Ask HN: Advice After A Year Struggling to Land an Entry-Level Job | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Advice After A Year Struggling to Land an Entry-Level Job

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Since graduating with my BS in EE, and despite a solid resume with multiple F100 internships, I've had little luck in drawing interest from employers. Hundreds and hundreds of submissions and emails to recruiters, ~10 interviews netted, and no luck landing an offer.

I've targeted (entry-level) and have immense interest in product, marketing, and operational roles at tech companies and startups. I know I have the skill set and passion to be able to contribute and grow in such roles, but again, little luck drawing interest.

After having so much time pass unemployed, I'm not sure how to proceed, since the spray-and-pray thing clearly hasn't been working out so well. Any thoughts or advice would certainly mean a lot to me.

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You have a degree in EE and are failing to find a job....where are you looking?

Seriously, the job market for skilled workers at the moment is booming (Maths, Physics, Chemistry, EE, CompSci), most of the companies I have come in contact with are gasping for talent - this leads me to believe you are doing one of the following things:

- Limiting your search space - Are you limiting yourself to a city? state? country? Most companies are hiring all over the place and attempting to concentrate certain talents in certain places.

- Not tailoring your resume to the job. (see point 4)

- Not being prepared for the interview...are you researching the company before hand? Do you want to work for the company? Are you getting the point across?

- Applying for jobs which you want to do but don't have the background for - You have an EE degree but say you are interested in Marketing...these are very different skillsets.. it might be better to get a more focused tech job, then attempts an internal transfer after a year, while also building up your portfolio for the other area

Best of luck on the search.

Not sure if I have any advice per se, but here's a quick hack that worked for me when I first got out of school:

1) Find a few companies you WANT to work at (legitimately). 2) If they have openings in your realm, send a quick email to the senior-most person in that group (e.g. SVP Hardware if you want an embedded software job). Just introduce yourself, say you applied via the standard HR process, but wanted to say how psyched you are to possibly work there. Three lines max. 3) What happened is the senior person forwarded my email to the hiring manager, and I instantly went from just-another-resume to "hey, Johnny SVP thinks I should look into this kid". This is how I landed jobs 2-4 out of school.

PS - you'll feel dirty. That's OK...just be concise.

You shouldn't feel dirty. From the inside, when you see how far removed HR is from the actual hiring manager, you'll be shocked with how the process actually works.

This doesn't sound right. You have good credentials. You should be able to get a job.

1. Are the companies looking at your transcript? If so, are your marks acceptable?

2. Are you targeting the right jobs?

3. How far are you able to get through the HR process? Do you get interview requests? Do you pass the first interview with HR that usually just measures culture? Do you pass technical interviews?

4. For companies that you've had some sort of convo with, have you asked them for constructive feedback? I've done that successfully many times

5. Make sure your GitHub project clearly demonstrates your programming skills. If you don't have any open sourced projects on your account, that's a serious disadvantage. I had a few private repos that I recently open sourced, I said "ah what the heck, why do I need to keep this code private?" and it's really helped my job search process. Employers don't feel the need to test me so much in technical interviews because they've seen a lot of my code on GitHub.

6. Spray and pray is just one tactic. There are many others. Use LinkedIn and request to connect with people who work at your desired companies. You absolutely must write a personal message <300 chars and sell yourself. Or google those people at your dream companies, find their email address, email them, sell yourself, ask for a convo. Some will respond and have a convo with you or they'll connect you to HR. This got me some great opportunities.

7. You should be working your network. Go through your LinkedIn contact list, use your discretion on who to message, send a short note that you're looking for X role in Y type of company. People will help! Again, this has worked for me.

Find my contact info on my profile, I'm happy to help via email/skype.

Ask your friends who were able to land jobs to refer you. The fastest and simplest way through the hiring gamut is to network. Networking means approaching friends, colleagues, former employers, and others. It doesn't mean begging or lying, it means asking if they are interested in forwarding your information onward.

If you have had 10 interviews and no offer, I think that is a sign that you are unprepared for the interview process. I would spend some time better preparing yourself as well. There are literally hundreds of sites that will help you on this, as well as many books.

Continuing the theme of possibly not being prepared, try to get feedback from some of your unsuccessful interviews. Why didn't we go to the next level, what was I lacking in knowledge or interaction, etc.

You might also think about any interview where you really feel you were qualified, and then ask for a do-over, another interview. I actually got a job in this scenario. The first phone screen went terribly, to my surprise. I called the guy up the next day and told him I'm better than how I interviewed, and can we try it again. He later told me he hired me partly based on my persistence, and of course my better performance on the 2nd interview.

This I will definitely try. Thanks for the tip.

The interesting thing is, I usually spend hours preparing for even a phone screen, researching the company, its products, its market, its competitors, and so on as one should expect. But your point is taken: I typically stumble on some of the soft/behavioral questions that get asked.

Networking has always been a difficult thing for me, and this is definitely an area I'm falling short. I'll have to be mindful of this going forward.

To be blunt and rude and so on: maybe you're doing something that is turning the potential employers off. Maybe you just interview poorly and have no idea what you're doing wrong. Maybe you forgot to look up "big O" before walking into an interview. Maybe you smell funny. Maybe it's some reason that's completely bogus or even illegal discrimination (too old, too young, too black, to white, too wheelchair-bound, etc...) The thing is, potential employers aren't going to tell you what this thing is, they might not even know themselves or aren't going to admit it to themselves.

I wonder if there's a place for a service for practice job interviewing, where no holds are barred, no one can be sued and cry, and we can be blunt and tell each other why we're not being hired. An "Ask HN to interview me" thing?

1. Try to focus on personal contacts.

2. Be willing to work in positions that are not obviously in the technical areas and paths you prefer. They could either lead to what you prefer, or they could change what you prefer.

Optional: consider doing something completely different than whatever you've been trying to do with a BS/EE. This to make some money, clear your head, and get you out of a possible rut.

Disclaimer: I did not use personal contacts on my first entry level job out of school, but most of my subsequent jobs have involved personal contacts.

1. Can you try temp and/or freelance work? That might at least start to build up your resume and get you into the work force.

2. Most people get jobs through personal connections, have you reached out to your personal network of friends and family?

3. It sounds to me like you're doing something wrong: Maybe it's not a bad investment to talk to a career counselor?

There's one thing I'm particularly concerned about:

At this point, I know I have a solid, unique background and a great skill set, but its been several months since I graduated without a job. I have to believe the gap alone is sending my application to the trash in most cases.

So one of the big things I'm probably doing wrong is not addressing this. But how would I go about doing so?

I would have someone who is in business look at your resume and give you feedback. In fact get a few people to look at it!

PS There are books you can read on how to solve a gap, or even articles you can find if you just googled it...

I know your situation is becoming frustrating and that we're unaware of other pressures, but I firmly believe that if an employment gap sends your resume to the trash, you should be happy to let it stay there. I wouldn't be happy at a place that couldn't evaluate me for my talents.

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