Venting My Frustration!!!
 

Here's the deal - I've been looking for a job for 2 months. I have an extremely open schedule so that I can work plenty of hours, but the problem is that my experience is in so many different areas. Being a student in a town that dies without college students, there's not that much available, so I pretty much take whatever job I'm offered. The only jobs that are open are serving jobs, and I have no serving experience. Since there are so many students, they only hire people with experience. I can't deal with having nothing productive to do - I mean, I have school, but that's not challenging AT ALL right now. I support myself without help from my parents, and even though financial aid takes care of housing, I still have needs that aren't being met because I haven't found a job yet. ERRRR! :mad: I don't have a stellar resume to get me an office job, I don't have the clerical experience to get any of the on-campus jobs that are open right now, so I'm stuck. HELP!!! I need ideas. Any ideas that don't involve illegal activity. Or even just encouragement.

Crystal

I know your situation well. I had trouble finding a decent job from like may of 2002 all the way up until nov 2002. I have plenty of work experience and just couldn't land a decent job. It can be very frustrating and sometimes downright depressing. My advice would be look online, www.monster.com, local newspapers, word of mouth recruiting, anything. Don't give up, I finally landed a great job with Nationwide Insurance in November. Patience is a virtue, but don't give up on yourself or your situation I'm sure you'll do just fine. Good Luck
Mike

Try doing some volunteer work that is a great way to spend time.

Also, it can lead to a job(the whole networking thing) or will give you skills you can put on a resume.

www.volunteermatch.com is a good place to start looking

also most local help hotlines are in need of volunteers

the cooperative extension service in your area is also a good place -- 4-H agents all over usually always welcome volunteers.


last but not least -- try joining another club on campus not exactly related to your major

You know what they say -- this too shall pass

I feel your pain. I think the economy has a lot to do with the outlook of jobs for college students. I don't know about everyone else, but it seems like no one is really hiring right now and if they are, they want you to slave for very little money and work harder than you want to. If you could, try and network and see if anyone has a good connection.

It all depends on what you got your degree in and what experience you have. I just had this conversation with one of the pledges. People I will say it again "Get a degree that you can get a job with!"

Maybe you could try getting a hosting job at one of the restaurants, etc. that are looking for help. Sure, you don't make as much money as a server, but you would learn the ropes of the restaurant, and maybe be able to get a job waiting tables. Just a thought! Good luck with you job hunt.

Still no luck.... I'm an education major, so at least I know that when I graduate I'll be able to get a job. that's still a ways away though...:(

You should check out the Board of Ed and see if you are qualified to be a substitute teacher or a teacher's assistant. My friend went abroad one semester, but the program didn't begin until March so she subbed for two months. In her city she only needed to have a certain number of college credits to qualify for the job. Good luck! :)

You can ask a favorite professor if he or she knows of any openings. Professors always need people to work in their offices or departments doing clerical work.

I have to disagree with you here. Experience does count of course but what you get your degree in does not. Study something that makes you happy, not something that will make you the most money. No matter what you get a degree in, there will be jobs related to that field.

I disagree with this. For any given field, sure, there are jobs, but how many jobs are available relative to the number of people with the appropriate background and experience?

I know a guy who has an anthropology degree from Harvard. Even with the Harvard degree, he couldn't get a job in his field. At one point he was painting houses.

What your degree is in absolutely does count, especially for that first job out of college.

Crystal, good luck! :)

I have a friend that is a stay at home mother who makes extra cash being a mentor to jr high math students. She works with three students right now. The school bus drops them off and the parents pick them up.

You might also try looking into part-time daycare/pre-school work. I know that my daughters' pre-school has college students working in the afternoons.

I absolutely agree.

As a former hiring manager, I will tell you that I looked very closely at a persons degree for that "entry level" position. Later on, I can agree that experience counts more than what the degree is in -- but not initially.

While it seems to me that it would be wonderful to study what you love, unless you plan on that as your career, you're throwing away a whole lot of money studying something you don't intend to do.

Continuing the thread hijack...

Sure a degree is important to get that first job. I'm not advocating that we all become philosophy majors just for fun but on the other hand, don't become an accounting major if you don't like math just because accountants are in demand.

Back to the topic at hand...

Like others have said, try volunteer work. If you can't swing it financially, take a part time job for the money and a part time unpaid internship or volunteer job for the experience. Don't be afraid to apply for office jobs, some jobs, like receptionist positions or customer service, require only a high school diploma. Does your school have a career placement office that can help?

First, I am an accounting major. Second, let's be honest, shall we? You can study what you love, just don't ask someone to hire you later. I quit a career to go back to school. I didn't hire english majors, I hired people with job skills. So go ahead and rip me on the board, but if you major in something where you can't get employed, don't bitch to anyone later. We don't need more communications majors and you all know it.

I think you missed the point entirely. She didn't say there was anything wrong with being an accounting major. [And they are in high demand right now]. She said:

I don't like math or many things directly related to math (stats, etc.) Why would I want to MAJOR in something I DON'T LIKE? Like if you hated science in high school.. you're not going to be a biology major because you like animals & think it might be fun to work at the zoo.

I did major in communications (speech & comm, w/ a minor in music). It offered my a variety of job positions, not necessarily what you think of as comm, maybe, but jobs nonetheless. And I got a lot of experience in school with it.

There's a happy medium between useful degree & something you enjoy. And I've known several people, only 4 or 5 years out of college, who quickly burned out of their original field, even when they are in demand. (Teachers being the biggest example).

I have a major in English - AND a job that's related to my degree. Not all English majors are offering fries with that. There are jobs for every major; it's just that the odds are better in some than in others.

And I have a friend with a computer engineering degree and several years of Microsoft experience who can't find anything. There's no major that's a ticket to success in this economy.

That's the real problem - it's gone from a job-seekers' market to an employers' market. You need a skill in something, whether it's waitressing or being a surgeon, and even then the pickings are slim.

Are there any work-study or campus jobs open to you? What about school clubs? Your extracurriculars can be as important as your major. The English degree was good, but it was being editor of the paper that got me a job. Being involved in college Republicans can get you a campaign job. I realize this won't get you a job right away, but what you're doing now can have a huge impact down the road on future jobs.

I have a B.A. in English. Right now, I work in customer service. I don't think I limited myself, just because I don't have a business degree. I think I'm more well rounded cause I can do so much with my degree.

I love to read, so I'm going to use my English degree and go to grad school for Library Science

My degree will be in English like FuzzieAlum's and Prospectiverushee's, but I chose to major in English because I knew I wanted to teach. Your should major in whatever you enjoy doing, not what you think will be the easiest to get a job in. If you truly have skills and know your stuff, a job will follow. ;)

For the record, accounting is NOT math. While it does involve numbers, it is NOT math. It is a LANGUAGE, the language of business!

Simply put, accounting is not about whether or not you know what 2+2 equals, but how to treat that sum total of 2+2, or even if it should be 2+2. If you don't know where to allocate that 2+2, then your math abilities, be it good or bad are irrelevant.

Once more, accounting is NOT MATH!

another hijack

I disagree that your major needs to be relevant to your career. What you do IN college will determine if or not you can get a job post-college.

So, if you are an aerospace engineering major, but discovered you have a love for writing and have become editor of the school paper, held an internship with a magazine, and ran events for the campus activities board, I'd think your in-college experience would speak for itself and you'd easily find a job in journalism. You might even specialize in writing for a trade journal about aerospace engineering or techincal writing. Or not all.

Whereas if all you do is go to class, socialize and eat/sleep for 4 years, you may have a degree, and have graduated with honors, but you won't be tops on my list for hiring because you have no relevant experience.

Pick your major. Change it 8-10 times if you wish. Regardless of what your degree is going to be in, experiment with careers-- parttime work, talking to professors and professionals. Then get an internship or three. Then you'll get a job.

Good article about gaining job experience:
http://www.vault.com/community/v_com...279&mod_id=612

Ok, first of all I think we got off track of what the original posting was. My advise there is pretty much the same as everyone else's has been... try to find something related to education somehow. If nothing else, intern.


On the off-track sub-thread that we've created:

The job market is just FRUSTRATING right now to say the least. I got a degree in music. Not exactly a high market for music majors, but if you consider the fact that most music majors (in fact, all except me at my school) become music majors to perform or teach, it would seem that someone like me would have a fairly easy time finding a job. Here's why:

1-I want to go into arts administration. Most job postings look for someone with an arts-related degree and some sort of background in whatever particular job (public relations, fundraising, volunteers, whatever).

2-In college, I busted my ASS. I held two different offices in my sorority, three different offices in other organizations, did public relations for three organizations, was a member of innumerable organizations, organized a (very successful) fundraising campaign, graduated top 50 out of 6000 for contributions to the campus community, etc, etc, etc....

3-I held a business minor. Basically, while I earned my music degree, I was about 2 courses shy of a second major in economics, which I could always go back and get.

I have heard stories from educations majors, sports broadcasting majors, public relations majors (and the public relations major that I heard from was on the number 2 undergraduate public relations team in the country and graduated top 20 out of 6,000 for contributions to the campus community) and of course the accounting majors. Of these, only the accounting majors have jobs (at least, jobs that they like). And one of the two accounting majors that I've talked to did very little in college, didn't intern or anything. My question, particularly for DeltAlum since you are an ex-hiring manager who says majors are very important, is why would companies rather have someone with the "right" major than someone who may be a couple of classes short of the "right" major who is obviously hard-working, dedicated, motivated, and PROBABLY easily trained? In other words, I took an accounting class, too, and I know about journal entries and general ledgers (and to stick up for the accounting major, it's not much math... some calculator usage, but not much math). You could always train ME to fill in where the gaps in my education left off, instead of counting on the person with the "right degree" who might not have even shown up to class and has forgotten all of it, anyway. I'm not trying to get anyone mad with this post, I just SERIOUSLY would like to know, because it seems a little ridiculous to me. But that's just my entry-level, $27,000/year-making, mind talking.

You also have to consider there are certain majors where you will get recruited into a degree-related career during your senior year-- such as accounting.

However marketing people have to fight tooth and nail for their jobs, and that, my friends, is where the internships come into play. And frankly, (and on another topic) if you are a journalism major, get a minor in government or something else, b/c anyone can learn to write in AP style-- it's having a background in the classics that will make YOU go the extra mile.

So I'd say the majors with "muscle"-- the quantitative fields, sciences, engineering, maths, accounting-- there is a good deal of recruiting. The "soft" sciences like music and communication, teaching, sorry folks, but like it or not we ARE a dime a dozen and you ARE going to need more than just a degree to get a decent job after graduation. You'll need internships and a huge sense of @ss-breaking, job hunting skills, resume writing and networking ability. We don't get recruited--- our job is not as highly skilled and in as much high demand... I'd really love to hire a coordinator who has a degree in accounting to make up for my "other half" because I'm the creative/events/designer type. Nothing wrong with that... but quantitative skills are in greater demand.

So, back to my point, recruiters would rather have someone who half-assed their way through college and happened to get the "right" degree (even if it took them 5 or so years) than to hire someone who worked their ass off and didn't get the "right" degree, but took many of the same classes? Seems a little backwards, if you ask me.

UPDATE:

I did eventually find a job. I teach preschool and I love it, however I am once again looking for a full tie job to save money for seminary. I changed my major to "Look Mom I have a degree!" (Liberal studies) but will be going to Seminary for religious education so that I can work at church camp forever.

Student teaching? Or grading papers for a class? Do somthing to hlep your future job!