I can into the university with a political science degree with the intention of doing law. However, after a couple years and realizing that law school was just not as attractive a career choice as it had been before I came into college, I added an economics degree to increase my chances of finding a job in the financial sector which I gained interest in. I took further steps to reduce risk of being unemployed after graduating by interning during every summer the past three years. I am fortunate enough to have received a return offer last summer which guarantees me a job position after graduating. I currently know the salary and location of my work if I take the return offer which really gives me peace of mind knowing I won't be jobless. My tuition was also taken care of entirely by my parents which significantly broadens the number of choices I can make upon graduation.
With regards to the experiences of others, a friend of mine who recently graduated sticks out the most. My friend graduated from the U of I with a computer science degree and landed multiple job offers in both east and west coast. Most of these offers were very attractive ones such as Google which he interned for two summers in a row. From sophomore year onward, he consciously streamlined his resume and tailored himself to the firms he wanted to work for through coding competitions, computer science clubs and internship experiences. These experiences made him very prepared for post graduation job hunting as he had a solid idea of what to expect during interviews (especially how to tackle the technical interview which is a crucial portion of the programming job process).
He has now worked in Google for two years without hiccups and has plans to hop jobs and maybe try the East Coast for a change. Although this seems like a boring example, I find his experience and preparation process very motivating and inspiring. During a recent catch up phone call I had with him, he reiterated the importance of tailoring your resume and having a specific interest instead of aimlessly throwing out resumes hoping for a hit. His rationale is that the job market now is simply too competitive for the "shotgun" approach.
Your focus in this post seems entirely on the immediate income risk you will face after graduation. That is natural, given your current situation. But it would have been good to discuss the longer term situation some as well.
ReplyDeleteSince you have a fallback job in hand, you don't seem to face any immediate downside risk. What about the upside? Are you actively interviewing for alternative positions? Is there some reason to expect that you can do better?
Both the tailoring of the resume and the job switching your friend is planning, may be easier in computer science than it is in other fields. It is easier to showcase work that you've been involved with and make a reputation with other programmers. In contrast, if you've been involved in financial transactions of any sensitivity whatsoever, you probably are bound by a nondisclosure agreement so can't say much about it with others and there won't be a tangible product from your own efforts to shop around.
So I wish you good luck with first job, your second job, and so on, but if you experience some bumps along the way know that sometimes that happens and is part of the way these things work.
Having a fallback job has definitely made me more complacent. I still am actively interviewing for alternate positions as I'd like to perhaps work in the states, but I'd say I would be more active if I don't have a fallback. The fallback job is still with a fortune 500 company so I am happy about it, "doing better" would probably be more location focused (west coast weather vs elsewhere).
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that tailoring resume for the computer science field is much easier since it is more narrow in scope than, say, finance related sectors. CS majors learn a lot of information that is immediately useful in their career which is not the case for a lot of the other majors which have substantial learning curves once one enters the job sphere.