HELP: I Want Work (Fresh Out Of College)

Hey guys,

Figured I'd ask this given I'm struggling a bit and it cannot hurt. I'll be as brief as possible.

So I am graduating this term with a MS in Data Analytics -- 4.0 GPA. My undergrad was an unrelated field. I have 0 job experience 'in-field', but have worked various unrelated Student office jobs for almost 4 years (Student Government -- Higher Positions that were paid, Teaching Assistantship.). So I know the Microsoft packages (Excel, Outlook, Teams, etc), office conduct, how to write an email, etc. Certified in PowerBI, familiar with R / Python / Tableau / SPSS, proficient in SQL.

I have been applying to 'entry' level jobs and internships [even unpaid ones], but so many just never get back to me. Those that do seem to have wildly higher exceptions beyond what they list online that I don't qualify for. It's rather discouraging. I tried going to my College's Career Center --- but all they did was review my Resume and say 'looks good'.

Given my last term ends early January, and I have absolutely 0 lined up, I'm starting to get worried lol.

------------
Anyway... does anyone have any advice or on what to do when fresh out of college to get hired? Is there some specific website I should be looking at beyond just Handshake, Linkedin, Indeed, Glassdoor? Is there something I SHOULD be doing I'm not?

• My peers whom I networked with throughout are not finding jobs eithers.

Thank you,
A really shitty Rune Fencer.
-Senaki

Lying on your resume. That's what you should be doing. Give your friends made up job titles for made up companies and use them as references. The worst that can happen is you'll be rejected for the role, and that's already happening now anyway.

Immediately start contacting people at your school/in your department. There is a high likelihood that they have internships or co-op partnerships or connections with external companies in this field. There are usually people in each department at least partially dedicated to stimulating commercial engagement with their students.

Build your resume- edit each resume to each job posting. When it gets through the filters and into a human's hands, know that they are looking for specific things and how this role will interact with their team. Write directly to that person.

Use strong language in your resume. Avoid phrases like
'helped contribute to' = what did you actually do?
'oversaw' = so it was done without your intervention?

apply apply apply

Goodluck!

I think every country must have its particularities.

I think youre skills are pretty solid, I dont see you having any trouble finding a place.

If you were a brazillian, I would say you could go in the following ways:

1. Try to work for the government. Here, those works are available through tests. It is a pretty good way to go if you have nowledge but no experience or soft skills to pass in an interview.

2. Setup you Linkdln and try to work from there to find oppoertunities and to be found by companies.

3. Send your curriculmm to any company regardless if there is work or not. The HR department probably will save your curriculum and present it when the needs arise.

4. Now what I would try to do is to send your curriculum to companies that outsorrce squads. My company dont hired directly people in the market. Instead, it firm a contract with those HR companies, that will do all the heavy lifting of hiring people and making them available. I particularly think this option is quite accessible because those outsource contracts deal with large number of professionals, so they can always fit you somewhere you can work well.

If you don't mind, could you share your resume with personal details and names of previous employers removed?

I won't pretend to be an expert, but I am a software engineer and I have landed jobs at some larger companies.

I also started my career when the job market was bad years ago and it was hard to find a job let alone a high paying one.

Not getting a response from people is normal. You're lucky if 1 out of 20 responds. A lot of this changes once you start getting job experience or if you get a big name company on your resume then people will start reaching out to you constantly


Edit: I'll also add that location does matter sadly. Also are you looking for remote only or are you willing to go into the office? The more "rules" you set on your job hunt, especially the first, the harder it will be.

Thjs is a bit long, but had extreme success right out of college (very unexciting state university). I have always advocated to new graduates to try to mimic my success by offering this advice. Every word below is 100% true.

Step 1 - delete pride.

My first job out of college was through a temp agency, cold calling for a nonprofit; $12 per hour. People next to me were calling their drug dealers, the call center room wreaked of BO, and I had a 30m lunch break and a 15m personal break. I carried a leather carrier bag and always had 2 copies of my resume, wore a suit and tie every damn day, even on "casual days."

STEP 2 - Dress better, be better.

Your bosses notice, even though they will NOT look you in the eye. You stink of failure (and other peoples BO). Stay the course. Never be late, always dress professional. Do not socialize with your low level co-workers but stay in your lane...you're not an executive, don't pretend like you are. Offer to help carry heavy things, clean spills without being asked, tidy up after other people on your break.

STEP 3 - look for opportunities. Always.

One of the call center BO people stole an executives lunch from the lounge (which they should never have been in). After they came and lectured us like we were 5 years old (see STEP 1), I ran out during my 30m break to grab lunch and got something for her too.she appreciated it as she had meetings all day and couldn't get away.

Weeks later, an executives assistant was canned for incompetence. I waited until my 15m break (stay in your lane!) and brought my resume to the regional directors office. Said "hey, I do have a college degree, I really like working for you guys. I think I could really do this job."

Long story short (too late!), they temped me to that position, now I was at $18/hour. After 30 days they offered me the job, 40k a year with benefits, an adult hour lunch break etc.

When the director I worked for (rage)quit 10 months later, the newest regional director had no idea how to manage her department...so I did it. I did not enter my directors office (stay in your lane!!), but managed everything from my little floor desk. I would call the regional director (of our department) to help me with anything that I felt was too much for me to decide. During this time I created a great relationship with that office.

When they finally interviewed to replace my director, the executive VP of the entire company came to do the interviews. I did a presentation while playing tetris (I'm amazing at tetris) while talking about my sense of logic, focus, pieces of an office fitting together, all that crap. Later, I was told by our branch director the executive VP turned to her after my interview and said "where have you been hiding this guy?"

Starting as a cold caller at 12/hour, after 15 months or so I was one of the youngest directors in the company, making 80k a year (this was back in 2003 or so, so very good money).

Outro- ultimately I did leave that company after a few years. They were absolutely amazing to me, I just didn't like corporate work at all. When I left, the VP told me "we need to adjust what we do if we're going to lose someone like you."

Summary - Don't look at ANYTHING as beneath you. If anything really is beneath you it will BECOME beneath you in time. Get out there and do anything and doors will open.

Back when dirt was young and so was I one took whatever there was, even way out of the field you trained in, and never stopped the search for something remunerative or relevant. Shift work was to be preferred for this so you could interview without taking time off.

Then again this was before darpanet let alone the interwebs. Today job seekers can send out hundreds of applications a day and employers let AI filter out 95% of them. Maybe 99%. Also today gig work often replaces that crappy shift work due to flexibility in taking interview time off.

Also today beware employment scams designed to get you to give up personal info.

TLDR: Take anything and never stop looking for what you want.

STEP 2 - Dress better, be better.

Just a note, this won't do anything in the software field. Honestly I'd be confused if you dressed up super fancy. I'm not saying come in a graphic tee shirt but unless your job requires you to be stressed up, I wouldn't.

Good point, that's definitely not my field. Point stands though, don't look like a piece of crap when you're trying to break in.

My current job I show up to work looking alllllllllmost like a homeless person. Established is wonderful.

entry level data analytics was hit pretty hard by the government shut down (assuming you're US). a lot of these positions are federally funded research. we, as well as our adjacent facilities, had to freeze the hiring process on majority of these positions.

do you have any lab experience? what was your concentration? did you do a thesis or comprehensive exam?

the most pertinent recommendation from the previous posts is deleting your pride. success in academics doesn't immediately translate to exceptional performance in industry. make sure to keep your git updated with past and current projects. translate your projects to the position you're applying for.

dress business casual for interviews.

Join the Military, or enter a Trade School.

The days of where just having the degree was a foot in the door are long gone, sadly...they were crumbling even when I left school.

Data science and knowing how to work with Power BI are hot topics in any company that aspire to survive in this world.

I myself will start to study seriously Power Bi this end of year.

The OP is just wondering how to kickstart his carreer. But again I dont think he will have any trouble finding an occcpation

Trade School is what I did. Specifically Steamfitter's Local 602 about 22 years ago. Generally High Wages (Will vary by region) free College-Backed training, Benefits, Pension, Annuity and depending on the trade we tend to use equipment to do the heavy lifting for us so we don't get the "Broken Body by 45" problem; as long as we don't get stupid and put our bodyparts in places they shouldn't be lol. Plumbing is good if you don't mind the smell, Electricians are good too if you don't mind counting to three most of the year.

That is all to say that there are always options if you're not afraid to turn to Blue Collar if you have to, even if it's just to get by until the job you really want opens up.

He did go to a trade school. Data analytics is a trade not a profession.

Military might be good. With a MS he can start as an officer and have decent odds on actually working in his trade.

This depends pretty heavily on the company, so I'd be careful. I'm not saying they will refuse to hire you for not dressing nicely, but if they drag you around to meet with any form of executive then it might not reflect as well to the types of folks who would care. If you are any kind of customer facing role (e.g. consulting) then same story, your ability to recognize when you will be expected to dress appropriately will be part of the job.

Personally idgaf and I always feel awkward dressing up for going to customer sites or interviews, but when I have to meet with someone that's not an engineer, it matters more and I usually expect that'll be part of a job interview.

No one is going to look down on you for dressing nicely, but some people in some situations will absolutely look down on you for not dressing what they deem an appropriate manner would be for a candidate. It's safer to take the too nice route than the not nice enough route.

I generally assume somewhere between business casual and suit/tie, with the latter being pretty much non-existent these days and the former being the bare minimum.


Every interview I've done, this is the fastest way to be shown the door. I've had people do it, it's obvious, and it's an immediate pass - don't even go to the next phase. It's one thing to stretch things a bit and admit it, it's entirely different to make up companies and blatantly lie about your work history.

The only thing I remember from when I was in your position is that 100% of the advice I got from people who hadn't graduated in the last 1-3 years was outdated garbage. For that reason, I hesitate to give any real advice and caution against putting stock in most of this advice.

I have never worked for a company that hires people out of college, so I have no experience from the hiring side either.

GL HF the job hunt sucks

Edit -- Didn't reply back correctly to one of the individuals who mentioned the Military, but OP this is how that option could benefit you:

Where this individual could benefit from long-term future employment prospects from military service as an Officer or Enlisted (note -- it can up to 2 years to commission between boards, selection, clearance, etc., and much more competitive, versus enlisting) 4 year active duty contract in the USAF or USSF in a technical career field that requires a Top Secret clearance. Alternatively, finding a reserve/guard (part-time) position in any branch of service in a career field that would grant this individual that same level clearance and using that to get a job with a civilian contractor supporting defense or private efforts (Booz Allen, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Deloitte, etc. too many to name) performing Data Analytics work for six figures and great benefits is realistic.

This opens a lot of doors that are closed to most people and there are a lot of opportunities taking this route for sure. The thing to be mindful of is that a lot of people esp in tech fields will have issues obtaining a clearance (due to lifestyle decisions that are somewhat common in the tech world), so it's worth looking at the process to be sure before going this route and make sure you are ok with the lifestyle things you need to be mindful of.

My first job out of college was decades ago, but I've just recently made a hire on my team. There's no right answer here, so much is context dependent.

That being said, I can tell you how I triaged the applicants. Applicants were required to submit a cover letter, resume, and answer a writing prompt (and we specified that answers that appeared to be AI generated would lower the chances of a successful submission - and we still got a bunch!). Failure to follow those hiring guidelines got applicants immediately disqualified - we lost about a third of applicants at this very first step.

I gave folks 1 point for cogent answers to the writing prompt, 1 point for a cover letter tailored to our specific organization, and 1 point for each area of subject matter expertise in their resume that matched the job listing. Top 5 got phone screens, top 3 got panel interviews, one got hired. This was a technical role and I didn't look at formal education at all.

Some folks will tell you it's a numbers game and to do the old spray and pray with your applications. There may be some truth to that - I guess it depends on what kind of organization you want to work for and what you hope to get out of that work. Maybe a hybrid approach is necessary where you cast a wide net but put in actual effort for places you actually care about landing a job.

I would say that there are a lot of places it's a moral imperative to avoid - and some are mentioned in this thread. But you do you, find what works.

Have you thought about crime?

I appreciate all the feedback.

I don’t have time just now to respond to everything, so I will go over the most frequent (Mode) comments.

1. Join Military
- I looked into joining the Coast Guard when I was younger. Found out I have multiple chronic medical issues and ‘there is no way to be taken’. So that route is blocked off to me.
- JW someone said ‘tech life style tends to lead to issues getting Top Secret access. What does this mean? What type of choices?

2. What is your background / Degree Concentration? — Social Science (I guess.) But I’m down to work elsewhere.
- Undergrad in Political Science — focus on Econ
- I went for 2 masters degrees at once, getting both shortly after one another. MA in Political Science, MS in Data Analytics (most of my classes were actually Business Analytics-based). The school offered to pay for both degrees if I went this route. If I tried Data Sci in engineering I wouldn’t have had it paid for, and I couldn’t afford the degree without payment.
- I was Pre-PHD track forever, but due to personal life priorities this pathway is no longer available to me.

3. Did you do a thesis?
- Actually no. Because of my dual degree I was actively discouraged from doing it from my advisors.
- I was most interested in Political Behavior research and since undergrad I wanted to go for a PHD in it. Most of my term papers are in that lens to some degree (Political Efficacy, Post-Materialism, Political Socialization [1. Education; 2. Jennings + Niemi framework with gender emphasis redesign], Linked Fate analysis, whatever whatever.


4. Go to trade school
- At this point, I spent 3 years getting 2 Masters. 5 years an undergrad (1 year got borked up due to Covid). I’m done with school for now. I’m so burnt out.
- Data analytics also is more of a trade than theory degree. Every single class was teaching me some Software (ex: Whole classes just teaching me SQL, Python). It’s not even really considered an ‘academic’ degree lol.


5. What Barriers are you putting up for ‘applications?’
- So I‘ll take any industry for Data Analytics. I don’t care
- My MA (Gov jobs) are straight not hiring right now due to fed gov freeze, and from what I hear from buddies they are actively laying people off. So I don’t see that route as a safe backup anymore.

6. Talk to your advisors
- MA advisors aren’t helpful beyond academia sadly.
- MS advisors… Honestly, they’ve been out of the field for so long that they don’t seem to have any ‘in’ for me. Or they are specialists and don’t know what entry level even is anymore. Maybe I just got unlucky with the profs I built rapport with. One I had an hour meeting with just told me to basically look on Indeed.
- TL:DR. I tried that route, it wasn’t fruitful.

Thx for all the helpz.

meaning you're likely designing things for military application or doing government analytics. these positions are often times sponsored (meaning the place you work for will cover expenses for clearance). most important thing to highlight in your resume is your eligible, but require sponsorship. you're likely only get sponsored for low level clearance at entry level which isn't terribly invasive and only takes a couple months.


good, they ensured you were given experience with industry standards.

it's just a frustrating period at the moment for entry level. just keep applying.

I legit don’t know much about it.

Does dual citizenship disqualify me?

When I was a kid my parents got dual citizenship for me with UK (so US + UK). I was like 8 when my folks did it.

I’m actually partial to working with the Gov. I’m just not sure if this would be an issue.

if you have a current US citizenship, you qualify. just indicate your primary nationality as being US and disclose your dual UK citizenship. you will be interviewed, just put on your best america, *** ya mentality and be transparent.

Getting a security clearance involves a pretty invasive background investigation depending on the level you are getting and who it is with. It's not a situation where you take a job, they clear you, then you get access. Rather it's a mound of paperwork, you do a bunch of stuff, then wait for a while to get an answer while they paint a picture of you as a person then decide the risk of giving you whatever the access level requested is. The extent these things are true will depend on the level needed.

The biggest issue in the tech world is marijuana usage, which is what I was referencing earlier. Others include gambling addictions, excessive debt, large # of foreign contacts, other drug usage, DUI, arrests, etc. Again depending on what you are getting and with who, this will look differently. It's not so much a "if you do x, you fail" sortof thing, more of a whole picture, but there are absolutely things that will prevent you from being cleared. That said, drug use even in legal states can present a problem and most people I know who couldn't get cleared was due to weed, but again it's not a hard no, it depends on how long ago, how much, etc.

Questions on what is and isn't an issue would depend on a lot of factors. If you plan on taking a cleared job then you should discuss with security staff before accepting to make sure nothing is going to be a problem. This should be part of the hiring process but I don't think it always is.

There's a lot of info out there on this, so do some reading on it and see, but keep in mind a lot of it varies on a lot of factors, the best resource is whoever you end up working for and having a discussion with the security officer(s) before accepting. Just be aware some things, like marijuana, will complicate or potentially exclude you.

I appreciate you explaining it to me, thank you. :)

Fortunately I never did drugs, hardly drink, don’t smoke. Never had any legal issues. So I should be good there. I’ve been an employee of my state for almost 4 years now. xD

I will admit based on what you guys are saying, those background checks sound scary af. xD

Does being a lonely incel for the past 3 ish years with 0 luck from women count as a risk? (Only half joking.)

Everything I stated is all I have. It’s just in resume form otherwise.

All I’ve done for work is student jobs and been a student. :(

I'm confused how old you are. Are you really just 21/22?

I never claimed to be 21/22. :x