Recent graduates!

[Thalassicus]

Anyone else a recent graduate, at any level of education, trying to enter the workforce?

I was in my sophomore year at college when the recession hit, so I delayed graduation with a 5-year grad degree in hopes of finishing during an upswing (compared to my original 4-year degree plan).

The 2010 US census showed only 67% of people in their 20's were employed, but at least the numbers have gradually improved since then. It's still a lousy time to graduate. I finished in May 2011 with honors from a good university, and have sent my resume to hundreds of companies, with profiles and search engines on linkedin, dice.com, career builder and so on. Even so I've received only 3 interviews and no job offers. I've been keeping my hopes up though!

Thankfully my family's doing okay, so I've been able to lean on them for support. To help with bills I've been doing low pay computer work at a local REI outdoors/backpacking store. I spend my free time keeping my programming skills sharp by basically working for free for Firaxis, writing mods to improve Civ.

The darn thing is the vast majority of jobs I see require 2+ years' professional experience... and to get professional experience you must have a job! It's a deadly catch-22.

 

[mayor]

I hope to be in 5 weeks

 

[EnDoerner]

I am about to obtain my Ph.D. in Physics (I defend my Thesis in July). In my case I have a reserved teaching position in an university in Chile, so I will not have problems searching a job, hehehe.

About your phrase : "The darn thing is the vast majority of jobs I see require at least 2-5 years' professional experience... and to get professional experience you must have a job" unfortunately that absurd happens all around the world, the companies wants always people with experience and it is really frustrating when one is looking the first job. I think that the best case (that happened to me when I ended my undergraduate studies in Physics) was to continue working where I made my professional practice (my field is medical physics, so I was resident in a hospital).

Well, I can only wish you good luck and a lot of pacience...

 

[GenMarshall]

I've graduated years ago and I don't have work. Shows how bad the economy and the job market is these days .

 

[civver_764]

An argument for keeping the retirement age low.

 

[downtown]

I graduated in 2009, and I was lucky enough to find work right off the bat. I still have several friends in the 09-11 range who either do not have work, or are very underemployed. Our generation got screwed the worst in this recession...in more ways than one.

I'd keep applying to places that are asking for at least 2 years experience though!

 

[aelf]

I was done with uni in August and my results were out in November. So far, I've done a few months of unpaid work due to a lack of options. I've applied for things that I'm well-qualified for but I've either gotten no replies or rejections. It's not a problem with how I sell myself either, since downtown had a look at a cover letter I wrote and said it was fine.

To be fair, I've only applied to about a dozen things, since I hadn't actually gotten my work permit until very recently, but still.

 

[GoodGame]

Anyone else a recent graduate, at any level of education, trying to enter the workforce?

I was in my sophomore year at college when the recession hit, so I delayed graduation with a master's in hopes of finishing during an upswing.

The census showed only 67% of people in their 20's were employed in 2010, but at least the numbers have gradually improved since then. It's still a lousy time to graduate. I finished last May with honors from a good university, and have sent my resume out hundreds of times, with profiles on linkedin, dice.com, career builder and so on. Even so I've received only 3 interviews and no job offers. I've been keeping my hopes up though!

Thankfully my family's doing okay, so I've been able to lean on them for support. To help with bills I've been doing computer work at a local REI outdoors/backpacking store. I spend my free time keeping my programming skills sharp by basically working for free for Firaxis, writing mods to improve Civ.

The darn thing is the vast majority of jobs require 2+ years' professional experience... and to get professional experience you must have a job! It's a deadly catch-22 for graduates.

I graduated with a "Professional Science Masters" degree (2 year degree) last summer after an internship. I've been looking 5-1/2 months so far for any laboratory (meaning willing to wash dishes, etc..) and I have around 8 years of professional work experience. I might have a definite offer this week though.

It really is a "hostile" environment for finding work these days, due to a combination of work being contracted overseas, slow consumer demand, and unemployment is still high (the recent Jan decrease might still reflect some holiday hiring).

All I can recommend is: 1. broaden your contact list daily through polite inquiry; 2. get saved search engine results shipped to your email in-box for a daily session of job-hunting (it's more efficient); 3. failing to find new contacts, start volunteer/looking for more internships---possibly re-enrolling in school just for the purpose of taking paid internships. And loosen salary expectations for the first year of employment at least---that will get managers willing to talk to you even if you're not their ideal candidate.

 

[Thalassicus]

I'd keep applying to places that are asking for at least 2 years experience though!

I agree completely. I've been applying to every company, even companies not offering jobs, in the hopes they might keep my resume around for future openings. It's unlikely but ya gotta try everything.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I graduated from Georgia Tech with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in December of 2010, and am still looking for my first job.

 

[Integral]

I graduated with a BA in math/econ in May 2011. Am now hiding in grad school.

 

[Luckymoose]

I've graduated years ago and I don't have work. Shows how bad the economy and the job market is these days .

That's more your own fault than the economy. Liberal Arts and not searching for employment tend to produce unemployment. I extended my own graduation by tacking on a minor, so maybe the job market will improve over my last couple of semesters.

 

[The_J]

Ouch, that sounds damn hard. Edit: That was meant @MagisterCultuum.


I currently wait that the damn beaucracy gets a bit faster and that they finish my master certificate. The thesis is already reviewed, I have no idea where the problems are.
I'm more or less finished for 4 months now, and have send out only 10 applications for a Ph.D. position yet. As my defense: My working area is a bit obscure .
I hope I get some responses next week :/.

 

[Perfection]

I hit the job market rightbefore everything fell apart (graduated spring 08) , I'm such a lucky scab.

 

[Quintillus]

Looks like I graduated at the same time as Thalassicus. I didn't have a job at the time of my graduation, but was kind of lucky in finding my current employer, who's been hiring quite a bit, and was employed within 3 months of graduation. I think I probably could have gotten an offer from my employer for my internship last summer, too - I had an interview with them, but they weren't going to make as good of an offer as my current employer. So I agree that internships are a very good idea if you still qualify - I was applying to some of them for post-graduation, too, in case a longer-term job didn't come by.

According to Excel, I applied to 39 positions this past year, some of them being at the same company. I'm pretty sure some of those preferred people with experience, but if they always insist on meeting all of their qualifications, they're going to be pretty understaffed.

 

[dido]

Graduated last May with a B.S. in Chemistry, still looking for a long term job. Right now I am just tutoring kids.