From: diachun@sybil.cs.Buffalo.EDU (Justin D Diachun)
Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc
Subject: Job hunting: Playing it smart
Date: 21 Jul 92 05:34:32 GMT
Organization: State University of New York at Buffalo/Comp Sci
Originator: diachun@sybil.cs.Buffalo.EDU

I think we can start a thread here that should be able to get a
bunch of recent grads into the job market.  I want to hear some
feedback on how one should approach the job market if you want to
get hired, as a new college graduate.  To start, let me explain
how I got a job.

My biggest asset was that I had a good forum to sell myself in.
I completed a BSCS in February.  I was looking for a job as a
"computational biologist", where I would use computers to solve
biological problems.  This just happens to be one of the good
areas these days, to my surprise and good fortune.  I spent a lot
of time to make a nice, clear resume that said exactly what I
wanted to do.  I posted the text version on bionet.jobs back in
March.  For the most part, they contacted me.  Obviously the
ideal situation, since I now knew they were interested.  For the
curious, the responses I got took 2 days to 3 weeks to come in.

Sure, I had solid grades and good experience.  But the problem as
I view it is to have people read your resume who are really
hiring right now!  My brother is in the same position, as a just
graduated mechanical engineer.  In his field, he has similar
credentials as I did, but he is having trouble--probably because
of his field.  These days a recent BSME is just not getting hired
very easily.  His main source of interviews is his Career
Planning and Placement office at his school.  He has had a few
interviews, but nothing clicked yet.  I posted his resume for him
on misc.jobs.resumes but there was no email, phone, or US mail
responses that came from it.  Lost in the massive volume of that
newsgroup, I have to assume.  To be fair, he is not looking for
anything directly computer related, so it is unlikely it would be
spotted there.

Now some statements on methods that have worked and not worked.
The big loser for trying to get a job seems to be to pick some
company that you really, really want, not checking if they are
known to be hiring now, spending a lot of time writing a great
cover letter to that company, sending it off with your resume to
the Human Resources Director, and waiting for a response.  The
overwhelming conclusion is that this is NOT NOT NOT playing it
smart.  I have heard stories of people sending out literally
hundreds of "personalized" letters to companies that they have
approached this way.  I never got an interview; maybe my brother
got one.  The normal result is to get to get no reply at all, or
maybe a card saying "thank you, we will put you on file and let
you know" meaning you are going to be ignored.  It is my feeling
that there are probably dozens of people in that company that
would be interested, if only the resumes got as far as them.  But
they don't.

So now I need to ask those out there who actually do the
hiring--what would be the best way to contact YOU if YOUR group
was going to have an opening?  What would you do?  The
theoretical idea is that Jake at R&D needs a new grad, so he
calls his friend Joe.  Joe doesn't know of any, so they think of
a few good schools in the area and ask to have resumes from those
schools sent down to them.  Still too many, they scrap any GPA
under 3.0 or 3.5 until the group gets small, and give a few
people a call.  Jake might also call up someone that Joe suggests
since he trusts his judgement.  End result is that probably less
than 1 in 10 or even 1 in 100 resumes that were sent in got
looked at.  I hope someone can deny this and paint a clearer
picture of how the process really works.

Now some unconfirmed methods.  First, if you know someone that
you worked with, that is a great source to try to find employment
again.  Call up an old boss from a summer internship or even high
school, and see if they will try to help you.  Try having your
parents ask their friends, or a minister at church.  It may be
surprising how far this can go.  This did not work out for my
brother or I--bad luck or a normal fate to this route?

How about scouting the local city area and stopping by in person
to deliver a resume?  Would it help to call first?  Does showing
up in person help for any reason?  How about talking to the
secretaries while there, what could you learn?  Is there a reason
to try this instead of mailing one in?

Of course there are the want ads, but they are normally not a
great quality place to look.  Is there a step up from the want
ads of the newspaper in the city you are in?  Scientific
journals?  How about searching out a remote city?  Sure, you can
buy a paper from that city too, but is there a better or smarter
way of looking?

If you got a job as a recent college grad, what method did you
use to get it, and what did not work?  Or, if you have an insight
into how people actually hire recent grads, how is it done and
how do you get through to them?  Don't tell me that all of it is
though college recruiting programs; I got hired without even
talking to one since I was seeking a specialized area.  So it
might be true for large companies, but how about smaller ones, or
brand new startup places?

Let's hear it.  How do you play it smart?


Justin
-- 
___   ____   ____   ____   ___________________   ____   ____   ____   _
\  \ / \  \ / \  \ / \  \ /      Helix        \ / \  \ / \  \ / \  \ / 
/\  \  /\  \  /\  \  /\      Justin Diachun    \  /\  \  /\  \  /\  \  
  \__\/  \__\/  \__\/  \ diachun@cs.buffalo.edu \/  \__\/  \__\/  \__\/
Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc