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Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?

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11–19 of 19 posts

Re: Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?

#11
No, you're not!

A friend of mine got his MSc in CS with an undergrad education in english and philosophy. He landed a job with little prior experience.

You can do it. You ARE doing it. I think the amount of interviews that you've gotten is a promising start.

Re: Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?

#13
As a hiring manager, I'd say not screwed. You'll have issues getting past that HR wall, but if you can show your talents in the interview you'll be fine. Fill up that Github and try reaching out to the hiring managers directly. Some managers prefer hiring people with less work experience, but they only see the resumes that come across their desk.

Re: Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?

#16
Don't worry -- you will be 100% fine. What kind of jobs are you applying for?

If you're looking at true entry-level jobs, then having 0 work experience is not a problem. And those jobs do exist, just look for them specifically.

Beyond that, interviewers often make remarks like this, even if it isn't really a big hang up for them. Don't let them see you sweat, that's the only mistake you can make. Just own it, and say ok -- but I have, x, y, z -- and I can do this.

It's like when you try to sell a car. The buyers like to kick the tires and see if they deflate. They aren't trying to disqualify you, they're __already_negotiating__, and trying to bring the price down.

Re: Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?

#17
post #8

You 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.

When applying for positions, I often decide that there's a 5% chance of being hired from a single application, and try to estimate how many resumes I need to send before I have a 95% chance of receiving an offer. The clear deadline helps with time budgeting, and helps me focus on avoiding making anxious spammy applications.

Re: Ask HN: 27 year old with a MSc degree in CS. No job experience. Am I screwed?

#19
Maybe I have been lucky, but I was in your same situation 3 months ago: 26, no job experience, soon to have a MSc degree in CS. I had your same fears when I published my resume on a portal that my uni makes available to students for making them in touch with companies, since then I've been contacted three times in the first two weeks and now that I found a job there are still other companies sending me emails offering me to have a job interview. The same thing happened to some of my friends.

Note that I was an average student, certainly not in the top of my course.

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