Recent College Graduates--Did you find a job yet?

mis0

mis0

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How's the job hunt going for recent college graduate CAGs out there?

It's a shit show here in California--12% unemployment and rising.

I started my job search at the beginning of this month (after taking a cool couple months off). It has been 2 weeks, and things haven't been looking good.

Anyway, to the class of 2010, how's the job market been treating ya? And to the lucky group of kids who have found jobs, is your starting salary lower or higher than expected?
 
I've only applied at two places so far. One was a no go. Application process for my career path is like 5 months. Pain in the ass to get so far and they pick someone else.
 
What is your degree in?

I'm not a recent grad...graduated a few years ago. I'm planning to head back to school next year though.
 
I graduated in 2009 and live in RI. It's been hell finding something, our rate's as bad as yours. I applied to a bunch of places every week but for the first 6 months all I could find was a shitty job at a damn cafe.
Since then I've quit there and gotten a couple part-time jobs for internet stores that pay a little better. Enough to move out of my parents place and live on my own anyway.
Still, not what I want to do indefinitely, so I'm in the process of applying for work outside RI now for some jobs abroad(Foreign Service!) and considering applying to grad schools as another alternative.
I hope your luck and success're greater than mine've been.
 
Graduated Aug 2007 BS Accounting Cleveland State University
Got hired June 2, 2008 for less money than my friends make managing retail or restaurants and no raise yet due to the "economy" (despite that besides the controller and owners, I'm the only one to see the financial reports and know better)
 
im from youngstown ohio. got a job last month in pittsburgh pa. electrical engineering degree class of 2010. use monster.com. the big companies will find you with a good resume. and i mean a good resume.
 
Went for graphic design and will be paying off student loans for the rest of my life. Couldn't find a single thing even remotely related to the field (graduated last year), so I'm working a regular office job that you only need a HS diploma for. Big big big mistake, but what can ya do?
 
Hopefully by the time I graduate things start looking up (That will be in 4 years for my Bachelors). I am researching into Civil Engineering (Mostly Environmental). Though I really want to go on tours and such just to get more of an idea.

Again hopefully things start looking up by the time I graduate with a Masters within the next ten years (Holy crap that is awhile into the future).
 
I got my BS in psychology in 2008, applied to grad schools, got rejected, worked doing programming and IT stuff for a year (thanks to nepotism, no real searching), applied again, now starting grad school for a PhD.

So I guess I have a few more years again.
 
Nope. I've got a bachelor's in Molecular Biology plus some basic lab experience but most of the local jobs want 2 years experience minimum on some hardcore acronym machines. There's also the part about the one to two hour commute time and the working weekends that leads me to stay unemployed until necessity dictates otherwise. Fortunately I can do that, but it's still somewhat ridiculous that I'm looking at volunteering somewhere (for nothing) one or two years just to qualify for $15 an hour.
 
It's bad all over. I have two jobs because I can't get even decent part time hours at one. My fiancee graduated with an AA in criminal justice in January and hasn't even been able to land jack squat, but the economy here (Missouri) is ridiculously awful, probably even more so than California.
 
I've gotten several interviews but have really struggled landing anything worthwhile. I just want a simple salaried position, not anything commissions based. I just had a really bad interview process recently for a job as a Financial Analyst that seemed really worthwhile. Now, however, I am just waiting for the official rejection. I didn't sleep at all the night before the interview due to stress, and it turns out I had to take several timed IQ/Skills tests on the day of my interview (was not forewarned of this).

I graduated with a BA in Financial Economics.
 
I graduated with a BS in April. I started searching for a job in February. I finally got one call for an interview near the end of April, and that company offered me the job. It pays crap but the benefits are decent, and I felt lucky to be getting a job right out of college, especially in something I'm interested in, which is a lot more than some of my classmates can say. My coworker told me after I was hired that they had one guy with almost 30 years experience interviewing for the job. I'm still looking for a better position, but I'll take this one for now considering I only got one interview in 3 months. Plus this will still be good for me to get some solid experience since that was a bit lacking on my resume.
 
Sounds like everyone is having a pretty rough time.

The funny thing is, I've been reading up starting salaries for recent college graduates and they have the average pegged at almost $50k/year.

What the eff? Where are these miracle jobs? I know non-liberal arts majors have a higher starting pay than liberal arts people.. but come on $50k/year is a middle class household in United States.

I might have a couple job offers coming in. I think the interviews went pretty well, but I'm sure all of us thought we have jobs in the sack, only to be crushed otherwise.

Boo-urns.
 
[quote name='mis0']Sounds like everyone is having a pretty rough time.

The funny thing is, I've been reading up starting salaries for recent college graduates and they have the average pegged at almost $50k/year.

What the eff? Where are these miracle jobs? I know non-liberal arts majors have a higher starting pay than liberal arts people.. but come on $50k/year is a middle class household in United States.

I might have a couple job offers coming in. I think the interviews went pretty well, but I'm sure all of us thought we have jobs in the sack, only to be crushed otherwise.

Boo-urns.[/QUOTE]

People lie about their starting salaries or they're living in a metropolitan area with a high cost of living.

Engineers do great in general, but the two engineers I know have more education and debt while having less children and houses than me.
 
I finished college in May 2008. I somewhat had a job lined up (since many people at the company my Dad worked at wanted to hire me), but the company had many layoffs and I couldn't be hired. I had to start from scratch with job searching. I initially started out looking for jobs in my local city, no luck. I then tried expanding to other Midwestern states, no luck (although I had some interviews on the phone and might have had an in-person interview if I waited longer). I did some searching outside the Midwest, but not much. Eventually, I had a friend from college call me about getting a job on the East Coast, even though it only required a 2 year degree (we had a B.S. in Electrical & Computer Engineering Tech). I took the job to at least give me something to start with (started out at $50k a year and gave me a moving bonus, although I live in an expensive area). Still working the same job now, but making much more than when I started due to being there for a while and working overtime every two weeks on average.

It took me just over a year to start my job (got an offer exactly one year after I graduated college). Although I'm employed, I'm still very disappointed in myself and depressed. While my job pays well enough, it's not really what I imagined getting after college (doesn't fully utilize my degree, not really a professional job, and many question me at work wondering why I'm working the job and not an Engineer right now). Finding jobs isn't exactly easy because my company has been laying off a bunch of Engineers (positions that I considered moving up to). Good thing is I have no debt, but still disappointed with my progress (some college friends of mine who didn't do as well as me in college, are where I at least wish I was right now, although I do get paid more than most of them). Having a 3.6 GPA and being one of the top students at my college (a very good college too) also has me disappointed for where I'm at career wise. Considering going back to school and getting a Master's degree.
 
Graduated with a Master's in communication with a focus on pr and training and development in june 08 and have been looking, looking, and looking, but all I have so far is a sales job
 
Bachelor's in Business since '08 and I'm still a boxboy in a warehouse (7 years running). I've come to loathe the acronym CSR as a lack of customer service experience has been my utter downfall in landing even a simple sales jobs. I consider myself among the poor saps stuck in the middle: lacking the desired work experience that's advantageous to get the entry level jobs, but seemingly "too over-educated or over-experienced" for the jobs that give said experience.
 
[quote name='mis0']Sounds like everyone is having a pretty rough time.

The funny thing is, I've been reading up starting salaries for recent college graduates and they have the average pegged at almost $50k/year.

What the eff? Where are these miracle jobs? I know non-liberal arts majors have a higher starting pay than liberal arts people.. but come on $50k/year is a middle class household in United States.

I might have a couple job offers coming in. I think the interviews went pretty well, but I'm sure all of us thought we have jobs in the sack, only to be crushed otherwise.

Boo-urns.[/QUOTE]

A lot of this is dependent on several factors. Keep in mind, school attended/g.p.a./major are three pretty important factors in determining salary. I have some friends who went to top flight, including ivy league, schools who were making 80k+ in New York City straight out of school in investment banking/private equity jobs on Wall Street. Keep in mind, most of my friends who landed these types of jobs are at prodigy intelligence levels (ie no one I know with these jobs scored less than a 1500 on their SAT's in high school, 3.8 g.p.a.+ in college, etc)

I also have a lot of other friends who are struggling to make 25k a year doing what many of them consider to be degrading jobs. A lot of these comparisons are apples and oranges. The most reasonable estimate would probably be to look up the average starting salary for a degree in whatever one majored in.

At the train-wreck of an interview I just recently had, the one thing that went very smoothly was my HR interview. The woman asked me how much I expected to make, and I replied with 50k a year. She quickly glanced at my resume and said that that was very reasonable and fair. I went to a pretty decent school, but not an amazing place like many of my friends and I considered the area of where I was applying when I came up with my number.

Lastly, I never assumed I had a job just by getting a degree. Unless you go to a top school and have an impeccable g.p.a/great connections, this is a bad assumption to ever make, imho. One of my good friends graduated with over a 3.9 from my school and couldn't land a single job, including Teach For America (which he felt he was a lock for). Other kids with far lower g.p.a.'s got into TFA from my school. He wound up going for a Masters in Accountancy at the University of Texas at Austin, which is the #1 program in the country for accounting.

At the end of the day, it's a combination of luck, skill, grit, aptitude, and perseverance that will help a person land a job.
 
I have a certificate from a local junior college in medical coding/terminology, but in order to get a job doing coding around here you have to have experience AND certification.

Certification costs money that I just don't have right now and I can't get the experience without getting a job FIRST to get said experience. So I'm stuck in a catch-22.:roll:
 
Hopefully you guys see some luck!

Sadly, the Huffington Post has an article LINK that seems to show another recession looming over our heads..

Around 40% chance of it occurring according to Economists , while not high it certainly is high enough.

Again no way to be sure of it, just speculation. But that won't help everyone's cause at all :(
 
The speculation itself, when dealing with the economy, can hurt us unfortunately.

Graduated in Dec '09 in Elementary Education. Haven't had any luck landing a contract yet, just working as a substitute in the district I student taught in. The money isn't particularly good and I can't really advance my life (new car, move out of my parents) because I don't have a contract.
 
Best of luck to all of you guys.

I had a CCNA, CCSP, A+,... technical college certificates. I had a voip internship, year as a system admin, then at Circuit City just tech support for ~7months...and you know where they went. I went back to school working on an actual degree in Mechanical Engineering now, hopefully everything gets better soon.
 
[quote name='ced']Bachelor's in Business since '08 and I'm still a boxboy in a warehouse (7 years running). I've come to loathe the acronym CSR as a lack of customer service experience has been my utter downfall in landing even a simple sales jobs. I consider myself among the poor saps stuck in the middle: lacking the desired work experience that's advantageous to get the entry level jobs, but seemingly "too over-educated or over-experienced" for the jobs that give said experience.[/QUOTE]

Kind of in the same boat, B.S. in Business out of school since July '08. Been working the same job for 3 years now, have tried several times to move up in the company and have been turned over several times. Waiting to hear back on another position within the company I just interview for a week ago.

I've gone on several interviews and have been told several times from the person conducting the interview, " that as soon as the economy turns I'll be out the door to get that $50k+ job I was promised after graduating." Crap like that just pisses me off.

As far as things are right now, still extremely crappy, 1 full-time job, 1 part-time job with everyone's favorite game company GameStop, and consulting on the side for a small business.
 
Remember when you were a kid and was told that the world was your oyster and you could be anything you want? Possible (probably) an astronaut or even president? Makes you wanna start a fight club and fuck shit up. Eventually leading up to acts of corporate terrorism.
 
It's rough out there. I was in the Air Force for 10 years and got my BS, AS and an AAS while I was in (all aviation related). I now work for one of the big airlines and get paid pretty crappy (especially for what I do). I was told that all I needed was a foot in the door and I could move up quickly. Not true. Been job hunting outside the company for a few months now and keep coming up empty handed. I especially hate hearing how "impressive" my resume is because I always want to reply with "why haven't I found a fucking job yet!?!" good luck everyone.
 
I can relate to that feeling. I went on vacation for a week and when I came back, I had 5 people come up to me and say "Wait...you're still here? I thought you finally left".

I think my worst story of job despair was when one of my department supervisors left our company to become a manager at another company. It just so happens that I had applied to a job with that company in an analyst capacity. The guy specifically pulled my resume out of the pool because I had worked with him on a project that was practically identical to the job description. He basically glossed over the interview stating "Yeah I'm fully aware of your skillset and your amazing work ethic" so I was feeling positive. Three days later, I get a call from him and find out that he picked somebody else for the job.

To throw salt in the wounds, one of my coworkers came up to me shortly after the rejection notice. She told me that said supervisor had moved onto the manager job with another company and that I'd be a shoe-in for a job there now that he was a boss. I simply said "Yeah, I know, I just interviewed last week. Didn't get it" and we proceeded to have a very, very awkward silence.
 
Unemployment rate here is 14.5%. Oh yay.

Graduated in Dec '09 with a B.S. in Construction Management. Was let go from my part time office clerk job (unrelated to my major) of 6 years in June '10. Currently, I've been unemployed for 1.5 months. Been going to things like job fairs, but no luck with anything yet.
 
Unfortunately part of my problem with not being able to find a job is that I had a penchant for walking out mid shift and telling bosses to 'take this job and shove it up your fuckin' ass' when I was younger.

Of course that all started from one place where I was egregiously lied to about the payrate when I was hired and not told that it was contingent on a 'two minute rule' to clock in at the start of my shift.

Basically, you had the minute before the start of shift and the minute of start of shift to get clocked in by or you were docked $1 a frickin' hour. Oh and did I mention there were another 35-40 people working there with me and only ONE time clock to try and clock in with? So I guess I wasn't alone in getting fucked over on pay.

Imagine my disgust when I worked 80-90 hours a week the first two weeks at a place and I get my first paycheck and it's missing almost $100.:bomb:

After that place I determined that I would never volunteer for OT and that my free time was too valuable to waste slaving for some douchebags who would treat me like shit. I've softened a bit on that as of late due to being unable to find anything but temp jobs since my younger days, but I still hold alot of pent up anger over allowing myself to get so screwed over.
 
I graduated with a degree in English and got really lucky doing tech support/customer outreach for a car dealer group. $31k + commission. Got laid off two weeks ago because it was GM.
 
Sadly, again it's not what you know it's WHO you know. I just stopped going to school a while ago and got a job thanks to a family member. No debt and have a paycheck. When things get better then I'll figure out what to do but for now, I'm thankful to have even a job.
 
Graduated in May with a degree in Computer Science. I have applied to 20+ jobs so far and no go with any of them (Northeast PA sucks with this). Although I did get 3 interviews.

I don't mind getting a job in the meantime (well if things don't get better) but I pretty much refuse to work at a supermarket, fast food place or convenience store (because I have worked in a fast food place before, and I heard horror stories about a supermarket. I want to keep my sanity).
 
I'm finishing up my final year of Mechanical Engineering here at Penn State. I will be spending a good bit of time with the engineering career center here and at job fairs.
 
[quote name='celegus']Went for graphic design and will be paying off student loans for the rest of my life. Couldn't find a single thing even remotely related to the field (graduated last year), so I'm working a regular office job that you only need a HS diploma for. Big big big mistake, but what can ya do?[/QUOTE]

It's just as tough down here in Miami (supposedly one of the top design areas in the country). Graduated in 08 with a bachelors in graphic design and was able to get a job about 7 months after I graduated. But, after about 10 months, it got turned into a freelance position, which is basically part time hours. Been on partial unemployment for almost a year now, but those student loans aren't moving. Feels awesome to know that I busted my ass in school to get paid what I am, yet all my friends dropped out of college and are all making close to 50k a year in banks and sales positions.
 
Hey all.

I found a job!

Not the salary I was hoping for, but the benefits were a kicker for me. 7 hour work days, full health coverage, educational expenses, paid time off, etc.

I'm planning on going to law school in 2-3 years, so I'm not gonna complain too much. Just wanna make enough money to maintain my livelihood down here in Orange County. :D

Hope the job search goes well for the rest of y'all. I'm very surprised the whole process was only 2-3 weeks for me.
 
Congrats on the job, mis0.

Also, it's not as easy for those of us out here with lots of experience who find themselve jobless. Thankfully, that's not me, though there's more than a few companies that will hire entry-level people into positions vacated by more experienced/older people to try and save money.
 
Hiring recent graduates would make them eligible for unemployment benefits after they get laid off, and state taxes are high enough already.
 
I graduated 2009 with a BS in Computer Engineering.
My passion is in embedded programming/digital designs.
1 year later after constantly looking online, this past june, i found a job in IT/development for some corporation i never heard of before through monster. Surveying my friends, only half of them heard of the company. Recently i just found out it is a Fortune's 500 global, Fortune's top 100 best companies to work for in US, and Fortune's top 10 best companies to work for in New York(Where i live). 2 months working so far, i can see why that was the case.

I'm always going to be envious of a friend of mine, who graduated a year before me, with the same degree, and got a job right out making 60k doing exactly what I want to do. But seeing so many stories of people still looking, and just barely getting a job doing absolutely nothing related to their major, I now consider myself super lucky.
 
I graduated in May of 2008 with a BS in Telecommunications Management. I finally found a job in December of 2008, and have stayed in it. It's what I love doing, and is related to my major.

Still, I know how stressful those seven months of searching were for me, and the economy tanked further along after I had my job. Wish you guys the best.
 
[quote name='mis0']Hey all.

I found a job!

Not the salary I was hoping for, but the benefits were a kicker for me. 7 hour work days, full health coverage, educational expenses, paid time off, etc.

I'm planning on going to law school in 2-3 years, so I'm not gonna complain too much. Just wanna make enough money to maintain my livelihood down here in Orange County. :D

Hope the job search goes well for the rest of y'all. I'm very surprised the whole process was only 2-3 weeks for me.[/QUOTE]

Congratulations! Hopefully some other CAGs who are looking for work will find some success soon, as well (myself included XD).
 
[quote name='Midnite']
I've gone on several interviews and have been told several times from the person conducting the interview, " that as soon as the economy turns I'll be out the door to get that $50k+ job I was promised after graduating." Crap like that just pisses me off.[/QUOTE]

I figured most jobs paid that or more in Baltimore since cost of living here is through the roof.
[quote name='Sir_Fragalot']Graduated in May with a degree in Computer Science. I have applied to 20+ jobs so far and no go with any of them (Northeast PA sucks with this). Although I did get 3 interviews.

I don't mind getting a job in the meantime (well if things don't get better) but I pretty much refuse to work at a supermarket, fast food place or convenience store (because I have worked in a fast food place before, and I heard horror stories about a supermarket. I want to keep my sanity).[/QUOTE]Try the D.C. area (you aren't that far from there). I know many places hiring with those degrees.

[quote name='KhaosX']I graduated 2009 with a BS in Computer Engineering.
My passion is in embedded programming/digital designs.
1 year later after constantly looking online, this past june, i found a job in IT/development for some corporation i never heard of before through monster. Surveying my friends, only half of them heard of the company. Recently i just found out it is a Fortune's 500 global, Fortune's top 100 best companies to work for in US, and Fortune's top 10 best companies to work for in New York(Where i live). 2 months working so far, i can see why that was the case.

I'm always going to be envious of a friend of mine, who graduated a year before me, with the same degree, and got a job right out making 60k doing exactly what I want to do. But seeing so many stories of people still looking, and just barely getting a job doing absolutely nothing related to their major, I now consider myself super lucky.[/QUOTE]Yeah, I had friends do the same thing, which is one reason I'm still constantly depressed.

While I shouldn't discuss my job too much, let me just admit one reason I question it at times (I would still love a job that utilizes my degree more) is because half the time when I get up in the morning, I wish I didn't have to go to work (but I still do always).

Congrats mis0. :D I feel a bit envious on how quick it took you compared to me.
 
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... Graduated last May with a BA in Philosophy (on paper). I'm lucky that I'm pulling $9 working in a major Pharmacy as a Supervisor. People with 'better' degrees are settling for a lesser pay in my area (I have a friend with a BA in Engineering working as a Stock Clerk in a Walmart), and those that are snagging those $24-29k salaried jobs are either very lucky (like, winning the lotto lucky) and being worked to death, or had a lot of strings pulled for them.

Funny enough, the 2 people that I know that landed said jobs, one of them got laid off due to a mis-timed forced-downsizing (she was a Fine Arts Major doing software training in the Adobe Suite), and the other one had to move halfway across the country to a small, non-existent town in order to land the job (BA in Mass Comm).

Yay Job economy
 
[quote name='KhaosX']I graduated 2009 with a BS in Computer Engineering.
My passion is in embedded programming/digital designs.
1 year later after constantly looking online, this past june, i found a job in IT/development for some corporation i never heard of before through monster. Surveying my friends, only half of them heard of the company. Recently i just found out it is a Fortune's 500 global, Fortune's top 100 best companies to work for in US, and Fortune's top 10 best companies to work for in New York(Where i live). 2 months working so far, i can see why that was the case.

I'm always going to be envious of a friend of mine, who graduated a year before me, with the same degree, and got a job right out making 60k doing exactly what I want to do. But seeing so many stories of people still looking, and just barely getting a job doing absolutely nothing related to their major, I now consider myself super lucky.[/QUOTE]

I'm curious, what's the company?
 
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