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Comment by anonytrary | Hacker News Reader

The default algorithm for most people is:

  1. Get educated
  2. Find a job

Step 1 currently does pretty much nothing to help you transition to step 2. Sure, there are career networking events for juniors and seniors in college, but they are very superficial. It seems like colleges are producing unfinished products -- students who know a lot about theoretical concepts and not that much about applications. Maybe more colleges should try and obtain a better product-market fit by requiring vocational training for at least a semester.

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I dunno, on the other hand, I got a B.S. in Ecology and have about 5 years of experience doing field work, long term monitoring, and data analysis and report writing on said research. Ostensibly that should be plenty of experience to prove I know my field and can learn new methods and skills related to it. Despite that I can't seem to find anything that isn't more seasonal work below my worth now or wanting a Masters degree even though I have plenty of real-world experience.

I agree that there's some serious gap between steps 1 and 2, but I did alright in finding internships and experience and still can't find squat.I admit I knew going into my undergrad that a Masters would be needed to find a /good/ job, but I didn't think I'd need one to find any job at all. I'm sure there are a multitude of reasons to explain it, but this job market blows. I never want to hear someone tell me they can't find good employees or fill positions fast enough when I apply to five or six jobs at a time every week and don't even get a rejection email from half of them, let alone an interview.

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