What was your experience after graduating from college?

Question

So far.. I haven't found a job after 1 month of searching. Mainly because I'm in a foreign country and secondly because I'm picky. I'm now considering grad school (I'm in EE).

Answer 1

After college I was molested physically and emotionally
Well the private sector requires working "experiance".
All the degrees in the world don't mean anything to them,
if theres nothing to show for it.

Answer 2

Went 8 months looking for a job. Finally found one, and promptly was laid off after 6 months. Spent a few more months looking for a job, took a few temporaries, got pregnant, just now found another job. It's sucked.

I wish I'd gone to tech school. You know, like you become a pharmacy tech after a year? Only jobs I could find paid just over minimum wage and weren't in my field. Couldn't even get into teaching because the market was so saturated with recent grads who couldn't find work.

Now we're heavily in debt with no way to pay for it all, and the health insurance is through the COBRA law, so that's a quarter of our family income. Daycare is another quarter, rent is a third. The rest doesn't cover the student loans & credit cards. There's nothing left over for food & utilities, so all of that goes on the credit cards we already can't pay off. I barely make more than when I was getting unemployment now. $11 an hour My husband has a degree too and went 9 months looking for a job and finally found one at $8.50/hr. They just gave him a raise to $10/hr though after the 3 months. Still isn't enough to live.

Guess I can't keep my 401(k). Need to liquidate it so we can get on food stamps. They turned us down for medicaid cuz we had too much money in the bank. :(

Answer 3

Sheesh... Someone has to have a positive answer to this question!

I had started applying for permanent positions during my final semester of school. After I received my Bachelor's degree, I worked for a temp employment agency (doing various administrative jobs, some at good companies related to my field of study, some not). I did this full-time for 3 months, during which time I continued to apply for permanent jobs that interested me. Every temp assignment I took on added a bit of experience to my resume. I was being picky, too, but my desire to start work was strong, so I ended up taking a position as an administrative assistant -- not because it paid great or because it was related to my college major, but because, I knew that the work environment would be warm and could offer a lot of growth opportunities if I worked hard.

The man who hired me quickly became my mentor and, within 9 months, I was promoted... 2 years after that, I was promoted again, and again after another 9 months until I became senior management. Keep in mind that I did this without a Master's degree (though I know that, now, as I consider getting one, I could do so for free via my organization.) Though I started out small, these promotions allowed me to buy my own home at 23.

My point here is not to toot my own horn (I swear!) but to let you know that incredibly rewarding jobs CAN come out of lower-ranking jobs that you never thought you wanted (I started as a secretary!). You have to be passionate about your work, yes...
And it's good to have high standards, but don't be picky to the detriment of your own future. Worst case scenario: you take a job, test the waters, and if you don't like it, move on. Arguably, this is what "entry level" work is all about.

I work with a lot of students who think that they are "too good" to go this route. They don't want to start small or accept any positions unrelated to their degrees.... I don't begrudge them this (passion and drive are good traits), but I wish I could remind them what they might be missing out on. In the grand scheme of things, your first job is just one of many "stepping stones" that you will encounter.