If all else fails, I'm sure there are some city/county/state jobs that could use you for IT or network stuff

2/25/2007 5:25:36 PM

the brutal honesty of the opinions on this board are truly inspiring

3/1/2007 7:15:00 PM

first thing i noticed on your resume was 2 years of doing nothing....you had to do something those two years...in jail.....sale crack......etc......

3/1/2007 7:46:56 PM

guess you won't be applying at microsoft.

3/1/2007 7:48:31 PM

My cummalitive GPA wasn't all that great either, and I didn't have any experience really doing what I am doing now..... but whenever I wrote my resume for this job I am at now, I also tried to put in details of things that would benefit the employer if they hired me... I saw mine as more of a advertisement of you, not a history lesson of what you did in the past.... You do put that stuff in there, but give them the answer of "So what?"....

Right now I am an Engineer for a World Wide Company, making 45 to 50K+ a year, with company vehicle, laptop, blackberry, pager, cell, the works....and I came out of working in Retail.....

Trust me, there is hope.... just takes time...

3/1/2007 11:03:21 PM

I only read half the first page but I'm going to post anyway


I have decent grades (3.37 GPA), strong experience, and an internship -- and so far, no offers. Granted I don't graduate until May but I feel like I'm applying at 5-10 places a week, only getting maybe 20% of those interviewing, and no call-backs after the first interview. My internship I think actually hurts me ... the company has a hiring freeze, but that doesn't stop them from going "Oh so if your internship was so good why aren't they hiring you"

3/1/2007 11:25:37 PM

Quote :

"guess you won't be applying at microsoft"

fuck microsoft. i live in seattle, and i would never work there. that company has already gone down the shitter. everyone worth a damn there has left.

3/1/2007 11:50:39 PM

Quote :

"fuck microsoft. i live in seattle, and i would never work there. that company has already gone down the shitter. everyone worth a damn there has left."

Hmm...

3/1/2007 11:53:45 PM

Quote :

"with company vehicle, laptop, blackberry, pager, cell, the works"

call me stupid, but why would one need a blackberry, a pager, and a cell phone?

3/2/2007 2:34:01 AM

to become teh ubar leetness

3/2/2007 2:54:24 AM

I graduated with a 2.95 undergraduate. 1.8 non major, 3.8 in my major.

I worked for the ECE department before graduation, got my first job about 2 months after graduating as a lead developer, through personal networking.

Got the next job in less than a week of searching, interviewed at two places, got offers at both.

It's all about personalizing your resume to the position(s) you are applying for. Two different applications can warrant two completely different resumes, both in terms of content and organization. Also, a good, directed cover letter can get your foot in the door when it's a cold application (aka no personal referral).

After that, if you get a call back for an interview, STUDY THE COMPANY. Find out as much as possible about them, who your interviewer will be, the job itself et al.

3/2/2007 4:57:05 AM

People with "low" GPA's and little to no relative experience getting job offers. People with high GPA's and maybe an internship getting no offers at all. I'm starting to see a pattern here.

3/2/2007 7:17:48 AM

I think the biggest mistake people make is assuming companies give a shit about your high school, a grocery store job etc. Don't put that crap on there. Put stuff they want to hear about even if your resume looks blank in some areas. THAT leads to conversation.

Why didn't you work during this time? "Family money issues had me find a paying job instead of furthering my technical knowledge" or "I wanted to focus on college entirely since I found some instructors to be quite challenging.".

Look at what you WANT to do with your life. What do you want to accomplish, to be. Do you like your major? Do you like to code (god i hope so at this point)? What kinds of projects do you want to work on? How about 2-3 years in the future?

Now... take what you want... and try to imagine what the people who hire people like you want to see. They don't give a shit about your grocery store experience. What projects have you worked on? (school, or work). What things have you accomplished? what school did you go to for CSC! What do you specialize in? What are you GOOD in?

That's what you put on your resume.

3/2/2007 7:55:57 AM

I know you said you have been looking a lot already but seriously go to the websites of companies that you are interested in and apply for any position that is even remotely related to your major. If you get an interview, one thing I can tell you is to be ENTHUSIASTIC and appear human. It seems that if you can bring life to an employer in addition to your work skills, it makes you a lot more marketable. Make sure your interviewer knows how passionate you are about what you want to do. Also, I'm not sure if CSC has any kind of intensive senior design project, but if they do, MILK IT FOR ALL IT IS WORTH. I am in AE and given that our senior design project is ridiculously difficult and intensive, potential employers love it when I talk about it because it has aspects that they are looking for (teamwork, leadership, direct application of knowledge, working in a stressful environment, etc.). I'm sure you have had some kind of project like this that you can make sound wonderful.

3/2/2007 9:47:25 AM

Quote :

"fuck microsoft. i live in seattle, and i would never work there. that company has already gone down the shitter. everyone worth a damn there has left."

from what i've heard from people who have actually worked at Microsoft and been to microsoft for business say its one of the best companies to work for...but i guess if you've got a grudge against them because they won't hire you i can see why you would say that.

3/2/2007 10:48:04 AM

lol.

im an EE not CS, so its really a moot point.

(although there are some hardware and/or SDET jobs i could apply for)

my point is that its a behemoth that is huge and inefficient and they keep stocking it full of people who just want to wear the MS badge around Redmond.

the best and the brightest from that org are *long* gone. it wont be long before it collapses in on itself.

3/2/2007 11:42:59 AM

how many years have people been saying that now?

3/2/2007 12:33:45 PM

you don't need HS crap on there...

no gpa if it's under a 3.0

your education part should be degree, time and place, and any other pertent info about it (minors, classes very specific to job you're applying for etc) and should be small unless your a grad student or post doc.

skills - list what languages you know / mastered and any certifications

get rid of the grocery store job, it's not gonna help you (on the list)

Quote :

"People with "low" GPA's and little to no relative experience getting job offers. People with high GPA's and maybe an internship getting no offers at all. I'm starting to see a pattern here."

frankly, a large portion of people with really good GPA's haven't done shit otherwise. They can't lead, they can't think outside the box at all, they are spoon fed and internship. If you do a "self-starting guided research project" that shows you have some initiative and ability to actually DO what you will be doing later. Now not all people with high GPA's are like this, some do actually have real projects and such and have no issues thinking on their own. but thinking just a high GPA and a internship are gonna land you job with a BS/BA degree with little effort is delusional.

[Edited on March 2, 2007 at 12:42 PM. Reason : d]

3/2/2007 12:36:21 PM

Quote :

"how many of the successful people on tww used it to get where they are - it is a great place to ask for help on certain subjects but to just basically say it's been 6 months and i can't get a real job with my degree means you are definitely not doing something right - especially with the way the market for CSC grads is right now"

Agreed. I was looking to get out at my last job and found 200 jobs in SW Virginia I was qualified for. Found infinitely more in the RTP area and got hired where I am now as a result. The jobs ARE out there ... don't be picky about your first one.

Quote :

"Between being an officer in a club and naming some times where I took charge in school projects, I usually have enough to talk about."

Agreed. You need to have some strong selling points you believe in and talk about passionately. Most of the time they can filter out BS from the non-BS and get to the core of you.

Resources (if not already mentioned):
-Career Center
-CSC Career Services
-CSC Advisors
-Virtual Advising
-Professional Placement Services (do a search on threads about this)
-Public Libraries
-Unemployment Services
-More I can't think of right now...

And my recommendation above all would be to spend some serious time cleaning up your resume and drafting a good cover letter. I looked at a before and after picture with doing a cleanup of both, I think I received 10x the number of replies from employers as a result.

3/2/2007 1:00:59 PM

goto someone. anyone. offer to work for an interns' wage until you can prove that you're worth a salary.

after 3-6 months you'll have the business relationships you need to be effective, the awareness of the environment you're working in, and the experience that you should have gotten while you were working as an intern.

[Edited on March 2, 2007 at 4:03 PM. Reason : .]

3/2/2007 3:59:14 PM

One of the technical writing professors has a really good resume building guide that will help:

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~smk/modules/module_resume/overview.html

3/2/2007 6:26:34 PM