College Degree: A Complete Waste so far

[kchriste]

Another rejection email:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Verizon Business
Dear Brady

Don't take it personally because you were rejected by a Web Bot! The important thing with applying on-line is to use specific key words. In the past, I've simply cut and pasted the requirements and reworked the sentences into a cover letter to get past the "Bots". If you don't meet a specific requirement (Say they wanted AVR experience but you only knew PICs) then state some thing like "I have experience with Microschip's PICs (similar to AVRs)." Stupid and annoying, but it's one way to beat the system.

Brady, you need to remove stuff like this from your site:
Link: DigiTan: Programming and Hardware Center
From **broken link removed**

Still no job
It's my 6th month since graduating with my Bachelor's in Electrical Engineering, and still no one has offered me a job.
In those months, I've applied to over 200 jobs that I am perfectly qualified for: hardware engineering, embedded programming, PCB/RF design, and even technical writing. And no one will give me a shot. All I want is a start in life. It's extremely painful to revisit this site and look back at all the accomplishments that HR Recruiters my "fellow engineers" are so determined to throw away. What do they have against me? What did I do to deserve this? At times it seems the entire world was put here to exclude from I'm best at. I am up against an army.

No trained HR person will hire you with stuff like this posted in your name. It makes you come across as someone with a bad attitude who will be difficult to work with. Delete all negative comments from all your web sites and focus on the positive even if you don't believe it yourself.

 

[mneary]

The most-hated young engineer in America.

WHO put this in your sig line? You need to track that saboteur and straighten him out. Have a long heart to heart talk with this person! You will never get a job unless this negativism is halted.

I am up against an army.

An army of ONE. YOU. So fix it already.

 

[DigiTan]

No trained HR person will hire you with stuff like this posted in your name. It makes you come across as someone with a bad attitude who will be difficult to work with. Delete all negative comments from all your web sites and focus on the positive even if you don't believe it yourself.

Look, I'll let everyone on a little secret here. HR people are stupid as hell. No one investigates, and no one follows up--other the credit checks and industry blacklists. Even then, it's the database doing all the work. I've yet to meet one interviewer who's read either webpage. That's why I quit sending them out on CDs. Half the time, they'll ask me a face-to-face question that's blatantly been answered by the resume/cv in their own hand. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't it the HR managers job to study and scrutinize? Common sense says yeah. It's Human RESOURCES after all. Who tries to tap a resource without even looking? The HR department is a human junk pile of dim-witted xenophobes who could be out-shined by trained capuchin monkeys if not for the speech barrier! If no one is going beyond the resume, anything I write is inconsequential. Literacy is dead.

Oh and don't get me started on the interview questions. "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" "What's you biggest strength?" "Are you a team player?" Seriously, let's see a show of hands: who doesn't know how to respond to those? Anybody? Anybody? This doesn't test anything but my access to "Common Interview Q&A" searches on google. And maybe my patience. These people can't even come up with an original line of questioning. "Where I see myself in five years? Giving you 50¢ to scrub my windsheild, you dumb HR scum!!" I'm totally using that my next interview.


My negativity is just a reflection of my mistreatment. Put yourself in my scenario. If you were fired tomorrow, only allowed to work minimum-wage jobs, and no one would explain why; would you be dancing in the street? Hell no, you'd wanna to kick some ass! Britannica says an "army" is a large force trained for war. That's my opposition. The past 6 months was a carefully-orchestrated campaign to bar me from the field. The interviews are staged. My contacts are actors. The rejections are choreographed. It's all about keeping me under their heel the only way they can: social abandonment. There are times I wonder whether this world is real, or whether it's a constructed hellscape of planned obstacles.

 

[Marks256]

In order to succeed, you must want to succeed.

Perhaps your attitude about this whole deal is effecting your reasoning skills.

Keep looking.

 

[kchriste]

Look, I'll let everyone on a little secret here. HR people are stupid as hell.

That's your first mistake. Underestimating your opponent. A good HR person, while they may know nothing about engineering, will screen out people who are difficult, negative, abrasive, arrogant, etc. The HR person is the person you see at your first interview and are the key to getting the second interview. It is in the second interview that your technical skills, as well as personality, will be put to the test usually by your potential future supervisor.

Half the time, they'll ask me a face-to-face question that's blatantly been answered by the resume/cv in their own hand. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't it the HR managers job to study and scrutinize?

You are missing the point. Your resume demonstrates that you can write. The 1st interview is testing your personality and verbal skills.

Giving you 50¢ to scrub my windsheild, you dumb HR scum!!" I'm totally using that my next interview.

And you wonder WHY you are on a so-called black list?

My negativity is just a reflection of my mistreatment. Put yourself in my scenario. If you were fired tomorrow, only allowed to work minimum-wage jobs, and no one would explain why; would you be dancing in the street?

No, I've been unemployed before with a mortgage at 9.5% over my head, etc. And no, it wasn't easy finding my next job but I kept at it for 3 months with the bills piling up but I didn't give up.

The interviews are staged. My contacts are actors. The rejections are choreographed.

Been there done that. I had an interview with a board room full of 10 people interviewing me at once. It was a very stressful interview and I wasn't hired. Because I kept my cool, one of the interviewers took me aside after and complemented me on my performance. She also apologized for the fact that the job was predetermined/rigged to be filled internally but for legal reasons was open to the public. At least I got a reason and knew that it wasn't my lack of skill, qualifications, etc.
You need to find out what you are doing wrong. There is a reason behind 200 rejection letters and it is not a conspiracy. It is something about YOU and/or how YOU present yourself. Once you find out what it is, you can adjust your job search to compensate.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Been there done that. I had an interview with a board room full of 10 people interviewing me at once. It was a very stressful interview and I wasn't hired. Because I kept my cool, one of the interviewers took me aside after and complemented me on my performance. She also apologized for the fact that the job was predetermined/rigged to be filled internally but for legal reasons was open to the public.

All council jobs in the UK have to be advertised and applicants interviewed, even when the post has already been filled internally - it's such a huge waste of time and resources, but the councils say it has to be so.

 

[Hero999]

I'm bored, shall I do a degree?

I went to an interview a few months ago.

They asked me about my experience and a few technical questions, e.g. asking me to draw basic schematics of different switch mode power supply topologies. I felt I did alright but I didn't get the job because I had applied for two vacancies, engineer and trainee and was too qualified for the trainee but the other applicants for the engineer had more experience and qualifications than me.

Now I'm thinking about doing a degree but I'm not sure whether it would be worthwhile or whether I have the commitment.

I already have an HND which could put me into the second year of a degree course and I could do it part time but I don't think I want to do that:

• I've already worked and studied at the same time and I hated it.
  
• It's been two years since finishing my HND and it'll be three by the time I'd start my degree so I wouldn't feel confident.
  
• I still live with my parents and have virtually no real life experience and the whole going away to university thing would help my personal development.

The main things that putting me me doing a degree in general are:

• I do admit I'm of the academically lazy disposition and I don't know if I have the commitment.
  
• I currently have enough money to move out now which I won't do because of the current sate of the housing market and if I go to university I could get into debt and come out with no degree and be far worse off.

However if I do go and get a good degree I could stand to gain a lot:

• I could get a better job.
• The life experience involved in getting the degree could be priceless: if I successfully manage to manage my own finances, time and overcome my academic laziness I'd boost my self-esteem.
• I could also mitigate the possibility of debt by getting a mature student grant, investing my student loan and working part time.

If I do a degree what course should I do?

Has anyone done any of the following?

• Mecatronics
• Electrical engineering
• Electronic engineering
• A generic engineering degree

I'd like to do something that's more practical than theory; I'd actually like to design and build things, not just do maths and theory.

There again, as there's no money in engineering in this country, should I leave engineering altogether and do something else?

Come to think of it, in a way I'm happy at the moment, life is easy, they don't expect much from me at work and my parents are always around to help me. I'm just bored, I'm bored with my job and don't have much of a social life.

I suppose getting another job (I'm currently looking) might help me but a degree would make that much easier.

I could carry on like this for the next 10 years; is being bored a good reason to do a degree?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I think you're looking at the same problems as Digitan, there are a LOT of people out there who may be far better qualified than you - but getting a degree may not guarantee you a better job, those days are long gone.

My daughter is currently looking at Universities for next year, but she's looking at maths, and probably a Masters degree rather than a Phd - if nothing else an extra years teacher training will guarantee a job as a maths teacher, the UK is desparately short of maths teachers!.

 

[jpanhalt]

Hero, Get the degree.

It is imposssible to know whether you will need it or not. One thing is for sure, though, it won't be a disadvantage. Unless, of course, you have too many and appear to be a professional student.

What is "Mecatronics?"

John

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Mechatronics
**broken link removed**

 

[Hero999]

Looks good about the foriegn language part.

Wtf is social Environment / Setting? Is it a lession on going down the pub and socialising?
I'm up for that.

 

[Hero999]

I've decided that, I'll apply for university and for a few jobs.

That way I can keep my options open: if I get a good job then great, If not then I can consider university.

 

[DigiTan]

Contrary to what everyone expects, I'd recommend getting the degree. Not because it would benefit you directly; but because recruiters are so closed-minded, no one will even listen to you without one.

 

[rjvh]

I've decided that, I'll apply for university and for a few jobs.

That way I can keep my options open: if I get a good job then great, If not then I can consider university.

Hi Hero

what do you want to do (i mean working wise)

you're now 26 so if you start working now you do get work experiance and in a year or 4 you can flow through to management position if you like

age wise if you want in a management position you have to be there before 32 or it realy gets harder and harder to get in that position and still have options to grow furter (a lot of people that enter these positions when they are 40 stay there till they stop working)

if you doing another degree you getting more knowledge in another field but it's more likely you will end up in a research development job or teaching job

also very rewarding job oppertunities in this derection

for me personaly i am in the management now and I realy like it and still have a lot of opertunities to grow further in my career

but if you're more a creative technical guy that want to find things out investigate situations than do another degree i would say

also have a thought where the jobs are gona be in the future

that makes the difference if you gona specialize on a sertain topic or just get a wider education so you can look to more than one field

Robert-Jan

 

[Hank Fletcher]

She also apologized for the fact that the job was predetermined/rigged to be filled internally but for legal reasons was open to the public.

I've had a few of those, too. It's kind of sweet when someone has the conscience to try to make amends for their own interview process. I don't take it personally, I think they're just being careful not to burn bridges with professional people.

I remember this one interview I had in Brampton, where the interview involved a kind of roundtable lead by the principal, with the vp, the former teacher, and I think someone else there, too. The principal was completely off her rocker, and the looks across the table from the other people there were like, "We're sorry! Save yourself! Take us with you!" The principal was so demanding, and the job wasn't all that anyway - it was completely daffy.

 

[adaminc]

A Few of my friends have had troubles getting a job right out of college in the EE/EET Sector. Me personally, I am joining the Canadian Forces as a LCIS Technician, so I have a job now.

 

[Hero999]

you're now 26 so if you start working now you do get work experiance and in a year or 4 you can flow through to management position if you like

Well I've been working (not counting my apprenticeship) for two years now.

A management position?

No way.

but if you're more a creative technical guy that want to find things out investigate situations than do another degree i would say

That's sounds more like the kind of thing I'd like to do but I don't know if I want to do it so badly to do a degree.

 

[crust]

Its hard to "classify" management positions unilaterally. I am a manager and I still do plenty of my own schematic design, code, firmware, PCB, debug, etc. The plus side is that I also get to dictate in general how a project should go but not work on the detailed design of every aspect of the system. I have a small team that works for me. Is it more work to manage and be a key engineer? Absolutely, and you have to commit way more of your time to do it. But it is quite rewarding both in compensation and the respect you earn from others.

 

[Hero999]

The plus side is that I also get to dictate in general how a project should go but not work on the detailed design of every aspect of the system.

The down side is that if the sh1t hits the fan you'll get the blame for it.

 

[DigiTan]

That'll happen anywhere. Expect the royal treatment until they decide they don't like you anymore. In every job I've worked, I've seen successful personnel canned after 15+ years of service because the higher-ups had some random vendetta. If they don't like your face or your last name, project success won't mean jack.

If you're worried management work will detach you from the design work--no one's going to argue that isn't possible. But if you're looking to fly under the radar, I can definitely tell you being liked is far more important than accountability.