Job Search in Chicago (Peoria, Springfield: sales, apartment, to rent)

[Nikki21]

Hello Everyone!!

I am a senior at the University of Kentucky. For the past two-three months I have been looking for a job in Chicago. My hope is to relocate in January - I graduate in December. I have a Bachelors degree in Business Management, I have been working since I was 15 (jobs from retail to Administrative Assistants), and I have had leadership roles in organizations on campus. My problem is...I'm not finding a job in Chicago. I've tried everything from applying directly with companies, using online search engines, and even contacting staffing agencies. I've applied for about 40-50 jobs. So, my question is:
-Am I having an issue finding a job because I do not already live in Chicago? (Do I need to move to Chicago before having a job before even being considered for these jobs?)

If you have any advice to offer, I'd greatly appreciate it! I look forward to moving to Chicago, but we (my boyfriend and I) would rather wait to find jobs before we move!

Thanks in advance!

[Avengerfire]

Originally Posted by Nikki21

My problem is...I'm not finding a job in Chicago...

I hate to break it to you, but neither are a half million people that already live in Chicago.

The economy is so bad you would be better off staying close to home. I would not move anywhere without a job unless I had 6-12 months of living expenses saved up.

Good luck.

If you do decide to move here feel free to ask any other questions.

[aragx6]

I guess it depends what you are looking to do. One thing I have discovered in the last three years is that your expectations for what a college degree will allow you to do are probably antiquated. Are you looking at administrative assistant type stuff? That's probably going to be your best bet. And those are very hard to come by as a candidate in another state.


And I know you say you'd prefer to have a job lined up first -- the reality is that you probably have to in order to rent an apartment anyway.

[Nikki21]

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

I hate to break it to you, but neither are a half million people that already live in Chicago.

The economy is so bad you would be better off staying close to home. I would not move anywhere without a job unless I had 6-12 months of living expenses saved up.

Good luck.

If you do decide to move here feel free to ask any other questions.

Thank you for this advice! I've been wondering how much money I should save up.

[Nikki21]

Originally Posted by aragx6

I guess it depends what you are looking to do. One thing I have discovered in the last three years is that your expectations for what a college degree will allow you to do are probably antiquated. Are you looking at administrative assistant type stuff? That's probably going to be your best bet. And those are very hard to come by as a candidate in another state.


And I know you say you'd prefer to have a job lined up first -- the reality is that you probably have to in order to rent an apartment anyway.

Well Admin work is my "back up" plan because I've had so much experience in this field that I know I would be a good candidate for it. My goal is to work for a university - preferrably within Career Services, but I'm open to trying anything. I pretty open about trying different jobs, but I'm hoping for something either within a university like I mentioned above, or within the HR/Recruitment field.

[Jandur]

Originally Posted by Nikki21

Well Admin work is my "back up" plan because I've had so much experience in this field that I know I would be a good candidate for it. My goal is to work for a university - preferrably within Career Services, but I'm open to trying anything. I pretty open about trying different jobs, but I'm hoping for something either within a university like I mentioned above, or within the HR/Recruitment field.

I work for an IT staffing/consulting company here, so the work I do varies a bit from what you would be looking to do, but the IT market is pretty strong. Entry level jobs in other industries are different though. It's competitive and applying online doesn't really help the situation.

If you *really* want to get here, look into CareerBuilder. Their model is to hire recent college grads for support and sales roles. The base pay will be 30k or so I think. You can make decent money doing if you stick with it, but to be honest it's a brutal job. Most people go for 6-12 months and then move on.

There are also a decent amount of recruiting jobs for agencies, but they are often tough as well.

[jman07]

You might get some discrimination if you have that normal Kentuckian accent. I didn't think I had one at all when I moved here but everyone noticed it and I know Kentucky is way worse than mine. I've only met one person from kentucky since i've been here.

[Nikki21]

Originally Posted by jman07

You might get some discrimination if you have that normal Kentuckian accent. I didn't think I had one at all when I moved here but everyone noticed it and I know Kentucky is way worse than mine. I've only met one person from kentucky since i've been here.

People actually say I sound like I'm from the North...I don't think I do. I haven't even talked to a lot of people on the phone because no one will contact me. How long have you been in Chicago?

[linicx]

The first piece of advice I would give you is to make up your mind where you want to live. If you want to live within your means in Chicago then you should have $24-30K saved for the first year without a job. You are contemplating moving into an area of 10M people - most of whom want to work.

The second thing I would tell you to do is look at small colleges and private universities rather than big name schools. There are several very good schools outside of Chicago that are near enough to the city that you can drive in 3 hours or less, fly, ride a train or take a bus.

. UIUC - The flagship University of Illinois Urbana-Chambaign has a teacher student population of aobut 35,000. It is a research university. Several C-D members have moved to the area to work for Wolfram.
. ISU-N0rmal is an international campus in a town about about 45,000 +/-. It is well regarded with one of the best Actuary prgams in North America (1 of 13). Bloomington and Wesleyan U is very nearby) The adjacent U-High is a college prep Highschool
. SIU is in Springfield. It is a smaller state university that is growing. If you like politics this is the fiddle you want to playy
. WIU in Macomb, Illinois is another small campus. Grab the train to Chicago or Saint Louis.
. BradleyUniversity is a 4-year private school in Peoria, Illinois that is over 100-years old.
. Eureka College in Eureka, IL is a Top 25 private Liberal Arts College that is the Alma Mater of President Ronald Reagan. It is in a beautiful natural setting about half-way between Normal and Peoria.
. Illinois Central College at East Peoria is a robust community college with a beautiful campus.
. Spoon River College is a community campus in Canton, Illinois that offers satellite classes in surrounding small towns.

the areas surrounding Urbana-Champaign, Springfield, Bloomington-Normal and Peoria are about 100,000 population +/- but are as different from one another as is the distance between them. The COL is considerably cheaper.

The third thing I would tell you after talking to college graduates with a Bachelor degrees is Statay in School. In todays market a BA is not worth a whole lot more than a HS diploma was 30 years ago. If you are serious about your field, put your Chicago plans on hald and go for you Master's Degree. The best reason to do this is the dollar difference between a BA and MA; prestige doesn't hurt either.

[trickygal]

Networking is the best way to get a job....period.

Does your school have a Database of Alums where you can search by location? If so, start your search that way. If not, join linked in and see if there is University of Kentucky Chicago group on there. Join that and start networking. Set up informational interviews with anyone who works at a decent company or has a job that sounds interesting. Someone is bound to speak with you just because you went to the same school.
Also, does your career placement office at the university have any company contacts from Chicago that recruit on campus? Try to get as much help from them as possible.

Please DON'T come here without a job or do an admin job. It is sometimes hard to get out of a certain role like an admin once you are in it.

Good luck!