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I realize this is a long ranty, angry, and downright misogynistic post. TL;DR at the bottom.
So I finished my business/finance/economics bachelors degree last in May. I've been searching for a job since early April. I've applied or sent resumes to 20 institutions now. I've been interviewed 3 times. The first was for Charles Schwab, it was just a short phone interview. They kind of ambushed me in the middle of taking a final and I hadn't really prepared or researched, so I bombed pretty hard and didn't get a second interview. Whatever, it was pretty much my fault. The second interview was with Enterprise-Rent-A-Car, for their management trainee program. Obviously this isn't exactly my functional area of study, but my degree is still a business degree and this job was in the town I went to school in and I was desperate to be able to move back there. I researched the shit out of Enterprise and even made a huge word doc cheat sheet with answers for all the questions I was likely to be asked. When the phone interview came, I smoked the hell out of it and gave excellent responses. My interviewer seemed really pleased. Less than 24 hours later I got a rejection letter email. WTF?! Ok strike 2, I did my absolute best this time at least.
Number 3 was The Vanguard Group. I applied for a menial position taking inbound calls with account inquiries/transaction requests. It still requires a college degree, and they pay for series 7 and 63 licensing and even give you 8-10 paid weeks of full time study for those exams. Great deal! I would have been so grateful to get this job and it was one of the better offers as far as benefits/training/upward mobility goes. One of my friends from school, a Mexican girl with similar academic performance but way less work experience, told me to apply there. She managed to land a job even before graduation. Again I made a word doc from questions people posted on the internet and typed out my responses. I already knew a lot about Vanguard, as my Grandpa has been buying their mutual funds since the 80s. The phone interview came and went extremely well. The interviewer told me she was impressed with my knowledge of Vanguard. I got an in person interview last week.
I went to their campus in full business professional attire and arrived about 30 minutes early. Everyone else, including my interviewers, was more in business casual or polo+belt+slacks. Maybe I was a little overdressed. My interviewers weren't in yet, of course, but they had some periodicals to read while waiting. My first interviewer shows up 10 minutes after our scheduled appointment. She seems chipper, she's a woman in her early 30s. Our interview goes very well and she seems pleased with my responses. I have a brief case study, and do fairly well on that as well. I ask her a ton of questions about her experience working at vanguard after the interview is concluded.
I then go back out to the periodicals/HR section to wait for my second interviewer. She is about 15 minutes late. She's a white woman in her early 20s. She's in a bad mood and I can tell right off the bat. Her body language and facial expressions are particularly unwelcoming and hostile. She asks more or less the same questions and I give the same answers, but she still seems upset. She is not taking me seriously and is frankly not behaving very professionally. I keep my mouth shut, smile, and give my perky well rehearsed answers. I just get the read she wants to get rid of me as quickly as possible. I ask more questions about licensing and her experience working at Vanguard, she's a little more receptive. We take a tour of the building that lasts about 12 minutes (the first interviewer told me it was supposed to take around 30). At this point I'm already expecting not to get the job based solely on the facial expressions and body language of the second interviewer.
Today I got my rejection letter. I'm pretty pissed. All of these jobs are entry-level and paid in the range of 31k-35k. I invested so much of my time into securing this relatively crappy low paying job and they told me I'm not good enough. Just a cursory glance around the campus revealed 0 young men working there, and we saw hundreds of people. All the young people were females and all the males were 35+. Maybe I've just taken blows to my self-esteem and I'm looking for excuses here, but it seems like it's a lot harder for a man in his early 20s fresh out of college to find a job in my field than for a woman. Single, childless, young women out-earn their male counterparts by a sizable margin, after all. http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2010-09-01-single-women_N.htm Women have also historically dominated service based industries in the past few decades. In the 10 or so interviews I've had for various low-skill jobs in my life so far, I've never been interviewed by a male.
Just empirically examining the friends from my classes who've graduated with me, nearly all the females managed to secure professional employment, but only 2 of my male friends have managed. One of my close friends who I've known since elementary school has been looking since December and has had even worse luck than me, getting only 2 phone interviews and having sent out nearly 50 resumes/applications. His grades/work experience aren't quite as good as mine, but that definitely worries me.
I'm seriously regretting going to college and going into the field I chose. I just don't think I can be taken seriously as a man in my 20s from a 3rd tier university in Arizona. I was considering graduate school for a long time, and now I'm starting to reconsider it. My last job was doing supplemental instruction for international economics and for microeconomics. For a long time, my goal was to become an economics or finance professor. The model is shifting away from tenured professors and toward higher quantities of low-paid adjunct and part-time professors, so I reconsidered, as those jobs pay about as much as the jobs I've been applying for with my Bachelor's degree. I've also heard Graduate school and teaching/research assistanships can be highly exploitative. And who knows I won't be facing the same employment woes after that? I don't want to waste another 4+ years in school and not come out any more able to make money.
I'm getting desperate and a little depressed. It's been about 9 weeks since I finished school and I'm doing nothing but play sc2 and lift weights. I feel worthless and unproductive and I'm living with my mom. My confidence is shot. I don't approach girls anymore. It was so easy in college, now I'm just so ashamed at being a 22 year old sc2 playing unemployed manchild living with his mother that I can't even consider it.
I'm a relatively burly guy at 5'11 205lbs, I'm dead seriously considering a job in commercial construction, as there's a lot of opportunities for that in Arizona. I'm also of latin/black/white descent and I "fit the profile" more. My other option is to substitute teach at a public school. Both of my parents work in public schools, and from my understanding, anyone with a 4 year degree can substitute teach at a public school in most Arizona districts. I actually have relevant experience teaching too which could help. I'm not sure if I can handle kids/ de-facto babysit very well though.
Is anyone else in a similar predicament? I know TL has a lot more computer sci/engineering/real sciences majors (as in not social science), I wish I would have done one of those or just not gone to college. Maybe I should have been an electrician or plumber or something. I spent all that god damn time and money for a college education to apply for shitty jobs making in the 30ks.... except the twist is I can't get any of them.
TL;DR Can't find a job with a business/finance/economics degree. Pissed off. Suspecting employment discrimination, all females working in the entry level of financial services sector. No male friends managed to get jobs, all female friends have jobs. Might work construction (with my 4 year degree rofl) because I have Spanish skills and high level of physical fitness. I don't think it's worth the energy and anguish to apply for low level professional positions because I'm just not being taken seriously.
  
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What school? :/
My econ teacher was talking about this. He was saying that you really need a grad degree to distinguish yourself in business as as male, if you don't go to a really top tier business school. More pessimism but :/
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On July 19 2011 07:33 Froadac wrote:
What school? :/
My econ teacher was talking about this. He was saying that you really need a grad degree to distinguish yourself in business as as male, if you don't go to a really top tier business school. More pessimism but :/
Northern Arizona University (I've totally outed myself but I think there's a video of me floating around on TL already so whatever).
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It's only been 9 weeks man, I've heard of engineers spending almost a year finding jobs. Don't let it get to you, these things take time
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On July 19 2011 07:45 n.DieJokes wrote:
It's only been 9 weeks man, I've heard of engineers spending almost a year finding jobs. Don't let it get to you, these things take time
Yeah, the job search according to the ones to whom I've spoken is supposed to be hellish :x
Just keep looking! Sorry to hear about that though...
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OH. If you didn't want to out yourself :/
Sorry about that...
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Oh I forgot to mention the one offer I did manage to get: First Investors.
It's 60 hours/week, there is no salary, you do outbound cold calls to sell horribly performing mutual funds, you need to pay for your own series 7 and 63 licenses (you can borrow money from them to do this), there is no dedicated study time for this, it's commission only, and they pressure you to sell to friends/family.
It's actually possible to work for them 60 hrs/week and OWE THEM MONEY.
On July 19 2011 07:33 Froadac wrote:
What school? :/
My econ teacher was talking about this. He was saying that you really need a grad degree to distinguish yourself in business as as male, if you don't go to a really top tier business school. More pessimism but :/
This is the part that I just don't understand. Is it affirmative action? Well... their staff is 80%+ female so if they had any quotas I think they'd have already met them. Is it sort of "accidental" employment discrimination and gender role stereotypes? When people think of low level business positions like receptionists, secretaries, customer service etc., they usually think female. When they think of high level ones, they think of powerful men, but powerful middle aged men, not some 22 yo dickback out of college. Or maybe, women just perform the jobs I've been applying for better than men. Maybe a combination of all of the above.
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My friend who graduated out of Georgia Tech with an industrial engineering degree (top 3 IE programs in the nation) with some top 4 senior design project and a sicko GPA....
Works for geek squad at Best Buy... Word.
And then there are bartender friends I know who pull in +60k in Atlanta which is nice.
O yeah... never went to college. Saved that money too.
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On July 19 2011 08:14 SuperJongMan wrote:
My friend who graduated out of Georgia Tech with an industrial engineering degree (top 3 IE programs in the nation) with some top 4 senior design project and a sicko GPA....
Works for geek squad at Best Buy... Word.
That gives me the bad kind of chills. Care to elaborate what happened? How long was he looking for an engineering job?
Construction here I come! At least that pays pretty comparable to an entry level position in finance.
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I think it's just a tough time in general to get jobs right now, especially people newly out of college. Did you do any internships during college? My wife did internships throughout college and used those connections to get her first job.
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He went back to his home in Colorado. Didn't wanna travel and re-settle for a job.
Colorado has limited opportunities.... so he is doing it all over with grad school or something...
Not much to really say, smart dude but he don't give a shit... or hated what he did in school.
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Not sure if this is the case in the USA but in most countries women generally get paid less than men.
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On July 19 2011 08:24 Discretionary Duck wrote:
Not sure if this is the case in the USA but in most countries women generally get paid less than men.
Young women before their first child make more than males in many large urban areas around the world.
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United States5162 Posts
On July 19 2011 08:17 Drowsy wrote:Show nested quote +On July 19 2011 08:14 SuperJongMan wrote:
My friend who graduated out of Georgia Tech with an industrial engineering degree (top 3 IE programs in the nation) with some top 4 senior design project and a sicko GPA....
Works for geek squad at Best Buy... Word. That gives me the bad kind of chills. Care to elaborate what happened? How long was he looking for an engineering job? Construction here I come! At least that pays pretty comparable to an entry level position in finance.
I can attest to this. I graduated May 2010 with my BSCE and passed my state test. I just landed an engineering job this past June. I'm lucky, too. I didn't graduate from a top school or with a spectacular GPA. I did have an internship one summer, but the main reason(read:only) I got the job is because I've been working for a contractor(who I've known for a long time) who knew the engineer. It's always been who you know, not what you know, and that's only gotten worse in the down economy.
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man sorry to hear about it, but seriously, I've been through some job searches and sometimes it doesn't make fucking sense to me.
I'm currently studying mathematics and finance, and although I only finished second year at my university, we have co-op terms and it's quite similar to the whole job searching process (maybe easier because the university has good connections with a lot of the employers). Anyways, so my grades are not the very best, and when school was still going on, a lot of my academically successful friends landed jobs fairly easily. So as a form of self-comfort I told myself that I'll keep looking (since I have the job experience from first year working at a pretty big company, and I was recommended by a friend so...that pretty much explains itself XD).
After school's over there is approximately 2 months or so to find a co-op job on my own. I got several interviews but didn't land the jobs. Okay fine, maybe I'm doing something wrong; need to work on my interview skills, need to know the employer more, need to improve my answers to questions. So there I was working my ass off writing cover letters, looking at online recommendations, going to interview workshops, and I got slightly better.
After about another round of interviews and not hearing back from them, I got pretty pissed. I don't think there is a significant problem with the way I answer interview questions anymore, so WHAT the flying fuck! It's mostly entry-level jobs anyways with around $12/hour. I mean seriously? I'm a fucking 2nd year student, are you paying me $40/hour to produce high quality pro shit? No. Do I have the skills and some experience? Yes. Am I enthusiastic about learning new things and putting my best efforts? YES.
What I don't understand is why employers are being so fucking picky about entry-level jobs; I mean, if the guy has the necessary background studies and he is decent or good at interviews, give the guy a fucking chance. Maybe there are better candidates out there, then fine. But my personal situation is that it's the middle of the summer, and not a lot of competition in turns of Co-op students still looking for jobs. So i get these bullshit replies from employers about how their company changed their mind about hiring, or some crap about me not bringing examples of my work from my previous work experiences.
Are you for cereal? Hiring one student with $12/hr isn't going to bankrupt your company. Second of all, why the FUCK would I bring samples of my work from my previous employer IF you didn't request for it BEFORE the interview? And besides, a lot of that stuff is confidential anyways.
It's fucking bullshit. I totally understand what you are going through (your situation is probably worse than mine). It's stupid how much effort you put into something and NEVER get the result you want.
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Women also generally have higher grades than men, and network better than men. More women go to college too than men so of course on average they'll be higher paid :[
Just saying. Let's not ignore what generates these statistics ~_~
Also take it easy, job market is really difficult atm ~_~ just keep trying and you'll get it eventually. Sometimes it's not about what you could do better cause sometimes they just run into candidates that are far better than you.
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Well as a fellow business school grad, it really has a lot to do with your internships and work experience thus far. Great interviews are important but work experience is what really gets you considered. And at least in the jobs I interviewed for (granted, they're more quantitative), the interviewees are still male-dominated and for the job I ultimately accepted, the new hire class is mostly male (in my area, 5 females and around 10 males).
I will say that the more technical (as in hard skills, not pure sales) you go, the more males there are relative to females. Try developing your technical skillset in this downtime--study valuations on your own, take an unpaid internship at a wealth management firm, etc. Keep up with the markets and the news. Then keep trying. If you want to work in finance, you'll find something, though it may take awhile.
Edit: And NETWORK. Yeah I hate it but entry into business is sometimes really arbitrary. ("We have to fill a job now." "Oh really...I think I met a kid the other day who handed me his resume..." No kidding, more people have gotten jobs this way than I'd like to admit.) Hard skills make you a bit more competitive, but you need people to KNOW you have those skills.
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It's tough right now man, people can spend 1-2 years looking for a work with no luck. You just can't get discouraged and attack it as hard as you can, eventually you'll get the right interviewer in the right mood at the right company, it just takes time. Companies are still squeezing as much productivity as they can out of their current employees but with revenues increasing they're eventually going to have to hire more people. Stay positive!
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On July 19 2011 08:14 SuperJongMan wrote:
My friend who graduated out of Georgia Tech with an industrial engineering degree (top 3 IE programs in the nation) with some top 4 senior design project and a sicko GPA....
Works for geek squad at Best Buy... Word.
And then there are bartender friends I know who pull in +60k in Atlanta which is nice.
O yeah... never went to college. Saved that money too.
CRAP..I'm also doing industrial engineering at Texas A&M University(Number 8 in the nation tied with ivy league school Cornell University)but my gpa is CRAP lol. But I wouldn't mind travelling as long as It will pay for my living expenses. But now I'm worried as heck after hearing this..
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On July 19 2011 08:14 SuperJongMan wrote:
My friend who graduated out of Georgia Tech with an industrial engineering degree (top 3 IE programs in the nation) with some top 4 senior design project and a sicko GPA....
Works for geek squad at Best Buy... Word.
And then there are bartender friends I know who pull in +60k in Atlanta which is nice.
O yeah... never went to college. Saved that money too.
Oh boy, that sucks :/
Funny how these things work. One of my friends has shit GPA but manages to find a job, while I have quite decent GPA but I can't. Bullshit
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20 applications from b-school? I'm not very sure since I'm not a b-school student, but that seems low. Every one of my friends that graduated from business school were printing resumes like mad, at the very least in the 30s range.
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16992 Posts
Yeah, twenty applications seems pretty low. Have you checked your school's e-recruiting website? Pretty much send a resume to every single firm you can that remotely matches your interest/degree. I'm talking about 50-100+ here.
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On July 19 2011 09:01 twelveapm wrote:
Well as a fellow business school grad, it really has a lot to do with your internships and work experience thus far. Great interviews are important but work experience is what really gets you considered. And at least in the jobs I interviewed for (granted, they're more quantitative), the interviewees are still male-dominated and for the job I ultimately accepted, the new hire class is mostly male (in my area, 5 females and around 10 males).
I will say that the more technical (as in hard skills, not pure sales) you go, the more males there are relative to females. Try developing your technical skillset in this downtime--study valuations on your own, take an unpaid internship at a wealth management firm, etc. Keep up with the markets and the news. Then keep trying. If you want to work in finance, you'll find something, though it may take awhile.
Edit: And NETWORK. Yeah I hate it but entry into business is sometimes really arbitrary. ("We have to fill a job now." "Oh really...I think I met a kid the other day who handed me his resume..." No kidding, more people have gotten jobs this way than I'd like to admit.) Hard skills make you a bit more competitive, but you need people to KNOW you have those skills.
The internship opportunities I had were monstrously competitive. There was one with Edward Jones that had 300 applicants for 2 positions, 1 in Phoenix and 1 in Flagstaff. I had another was actually invited to apply for with the founder of my business school's private equity firm, it was paid too and there were 10 applicants and 2 positions (1 in Phoenix, 1 in Singapore). They were all way better than me, to put it bluntly. I still interviewed just for practice, knowing I wouldn't get it. I only have a 3.63 and I was competing against 4.0 president's of honors societies and MBA students. I was only selected because I was one of the few people to get a very high score on an econometrics exam.
I think an unpaid internship might be my way in, just offering to fetch coffee and take out the trash in exchange for mentoring and experience might be worth it.
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I've heard that if you're unemployed, you need to make finding a job your full-time job. Look up openings, target your resume and cover letter for the specific jobs and keep on going. It's really tough and it sucks until you find one, but you'll get one eventually, it's not like 9 weeks is that much if you don't have to pay rent and utilities and all that.
It'll feel REALLY when you do land something though!
I'll also suggest that there likely isn't any discrimination. Women tend to focus more on schooling and get better GPAs. They also tend to plan ahead way better, which really helps them out. I mean, I know that some companies have their job fair for September 2012 early in the Fall semester. Starting in April puts you behind in the game and it's possible that they spent even longer than you looking for a job, but they also started way earlier than you.
Not getting a job after 3 interviews isn't really indicative of discrimination, that's a ridiculously small sample size. It's possible that you don't interview as well as you think you do, or that you come off desperate or cocky/arrogant. Try your school to see if they have anyone who can take a look at how you interview.
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On July 19 2011 09:52 Empyrean wrote:
Yeah, twenty applications seems pretty low. Have you checked your school's e-recruiting website? Pretty much send a resume to every single firm you can that remotely matches your interest/degree. I'm talking about 50-100+ here.
My school's e-recruiting website is very unregulated and has a lot of horrible scams. That's where I got the First Investors offer. I did a full count from my outbox and came up with 26 + a handful of applications through websites, which means I do need to send out a lot more. I've been going exclusively toward finance/banks/retail, I should probably explore some opportunities in insurance. Substitute teaching might not be a horrible plan as a temporary thing though while I search, I'm good at it and have very relevant experience with it. It would actually pay more/as much as many entry level finance positions.
On July 19 2011 11:00 goldrush wrote:
Not getting a job after 3 interviews isn't really indicative of discrimination, that's a ridiculously small sample size. It's possible that you don't interview as well as you think you do, or that you come off desperate or cocky/arrogant. Try your school to see if they have anyone who can take a look at how you interview.
It wasn't so much the number of interviews or not getting the jobs, but the composition of the people working there that made me wonder. When only a little less than half of your classmates from finance/economics were male, but 80+% of the people you saw at Vanguard are female and you notice that there's literally nobody from your demographic working there, you have to wonder just a little bit. I mean if you come across 300-400 people in the few hours you spent there and the gender/ethnic breakdown seems off, there's a good chance something is up. It doesn't quite add up, but I can't speak for any of the other firms as I haven't been there and spent a few hours in their buildings. I guess when I mentioned discrimination, I specifically meant Vanguard.
I would be entirely un-surprised if I came of as desperate and anxious, because if I wasn't, I wouldn't have made this blog.
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On July 19 2011 10:58 Drowsy wrote:
I think an unpaid internship might be my way in, just offering to fetch coffee and take out the trash in exchange for mentoring and experience might be worth it.
Yeah it sounds shitty but most people usually do at least 1 unpaid internship just for the experience and contacts. They usually do elevate you to the point where you can make spreadsheets, of client returns or whatnot. (Hurray, I know.) Your expenses should be pretty low though, since you live at home, so the pros outweigh the cons. Then just keep your resume up-to-date (and get a peer to review it) and spam it out. Good luck!
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Dude fix your resume, if you're only getting that many interviews... it means your resume needs work.
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Yeah I looked for a job for a year and moved back home and now I just work on our family's farm.
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On July 19 2011 12:05 twelveapm wrote:Show nested quote +On July 19 2011 10:58 Drowsy wrote:
I think an unpaid internship might be my way in, just offering to fetch coffee and take out the trash in exchange for mentoring and experience might be worth it.
Then just keep your resume up-to-date (and get a peer to review it) and spam it out. Good luck!
That reminds me of one more thing. I've been doing individualized cover letters for pretty much every job I've applied for that was a salaried as opposed to hourly position. Is this good or should I not worry about it and just go for volume? I've written 11 so far.
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On July 19 2011 13:02 Drowsy wrote:
That reminds me of one more thing. I've been doing individualized cover letters for pretty much every job I've applied for that was a salaried as opposed to hourly position. Is this good or should I not worry about it and just go for volume? I've written 11 so far.
Well it depends on what you call "individualized." Ideally you want a good ratio of quality to quantity: let each employer know that you looked into their company but at the same time be able to apply to a lot of jobs at once.
Thus I would recommend having a cover letter with a few "moving parts": a 1st paragraph about each job/company that is specific and personal (from scratch per position), a 2nd paragraph that is one of a few stock paragraphs about interests/background/qualifications (switch out based on what type of position it is--accounting, sales, assistant, whatever--and of course making changes as necessary), and then a 3rd that is the "I would love to discuss this further, looking forward to hearing from you" stuff.
Honestly though, cover letters don't matter too much: you should have them for positions that require it, but they can really only hurt you (e.g. you forget to change a company name in a template cover letter and send it). A recruiter for a big bank told me straight out she never reads them. Probably the smaller you go, the more important it is, but even then a resume+interview+connections should be your focus.
When I mean "spam it out" though, I mean for positions that only require a resume drop. There is no excuse why you shouldn't be applying to those. (Unless you have a "why I am suited for this job" section in your resume, but you shouldn't, really.)
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On July 19 2011 09:52 Empyrean wrote:
Yeah, twenty applications seems pretty low. Have you checked your school's e-recruiting website? Pretty much send a resume to every single firm you can that remotely matches your interest/degree. I'm talking about 50-100+ here.
I agree, 20 is very low.
Think about it, there were probably around 100 people finishing with this degree from your university and there is only a finite number of jobs open, so for every application you send, there are 99 other applications in their inbox from the same university plus a lot of other applications from other universities, older applications, etc. Lots of them are better qualified than you are.
You really need to send out a lot more to even have a chance. With about a hundred sent and fruitless applications in the span of 3 month you can start to complain, below that it's only your fault for not sending enough applications.
Job market is tough, especially if you focus on a too small area and are not willing to move.
On the topic of individualized vs mass mail: Individualized is the way to go. You can keep many parts static, but don't just replace the name. Searching a job is a full-time job, spend 8 hours a day preparing and sending applications and you don't have to worry about the individualizing so much, you can still send 10 applications a day.
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Speaking as someone in high finance, if given the choice between a just-out-of-school woman and a just-out-of-school man I would choose the woman.
Frankly I'd choose neither since they're pretty useless, but women are slightly less so straight out of school.
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On July 19 2011 23:11 Morfildur wrote:Show nested quote +On July 19 2011 09:52 Empyrean wrote:
Yeah, twenty applications seems pretty low. Have you checked your school's e-recruiting website? Pretty much send a resume to every single firm you can that remotely matches your interest/degree. I'm talking about 50-100+ here. I agree, 20 is very low. Think about it, there were probably around 100 people finishing with this degree from your university and there is only a finite number of jobs open, so for every application you send, there are 99 other applications in their inbox from the same university plus a lot of other applications from other universities, older applications, etc. Lots of them are better qualified than you are. You really need to send out a lot more to even have a chance. With about a hundred sent and fruitless applications in the span of 3 month you can start to complain, below that it's only your fault for not sending enough applications. Job market is tough, especially if you focus on a too small area and are not willing to move. On the topic of individualized vs mass mail: Individualized is the way to go. You can keep many parts static, but don't just replace the name. Searching a job is a full-time job, spend 8 hours a day preparing and sending applications and you don't have to worry about the individualizing so much, you can still send 10 applications a day.
Very much this. I'm doing a job search in the legal field which, like every other industry, is kind of screwed right now.It shouldn't take much more than 30 mintutes to and hour to draft a cover letter from scratch. That time can be reduced if you have a dozen or so stock paragraphs, each one focusing on particular attributes of your resume that highlight your individual strengths/skills/experience/education. For each employer, surf their website for a bit to try to determine the kind of person they're looking for (it probably has an indiciation in the job description), and use the stock paragraphs that relate to those characteristics. Mold the stock paragraphs to show a bit of personalization, and use and introductory and closing paragraph that are tailored to the company, written from scratch for each letter. You should be able to bang out 1, maybe 2, per hour.
20 applications/cover letters is a good start, but it's just a start. Real job hunting is quite a lot harder than high school/college job hunting (where you're seeking positions like retail/restaurant/construction where there's lots of turnover and someone with an education is an exception, rather than the norm). Keep at it, though. I know older friends who graduated from law school and bought envelopes and paper in bulk so that they could mail things to every District Court judge in the state in an attempt to get a clerkship. In an economy as poor as we have right now, volume might be a little more important that it has been historically.
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I can somewhat relate to this, and my story leads to eventual success, so hopefully it'll help.
After I finished 3rd year of my undergraduate program in infrastructure engineering, I looked for a full-year co-op position to get myself some cool experience. All but 3 (out of 19) people in my program (same year) opted to do the same. Out of that 16 that looked for co-op positions, there were 5 female and 11 male (yes I know, for an engineering program, our ratio was pretty good). All 5 girls got a position, some of them were ones I was also interviewed for. Out of 11 male, 7 got a job. Other four of us, including myself, had no choice but to scrap the co-op plans and go straight into 4th year.
As you can imagine, I was pretty pissed. I out-performed most of those people (girls and guys) in terms of GPA, and also I had vastly superior experience through previous summer research and part-time research opportunities. I had connections with two of the leading professors in the field of transportation engineering in Canada. I speak English fluently and I researched+practiced for my interviews like crazy. I still do think that sex played a factor here.
I chugged along in 4th year, GPA dropped a bit, graduated with still decent grades but no co-op experience. Since the exams ended in April, I went into full-time job hunting mode for jobs in my field. I sent resumes to pretty much all relevant firms in Canada and some in the states too. As a result, I got ZERO interviews. Not even a phone call. A couple automated-reply-received-application emails. ZERO interviews. By this point I'm thinking, on top of sexism, there might be racism being played (because my last name reveals that I'm of Asian descent). All sorts of negative thoughts. Waking up every morning knowing you have no future is not an easy feeling.
Then I get connected to an interview. It was like 6-times linked connection through my family and someone else's family and blablabla, but my name did get through and my resume did get reviewed. Funny how this same firm didn't respond to any of my 4 applications (different positions) I submitted online earlier. I got an email for an interview - a position I was vastly under-qualified for - and I knew that this was my only chance anyway. Research and practice followed, obviously, both against the mirror and my poor sister who had to listen to me blab about how great and motivated I am. I dressed in full business attire and was interviewed for an hour by three people in polo shirts and slacks. Oh well, better overdressed than under. Notification for second interview came, this time at a different office location, and again there was an hour of talk and then an hour of case study + report writing. I didn't expect and prepare for the case study, but I did the best I could.
Skipping to the end, here I am at my cubicle. Yes I'm browsing TL hehehe but the work I do here is pretty much exactly what I wanted to do, I'm at the firm I wanted to be at, and although work stress kicks in time to time, I feel like my life is on the right track.
So don't give up, OP! Seems like you know exactly what you want to do and you prepare well for your interviews. I'd say quality over quantity, so take time to writing really convincing cover letters and fine-tuning your resume to each position - but most importantly search out your network of connections and look for ways you can be directly referred to. There will be an opportunity for you soon (perhaps unexpected) and as long as you keep up the same confidence and effort, you will be able to seize it. Good luck! =)
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Did my four years of college towards a degree. I'm now 23, having been looking for a job the past 2 years. Unemployed, I play SC2 all day, continuously contemplating making a name for myself in freelancing or an entrepreneurial attempt. Let's be friends.
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Welcome to the life of EVERY bachelors degree holder.
It's not what you know it's WHO you know. Of everything I did in university, networking was the most important by far.
Keep at it, once you get your foot in the door somewhere, you should be fine.
It's not unusual to spend 6 months or so job hunting. Most companies have reservations about hiring someone who is unemployed. It would look better if you were doing SOMETHING, anything at all. The reality of the workforce these days is that very few people spend their entire careers in the same field.
I started out as an organic chemist (with a bio degree), did IT work, and now I'm a health care business analyst.
Just keep at it, widen your focus, and get money.
First you get the money
Then you get the power
Then you get the weeeemin.
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My girlfriend has as much work experience as you can have at 23 years old having worked for major magazines and universities, she got honours with distinction and was the top of her class in undergrad in political science, graduated near the top of her class in her masters of Public Policy (2 year graduate program focusing in economics and policy), and even she can't find a job (and nor can anyone else in her graduate program despite its good reputation). The sectors she is looking at is public, or private relating to government, and at least in British Columbia there is absolutely nothing available (a hiring freeze in government, and private companies just aren't hiring for whatever reason).
Currently she does part-time babysitting and has been for a few months. (she hates this joke, but when people ask what she is doing I tell them that she is working on her masters of Child Rearing)
So you're not the only one, and its not like all educated women have jobs. You should figure out when the primary hiring cycles are for the various sectors that you're trying to break into. I know that many of the big firms in Western Canada have a large hiring cycle in around September, so thats what she is holding out hope for. Perhaps it is something similar for you?
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I feel your pain. I graduated in May of 2010 and still am jobless. I've applied to probably a 1000 jobs or so and gotten I think 5 interviews so far. I apply to everything related to broadcast journalism and still not had any luck. I've applied just about everywhere in the country. I've applied overseas as well.
The job market sucks right now. I'm trying to stay positive and just keep on looking. I can't even get a part-time job right now since apparently I'm "over-qualified" and all that crap. Apply to anything and everything, the shotgun approach is probably the best way to go after things at this point. With the rumors of a second recession on the horizon, it may be the only option in a couple months. Good luck.
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EPT
