Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 247 posts

Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends

#201

Post by bcye »

giardini wrote: post #194

There's some evidence that your career success depends heavily on the timing of your entry into the job market. That is, if you start working during an economic slump your career will suffer but if you wait and enter during a peak economic period you will always "ride the wave". I've seen this happen to individuals. So I suggest that you stay in school, take a Masters degree and try to enter the market at a better ti…

I think the context of it being titled: "Not So Very Serious Stuff" is missing

Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends

#202

Post by energyguy78 »

MIT has resources, at least a huge alumni network (that is one of the reasons you paid so much), you are going to have to shake some palms, get a list of recent graduates, they should supply and start asking, most companies offer a referral to the employee

Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends

#203

Post by energyguy78 »

tmaly wrote: post #88
Aurornis wrote: post #2

Truly sorry you feel this way. For what it’s worth, this was common for people graduating into the 2008 financial crisis, too. It’s actually unusual that we went for so long without another period of contraction. From last time around: The people who kept pushing and took any job, anywhere turned out okay. This translated to a lot of people taking jobs below what they expected to get or having to move when they didn’…

It was the same for me in the 2001 dotcom crash. It was incredibly hard to find work.

Same boat here, was before all the headhunter sites

Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends

#204

Post by jdalt »

I graduated in 2009 in the middle of the Great Recession. I lived in a basement after graduation and did odd jobs for 9 months while learning how to build web apps. Then I took a job teaching English in South Korea.

After I got back from Korea 2 years later I faced a similar situation. Be flexible, take odd jobs, don't be afraid to work in the trades and use your free time to build durable economic skills for a job that you really want. Conditions will change (and they do so unevenly throughout the economy).

Get by and get ready. They can't repossess your brain. If you're from a financially unstable background - live cheap and be creative until you've built the stability you want.

Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends

#205

Post by r14c »

swagmoney69 wrote: post #162
giantg2 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Expect that you will meet many people younger than you who will be at your financial level because they graduated post-recovery." Yep, the people who graduated about 3-4 years ago are all making more than I do after more than a decade. It seems like that's just how it works.

Huh. This is making me realize that perhaps my situation is more bizarre and unstable than I realize... How uncommon is it for someone with no highschool diploma (GED), or college diploma to get a job as a software engineer at a Fortune 500 company? Am I completely fucked if I ever lose this job? It's my second SE job... Like OP may have been hinting at, I had a really fucked up family situation and this path was the…

I'm in a similar boat. I dropped out of uni for reasons (a bit of a story, I can tell it if you buy me a beer) and ended up making a career out of software engineering.

The main thing to do IMO is spend time building a network. A recommendation in the right place at the right time can open doors that would otherwise be closed to you.

School is an option, but the opportunity cost has been too high so far for me. Though doing a freelance PhD thesis probably wouldn't hurt.

Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends

#206

Post by laidoffamazon »

vonneumannstan wrote: post #200
FilosofumRex wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's only true of the ones on ROTC or similar military related programs, everyone else goes straight to Wall Street, big tech, or MBB or med school. At the annual Fall job fair, 80% of students queue up to less than 10% of employers. Most companies never show up because it's simply not worth the cost and time to try to recruit spoiled brats of MIT

Most MIT Mech E grads work at Boeing. Most Chem Es work at Exxon, Merck and Intel. Most Aero Astros are at Boeing. Etc. Etc. You just aren't accurate.

I find this specious - why would they do that when this is basically the composition of the MechE, AeroE, and ChemE (except no Intel for ChemE, we send our EEs to intel) at my public school undergrad?

Why would they work with people that they perceive to be beneath them and have worked far less hard than them?

Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends

#207

Post by fluidwizard »

Rooster61 wrote: post #8

It's hard to face this when fresh out of school, but one piece of advice I can offer is to network as much as you can. Talk to folks you know that graduated before you and have a job. Talk to professors who might have industry ties in their history. Talk to folks in the career center. Try to be as visible as you can. Yes, I know that seems trivial considering you don't have job experience, but even building relations…

Networking is the most OP "soft skill" one can learn in the long run, takes time to properly have enough people who trust you (and that you trust as well), but its definitely worth it specially in bad times (like the ones we're having right now).

You can also "start small" and network via FOSS communities, I met one of my best friends while contributing to niche projects and we ended up working together because of it.

Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends

#208

Post by mattmanser »

swagmoney69 wrote: post #162
giantg2 wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Expect that you will meet many people younger than you who will be at your financial level because they graduated post-recovery." Yep, the people who graduated about 3-4 years ago are all making more than I do after more than a decade. It seems like that's just how it works.

Huh. This is making me realize that perhaps my situation is more bizarre and unstable than I realize... How uncommon is it for someone with no highschool diploma (GED), or college diploma to get a job as a software engineer at a Fortune 500 company? Am I completely fucked if I ever lose this job? It's my second SE job... Like OP may have been hinting at, I had a really fucked up family situation and this path was the…

I wouldn't worry too much, 20 years ago when I entered the industry (with a philosophy degree), the adverts which emphasised degree pedigree over experience were common.

I have watched that diminish over the last 20 years.

The unspoken secret in programming is that a CS degree basically signals absolutely nothing about programming skill. You can get a 1st in CS and be a rubbish programmer, you can get a chemistry degree and be an amazing one. A lot of CS is utterly irrelevant to programming, and the vast majority of programming skills are not covered by CS degree.

Once you're past 2-3 years experience it stops being relevant, before that it's a way to filter CVs by managers who want to pretend their CS degree wasn't a complete waste of time.

If they're asking for a CS degree for a senior role it's basically advertising they're a clueless company.

Re: Ask HN: I'm an MIT senior and still unemployed – and so are most of my friends

#210

Post by dxrko619 »

having worked in professional setting for more than 7 years, I've given up on getting a job. I'm starting my own venture (although ive been trying to get that up since I was in school) with full commitment and almost no alternative of getting into the job market.

The job market is skewed and gamed.

You should change the way you're applying to jobs, and on the side, try to find cofounders who are starting some startup.

You can also join new ones who recently got funded. Some of the MIT folks work at windsurf, you can find similar startups that are need of engineers.

1. new founded startups 2. start one yourself (although this is risky, only reliable if you can get funding) 3. networking and meeting folks from your college 4. get a job you're overqualified for to keep your visa, (given you talk about going back to home)

Me personally have given up on jobs so im starting something of my own, although i dont have the pressure of going back home cuz thats already done, i'm back to my "toxic environment".

Post reply on HN