Title says it all. I'm currently 27 years old. No job experience. Sent over 30 resumes and got 5 interviews. Every interviewer so far touched on the fact that I have 0 work experience. I'm starting to feel like I'm screwed. What do you guys think?
Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?
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Re: Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?
#2dude you're 27. chill out. 30 resumes/5 interviews really isnt that much.
some suggestions: build a side project and post it to github. volunteer for some folks. try and land a freelance project or 2, even if its under market rate. build a portfolio from this stuff. start a blog and post about what you're learning. get some inspiration at simpleprogrammer.com
this is a marathon not a sprint, and you are just a kid.
signed
- 38 yr old jaded vet. got into the industry when i was 26.
Re: Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?
#3get a job doing anything computers at a place that will take you, work there for a bit to gain exp, now you have it.
write some software/design a network/etc.. whatever you want to do as a job, send that with your resume.
go to some places where people are doing what you want to do for fun, like Longmont has the Tinkermill, Boulder has tech meetups, you can meet people there who are starting companies and see if you can help out, that experience can get you a job quickly if you're a fast learner.
experience is easy to gain, quality experience is harder to come by, but once you know what to look for in the companies/people you're working with, you'll get that as well.
Re: Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?
#4With no experience you need to apply for entry level positions. You won't, or shouldn't, get positions above that with no experience.
Re: Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?
#5> Sent over 30 resumes and got 5 interviews.
Sample size is far too small, 10X that number-- you'll have broader/deeper feedback. Understand that submitting job board applications is a time suck & energy drain.
Suggest shifting strategy, focus efforts on getting in-person meetings with people you can help (i.e. Managers, Directors, VP's of Engineering, CIO's) Get out of your house. Start attending networking events (Conferences, Meet-ups, Hackathons). Reach out to alumni from your program.
Re: Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?
#6The grass is greener..
Its worth repeating, this is a marathon not a sprint
Re: Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?
#7If you give up, yes your screwed. Don't give up if you want this career to work.
Some times things can be discouraging in this industry, so look at this as training for in the future when you have to get through a discouraging or trying time.
Re: Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?
#8You sent 30 resumes and got 5 interviews! That's an AMAZING rate.
I personally sent a couple of hundreds (some personalized, some bulk shotgun). Don't give up, and don't be discouraged by the stories of "rock-stars" you read about here in HN, keep sending and keep interviewing every day, all day.
Re: Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?
#9You have a Master's Degree. That means you have something that you specialized in beyond just general computer science.
Take some of the cutting edge research in the field that you are familiar with, find companies that need that skillset or technology, find companies on Linkedin and email the CEO/CTO.
That way you could potentially skip the entry level stuff and come in as someone with specialized knowledge from day one and probably get compensated as such.
Stop trying to compete with people in the general arena where your Master's Degree doesn't even have any bearing.
Re: Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?
#10You're young. Someone who took the standard path would have graduated with their masters at the age of 23 or 24. So you're maybe 4 years behind - and I bet that's still within a standard deviation of the norm. If you stay healthy, you can easily work productively and grow for another 50 years. So don't sweat it at all, you have a lot of time left. Yes, you have zero work experience. So what? Don't sell yourself as a senior engineer - you're not - sell yourself as someone who is smart and wants to work hard, get things done and gain experience.
As an anecdote - I have a friend who graduated with their bachelor's degree when they were 30. I have no doubt it was hard for them at first - they were 7-8 years behind everyone else in terms of career, and often more senior members of their team were younger than them. But they dropped their ego, worked hard and put in the time. Seven or so years later, their career has caught up or even surpassed the people who started before them - they lead a large engineering team responsible for a major product within their organization. I think that part of their success is the emotional maturity that comes with age, so while perhaps their technical skills were the same as a 22 year old out of school, they were able to communicate at a more mature level, and their focus meant that they got up to speed on the technical front more quickly. In some ways, I think they were even at an advantage.