Got a Degree, now I'm Screwed!!

[Natalya]

I just graduated from university last month. On the one hand it's nice, but on the other hand, I think my brother described this situation the best:

You don't have any more exuses. You're a real adult now.

So, what did y'all do after you got degrees?

[Tzan]

Ya, you got that right, you are screwed. Especially in this economy. I had the same situation in the early 80s.


I got a degree in Architectural Engineering, then went to Mass College of Art for 1.5 years. Then really needed to get a job. I got lucky. My mom worked at a company, the owners daughter worked at a defense contractor as the head of architecture in the facilities department. She hired me as a draftsman for my first after college job.

I had worked as that before, during college.
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You have a special case. Most girls in college find a nice guy to marry.
Then they don't have to work.


The architect I do contract work for also has hired 2 women architects to do like 15 hours a week on small jobs that pop up. They have both dropped out of work and have babies.

Which is totally cool, everyone has to do what is right for them.
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So yore question is a bit curious. Go get a job in yore field. Of course I have no idea what degree you have.

[stubby]

It's tough to answer your question because the fields we have degrees in are fields that have jobs associated with them. Our experience doesn't really apply to your situation.

[stubby]

In a more constructive vein, well - start networking. I don't think there's a business on earth that recruits from your major, at least not one that pays money, and so you're going to have to do things the old fashioned way.

Regardless of who you are, the best jobs you'll ever get are through the people you know rather than from sending out resumes and cold calls. You don't know who'l come through with a hookup, but you can guess who's most likely and whose hookups will be better than who else's if they come through.

Failing that, get a shit job to pay the bills and start a side project that'll get the attention of the people you want jobs from. If networking gives you the doors to knock on, a fancy project can get you into them. Networking and BrikWars got me every dollar of my adult career.

[Tzan]

Oh wait, we were supposed to be constructive?

Ok

I have had a metric shit ton of jobs and only one was from answering an advertisement. I literally worked at over 20 places.

Maybe 5 were because someone helped me, the other 15 were through Temp placement agencies. Companies hire temp draftsmen, but also hire temps for all sorts of crazy reasons.

So when I needed money and couldnt get the drafting jobs I did these:

-Folding and stacking towels and jeans in a dept store.
-Quality control at a pill company, because I was the smartest guy in the room they offered me a higher level job there, I turned them down.
-Counting out electronic parts for circuit board assemblers.
- many others

So a quick and dirty way to get a job is to hit up a temp agency.
You will work at a variety of places, for 1 day, 1 week, 1month+.
You might like the work, They might see you are a smarty pants and offer you a job.

The one company I got into from an advert.... Turbine, as a technical tester. I was writing perl code to send messages to and get responses from various servers for a daily build verification test script. I also did the regular testing.
A job opened up on the LOTRO team and because they knew me I got shifted over to become a content creator after 3.5 months in testing.
The testing manager said he never saw anyone get out of testing so fast. But that was mostly because I really was skilled enough to be a dev.


So get a job at a temp agency. Lots of office work type jobs too.

[Tzan]

Last year my nephew graduated U of Texas with a dual major in Computer science and Mathmatics. He was head hunted for a job in silicon valley for 100k per year. Bastard.

[Hoboman]

So, what did y'all do after you got degrees?

Well let's see. A week after I earned my degree I started a job that paid three times what I was earning before I went back to school.

Yes, i did have to start acting like a grown up. But the benifits of being able to buy some cool new toys was worth it.

[stubby]

Last year my nephew graduated U of Texas with a dual major in Computer science and Mathmatics. He was head hunted for a job in silicon valley for 100k per year. Bastard.

My girlfriend got her Pharm.D. last year, recruiters (note the -s indicating a multiple) were offering her $30k-$40k just as the signing bonus.

[Natalya]

Yeah even the Wal-Mart pharmacists make 100k+ right off the bat. Right now I have a part-time job, but it's only $9/hr 3 days a week. On the side I've been selling my CS:S Roleplay Mod for $30 a pop to people from all over the place and I do like custom player models and stuff for other servers (usually Jail Break) to make more money. I'm not sure how far I can go with that though... No gaming companies exist over here. I think I ought to buy a Droid and start making aps for it. That might get me hired.

@Tzan:
It's illegal for me to get married in most states so forget that plan. My degree was in Women's Studies btw lol. It's just a BA. I didn't understand it at the time, but my skills are with making stuff... Computer programs, Lego space cruisers, cosplay gear, etc... I should have gotten a tech degree of some sort but I didn't understand that about myself when I chose my major.

[Tzan]

Its hard to pick something at 18 years old.
If I could pick again it would be computer programmer.

[Tzan]

My girlfriend got her Pharm.DD last year, recruiters (note the -DD indicating a multiple) were offering her $30k-$40k just as the signing bonus.