College Student Struggling...Where Are the Jobs? (San Diego: credit, loan)

[cassology88]

Hello Everyone,

I am a long time lurker on the boards and am posting looking for encouragement and hope.

I am a 22 (soon to be 23) year old college student. I was born and raised in San Diego and attend a southern California UC school. I was three classes short of graduating when I learned that my family fell on hard times. My loved ones are dirt poor and I gave a large chunk of my personal savings to ensure that my family would be able to stay afloat.

Consequently, I was forced to discontinue school. I have tried several back up plans to get back in school and finish those last three classes.

1. I applied for a private loan and was denied because my credit history is fairly new and I can't secure a co-signer.

2. I pleaded with my school's financial aid office to help but they stated, "We can't;" citing state budget woes.

3. I looked into taking the classes at a local San Diego JC but guess what? Class enrollments are not guaranteed for new, non-continuing students. To further frustrate my situation, summer cancels were canceled through the San Diego Community College District.

Getting a job is my only option but I have been searching for two and half months and no luck. I am a hard-working student, maintained above a 3.85+, have some interesting work experience but no barks from employers. Right now I do some personal tutoring through craigslist but that has been hit or miss. Any help, suggestions? I want to be done with school...Why is it so hard to find a job in San Diego?

*PS: I have tried monster, indeed, signonsandiego and a slew of other job websites. There all useless.

[oBak]

Suck it up and go retail. Wal-mart, bestbuy, target are all usually hiring. I'd say give that a shot, and don't mention your college experience when you apply. It will actually hurt your chances of getting the job. Once you are in, make a rush for middle management by (crazy I know, but stick with me) showing up on time and actually working. It will put you head and shoulders above most of the current working class.

With what you say about being a hard working student, it should be no problem for you to get a few quick raises and end up making around 13 an hour with 30+ hours a week.

Not the best job, but money is money, and it'll make things a lot smoother.

[cassology88]

oBak, thank you for your suggestion. Unfortunately, you make the assumption that I haven't tried that right, submitting applications to retail giants.

I have sat for an interview for Target and was informed, "We tend to hire people not in school." I submitted applications at Best Buy, Fry's Electronics, Sprint Retail Stores, Wal-Mart, KMart, Sears and McDonalds. No call backs.

I have no issues, let me repeat, no issues with doing retail or grunt work. The problem is I can't snag a job with those duties. I am resourceful and have shown my face to hiring supervisors, still no luck.

[moved]

I have the same problem, but I'm not a student. I work two event security jobs, while I continue to look for full time work. It's better than nothing, and I've tried applying for retail jobs with no success.

[mlarsen23]

What did you major in?

[cassology88]

I majored in Math.

[Ceece]

Try an temp agency. What 2-3 classes do you still need that would even be offered at a CC? If you were that close to graduating wouldn't you be needing upper division anyway??

[cassology88]

Temp agencies in San Diego are a scam. I am not going to rely on a temp agency to get me a job.

The classes I need to take at a JC are General Education courses. I mowed down my harder coursework first and then focused on my GE's.

[odannyboi]

Perhaps you can apply for paid internships? I am assuming you are from UCSD (they have hookups)? Technically you are still a student (put on your resume, "degree in progess") and look for an internship. Look up on Sony's website or the other big players in SD (like Qaulcomm.. they have tons of interships).

The pay is usually pretty decent ($15-20 range). How much do you need to graduate? Worst case is that you can take out a personal loan (with high interest rates).

I don't see why temp agencies are a scam (they got my foot in the door to a Fortune 500 right out of college with no real work experience) unless they are different in SD (which I highly doubt).

I wouldn't even bother with sh_tty retail jobs.. what do you aim to accomplish? Make minimum wage and then what? Save up for 2 years to be able to pay off your degree?

You have to be innovative. Aim higher, play around with your resume to custom tailor it to positions (look for statisticians, analysts, all kinds of stuff and put down you BS Math In progress).

Careerbuilder and all of those other sites are not that good unless you have an above average resume. However, do use Indeed.com.. they list postings even straight from company websites (careerbuilder only posts jobs that employers or recruiters post... indeed extracts jobs from the actual company sites). When you find a position that you like, apply directly to the company.. you can use Indeed for finding internships as well.

You should be able to take the GE classes from a JC though.. that sucks that a few BS classes that have nothing to do with your major is holding you back from getting your degree.

[JohnAlt]

Originally Posted by cassology88

Temp agencies in San Diego are a scam. I am not going to rely on a temp agency to get me a job.

Then things have really changed. Temping put food on my table for almost a year, and got me assigned to a company as a temp where I eventually got a full time job. They didn't get me a job. They got me in the door, for which I am grateful. But I did the rest.

I'm curious why you picked the major you did. What career(s) were you shooting for? It's a great major for actuarial or teaching, but I'm not knowledgeable about what else a Bachelor's in math is good for.