teach me how to get a job

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spidey07

No Lifer
Aug 4, 2000
65,469
5
76
Originally posted by: Mr Pickles
Lose your dignity and sense of self righteousness. It makes finding a job a lot easier.

That's funny. One's dignity, confidence and ethics (self righteousness in your words) are what make one make a pretty penny.

If you lose those you will forever be stuck in a low paying job and hating your life. A wise man once told me that your career is a garden and if you tend to it it will give great fruit.

If you just expect it to grow without any action on your part then it will die quickly in years and the soil will be forever ruined.
 

Fayd

Diamond Member
Jun 28, 2001
7,970
2
76
www.manwhoring.com
Originally posted by: duragezic
Originally posted by: Gibson486
Exactly.....people in college forget...you do not start at the top. If you want to make atleast 40k right off the bat, well, you should have chosen something like engineering or accounting. Even then, those majors are filled with dreams of making 70K right off the bat. Yes, 70K is possible, but it is NOT COMMON right out of school with a BS....

30K job = $2500 monthly income.
Your current strategy = $0 monthly income.

seems pretty obvious and easy for me, epsecially in this economy. Chase experience, not money. It's a mistake that all young people, my self included, make.
Yep. I'm not sure where you got the idea in college that it was going to be so great. It is generally accepted that salaries in some fields are much lower than others overall, and people in these fields usually accept that.

My school has job fairs in the fall and spring. One fair was all I needed for good offers (although I admit this was fall 2007). Although it is my only experience in job hunting, it seems by far the best way to go, unless you have networking contacts. You hear of so many people submitting resumes on dice, monster, etc but not many success stories. So I'd keep on the lookout for the next job fair, and in the meantime, definitely go see your university career center. It seemed at mine it was a rather underutilized place, while at the same time offered a lot of very good things for students. I personally did not use it much, but had my effort at the job fair not produce any good results, it would've been my next move.

Second is your desirability. Obviously I don't know you and I don't mean to make large assumptions, but for one I agree with some others who suggest working on your resume more. From what I've seen in general, a lot of college graduates resumes could use improvement. You could get some help on it here, and again your university career center should be great for this. Mine had advice/counselors on resumes, interviewing, job searches, etc. I went to a few of these events/presentations and got good info. Those people know what employers want. You should have been doing things like this while in school.

But to the point, take it from the point of view of somehow hiring. What do you have to offer that makes you worth $50k/yr or whatever you want? They see a degree with not the most desirable focus, and 1 year of internship experience that was not all that relevant. It's not horrible, and any internship is good, but even in a better economy it might be a tough sell for a high salary. Again, here is where you want your resume as best as possible, and your interviewing good, practiced. With what experience you have, you need to identify some key projects, situations, etc that make you more desirable than what it might initially appear.

thanks for the pointers.

I hadnt gone to the job fair when it was at the school because i was in the middle of prepping for finals. in retrospect, that was a REALLY bad move. the school is hosting another one in april, and if i havent a job by then, i'll be sure to attend. i'm looking online for other job fairs in the near future in san diego area as well.

I've scheduled to attend my school's resume guidance and interviewing guidance seminars in the coming 2 weeks. my school doesnt have scheduling for career counselors i found out, but i will be attending the drop-in advising on monday.

i dont know why i thought i could get a relatively decent salary(50k+).. now i'm just hoping i can get a livable salary. calculating it out, i'm finding it's impossible to survive on 30k a year in san diego. i want out of this house, so it has to be a decent job. i guess that's just wishful thinking.

2500/mo - 1200(place)-350(food)-?(tax)=? yeahhhhh...


WRT identifying projects, i'm having a rather tough time with that. i can talk about the financial report compilations i was doing for school districts, but the only thing i was actually doing was assembling pdf's in order and compiling them.

i can talk about sifting through pay records for all payments to an individual for purposes of building a case (the company was being sued) but it's confidential information. i'm afraid if i put down something so vague like what i just said, employers will assume i did more than i really did. 0.o

man, i really suck at talking myself up.
 

dlx22

Golden Member
Apr 19, 2006
1,285
0
0
I have a BA in econ as well, from what i've experienced so far most directly econ related jobs require at the very least a masters degree, or that you know someone on the inside.

edit: once i get better economically situated I plan on doing my own research in an economic discipline. I write down topics to address whenever I think of something good.
 

vshah

Lifer
Sep 20, 2003
19,003
24
81
you need to resume spam. i have a shit GPA in engineering (2.3?)

i probably sent out around 75 resumes to different companies, (make sure you write a cover letter). i got about 15 interviews, made it to 5 second rounds, and got 3 offers over 60k. RESUME SPAM!
 

kranky

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
21,019
156
106
Here's something else you can do now.

Find a non-profit where you can volunteer doing something related to the type of job you want. This will give you some resume food plus an opportunity to make some contacts.

But please find a place where you truly believe in what they are doing, so you might want to continue volunteering even after you get a full-time job.
 

BHeemsoth

Platinum Member
Jul 30, 2002
2,738
0
76
Originally posted by: sjwaste
Originally posted by: BHeemsoth
Originally posted by: Joemonkey
Originally posted by: BHeemsoth
Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
Give me a break. $30 k is reasonable for an entry level position that requires two years of accounting. Sorry if you live on either coast but, it beats being unemployed.

Geeze louise....$30k starting? I scoffed at offers twice that while graduating with a B.S. last year.

a BS in what?

Computer Information Systems. It's a business/CS hybrid, like MIS.

What school and where do you work now?

Bentley University. I'm a project manager at an insurance company.