My youngest son just graduated from college with a degree in Cultural Anthropology and German (he also speaks conversational French and lived overseas for seven years), and he is having a hard time getting his first “real” job. They keep wanting to put him in sales, or food-service because that’s what he did when he was in college. How did any of you get your first real job? He’s getting very discouraged and even thinking he should go back to school. I got my first real job with the IRS because I had, by chance, ended up collecting delinquent mortgage payments for FMHA and being successful at this was good for some points on my application. I was a Philosophy major (I know). Tell me your stories and maybe he can benefit from your experiences.
I landed my first real job after college through networking.
Met a retired guy when I was in college. He was a supporter of our International Business Club. After I got my degree, I was offered a position at a company over which he had a lot of influence. Similarly, my second job was offered to me because of someone I knew and that one brought me to Japan. Although I am quite happy with my current position, I still get offers all the time from people I know and meet. Interestingly, my current position is the only “real” job I got through a job interview. But now my experience carries a lot of weight.
Often it’s a matter of being in the right place at the right time. He just has to keep trying. Sooner or later the opportunity will appear.
Good luck!
Til this moves to IMHO:
I just applied for a full-time job as a research technician that I found at headhunter.net. Has he searched the Internet for jobs yet? There are a lot of sites out there where employers post job descriptions for people to find. He can do a keyword search, and/or search by location or field. It’s a place to start, I think.
A previous job offer I had a couple years ago was from the guy who wrote a computer column at our university paper before I did. After graduation, he went to work for a freebie computer publication. When the publication was looking for writers, I guess he thought of me. Now, I’d never even met the guy, so I can only assume he heard of me and got my contact info through the university paper. I didn’t take the job, but it was nice to have been thought of and offered it.
Does your son have any idea of what he wants to do?
I read once that something like 85% of jobs which last more than two years were landed through networking.
I got my first real job when a friend of mine left his and recommended me as his replacement. I met that friend working at a pizza place. He was working two jobs. Since I started the “real job” at entry-level wages I worked two jobs, too.
So even though your son may sling burgers for awhile, there’s a chance that could lead to something he wants to do. Maybe not one of his co-workers, but one of his co-worker’s friends. Or a co-worker’s parent, etc. Or a year from now one of his old classmates learns of something.
Your son needs to be patient, go on a lot of interviews, and let everyone know what he’s looking for.
For what of type of jobs or companies is he applying?
As I related on this board once before I was interviewed for Stage Manager for a TV show in Nashville, Tennessee. I expressed hesitation at being able to perform the duties. Not hired. The show was the Porter Wagoner Show with a new unknown and as yet unmarried star, Dolly Parton. Dang.
I learned by lesson. Later I interviewed for E-Systems, a major government covert operations business. Even the interviewer felt the snowstorm I conjured during the interview. But they called back with air fair to and a rental car in Washington, D.C. for an interview in the satellite tracking department.
The lesson was confidence.
“I got my job through the New York Times.”
Really, I did.
After I graduated from my college with my Computer Science degree, I asked the head of the Computer Science dept. (who was one of my professors, not a hands-off total stranger) if I could get a part-time job working in the student computer lab, and he gave me one. The next summer, someone came to him needing to fill a summer position, and he offered it to me. That summer position turned into something permanent.
My college helped lead me to my first job working part time for an insurance company. I moved up just one “rung” on the ladder and found out that I wasn’t going to go much further than part time after spending 3 years with the company. So I quit and went into substitute teaching and interviewed with a bunch of companies. My first quality job I found in a newspaper, and the great job I have now is due to networking through that job.
My advice is never settle on part-time employment after college. Part-timers rarely have any health insurance benefits, and all it takes is a serious illness with no insurance to drag you into bankruptcy court. If you don’t have a job, at least you can qualify for Medicaid.
I just recently (3 mo’s ago) landed a “real” job. I graduated from Ohio State 9 mo’s ago in Public Relations and found the Columbus job market sewed up tight.
My problem was that I was educated, but not skilled. I stress, there IS a difference, and employers notice. In a city that spits out 50,000+ college grads/yr., a college degree is near meaningless, because everyone has one.
I wish someone would have told me this lesson earlier, but some things you have to learn for yourself: IT IS THE SKILLS YOU POSSESS THAT MATTER; NOT THE EDUCATION (unless you plan on becoming a professional…doctor, architect, etc.).
I see that he has extensive language skills…start there. It’s an excellent skill to have, and it’s a great selling point. Tell him to push enthusiam in the interview, and sell his energy and eagerness for work.
Highlight the positives and ask yourself: “What makes me better for the job than the x-amount of others who are applying?”. If you can’t give a straight answer, chances are the h.r. person can’t either, and won’t hire you.
A lot of times you have to sell yourself in spite of inexperience, and in my case, I was backed up against a wall until I “needed it”, and it forced me to sell my strong points.
When he truly “needs it” he’ll find a way, and the opportunity will present itself. In the meantime, bend some ears, and good luck!
Well, for me, it requires scouring lots of ads on sites like monster.com and in the newspaper, and sending out over two hundred emails, faxes, and letters with my resume.
I got four interviews.
And wouldn’t ya know it, the last guy who interviewed me hired me.
My first job out of college was landed by answering a question about playing cards at lunch during the interview. Seems the boss liked to kick every bodies butt at spades during lunch and then go back to work. In more recent years the game tends to be golf.
I worked at that place for two years and let that guy beat me at every game. Ended up taking my supervisors position
(the fool won a couple of hands!)and then quiting in the third year, since I had “real” workplace experience.
I can only agree with the other posters who have stressed the importance of networking. If he is interested in a certain profession, he should consider joining a professional organization or club. For example, my major was in public relations, so I was in PRSSA in college, and PRSA after. You meet tons of other people in the profession who can help you land a job (it certainly helped me). He may also want to join something like a local Lions club, or similar. Again, the key is contacts.
For what it’s worth, my friend spent two years in Brazil and now speaks fluent Portugeuse. She got a job with AT&T as a translator for international phone calls and makes excellent, excellent money doing so (she now lives in Colorado). Might be worth checking out, since your son is multi-lingual.
I graduated with a degree in Anthropology, minor in theater. real useful, huh? I moved across the country with no real job prospects. At first I had 2 part time jobs – 1 working at a toy store, one long-term temping assignment at a catalog company that sold bilingual books music & videos for children. Meanwhile I was scouring ads, sending out resumes to various companies etc. After about a month, through the newspaper (!) I found a full time job, with benefits, doing pre-press production work. They hired me on the basis of my Macintosh skills. I worked there 9 months, when out of the blue I got a call from a recruiter at a major book retailing company locating in Ann Arbor Michigan (not naming any names of course). I had sent them a cold resume 9 months prior. They offered to interview me for either a)A department admin position in merchandising – the previous person had been promoted out of admining. or b)Email-based Customer service for their very-soon-to-open website. I chose the CS position (There is a stigma surrounding being an admin IMHO) with the website. They liked my retail experience (toy store!), my book experience (worked in the library in college) and my ability to type fast g. Hired me (this was 1998). I worked in that dept 9 months, then applied for, and got a position in the editorial dept of the site helping with PR. It wasn’t what I was interested in, but I knew I wanted to be in that department (are you sensing a pattern). Said “yes” to any and every kind of project someone needed help with. QA, proofreading, writing a column, press releases, training, presentations, whatever. (The director of our group was heard to say “What hasn’t rmariamp done?”) Pretty soon I got moved to projects I was more interested in. And here I am today.
Er, what’s my point? Ah, yes, if he is offered an uninteresting/unappealing entry-level job at a company he would like to work for, he should take it. Especially if the company has a strong mission to promote from within (most do). I wouldn’t turn up my nose at sales, Customer Service, etc. if it gets you in the door. That’s why they call these positions “entry-level.”
And it makes me laugh to think I got both of my jobs straight out of college in the 2 ways they say don’t work these days – newspaper ads and cold resumes.
Thanks Beadalin. I called my son and he’s going to contact AT&T and see if there are any possibilities.
To everyone else, this is fascinating, learning how each of you found your way into the cold, cruel world of employment. It looks like networking is the way to go. He has posted on every job board known to man and that’s where he is getting the food offers e.g. Papa Ginos, etc. The same thing happened to his brother, and he was a restaurant manager for years, making good money but hating it every minute, until he finally went back to school for a degree in computer networking.
I decided I wanted a career change, so went back to graduate school. Realizing that the degree would not be enough by itself, I volunteered at an agency related to my new career area while I completed my coursework. I not only got experience to put on my resume, I met the relevant people who later steered me in the right direction and provided letters of reference.
This belongs in IMHO, so I’m moving it.
Jill
Here’s a question: what does your son WANT to do for a living?
I’m not sure how helpful any of these answers will be, since I’m sure it varies from field to field. In academia, for instance, or at least in physics, you generally get an assistantship job automatically on entering grad school. It’s part-time, and the benefits are slim to nonexistant, but you’re doing essentially the same stuff that you’ll be spending the rest of your life on. Then, once you get your Ph. D., you keep an ear out for postdoc positions: There’s plenty of e-mails and corkboard notices floating around listing openings. After a few years as a postdoc, you repeat the same process for tenure-track jobs.
Currently, I’m at the assistantship stage, but I don’t know if that qualifies as a “real” job.
Let me second the question: What does he want to do? It seems to me that what you need to do to make yourself the most attractive candidate for the job depends a lot on what skills the job calls for. Networking is great, but if a job calls for, say, specific computer skills, knowing several people at the company may not help you if you don’t have the skills.
Also – and with all due respect to your son – some degrees are just not terribly marketable, especially not on their own. Poly. Sci. is one. Eng. Lit. is another. I’d bet Cultural Anthropology is another, too. The skills that a person gets in addition to the degree may be what is more valuable. For example, if he’s interested in journalism or public relations, see if he can get a job – any job – with a p.r. firm or advertising firm. Even as a gofer or receptionist he’ll see how the office works and what skills he needs to get a “real” job in the field – and he’ll be developing contacts. I think the jobs he looks for ought to be driven by his own interests, but he must be willing to start small – maybe very, very small. Sometimes the hardest thing is to get your foot in the door, and it actually can be a good way to do so by just being the guy who brings the boss coffee – if you’re an apparently bright, hard-working, ambitious, interested, and friendly coffee-bringer, and make your desire for bigger things (and ability to handle bigger things) known.
That said, do not underestimate the value of customer service-oriented jobs, even if they seem menial. The ability to deal well with the public and to problem-solve is very important to many employers, and a person may learn more about those by waiting tables than he or she might in an office.
For myself, I got my first real “career” job by doing reasonably well in school, by playing up my strengths in the interview – which included a series of customer-service non-career jobs, including waiting tables – and by coming from a fairly well-known family in my professional field in my state (something over which I obviously had no control, but if it helped me, and it probably did, I can hardly regret it).
I got my first job after the previous person was murdered.
This is no joke - I’m not trying to be funny.
She was a great person, and I miss her. But that really is how I got my job. I was the only person around qualified to take over, and available on short notice.
You could say I was in the right place at the right time, but I’d much rather have not gotten the job that way.
I have just landed a job that I am really looking forward to. I left Uni about 4 years ago. I worked several jobs which had little or no prospects and did not do much for me.
When I was out of work it took me a long time to find something else. It was just a case of applying for lots of jobs until I landed one. Does your son have anything in particular against sales? It could be a way into a company.
I would agree that confidence is important. As are his skills. He should sit down and list them, then look at the ones that are relevant to the jobs he wants.
One thing I have learned is that you sometimes have to start at the bottom. Because I did not have much experience, I had to start at the bottom and work my way up until my degree becomes a factor. If he is willing to do this, it will be easier to find a job.
As others have said, there is a lot of luck involved and networking is important. Talk to friends and tutors, anyone who might know about the job scene, or who might know a “friend of a friend” in the right area.
Good luck.
Rick