|
On March 21 2012 04:40 pigmanbear wrote:Show nested quote +On March 21 2012 00:52 TheToast wrote: The few interviews I've had, when I tell the person that I'm just 6 months out of college they always give me this odd sideways glance. What? Is that a bad thing? Fuck you! Yea, it is a bad thing. Especially so if your only job was on campus. Sorry, that's just the way it works. You've gotta land that first gig and it's gravy from there. Let me tell you something about the IT guys lining up for every job with ten years of experience: 80-90% of them are shit and don't know HTTP from their asscrack. They are mass applying to jobs in the hope that they can trick someone into hiring them and paying them for a year. Don't worry about those guys. Figure out why they're not hiring you (sounds like you have no real working world experience) and fix it. If you want to be helping people with computer problems, run around town fixing folks' computers at a decent rate. Try and get a job on the geek squad. Or whatever. It doesn't really matter, but I think you know what is getting in your way, and it's not the economy. Right now there are more IT jobs open than there are quality candidates.
I'm well aware about how incompetent the vast majority of IT guys are. I remember working with one guy who would go on about how he had been doing IT since like 1985--except his knowledge of technology ended at about 1992. He had a vast knowledge of PC hardware in 1989 but couldn't hook up a KVM switch, seriously.
I actually have pretty good work experience. As I said, while working for the university system they let me work on and run a few big projects (mostly because they were understaffed and there was no one else to do it but w/e); completely made up for the crap pay.
While my current job is crap and I do nothing all day, it is with the engineering department of a pretty major heavy equipment manufacturer. It's not the area I want to go into obviously, but I think it looks a lot better on a resume than working for Best Buy.
|
your school job experience should be pretty valuable. It does sound like its just your area that is lacking in job openings. Around where I live ( Wash DC), there are tons of job openings in the IT/CS field. I went to 3 interviews straight out of college with absolutely no job experience and was able to land job offers for all 3 of them. Now my field is Software Development so it is a little bit more in demand but IT shouldn't be that hard.
Your current job sounds terrible tho, sure doing nothing all day sounds easy but only when ur like 50 or older and have stopped caring. When you are just out of college that is mindnumbingly boring and you need to learn as much as you can to further your career.
Anyway I hope things pick up for you man, keep trying and looking, I'm sure something will turn up .
|
Yeah, when people talk about the low unemployment in the IT field, they are generally referring to software development jobs. There is a huge demand for software developers right now. I've seen a lot of places that want people who can do both IT and software development, which I'm sure is only going to result in hiring a person who is not very good at either.
And thanks, I'm pretty resolved to keep at it just needed to vent some frusteration.
|
Yep, web programming is in very high demand right now. Knowing how to make a server talk to a webpage reliably, and using acceptable patterns, is a very valuable thing to know how to do these days. Many good opportunities are even entirely remote so you do not have to relocate.
|
Just out of curiosity, why did you opt for the Liberal Arts degree instead of something with IT? I don't know which college you went to, but even a basic state college should have a generic Computer Science program. Or Computer Information Science, or even plain Engineering.
Yea, contract jobs aren't for everyone. Some people love it for the flexibility and variety, but it really takes a certain aptitude and self-discipline.
|
On March 21 2012 05:45 hai2u wrote:your school job experience should be pretty valuable. It does sound like its just your area that is lacking in job openings. Around where I live ( Wash DC), there are tons of job openings in the IT/CS field. I went to 3 interviews straight out of college with absolutely no job experience and was able to land job offers for all 3 of them. Now my field is Software Development so it is a little bit more in demand but IT shouldn't be that hard. Your current job sounds terrible tho, sure doing nothing all day sounds easy but only when ur like 50 or older and have stopped caring. When you are just out of college that is mindnumbingly boring and you need to learn as much as you can to further your career. Anyway I hope things pick up for you man, keep trying and looking, I'm sure something will turn up .
As someone who's best options are working in a call-center where every single minute is being monitored for maximum productivity, the idea of being paid more than min wage AND not doing work but getting paid sounds awesome.
|
On March 21 2012 12:32 Elurie wrote: Just out of curiosity, why did you opt for the Liberal Arts degree instead of something with IT? I don't know which college you went to, but even a basic state college should have a generic Computer Science program. Or Computer Information Science, or even plain Engineering.
Yea, contract jobs aren't for everyone. Some people love it for the flexibility and variety, but it really takes a certain aptitude and self-discipline.
I never had any intention of doing IT work, I was a business student until that didn't work out. The CS program at my university was also almost exclusively programming focused. I worked with a couple of guys who were CS majors, and frankly seeing them working on advanced algorithms made me sure I made the right call on that one.
And I'm no engineer, trust me.
On March 21 2012 12:53 cz wrote:Show nested quote +On March 21 2012 05:45 hai2u wrote:your school job experience should be pretty valuable. It does sound like its just your area that is lacking in job openings. Around where I live ( Wash DC), there are tons of job openings in the IT/CS field. I went to 3 interviews straight out of college with absolutely no job experience and was able to land job offers for all 3 of them. Now my field is Software Development so it is a little bit more in demand but IT shouldn't be that hard. Your current job sounds terrible tho, sure doing nothing all day sounds easy but only when ur like 50 or older and have stopped caring. When you are just out of college that is mindnumbingly boring and you need to learn as much as you can to further your career. Anyway I hope things pick up for you man, keep trying and looking, I'm sure something will turn up . As someone who's best options are working in a call-center where every single minute is being monitored for maximum productivity, the idea of being paid more than min wage AND not doing work but getting paid sounds awesome.
But do you have like 20k + of student debt to pay off?
The thing is I know quite a few people who didn't go to any school at all and are doing pretty well right now. Thing with a college degree is, it actually sets you back quite a bit for the first few years. But the idea is that you get some work experience and move up, making more money. But in this economy that just isn't happening, and a lot of us are pretty screwed. The Wall Street Journal did a series of stories titled "generation jobless" and that's pretty much the case right now.
|
Welcome to the club.
We'll post you the lapel pin.
so how bout that capitalism, eh? protestant work ethic? how far has that fucking got us
|
|
|
|