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Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

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Re: Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

#31

Post by fabjan »

blackboxxx wrote: post #13
WoundedMarlin wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you make yourself more desirable if you have been out of work? I am not homeless but not able to land work and have been working in a different industry for 5 years but want to get back in to what I went to school for which is Computer Engineering.

To make yourself more desirable to employers, I'd have personal projects that demonstrate your abilities. I'm a freelance writer slash "creative". I've been that way for over five years. I also have creative projects and those have been generating revenue and opportunities for me. It's not easy. I was homeless for several weeks about a year ago. Couldn't cover the rent. But I've done factory work for many years and I…

Personal plasma physics projects.

Re: Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

#32

Post by dave_sullivan »

barik wrote: post #27
dave_sullivan wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hate the go back to school argument. It sounds to me like this: Hey, you know that degree that is doing absolutely nothing for you right now even though you loaded yourself with debt to get it in the first place? Well, the problem is that degree, which you're still paying for, that's the old model. What you need to do is upgrade to a better degree by taking on more debt. Then you'll really be able to get a j…

"Start with the library, that's free" The library doesn't reset your resume. This does. You don't actually need to finish the degree, find a job while in school.

Ok, fair enough, I'm talking about getting another degree often being a bad investment, you're talking about going to school simply to prevent or fill a gap in your resume.

If that's the goal, let's say you only go back to school for a year. What does grad school cost these days? 28k for public, 38k for private? So you're paying $30,000 for someone to essentially vouch that you're doing something with your days while looking for a job?

Seriously, I'm just not seeing where this makes practical financial sense?

Re: Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

#33

Post by javaecc123 »

Anechoic wrote: post #25

He has a Masters in Electrical Engineering and Acoustics from Purdue University (a very good acoustics school) and he can't find a job in the Boston area (home of a dozen or so acoustical consulting companies, another dozen or so loudspeaker manufacturing companies including Bose, Boston Acoustics & Loud Technologies), several active audio & acoustical engineering associations (including Bosotn chapters of the ASA, A…

Well. He's 55 yrs old and has been out of work for sometime. At that age no one expects to train you so you have to have had a great track record, be practically a guru and be bringing something to the company to get hired over a recent graduate. His race might play a part in potential employers being doubtful that he has those skills (probably a bit understandable given the number of black acoustical engineers) or not being able empathize with his situation.

Re: Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

#34

Post by Mz »

Anechoic wrote: post #25

He has a Masters in Electrical Engineering and Acoustics from Purdue University (a very good acoustics school) and he can't find a job in the Boston area (home of a dozen or so acoustical consulting companies, another dozen or so loudspeaker manufacturing companies including Bose, Boston Acoustics & Loud Technologies), several active audio & acoustical engineering associations (including Bosotn chapters of the ASA, A…

There's either more to the story here or people are missing out on a potentially fantastic hire.

I've taken a class on homelessness. The short version is that it is usually rooted in intractable personal problems: Chronic health issues, abusive childhoods, mental illness and so on.

That is not intended to blame the victim. That's just reality: Employers pay you for value added to the business, not as a charitable act. If you have very big personal issues, you may not be very employable. I have a chronic illness myself and was very fortunate to be able to be a homemaker and military wife for a very long time. The good medical coverage from my husband's career was a godsend and it was helpful to be able to claim "homemaker" instead of "unemployed bum for 20 years" after I was finally diagnosed and well enough to work. I still had a hard time getting a job at all and I am still "underemployed" if you go by my education/skills. But until very recently, the job I currently have was all I had energy for. Anything more demanding would have gotten me fired.

I will also add that my understanding is that there is a general rise in homelessness, which points to systemic problems. That should concern everyone, not just folks like me.

Re: Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

#35

Post by gavinlynch »

javaecc123 wrote: post #33
Anechoic wrote: post #25

He has a Masters in Electrical Engineering and Acoustics from Purdue University (a very good acoustics school) and he can't find a job in the Boston area (home of a dozen or so acoustical consulting companies, another dozen or so loudspeaker manufacturing companies including Bose, Boston Acoustics & Loud Technologies), several active audio & acoustical engineering associations (including Bosotn chapters of the ASA, A…

Well. He's 55 yrs old and has been out of work for sometime. At that age no one expects to train you so you have to have had a great track record, be practically a guru and be bringing something to the company to get hired over a recent graduate. His race might play a part in potential employers being doubtful that he has those skills (probably a bit understandable given the number of black acoustical engineers) or n…

I don't really understand this comment. Why would it be understandable that some employers would not believe that he is a capable black acoustical engineer?

And even if they did, wouldn't it take maybe 5 minutes worth of correspondence to figure out if he was or was not? Unless you are saying there is rampant racism in the acoustical engineering industry to the point that he would not even advance to a correspondence level with a hiring manager based soley on the fact that he is black.. Which I would doubt.

Re: Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

#36

Post by Anechoic »

javaecc123 wrote: post #33
Anechoic wrote: post #25

He has a Masters in Electrical Engineering and Acoustics from Purdue University (a very good acoustics school) and he can't find a job in the Boston area (home of a dozen or so acoustical consulting companies, another dozen or so loudspeaker manufacturing companies including Bose, Boston Acoustics & Loud Technologies), several active audio & acoustical engineering associations (including Bosotn chapters of the ASA, A…

Well. He's 55 yrs old and has been out of work for sometime. At that age no one expects to train you so you have to have had a great track record, be practically a guru and be bringing something to the company to get hired over a recent graduate. His race might play a part in potential employers being doubtful that he has those skills (probably a bit understandable given the number of black acoustical engineers) or n…

>Well. He's 55 yrs old

I doubt that would be much of an issue, especially since a lot of the acousticians in the Boston area are around that age and I can think of at least a half-dozen Boston-area hires in that age group.

>and has been out of work for sometime

If I had to guess, I'd say this is the big issue.

>His race might play a part in potential employers being doubtful that he has those skills

Maybe, but again I've seen no evidence of this around Boston-area acousticians. I've certainly can't remember ever being on the receiving end of it.

Re: Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

#37

Post by yaakov34 »

Anechoic wrote: post #25

He has a Masters in Electrical Engineering and Acoustics from Purdue University (a very good acoustics school) and he can't find a job in the Boston area (home of a dozen or so acoustical consulting companies, another dozen or so loudspeaker manufacturing companies including Bose, Boston Acoustics & Loud Technologies), several active audio & acoustical engineering associations (including Bosotn chapters of the ASA, A…

I also suspect there is more to the story, and I would like to point out that he was unemployed from 1993 to 2007, which is a period that included an immense economic boom. I don't see how the current tottering state of the economy explains his inability to find any employment at all from 1993 to 1999, which was as good a time for an engineer to be hired as I can imagine. I was there in that job market, and there was a constant problem of recruiters cold-calling people by randomly dialing company numbers and trying to tempt them with higher salaries. There were all sorts of company policies to stop that from happening, including assigning phone numbers out of a really large space and making incoming calls go through the receptionist. For a physicist and acoustical engineer with computer programming experience to not be employed at all in the late 1990s - sorry, blame it on anything you want, but don't blame it on the American economy.

EDIT: also, that same LinkedIn profile claims he started his masters degree in Plasma Physics in 1972, when he would have been around 16. Come on people, engage some critical thinking here. You're not hearing the whole story, and you're not hearing it from a reliable source.

Re: Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

#38

Post by barik »

barik wrote: post #27
dave_sullivan wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hate the go back to school argument. It sounds to me like this: Hey, you know that degree that is doing absolutely nothing for you right now even though you loaded yourself with debt to get it in the first place? Well, the problem is that degree, which you're still paying for, that's the old model. What you need to do is upgrade to a better degree by taking on more debt. Then you'll really be able to get a j…

"Start with the library, that's free" The library doesn't reset your resume. This does. You don't actually need to finish the degree, find a job while in school.

I can only speak personally of the individuals I know who have done this at NC State. The cost per semester is $1,802.17 for one class. The average time that I've seen for the people who've tried this approach has been between 1 and 2 semesters, maybe 3. Of course, I don't know that many people in the first place, so my sample size is limited.

http://www.fis.ncsu.edu/cashier/tuition/gradtuition.asp

Plus, as a student, you get access to the career fair as well as the internship program.

Re: Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

#39

Post by gavinlynch »

sudont wrote: post #6
Jarred wrote: post #4

This might make me sound inconsiderate, but in his position I would take nearly any job I could just to make some money. He can't afford to be picky about what he gets if he's living on the streets.

It does. I was unemployed for a year and a half, and even Wal-Mart wouldn't hire me.

I don't find it inconsiderate. the Parent poster is simply suggesting that if you don't have a job, and desperately need a job, take any job you can get.

He did not disparage people who become unemployed, it is obviously something that happens to qualified, hard-working people every year for various reasons.

I agree with the poster's sentiments. If I was ever in a position where I was unemployed, I would take whatever job I could find if the alternative was becoming homeless. Obviously, if Wal-Mart turned me down, that is not a job I would be able to take.

Re: Homeless Man Has Three Degrees and Can't Find a Job

#40

Post by barik »

EwanToo wrote: post #18
WoundedMarlin wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you make yourself more desirable if you have been out of work? I am not homeless but not able to land work and have been working in a different industry for 5 years but want to get back in to what I went to school for which is Computer Engineering.

It's going to be hard, but open source is really your best friend here. Personally I'd suggest finding a new project that's up and running with a very committed founder, and put a lot of effort into contributions. If you pick something like openphoto, you'll be able to make a difference, make a good track record of work done by yourself, and if openphoto takes off, then you'd be in the perfect position to get hired t…

If open source is too much work, you can also publish in trade journals. For example I published an article on JSR-170 for IBM DeveloperWorks in 2006 when I was unemployed. It took about a weekend to write, and IBM paid me $600 for the piece (and boy was I desperate for the money). I had companies asking me for interviews within days due solely to that article. The oddest thing is that I continue to get interview requests from that piece (and a few from PHP Architect), even though it was written in 2006.

By the way, the reference to "SoloFX Enterprises" is fake. As I said, I was unemployed at the time, so I just made something up. You'll find several other articles from me right around the same time period.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-jcr/

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