ask your co-workers for them.


I hope this helps

 

[piasabird]

Looks at my meager check and just sighs.

 

[Delta6Echo]

Originally posted by: Dissipate
So I landed my first job out of college, and have been at this company a week as of tomorrow. I graduated in June with a bachelor's degree in computer science.

I told my current boss who interviewed me that I had barely been exposed to MySQL and Perl, which the company uses extensively for it's web servers, but they hired me anyway. It wasn't even much of an interview. They asked me a little bit about the classes I took at my university and the rest was more of just a conversation I had with some of their software engineers. They didn't even check my transcripts or diploma.

I have done nothing for the past week except read books on Perl and MySQL. The company is paying me $52,000 a year, with stock options, a health and dental plan, 2 weeks paid vacation, a 401(k) with matching and 13 paid holidays. So essentially I have already made $1,000 just sitting and reading books.

Not only that but this place is extremely relaxed. They said that they discourage working after hours or on weekends. Also, there are no time cards. You come and go pretty much whenever you want and everyone is on salary. Their Internet access is completely open. There are no filters and I doubt that they are monitoring anything.

There are two guys that I share an office with. One of them is my boss, and the other is a marketing/sales guy(who will be moving to another suite tomorrow). The sales guy went out of the office for awhile today and then when he came back a co-worker stopped by. He told the co-worker that he had just taken a nap in is car!

Can someone explain any of this? They are paying me $1,000 a week to learn Perl and MySQL when they could probably hire some bozo with certificates for a lot less.

In any event, it looks like I'm on one heck of a gravy train. I guess it's really true, just go to college, get a piece of paper and boom, companies hire you even if you don't even know the technologies they are using.

Why the fvck are you complaining? Unbeleivable. I would kill for a job like that.....

:|

 

[invidia]

I get paid $65,000 + tournament winnings a year as a professional PC gamer. I'm baffled how much money is involved in e-sports and that I'm actually getting paid for doing something I like.


I thought life was about doing things you hate just to keep on going until retirement.

 

[BarneyFife]

Originally posted by: Dissipate
So I landed my first job out of college, and have been at this company a week as of tomorrow. I graduated in June with a bachelor's degree in computer science.

I told my current boss who interviewed me that I had barely been exposed to MySQL and Perl, which the company uses extensively for it's web servers, but they hired me anyway. It wasn't even much of an interview. They asked me a little bit about the classes I took at my university and the rest was more of just a conversation I had with some of their software engineers. They didn't even check my transcripts or diploma.

I have done nothing for the past week except read books on Perl and MySQL. The company is paying me $52,000 a year, with stock options, a health and dental plan, 2 weeks paid vacation, a 401(k) with matching and 13 paid holidays. So essentially I have already made $1,000 just sitting and reading books.

Not only that but this place is extremely relaxed. They said that they discourage working after hours or on weekends. Also, there are no time cards. You come and go pretty much whenever you want and everyone is on salary. Their Internet access is completely open. There are no filters and I doubt that they are monitoring anything.

There are two guys that I share an office with. One of them is my boss, and the other is a marketing/sales guy(who will be moving to another suite tomorrow). The sales guy went out of the office for awhile today and then when he came back a co-worker stopped by. He told the co-worker that he had just taken a nap in is car!

Can someone explain any of this? They are paying me $1,000 a week to learn Perl and MySQL when they could probably hire some bozo with certificates for a lot less.

In any event, it looks like I'm on one heck of a gravy train. I guess it's really true, just go to college, get a piece of paper and boom, companies hire you even if you don't even know the technologies they are using.

My govt job is like that. I enjoy it.

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: BarneyFife

My govt job is like that. I enjoy it.

My school district job is like that too, but comparing govt jobs to the business world is like apples and oranges for one reason. One is driven by greed whose sole purpose is to make the company money and the other is to provide a service to the country, state, school system or whatever. You can slack off in a govt job and still produce quality work and people won't care since no one above you or below you has their paycheck effected by it. It's a whole different story in the business world since you are on "their" time being paid with "their" money.

...I'm glad I'm out of that. I get so much more satisfaction knowing my work helps out the kids in some small way rather than making some old guy rich. To each their own though. What makes me happy may not make other people happy.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: invidia
I get paid $65,000 + tournament winnings a year as a professional PC gamer. I'm baffled how much money is involved in e-sports and that I'm actually getting paid for doing something I like.


I thought life was about doing things you hate just to keep on going until retirement.

Who actually pays you that much to play games (aside from the tournament winnings)?

Also, of all the people who do that, I suspect very few of them actually make enough to use it as their sole source of income.