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

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

#211

Post by dxrko619 »

for now, if you get a job you're overqualified for OR even its not upto your "standards", I would suggest to take it.

I had one such offer that I thought was not worth my time because I presumed I'll get more offers, Sike, I didn't. Now I think about if had taken that up, I would atleast have some stability while I plan my next steps.

food on the table > rocket on mars

stability > ambition

Pickup anything you can get, dont stay stuck on the old ways of getting a job, they are not working anyways. Cold call business owners and ask them if you can bring some technical value and potentially convert that into a long term relationship. This doesn't have to be this way for years but alteast you'll be able to get into the workspace and use YOUR SKILLS to create impact in OTHERs company/industry.

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

#212

Post by vonneumannstan »

laidoffamazon wrote: post #206
vonneumannstan wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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

Because you aren't actually modeling their thinking correctly?

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

#213

Post by pseudocomposer »

If you can self-host or publish a demo of your work that is open-sourced, I find that that really opens the door for a lot of web dev positions, regardless of what particular languages you know and/or what’s in vogue.

(Mine would be https://jonline.io/jon, part of a larger project that does federated social media, but just a “hello world” portfolio server app that you open source would be quite effective, I think. This is all based on recruiters’, hiring managers’, and other devs’ responses when I link them to it.)

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

#214

Post by laidoffamazon »

vonneumannstan wrote: post #212
laidoffamazon wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

>Why would they work with people that they perceive to be beneath them and have worked far less hard than them? Because you aren't actually modeling their thinking correctly?

Perhaps I don't. I don't know why someone would expend 100x the effort and be labeled at minimum 10x the person by MIT admissions to end up at the same place that people with 1350 SATs from Auburn or 1450's from NC State or 1420 from Binghamton would go to after graduating MechE.

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

#216

Post by tomcam »

I came from a background that sounds a lot like yours. I didn’t get to go to MIT; I just taught myself, also during hard economic times. My way of getting jobs was learning skills that were difficult for most programmers so that having a degree wouldn’t be as important. I also applied only to places that interested me and where I thought I could contribute. Therefore, I applied to very few places. I have always thought that it is my job to be irresistible to a hiring manager. No one owes us a job.

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

#218

Post by AustinCodeMonki »

You keep trying. You may have to take a lesser job to pay the bills, but you keep trying until you succeed. You also need to understand that the CS market has something of a glut right now and with companies downsizing for various reasons, jobs in CS are tight. When I went through the same thing, I took jobs at small companies, startups, etc., to pay the bills and I kept applying to other companies until I landed a job with one of them. You might also consider talking to consulting firms for contract work, something I've done before.

If you give up, you will certainly fail, so don't give up and realize that the hardships you may experience will make you stronger, more resilient, and better prepared to deal with hardships in the future.

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