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Congrats. That's exactly what it takes to succeed today. You have to put yourself in the shoes of the people who brought your family here -- I've used the same mentality.
Lots of pounding pavement and pounding on doors. It takes great risk to get great reward.
That how I saw it. Seems like a depression these days, nt a lot of opportunity in your current area- do what your family members did. Get on that boat [car] and migrate.
I graduated back in 2005 with a bachelors in history. Currently I work as a teacher aide that pays 13,500 a year and have a part time job at a retail store that just opened currently making 8.25 an hour. Calculated, I would be making about 18,000 a year after taxes with these two jobs working about 50-60 hours a week.
Almost got a teaching job for this year, but hiring personnel at the district told the principal at the potential elementary school not to hire me. Funny thing is I'm an aide at the school district too.
Congrats. That's exactly what it takes to succeed today. You have to put yourself in the shoes of the people who brought your family here -- I've used the same mentality.
Lots of pounding pavement and pounding on doors. It takes great risk to get great reward.
But it's more so a series of crap shoots than it is say doing a set formula. Say Lazio was "shot down" by that "head diesel," that would be like rolling a you know what after setting the point in craps. Had security found them, that would be like rolling snake-eyes or boxcars on point roll. The issue is a lot of the hiring world is through chance now. You have to be the right person, at the right time talking to the right hiring manager at the right time for them and hope that there isn't another person more right for the job.
Lazio lucked out that he didn't end up on skid row and found a job. Too many people end up on skid row now, even if they are a vet to the workforce. It's not the same as it was when Old Economy Steves would be getting jobs when they weren't even looking for one.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,938 posts, read 36,728,963 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hughbay
What skill set can you pick up in a couple months working for free that you couldn't have learned yourself?
LMAO @ actually wanting to be paid in return for work as "foolish". You're totally right, I don't know what I was thinking!!!
I learned a proprietary database and work flow system through an unpaid internship. That gave me a huge leg up when a position was posted, I already knew the job and system. That was my first job out of undergrad.
Unpaid internships are diminishing though with the recent court rulings.
For what it's worth, one of my old HS friends works at Arby's, making roast beef sandwich with his business management degree. I asked him, how are you going to get a job managing people when you've never had a job? He told me that I don't know anything about how the world works today. That was about 2 years ago. Guess he had to learn the hard way...
I agree here.. a college degree doesn't show you how to manage people.. and anyone that thinks it does is a fool. That comes with time... Personally I feel that college is overated and I bet that a lot of people don't put any of those things that they learned to use in their real life jobs. So basically.. the college of today is the same as the high school of yesterday.. Its nice to have the degree.. but it is what it is.. an expensive piece of paper.
In this day and age there is no skill someone can't learn from the Internet.
With an internship, you will never be placed into a position of consequence or decision- which is exactly where you learn nuances and proprietary solutions.
The positions you will be in are of those with skills that can be learned from either/or youtube/Wikipedia.
No matter how you slice it, it's free labor.
So you think you can learn install crown molding or frame and trim stairs from Internet. Not bloodily likely.
In this day and age there is no skill someone can't learn from the Internet.
With an internship, you will never be placed into a position of consequence or decision- which is exactly where you learn nuances and proprietary solutions.
The positions you will be in are of those with skills that can be learned from either/or youtube/Wikipedia.
No matter how you slice it, it's free labor.
Imagine you're the hiring manager looking for someone with a specific skill set.
Page 1 is a resume from someone that has been trained to do that function at a company you know about, and know what their program is like
Page 2 is a resume from someone that has never actually worked anywhere, but promises that they learned that skill by watching some how-to videos on youtube.
Which do you choose?
And, by the way, in number 1, notice that I said that *they* trained *you*. that is why it is low or no pay. You finished your BA. Good for you. I still need to teach you about the industry and actual work. If you'd rather work retail (and forever put yourself in that box for resumes) because you're too proud to do an internship, good luck.
I graduated in 2007 with a degree in visual art and English and spent the subsequent year applying to graduate school and working odd jobs (retail, waiting tables, etc). My degree is from a school that often has prestigious alumni, so I’d often get strange reactions when people found out I was working as a server or in the back room of a store. But at the time it felt right, considering I was planning on going to grad school after a year, and I thought it’d be good to have that kind of experience in some way. When the following fall rolled around – 2008 – and it became clear that grad school wasn’t the right choice for me, I faced the very start of a dim job market. It was an unlucky time to begin searching. I continued to work odd jobs and started volunteering, which led to some unpaid internships, which led to some contract gigs. For me, it was really formative because it helped me to define what and how I could contribute to the workforce and better identify the kinds of jobs I’d find the most fulfilling. My work in the non-profit sector led to more (paid) internship opportunities out of state, which ultimately led to a job in non-profit management. I spent a couple of years as a salaried employee of an arts and cultural non-profit (from which I learned a ton) while simultaneously working as a contract educator with various programs throughout the city I’d moved to. If there’s one great thing about non-profit work, it’s the flexibility that often is allowed, and I was able to use that to my advantage.
After a couple of years of really honing in on the kind of work I most wanted to do, it felt right to apply to grad school, and I ended up finishing my master’s program last May. Today, I am employed at another arts and cultural non-profit in Washington, DC and feel like the patchwork of opportunities that led me here (school, volunteering, internships, and paid employment) is both indicative of the workforce that many recent grads face and also really worked for me. It’s not the easiest road, but if you stick with it and are willing to support yourself with some non-schooling related work in order to facilitate the kinds of opportunities you find fulfilling, it can really work. That’s just my experience.
Imagine you're the hiring manager looking for someone with a specific skill set.
Page 1 is a resume from someone that has been trained to do that function at a company you know about, and know what their program is like
Page 2 is a resume from someone that has never actually worked anywhere, but promises that they learned that skill by watching some how-to videos on youtube.
Which do you choose?
And, by the way, in number 1, notice that I said that *they* trained *you*. that is why it is low or no pay. You finished your BA. Good for you. I still need to teach you about the industry and actual work. If you'd rather work retail (and forever put yourself in that box for resumes) because you're too proud to do an internship, good luck.
But not all internships are paid. If a job is unpaid how do you afford to get there, a second job (typically fast food or retail) OR you are lucky enough to have parents who can pay for you. That and there are more people than opportunities to have internships. That goes for pre-grad and post-grad.
I graduated college in 2010 with a degree in Legal Studies. I had all the intentions in the world of going to law school until I realized that I came out of undergrad without any debt (scholarships + working all through college) and Law School would completely screw me over with debt and since the legal market is horrid, the risk was just too huge that I'm not sure would ever benefit me. I wanted to work in a big law firm though and do something in the legal field. For three years after graduating, I still worked part-time at a retail job I held all through college and worked one day a week at a law firm doing document preparation for the very small bankruptcy department the firm had. That firm never offered me a full-time job, but they referred me to another law firm who hired me full-time as an analyst and next month will be my one-year anniversary there.
It wasn't easy, but I ended up better than a lot of other people out there. I feel bad and truly sympathize for all the people around my age (26) who have a huge amount of college loan debt and can't find a job or are working jobs with horrible pays. It's scary out there.
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