Graduated in December with a degree in MIS. Not a great student, not a terrible one, I’d say I’m in about the middle of my class as far as what I learned or what I know. Been looking for a job since graduating, no luck. Originally was looking for IT jobs, but I am now absolutely willing to take any job in any field that I don’t hate. In April I did have a job lined up in the Morgtage industry which didn’t work out (I started traning, but decided against taking the job when I found out exactly what I’d be doing.)
My question:
Up until now I have been applying for advertised positions only. I am looking for some good resources for helping me put together a cover letter to submit my resume to employers without advertised positions. Any advice on good places to look?
The main job I am interested in:
The place I really want to work is for a local major league baseball team. I have been a huge fan my whole life, and I have attended between 20-40 games a year since I had a driver’s licence. I would honestly be willing to do any job with them that would be a permanent “career”, and I think I would enjoy doing anything with them. I have contact info for their Human Resource department, and I plan on sending in a resume asap. They do rarely post a few specific openings, but haven’t posted anything in a while , so I am trying to just apply for “anything”.
Walk in. Contrive to meet someone. Make contact. Volunteer to do some volunteer thing with the team. Somehow get face to face with the people you want to work with.
That’s not what I would do, but I’m not a dreamer like you. I’ve seen friends work it that way. Sometimes they fell flat on their ass, sometimes they made progress. Either way, they were happy. If you are that kind of person, that kind of strategy would work for you.
Oh, and prepare a cover letter pointing out ways in which your education and personality might benefit the organization.
You are wise to look outside of IT if you plan to stay in America. Nearly all IT jobs are/will be outsourced to India, Russia, etc.
Get out of the IT field, or else move to India where there are lots and lots of jobs available. The IT industry is booming in India, every major software and computer company is building plants and offices there, every major american company is outsourcing to India, etc.
Being young, you may be able to eventually find some IT job here temporarily, but it wont be long before you will be just another old unemployed experienced American IT person.
I have none. I have been looking for a job for 6 months now and I haven’t found shit.
I have discovered that most of the job search advice you get from career services or guide books is complete and utter bullshit when the economy is bad.
Here’s why:
All this pie in the sky advice assumes that YOU are the ideal candidate. Everyone else by comparison is a complete incompetant and if only you can get the right person to notice your finely tuned resume over the crappola ones, you’re in. So they tell you to have 10 people review your resume. They offer services to review your resume. They give you sample resumes to look at. Problem is that odds are everyone is more or less as competant as you. Every resume uses the same buzzwords and Times New Roman font. Every company uses the same standardized online resume system that searches for those same keywords that eveyone has.
So next they give you all this “guerilla marketing” BS. Network! network! network! Well I can’t tell you how many resumes I would receive from B-School alums and undergrad school alums and fraternity brothers and former roomates, none of whom I could help simply because I am not in a position to.
Forget walking into a bank or finance company uninvited and getting past security. Besides, what are you going to do? Walk around the building with a stack of resumes?
Here’s the problem. Unless you are highly skilled in a particular discipline, you (anyone really) are essentially a generic nobody. Right now there are more jobs than applicants so there will always be someone smarter or better qualified or with better experience.