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twesterm on 02 February 2009
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HappySqurriel said:
twesterm said:

You're only saying that because you got a business degree.  Anyone who goes to college and doesn't know what they want to do gets a business degree which means:

  1. You have a lot of people with business degrees
  2. You have a lot of really good people with business degrees taking the better entry jobs
  3. You have a lot of people that aren't really good getting frustrated they can't find a job because everyone else who went to college and didn't know what they wanted to do did the same thing and aren't interested in what they're doing

Getting an education is not overrated.  Don't blame other people because you or your friends are not good enough to get hired.  Just because you have a degree in something does not mean that someoe has to hire you.  Someone once told me that looking for a job is like a full time job and they're right. 

Getting a job is tough and you have to do everything you can possibly do to make yourself stand out.  That means you have to get up every morning, respond to emails, look for new job postings, revise your resume to fit whatever new posting you found, write a new cover letter for each job, schedule interviews, send follow up emails, make thank you calls or thank you emails, ect. 

I'm sorry to sound cynical but most people that get a degree and complain about not being able to find job simply aren't working hard to find a job or they aren't good at what they're doing.  They will stay up until 3AM watching TV or play games or whatever, get up when the sun is nice and warm, and then do nothing all day expecting employers to come to them.  Meanwhile, the people that actually care are actually trying to get a job and beating the lazy people.

I should know, after graduating with a CS degree I thought the same thing until I realized I had barely done any work to find a job (I expected them to come to me) and I wasn't that great of a programmer (I already knew this).  I was pretty much that above person and eventually settled onto a job at working the Geek Squad because I couldn't get anything as a programmer.

Even after later graduating from the Guildhall I almost fell into the same trap again.  Luckily someone kicked me in the butt and got me going.  I had a late start at really looking for a job and had the additional trouble of wanting to stay in the Dallas area, but after 3 months of being unemployed, out of school, and a lot of hard work I finally landed a really good job.

 

Even working amazingly hard, it can still be really tough to find that first job ...

Most jobs are gained through networking and very few students actively build a decent network of contacts while they're in school. What this means is they depend heavily on luck of a good job showing up on a job-search or for someone they know to accidentially come across a decent job for them. One of the best peices of advice I received after having graduated from university and getting my first job was to create a job for yourself long before you graduate ...

Essentially, you try to find a couple of mentors in companies you're interested in working at to help you as you approach graduation. From what I am told, if they end up liking you and seeing potential in you they will probably help you find a job after graduation within their company and/or will give you access to their personal network of contacts.

 

Whoops, forgot mention networking-- without a doubt important.  Most colleges hold career fairs that only students can enter and that's a great chance to network.  Also, most schools (not meaning college, meaning your colleges school of business or whatever) have some sort of frat or orginization that sole purpose is for networking. 

If you sit in your dorm and do nothing you'll struggle, but if you go out to career fairs and join an orginization or two you can do well.  I was in engineering frat (Theta Tau) and they did lots to help members build resumes and contacts.  I just had trouble because I didn't take advantage of those.

And MrStickBall is right, college is only as good as the effort you put in it and only if you have some sort of plan.  Just going for the sake of going isn't going to do much for you and you're only going to waste your time and money.  You'll still get life experience out of it which is nice, but life experience alone isn't going to get you a job.

Also he's right that most people don't actually use their actual degree titles, but they still come in handy.  My wife triple majored in Computer Science, Math, and English and she isn't a programmer, mathmatician, or...whatever an English major would use, she's a project manager at a web development company.  While she doesn't directly use any of her degrees, the CS and English degrees still very much contribute to her job and make her a better project manager.

-edit-

And not trying say anyone is wrong here, just bothers me to see people graduate and then expect employers to bend over backwards for them because they have a degree mainly because I use to think like that.  I thought jobs would come to me and I could not have been more wrong and just trying to inform people.