kjennejohn

Yeah, been there, done that, wanna see the scars?

So, you can't get hired? Your GPA is not real good. You're the wrong race, color, complexion, attitude. Welcome to the real world. In the real world, a good day is where you eat, avoid getting eaten, procreate, and die peacefully in your sleep. Today, millions will not have a good day. And yet, the rain will fall, the Sun will shine and the grass will grow. Life endures.

Now, having rained on your picnic, let me say: I feel for you. I got my AS in Electronics in the Bay Area in 1979. Life was grand. I would always have an interesting, well paying job.

NNO-O-OTTTT! When I graduated, the electronics field in the bay area was hotter then a machine gun on D-Day. I easilly found jobs within 25 miles of my home, which was north of San Francisco. Now, the good, interesting jobs are 50 to 60 miles out in Silicon Valley. The first eye opener was when, after losing my first job just two years out of college, I sat six months without a job. And not for lack of trying. I hit the employment office, checked the want ads, haunted my college job board, and called previous near-employers. The one thing I didn't do was network among my friends, as I am something of a loaner. In the end, my brother, a programmer, got me in to see an engineer who was looking for someone with digital experience - despite the fact they already had four technicians! I got the job because the other guys couldn't be bothered to learn about 68000 processors, they were died-in-the-wool Z80 fanatics.
Now I am approaching 60, and caring for my ailing mother, so am not free to move closer to the hot spots, like Raleigh, NC, or San Diego, CA. And age counts for a lot, as no one wants to hire you, spend a year or two to train you into the job, only to lose you to retirement in less than ten years.

I have found in the long run networking and contacts did more for me than want ads, hiring outfits, and web job searches. A former employer was looking for a junior engineer to work in my department (warning! warning! junior engineers can now be hired for the wages of a lowly technician!!). After two months of listening to HR moaning no one would come in for a second interview (yeah, they sucked), I found the winning candidate. She was managing a local Radio Shack. After six months, she gave up trying to find a "suitable position", and signed on with RS as a counter person, then quickly wedged herself into the manager's spot. My company immediately snapped her up. She did documentation. She was still doing docs six months later when I got the boot. She eventually went on to a real job, for an aerospace company. She was Filipino. Does this close any switches for you?

Along the way, I tried to get a job with BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit people. They run the local commute trains in the bay area. I sat at a table with two supervisors and about twenty other applicants. I and one (rather aged) supervisor were the only caucasians in the room. I was the oldest applicant by 10 to 15 years. I think I did OK on the test. I never got the followup call.

My brother spent four years in college. He is incredibly intelligent. He started college looking for a degree in physics. Every spring his counselors told him what the hot jobs were, so he tailored his courses for those fields. In the end he came out a nuclear engineer, when nuclear was becoming a dirty word. He spent a year and a half looking for a job, any job. He couldn't get a job loading boxes at a wharehouse because he was "over qualified". He tried to borrow $40 from me so he could get a starter kit of deodorants so he could sell door to door. He found a temporary job with the Coast Guard evaluating the flotation characteristics of different foams. He hit pay dirt when he got a job with the Navy working on nuclear subs. He eventually taught himself programming. After that, he never went begging for a job, they came looking for him. Now he's in Germany, programming Linux drivers for new electronics hardware for a living. If it wasn't for bad investments he would be sitting very pretty indeed.

So, you're not happy that the brass ring has eluded you so far and you fear the merry-go-round may stop before you get it. Get a job at Radio Shack, print up lots of business cards (put your bulleted points of experience on the back), and next time I'm out your way, I'll see what I can do for you. Just don't throw in the towel quite yet.

In the mean time, thank God that this is your biggest problem while real tragedy stalks the world.
kenjj

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Moisff

When speaking to one of my lecturers they said that you could get a job in most engineering vocations (with some exceptions) with a solid grade. The employers are looking for your capacity to learn rather than the specific subject that you're doing. So maybe apllying for a post grad wouldn't be a bad option. If you're based in texas i'm sure there'll be plenty of Oil companies that should be willing to take you on. If not their then Houston.

I'm sure you could lend your hand to data acquistion and communications. There's parts of that, that crossover into electrical

mneary

I was fortunate. Graduated BSEE in 1971, a few short months after the last flight to the moon. No jobs. None advertised, no interviews. Friends getting layoff notices. A friend got me a part time job watching a hilltop TV transmitter (look up wnpi or South Colton, NY) until the Army took me. 5 months after returning, I finally got a real job.

rjvh

hello digi tan i read this thread and also read your "thinking of giving up thread" and i conclude that you're realy frustrated with the whole situation

your spinning in a negative spiral and finaly you get bitter (i think you are already on this point)and I hope not for you you hit a depression

i do have to hire people my self for projects and i can say one thing the way a person feels is easy to detect (YOU DO REFLECT HOW YOU'RE FEELING) and this is probably that you don't sucseed in the interviews

break that spiral down and go up
you have to fight the toughest oponent now and that is yourself
you still blame it on your grades your race or the profesors or something else but you

but it's you that stops you from being sucsesfull

i don't know your age but my self had also a hard time when i was 25 years old and i know for sure that there many others having the same

you will never apriciate the high's in life when you don't know the low's

just think for your self a bit and ask the question what is realy importand for you and than the way to achieve it
you're spending now energie on things that don't help you to achieve your goal (if you set that goal already ?????)

i battled through my though times and it makes me now sucsesful because i found the ways and attitude to take on every problem on my path

and you can do the same

Good luck

Robert-Jan

DigiTan

Who's the sniveling scumbag who deleted my second post? Watching my life fall apart wasn't enough for you? Now you've come for my liberties? I suppose if I made a trade of praying on the unfortunate, I'd lack the guts to explain myself too.


Before this goes in the trash, I should say I found a part-time job at Radio Shack. Not that it helps any because it barely pays 3/5ths my living expenses. My manager's an over-critical nitwit who belittles his new employees for asking new employee questions. This guy thinks Volts and Hz are the same thing for crying out loud. And huge irony is it all cuts into my job search.

I signed up for a couple non-drug, non-invasive medical studies. I figure that will cover my food & job hunt budget. Between that and weekly plasma donations, I'd essentially be getting free medical check-ups indefinitely.

Anyway, I spent all week working on a portfolio CD that was suggested. Now I just need the money for labeling that these lazy recruiters will notice. It would be decent to answer the phone and have good news for once.

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Nigel Goodwin

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PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk

phalanx

Perhaps your attitude is interfering with your interviews.

Torben

"Liberties"? I'm no Constitutional scholar (hell, I'm not even American) but I'm pretty sure postings on internet forums are not covered.

Anyway, good luck with the job and hopefully it allows you to hang in there long enough to get closer to what you're looking for. I just hope your manager at Radio Shack isn't reading this board.


Good luck,

Torben

Salgat

How is the market for Computer Engineers? As far as EEs, is there always a state that has them in high demand? Do other countries hire American engineers often?

DigiTan

Only if professionalism counts as interference. I'm only venting here. The wolf is at my door. I've got unpayable bills that could span a parking space. I came within a day of having my power shut off Friday and parted ways with much-needed books and Christmas gifts to come up with the cash. The injustice of the whole mess is just getting to me. Spend your whole life working hard and playing by the rules and where does it get you? Given that, plus all the other thrills of poverty, I'd say I'm scheduled for the occasional non-violent outburst.

As for the 'liberty' part, most would say it's a right with or without a constitution. When an entire message that was 99.9% unoffensive gets deleted with no explanation, I have to speculate. No hard feeling toward Nigel.

They say these jobs are expanding 5%. But then, I trust the government about as far as I can throw it. I'm going to start looking overseas this month.

I'll keep trying, but this job "search" is ruining my good nature. It's not even a search anymore, it's just runaround. I've 3 years worth of personal goals mapped out...but this one little thing is stopping me. I'm dying of thirst and my canteen won't open.

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* AVR Projects
* Robot War: TI
* About

ericgibbs

hi Digitan,

They say these jobs are expanding 5%. But then, I trust the government about as far as I can throw it. I'm going to start looking overseas this month

Last year there was thread on the forum discussing the USA electronics engineering labour markets future.

If the trend in the US follow the engineering/artisan trend worldwide for the past thousand years, more US and UK engineers will have to consider overseas employment.

Its not the end of the world, there is life after the US.

Contact an overseas employment agency for job prospects, good luck.

In the past many struggling engineers with holes in their pants finally hit the mother lode.

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Eric
"Good enough is Perfect"

PIC tutorials:
Nigel's: www.winpicprog.co.uk/
Gramo's: www.digital-diy.net/
Bill's: www.blueroomelectronics.com/

Pommie

The negative spiral comment above (rjvh) is worth reading again. You have to change your attitude to a positive one and get on an upward spiral.

Mike.

Optikon

I agree. Sounds like the OP had some expectation that having a degree gets you a job. Having a degree shows you might have learned something. To get a job, you should be attractive to hire.

DigiTan

I honestly don't know how I could conjure up a positive attitude anymore. The past few years, life's been just one frustration after another. All my diligence and self-sacrifice was pointless. I'm honestly a little surprised I haven't tried to kill myself. Who wants to live a life where you could never accomplish anything?

Anyway, I'm giving it one last run. 200+ applications before May 1st. If that doesn't work, another 200+ with false credentials before June 1st, because frankly honesty gets me nowhere in life anymore. Maybe I'll stick around a while after that, but if I have to default on my students loans, I'm looking at collections, lawsuits, and a credit mark that will make it impossible to ever find work. After that, there's no point.

__________________
The most-hated young engineer in America.
* AVR Projects
* Robot War: TI
* About

Hank Fletcher

You're puttng way too much pressure on yourself. I'm speaking as someone who's been exactly in your position - been there, done that, got the bumper sticker (and still have the student loans!).

So you don't get an engineering job. So you have student loans you can't pay off right now. So what? If you don't have the money, what are they going to do? Credit rating, schmedit rating - you'll get by. The best part of having nothing to your name is that nobody can take anything from you!

When I was poor, and I mean searching for sofa change to get a box of mac & cheese poor, I started to think about what I'd do if I had more money. Having little consequence to fear, I started to realize that what I should be doing is living now the way I fantasize I would when I'm a millionaire. I made my musical interests a priority (maybe the same way you've made your mcu website interests?), and started to think creatively about how I could get ahead with next to no personal financial investment: hanging at the library, getting paying gigs where I could, and little by little, moving on up.

You'd be really surprised at how close you are to getting what you need. You're entering the somewhat daunting, limitless opportunity phase of your life. With little obligations (other than food and shelter - the loans are not obligations, forget about them), what you have now is the blank canvas of your future life in front of you. My advice? Do what you love, and love what you do - that way, you'll always have energy to keep going, despite the lack of food or money.

Take advantage of the various charities and social services that are specifically designed to help people just like you to get over these little rough patches in their lives. Free food, free advice, free shelter, free medicine, are willingly provided from people who are compassionate and can empathisize with your position. Quite possibly, that's because once upon a time they were right where you are, and even more possible is that one day soon you'll be in a position to return the favour.

PLEASE NOTE:
If you find yourself reflecting with suicidal thoughts, know that this is a defect of your mental state brought on by the stress of your present situation. Do not let any perceived stigma associated with this kind of mental stress interfere with seeking help to correct the problem. If your work was physical by nature, and as a result you suffered shin splints due to the physical stress on your legs, you'd think nothing of going to the doctor for some treatment. Same thing with your head, if you're thinking about hurting yourself. Go to a doctor, or to a walk-in clinic, and tell them you're having thoughts about hurting yourself. They can help make you better.