Finding a job

[Idlemessiah]

Only advice I can give is "move where you're needed" The U.S. is a big place, theres more than 2 cities to find work in. I live in the UK, when I finish my degree in the summer I'll be taking a masters for a year then more than likely I'll be leaving the country.

Theres no real market for a trained archaeologist when most people get one supervisor and a bunch of untrained volunteers to do the work. Even worse is the gov are promoting the idea, all the grunt work is now done by untrained amateurs with no entry level work available to people who've just finished a degree. I'll be lucky to find decent paying work withing 1000 miles.

 

[isometry]

If you want a job: get a PHD in mathamatics. But by the time you do that, the econamy will be good again

It may have just been hyperbole, but I heard that to get a PhD in math, you pretty much need to come up with your own theorum/law/formula.

Yeah, in mathematics and the sciences you need to do original research to get a PhD, so in pure math that means proving original theorems. That doesn't have to be as difficult as it sounds though, it varies with the quality of the graduate program. At a top school graduate students solve major unproved conjectures or blaze new trails in research, but at the rest of schools its good enough to invent a minor theorem that few other scholars care about; it still takes years of training, and +100 pages of original and correct math, but it doesn't have to solve a famous problem every time.

It's on topic, because graduate school in a hard science subject is a great way to get work in this economy.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

I've been there before and I swear to god I hate being there now. No matter how many resumes I pass out, how many times I call in after passing a resume, and going back in to check it out I still don't get the job. In this day and age it really is who you know or how desperate a company is for employees.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

Yeah, in mathematics and the sciences you need to do original research to get a PhD, so in pure math that means proving original theorems. That doesn't have to be as difficult as it sounds though, it varies with the quality of the graduate program. At a top school graduate students solve major unproved conjectures or blaze new trails in research, but at the rest of schools its good enough to invent a minor theorem that few other scholars care about; it still takes years of training, and +100 pages of original and correct math, but it doesn't have to solve a famous problem every time.

It's on topic, because graduate school in a hard science subject is a great way to get work in this economy.

Yes, at a university. If they have the money. Which they don't.

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

Finding a job in this economic climate has a lot to do with being in the right place at the right time.

It's true. It took me 3 years to land a successful Job. THREE YEARS, and im 21 now. I wasted 3 years of my life because of the Australian Job economy. The problem is, I was stuck in a town that's mostly run by coal companies and only hired drop-out bogans to work for the mines.

 

[Spectrum_Prez]

Took me 1.5 years to land a proper, paying, full-time job after graduating from university. I had to move twice, first to Washington D.C. (for an unpaid internship) then to NYC. So, this weekend marks my fourth week at the new place - since I've arrived, they've already fired five people from my team. So I wouldn't be surprised if I end up back in the same boat as you.

Here are some tips. Most will sound really obvious, but I can't stress how important they are. Really. Really. Here we go:

1.) Proofread your resume. I'm not kidding. Proofread your resume again. Print it out and proofread it. Every time you change it, even slightly, print it out again, then read it again.

2.) Get a standardized email address. Make it [email protected]. Have it forward emails to your usual email box.

3.) Don't send the same cover letter everywhere. Write boilerplate paragraphs or sentences, then construct each cover letter using those bits.

4.) Find more places to apply to. This is the key. You have to play the numbers game. How do we do that?
a. Consider looking for work in other cities. That's the easiest way.
b. Make a target list of all the companies you want to apply to. Visit their careers pages, then set up an auto-notify service so you'll get an email every time those pages are updated.
c. For companies with tricky, script-heavy career pages, visit them at least once a week. Don't bother applying for anything older than a week (unless it really, really fits your background or is otherwise worth it).
d. Expand your list of companies by searching for businesses in your area. Read the local newspapers, find out who's hiring, who's expanding. Research the industry you want to work in and find out who the major and minor players are, if there are any start-ups.
e. Don't be afraid of using Craigslist to find jobs. Often times, companies will post there and on their own careers websites simultaneously - it's a good place to get a heads-up. Any company you see posting any job on Craigslist or any other job website (use simplyhired.com, I recommend), add them to your list if they seem to fit.
f. Sometimes, if you're lucky enough, you might be able to find blogs or websites that also keep track of jobs you might be interested in. For example, I visited [a href=http://publicaffairsjobs.blogspot.com/]this blog[/a] every day (it probably won't be relevant to you, but it's the type of thing you should be searching for).

5. Consider doing an internship (paid or unpaid, depending on your financial situation) or going back to school. Besides looking good on your resume, they're a great way to get introductions in your field.

6. Don't give up hope. Be persistent. Set a goal: Everyday I will send out 5 applications before playing any video games. If I can't find any, I'll stay online and keep looking until I can find 5.

 

[Berithil]

Luck, and bugging the crap out of them. Seriously, go back to the places at least once a week to ask about it. That's how I got my first job at a bakery. Also doing volunteer work and getting to know people is a great way to get a job. That's how I got my current job at a food distribution company. Making a good impression on the right people. They actually offered me the job without me even asking for it. Earning 12 bucks an hour with full benefits, pension, and 401k is a wonderful job when your only eighteen.

 

[baconfist]

Spectrum_Prez has a very good point on the email address. [email protected]. You can use others if you know the type of people you will be working with for example in the industry I'm in something like [email protected] would have been good whereas [email protected] although amusing would be bad.

This may sound a little creepy but these day with social networking being as big as it is here's something you can do to help your odds.

Find out who does the hiring at the company or companies you want to work at and using things like facebook find a way to insert yourself into their lives. If they go to a church maybe start going to the one they go to. If they are in beer league baseball join that league or their team if possible. If they have a son that works at best buy get a job there if possible. Showing up at an interview and having the person look at your resume and say, "Says here you know so and so",or hey you go to the same "insert place here" as me will give you a huge advantage but they don't need to know you set that up in hopes of getting hired.

When I was at my job interview the lady doing the hiring looked at my resume and said,"You used to work at _____ you know I used to work there." I said, "Oh wow really do you know Corey?"
The thing is I had known that for almost a year. I had gotten a job there for the purpose of sitting across the desk from her and asking her if she knew Corey. Corey being my supervisor and a friend of hers. Corey the person I had just spent months working very hard to impress for the sole purpose of being my reference and telling this woman that I was a great employee.

 

[Gaiseric]

I was in the same position as you for a long time. The only thing I can say is don't get discouraged and apply to everywhere(retail stores, warehouses, temp agencies, security, restaurants, etc...) and for every position you can.

 

[Techsmart07]

mmm... I've been having similar issues. a lot of it, unfortunately, is networking. Do you go to job fairs, shake a lot of hands, get to know a lot of people? The closest I've gotten is right now, with a potential management position at a pharmacy and a data management position. The data management is because I got to be friends with someone already in the field. The other is because I went and spoke with the people running the pharmacy's employment division on numerous occasions. They saw me at job fairs, at their stores, etc. They know me, not necessarily well, but enough that when they see my name, they don't just turn the page.
In short...
As said, it's all about who you know and being in the right place/right time.