Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I also agree with EastCoastguyz. A pattern of working in a certain field, preferably with an increase in responsibility would be good. There is nothing wrong with a career change, of course, but I am referring more to "flip-flopping" in job areas.
I had something like five jobs in under three years. Three were contract. That looked awful. I just ball those up on the resume as "various help desk contracts."
I got a break in 2014 with an Indianapolis satellite office of a Boston based tech company. They interviewed me, it went well, and you had to take and pass a test to move further. I passed it and was hired. That more than doubled my income over what I was making in Tennessee at the time. No benefits to very good ones.
If I hadn't gotten that job, I don't really want to think of how I'd be doing today.
The fact of the matter is that I did all that and still failed for four years.
If you decide to limit your options for whatever reason such as geographically, it is going to limit your options. That isn't the college's fault. You can't live in a small town and expect to find many businesses with abundant growth and who has major clients, for example. You have to go where the work is.
Above and beyond that, it all rests on you. How are you personally when dealing with people? How do you come off? Have you ever recorded one of your conversations you have over the phone and listen to the playback? Do you instill confidence in others when you speak, or do you come across that you aren't sure of your knowledge and abilities? Known of us know you here, so we can't possibly answer those questions. But it is more than than the college and the GPA which equates to success.
There are people with no real background in sales, except they have a personality for it. They get an interview and don't have a problem being hired. The point here is, everyone has talents, you need to develop yours and use them to your advantage. The thing is, you might have been so busy being focused on getting through school that you didn't take the time to find out what they really are.
You also have to be great at networking and unearthing possibles that aren't listed as job postings. Networking isn't about going to a networking event and exchanging business cards. It is about forming relationships with people in your field. Everyone loves to be able to recommend someone they know is going to work out in a job.
Probably endless overtime. It isn't too hard to find stories of public employees who clocked 4000 hours or more in a year, making gobs of overtime. We've seen videos of BART "workers" clocking in, disappearing into a side door, then coming out twelve hours later very well-rested.
I found one story and that was a janitor, He signed up for every OT slot possible they reported.. But your version of a employee "disappearing" is fraud and not actual earned money. Plus when found out, they have the devils own time for repayment from prison.
If you decide to limit your options for whatever reason such as geographically, it is going to limit your options. That isn't the college's fault. You can't live in a small town and expect to find many businesses with abundant growth and who has major clients, for example. You have to go where the work is.
Above and beyond that, it all rests on you. How are you personally when dealing with people? How do you come off? Have you ever recorded one of your conversations you have over the phone and listen to the playback? Do you instill confidence in others when you speak, or do you come across that you aren't sure of your knowledge and abilities? Known of us know you here, so we can't possibly answer those questions. But it is more than than the college and the GPA which equates to success.
There are people with no real background in sales, except they have a personality for it. They get an interview and don't have a problem being hired. The point here is, everyone has talents, you need to develop yours and use them to your advantage. The thing is, you might have been so busy being focused on getting through school that you didn't take the time to find out what they really are.
You also have to be great at networking and unearthing possibles that aren't listed as job postings. Networking isn't about going to a networking event and exchanging business cards. It is about forming relationships with people in your field. Everyone loves to be able to recommend someone they know is going to work out in a job.
Like I said, I ultimately did leave. If I hadn't left, I'd probably be making just $15-$20/hr now.
College degrees became a 'check off' during the Vietnam War. It was a legitimate way to discriminate against kids fr\who grew up in the lower and lower middle class.
Since every family that could sent their son to college to keep them from being drafted it became an easy way to split the applicant pool into two groups. Before that era many companies would bring potential employees in through menial jobs such as the mail room or file clercks and train them in the business and culture of the company. They looked for people (almost all men) who would be 'go-getters' and beg for more responsibility, extra training, attend night school, etc. These young employees would be watched and gathered up by managers who were looking to improve or expand their teams.
By the mid 1970s it had become common to make a degree a base requirement for anything that wasn't a factory or solid blue color job. Even some of those started requiring 'Community College' or Tech School training to be considered. Now in the 'Post Industrial Society' it is easy for them to require a college degree as a basic requirement.
True. A bachelor's degree is no longer unique or special. At many employers, it's become a minimum requirement, like a high school diploma used to be. College degrees are simply too ubiquitous to be looked upon with amazement any more.
But there are a lot of people with Master Degrees too
Aside from STEM degrees is anyone very disappointed or even angered that their bachelor's or master's degree from a public university did not open doorways to great workplaces?
Many of us worked hard to earn good grades for classes that would be applicable for workplaces but once hired of course after going on a tedious job search the workplace turns out to offer low pay for the overload of disorganized work projects and poor management that one has to deal with.
It often feels that the bachelor's degree and or master's degree is highly overrated and doesn't open up great opportunities in a lot of cases.
People do succeed outside of STEM. Business degrees can get you into consulting positions. Accounting and Finance majors still get work. Marketing majors as well. Education, architecture, construction management, real estate, and economics are others.
If students are going the college route, they have to think about what the school has to offer. Not just the program, but career path services, including whether or not companies come to the campus to recruit students in your major. If a college’s program is good, then you will see companies coming to recruit. If you’re going into a field of study where it will be up to you to find your way, you still want to know what career resources are available to help you get ready for your search.
For example, my university has a career board available to all majors. This job board is specifically for college students and alumni to use to access jobs posted by employers who are looking for certain majors, GPAs, etc. The employers offer internships, FTE, and PTE. These aren’t fake jobs or fast food low wage work either. Students can search local or out-of-state and employers can contact students directly if they see something in the student’s profile of interest. This just one tool of many career resources available.
This should already be known, but going to class and getting good grades isn’t enough. It never was. You have to go above and beyond. Join student organizations, attend relevant events like on-campus job fairs, learn about your field beyond coursework, take advantage of student discounts to join professional organizations and get to know people who are working in the field, go to relevant Meetups, seek internships and employment in your field (not a pizza delivery job), take on extra projects (ask a professor if you have to), seek mentors... you should have the picture. You have to prepare yourself to be an outstanding selection.
This is the bare minimum now. You can’t go through 4+ years of college and be competitive with less. I’m sorry that it’s not a cakewalk and you have to have to work that much harder now getting into this job market. And FYI, STEM degrees guarantee nothing if they haven’t put in the effort either.
Based on all the hoops you seem to have to jump through in order to get noticed and "stand out", it would seem that one thing is for certain: the system is rigged.
Now the real question is, and this does greatly deal with the way to success, how do you get around the rigged system without being a member of Skull and Bones or being the child of some elite?
The answers to that question will yield far more results than "how do I succeed in the rigged system" because the system, by design, is set to make sure that most of us DON'T succeed.
Based on all the hoops you seem to have to jump through in order to get noticed and "stand out", it would seem that one thing is for certain: the system is rigged.
Now the real question is, and this does greatly deal with the way to success, how do you get around the rigged system without being a member of Skull and Bones or being the child of some elite?
The answers to that question will yield far more results than "how do I succeed in the rigged system" because the system, by design, is set to make sure that most of us DON'T succeed.
I don't think its rigged. All of those steps which a perspective employee must take to get noticed don't stop once they are hired. For advancement in the corporation, they will need to do all those things (network, volunteer for extra work, extra training, take the roles no one else wants, etc) in order to either move up (or in some cases just stay in place). You need to make your self indispensable, so that the corporation cannot afford to lose you - not to say that guarantees longevity, but it certainly helps.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
