Jobs for Students - Where Are They?

jtpalinmajere asks: "The past few years students like myself have found themselves in an ominously precarious situation. This is to say that the availability for jobs in the computer industry that are suited well for fresh meat graduates are dwindling at an alarming rate. Personally, I graduate this coming Spring and have been job searching for the past semester with little if any success at finding a prospective future employer. The placement office at my university hasn't been too helpful for many students in the CS department. The only companies that I have come in contact with that might consider fresh graduates are Microsoft and government agencies such as the FBI. If I can actually compete with the 76% foreign immigrant population of Microsoft then I might see that as a fairly good start, though the odds don't seem to roll in my favor. As far as the government is concerned, I'm simply not old enough for any job that gets paid more than minimum wage and has actual job security. Most of my job searching has been conducted through services like Dice and Monster. 99% of the jobs listed in these services require 2 - X many years of previous experience using Y software with a current Z security clearance level. I've even found one company that wants 10 years experience specifically with .NET -- go figure! I'm not looking for the dream job that everyone hopes to one day attain. I'm looking for a job that will simply get me into the industry with a meager salary large enough to sustain life. How many other students find themselves in my position? What are some opinions, particularly from our non-students, for soon to be graduates like myself?"

Comments

Welcome to the Jungle

[Numeric]

Did you do any internships while in college or coop? One of the most helpful job resources I found are my "ex-coworkers" and "friends of friends". If they like you and know you can perform good, people will keep an extra eye out for leads and/or possible openings.

Network...
Don't burn bridges...
Wear clean underwear...
?...
Profit

Immigrants

[sql*kitten]

The only companies that I have come in contact with that might consider fresh graduates are Microsoft and government agencies such as the FBI. If I can actually compete with the 76% foreign immigrant population of Microsoft then I might see that as a fairly good start, though the odds don't seem to roll in my favor.

I think you will find that the vast majority of non-US citizens at Microsoft, or any other organization that hire H1Bs for that matter, aren't fresh graduates, but were already experienced software developers before the H1B is granted. It would be very difficult under the terms of H1B to hire fresh graduates, as one of the conditions is that the holder must have skills that are not in ready supply in the US.

Therefore, these people are entirely irrelevant; you wouldn't be competing with them for an entry level job anyway.

Gettin a job

[droyad]

50% of jobs out there arn't advertised.
Go to the employers directly, send in your resume. It shows initiative if you call a company and ask to speek to HR or the hirer, depending on the size of the company.
I work for a small company (im not out of uni yet) and have heard that small companies are good for jobs, but don't advertise much. I hear this stuff through the "channel". Network some Wetware and hunt down a job.

good point

[Uma Thurman]

As far as the government is concerned, I'm simply not old enough for any job that gets paid more than minimum wage and has actual job security.

That's about right. My grandpa needed to be 18 and just graduated from high school to get a good job that could support a family. My father needed to have a 4 year degree for the same thing. I needed a degree and a few years of experience before I found a decent job.

At this rate our grandchildren are going to have to be retired before they can get a decent job.

Re:Do what the H1B's do...

[sql*kitten]

When you submit a resume to HR, talk about your 25 years of experience with .NET and 50 years of Java.

Care to back that up? Lying on an H1B application results in a 10-year ban from travelling to the US, so it's not something that anyone would do lightly. And it's not just a HR department checking up on you, it's the INS. And if a company decides to stretch the truth a little in a pitch about the experience of its employees, that's not necessarily the employee's fault.

Or was that just another whiny "the dang foreigners are takin' all our jobs and women" remark? Remember, the only difference between you and a green card holder is that your parents caught an earlier flight or boat.

Your rewritten resume

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

I don't like to criticise, but I'd hesitate to recommend your rewritten resume as an example. Since CV writing is quite a personal thing, I'll just list my reservations below with the most serious first, and let anyone else look at both and decide for themselves whether they agree.

• It's much too long. The reason that many people advocate a single page CV for new graduates is that most people can only usefully fill a single page at that stage in their career. To me, most resumes at any stage in a career should probably be two pages long. No-one needs all those little details of previous experience on a CV. It's only there to get you the interview, where you can discuss the details if they're relevant.
• It doesn't scan easily. Most humans screening a CV will scan for 15-20 seconds looking for vital information (level of education, rough idea of previous experience, most relevant skills). They will then ditch anything that hasn't caught them by that time. After that, you've got about two more minutes as they check some details before they make a final decision. I cannot, in 15-20 seconds, confidently establish any of the three big things mentioned above from this resume.
• The unusual layout doesn't help. Stick with standard formats unless you've got a good reason to be creative (perhaps applying for a job as a graphic designer). Either go for skills-centric, or chronological, or a sensible combination of both, depending on what strengths you want to highlight.