Jobs out of College

Double Z

So I was wondering what where your some of your first jobs out of college, how did you landed those jobs, and if looking back at them, are you glad you went for that particular job. It seems to me that most people fall for the first job they find, because they are scared of not finding a job. I also find very funny the whole song and dance companies put out for people close to graduation.

cosmicenema

My first job was a contracting gig while I looked for a more permanent one. I highly recommend doing that as it pays well, teaches you a lot, and builds up your resume quickly. I first career job was the exact job with the specific company I wanted. Set a goal and do what it takes to do it; even if it's a crappy job that pays the bills until you get what you want.

Kilarney

I was a liberal arts major. I took a year off prior to starting graduate school.

My experience is that if you are a good employee, take anything that gets your foot in the door. I worked at a bank, doing menial work. Within no time, the bank wanted to put me into their management program and ship me off to corporate headquarters. All this for a guy with no business training whatsoever. I went to graduate school anyway, but I was glad to have had the opportunity.

Pick what you want to do, and get your foot in the door. If you are a good worker, the rest will take care of itself. That's my advice.

Kiey

I spent a year looking for a job I wanted/figuring out what I wanted to do. Now I'm looking at grad school, but that a year away. So in the meantime I'm working at a bank, and plan to take some classes to fill prerequisites. I landed the job because my parents have connections at the bank with one of the higher ups. It's a local community bank, not a big chain.

Double Z

 
I guess it's just the feeling of "holy shit, this is almost over." I love my mayor and I'm happy with it, it's just that I see the types of IT jobs available here in Mexico and they are mostly crappy, dead end programming jobs that don't pay shit. Maybe that's just the way it is because of having no experience. Maybe that's just Mexico. I try to picture myself looking for a type of job that I want and I don't think I have any idea of what I want.
A lot of my friends who just graduated seem miserable with what they do, I always think that's because they had never really worked before. But who knows I just don't want to end up in a crappy, miserable job. At least I still have till May of next year to figure it out.
 

raquor

Well...up here in the Midwest United States the avg starting salary out of college is about $30,000-$50,000 give or take a bit depending on where you live. I got my first job thanks to some round about connections and came to the conclusion that it sucked...enormously. I then started searching and posting my resume on various job sites online and after a few months the company I work for now found me.

My biggest complaint about searching for a job both times was that I never ever heard back from any of the companies that I interviewed with except the couple that were actually interested in hiring me. Blah blah blah, they get hundreds of resumes and all that bullshit, they can still assign one of their employees high schoolers to copy and paste a generic email to me letting me know the company isn't interested.

HungryJoe

My first job out of college was teaching Math at a little military school. Part of my job was actually living there. It was weird to say the least. The only phone the students could use was a pay phone out on the parade ground. It was pretty far out in the country, so when darkness fell, it fell with dismal finality. It was like a black satin sheet inset with pinpricks of pale, ghastly light.

I was the only math teacher for the entire high school portion of the school. I taught Algebra I, II, Geometry, and Calculus. I wrote more about that job in this previous comment.

Rym

I was snapped up by IBM while I was still at university, and I continued working there after I graduated.  Three years in, I resigned to work for another large IT company in New York City.  My post-college work record has been constant and uninteresting.
The story about how IBM discovered me is actually kind of interesting.  I can't recall if I've spoken of it on the show, but I will in the future if I haven't already.

cosmicenema

The story about how IBM discovered me is actually kind of interesting. I can't recall if I've spoken of it on the show, but I will in the future if I haven't already.

Tease.

TheWhaleShark

I worked in a deli for a while until I landed a civil service job as a laboratory technician. From there, I've progressed from an entry-level lab tech to a full-fledged professional scientist with significant responsibilities and an endless sea of work.