Job Market in LA for New College Grads?

[Oogax3Girl]

Raja2014.

Thanks for your response! The most helpful and on point of the entire thread.

- if you still have time, change your major to something that is perceived as valuable to employers. Math, engineering, chemistry, accounting, finance, stats; these "hard" analytic degrees are a signal that you're smart and serious

Someone should have told me this as a high school senior OR a freshman. Unfortunately, I didn't actually figure this out until I was a junior, living in France and it was basically too late to change my major. It's really unfortunate because USC (the University of South Carolina) has been ranked as the number 1 international business program for something like 20 years now and I could have gotten a useful business degree *and* done French (with studying abroad). Oh well. Too late now.

When I started college, almost everyone told me "It doesn't matter what you major in. Most people end up working in jobs that have absolutely nothing to do with their major." Of course these people weren't entering one of the worst job markets in decades as recent college grads.

[Raja2014]

Don't lose hope and don't regret the best choices you made with the information you had. The key is to use any new info you have to augment your skills and talents so that those shine on your resume and to potential employers. If you're serious about moving to LA, you WILL find a good job, but you have to work for it. Try to use your alumni network to connect with LA based alum and ask to just talk to them, ask genuine questions, and actively listen. In your spare time, try to follow my other suggestions to learn some of those basic workplace skills that'll make you stand out compared to other new college grads. Open up to possible internship and volunteer work to, again, gain skills and contacts who can then connect you with a full time job.

[thelopez2]

Originally Posted by Oogax3Girl

Too late now.

Why do you keep saying it is too late now?

[Boosane]

Originally Posted by thelopez2

Why do you keep saying it is too late now?

She's about to graduate, it's a little too late unless you can go back to freshman/sophomore year.

[thelopez2]

Originally Posted by Boosane

She's about to graduate, it's a little too late unless you can go back to freshman/sophomore year.

Is a senior not allowed to take freshman classes, restricted from taking Econ 101, or MIS classes?

[steelers1523]

Originally Posted by thelopez2

Is a senior not allowed to take freshman classes, restricted from taking Econ 101, or MIS classes?

too late for her to take enough classes for it to matter without staying in college for longer

[thelopez2]

Then stay in college longer, that is as long as she is motivated. Beside a degree school should be used to network.

[SpaceMonkyPunks]

Out of curiosity, why LA?

Could you work at the French Embassy? (I have no idea where it is. Probably DC?)

[marklbucla]

A couple of thoughts:

You say that you're a "couple of thousand" dollars in debt from school. If it really is just a few, then you're really not that bad off. If you wanted to turn things around your final year of school and pick up a double major in something useful, you still could. You could also get yourself aligned for Graduate School. I can't imagine that the costs would be too prohibitive at South Carolina, especially if you were able to pick up a TA/RA ship.

Look up your South Carolina (USC = University of Southern California outside of the south) alumni networks on Facebook and Linkedin. The SEC seems to have a pretty strong alumni network and would probably make a difference in your resume going to the top of the pile vs. the circular file.

I know teaching English isn't your thing, but what about teaching French? You may need a certification of some sort though. There's a French academy in West Los Angeles and I'd imagine that just about every high school does French.

If I were you, I'd first consider how feasible it even is to live here in LA since you say that you've never been to SoCal before. You may want to spend some time here first before you make any commitments towards your goal of moving here. I don't know how Columbia is compared to Tuscaloosa/Birmingham, but things there were just about the exact opposite of here in LA. The cost, pace of life, traffic, politics, etc. are all pretty different.