So I Went to a Job Fair Yesterday

"AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC" (addictedtom3s) 02/25/2015 at 23:35 • Filed to: None

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As some of you may know, I am having a sort of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in terms of what I should do after finishing college. I decided to go to the Science and Engineering Job Fair at my school today to hopefully get some leads.

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So I walked in feeling pretty positive hoping to meet potential employers and make possible connections. Looked like:

Then I spoke to all the companies I was interested in and found out there was absolutely no way I could even get an entry level position with them. Wound up leaving like:

I mean I did not expect much since I was trying to find an entry level engineering position with a Chemistry degree. I was hoping there would be some entry level grunt-work type slot I could slither into to get my foot in the door and then hopefully go to grad school and get an engineering degree. There was one hiring manager who gave me his email and told me to email him with an alternative position he told me about that could help with getting my foot in the door with engineering. Hopefully that bears some fruit but at this point I'm not very hopeful.

Have a blue 250 GT Lusso for your time.

JR1 > AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC 02/25/2015 at 23:41

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I wish you the best of luck I know all too well what that is like. It's a scary place but here is some advise someone told me. Often you don't get the job you want right out of college. It might not even be in the same feild. But with dedication and hard work you will get there. Helped me hope it helps you too.

bob and john > AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC 02/25/2015 at 23:41

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here is the thing. to get a 1/2 decent job, you have to KNOW someone. a lot of companies post these jobs but the thing is, a lot of the time the jobs are taken by kids of the empolyees that already work there (case in point, i worked for magna over the summer. i got the job because my mom works for them and I helped out at a christmas party)

ask your parents who their engineering friends are. get to know them and work from there.

MrDakka > AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC 02/25/2015 at 23:43

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Go government then after a few years go back to private

TDIGuy > AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC 02/25/2015 at 23:49

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Just thinking about where to work after college is a scary thought but I'm in the same boat sort of. I've been using websites like monster.com and indeed.com to find and apply for jobs, well mostly internships because I wont graduate till next summer. But from what I've seen there are some lab monkey type jobs out there if you want to do that with your bio/chem degree to hold you over. One of my best friends in school had the same change of heart as you. He got a genetics degree and worked in the field for a while then decided he hated it and now is going back to school getting a second BA in computer science.

Short-throw Granny Shifter is 2 #blessed 2b stressed > AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC 02/25/2015 at 23:51

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Just keep asking around and applying. It took me 3 months, about a hundred applications, and a dozen interviews to find my first job.

And if your ever want of work, get a substitute teacher certification. It is an easy temp job, and looks OK on your resume.

Also, apply to Siemens, quick is who i work for I dont know what your looking for, but they always seem to be hiring.

GeorgeyBoy > AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC 02/25/2015 at 23:51

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Know the feel. Just attended a job fair last Friday. Sometimes I want to grab their neck and be like give me a job please.

AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC > bob and john 02/26/2015 at 00:36

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I agree with that. The only issue is I do not know any family-members who are engineers. I think my parents would actually disown me if I told them I was considering engineering more strongly than med school at this point (they must be the only Asian parents who dislike engineers I've figured).

I guess it's time to text some of my engineering buddies I got to know from general chemistry and go out for drinks with them to try and get some leads.

AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC > TDIGuy 02/26/2015 at 00:40

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Yeah man, it's pretty fucking scary out there! I spoke to the vineyard that was at the job fair and they apparently had an opening for a biochemist (my degree is a concentration in biochem). I'm planning to apply for that tomorrow and hope for the best. The only issue with being a lab monkey is I HATE doing it. The majority of the other students in my department who want to pursue pure science even further are so happy to do it but I loathe it. I mean if the pay was decent and livable I'd consider doing that to hold me over but it's abysmal.

How did your friend manage to find a school that would let him get a second bachelors? Most of my googling has led me to believe that was a no-go for most schools.

AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC > JR1 02/26/2015 at 00:43

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Thank you for that. These pieces of advice, stories and sayings of people who have been through it really help me from having a catastrophic meltdown. (I'm 100% serious)

AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC > GeorgeyBoy 02/26/2015 at 00:43

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Hell, I'd grab a whole lot more than their neck if they gave me a job!

AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC > Short-throw Granny Shifter is 2 #blessed 2b stressed 02/26/2015 at 00:46

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Yeesh. I've heard about people applying to jobs in the triple digits but I've never met/spoken to an actual person who went through that. Did you tailor the resumes to each job you applied to? Or did you try and send a general resume to see where they'd take you?

Siemens...why didn't I think of that? I'll look into it tomorrow when I get home from class. Is the company called "Quick"? I'll seriously take almost any position that pays me a livable wage and gets me started with engineering (or finance but that's a different story).

Ferrero1911 > AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC 02/26/2015 at 00:49

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Here's my advice, for what it's worth:

1. Keeping up with your peers is definitely a good idea. Some of the best jobs I've gotten have been referrals from my peers, there's nothing saying the person you know has to be older.

2. When networking make sure you always tell people what you want to do and where you want your career to go, don't just tell them what you've already done. It seems simple, but so many people don't do it. You'll find you have better luck getting the opportunities you actually want. (This is advice I got from a fellow (older) alum that I emailed shortly out of college looking for advice to get work, and it is the best advice I've ever gotten)

Textured Soy Protein > AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC 02/26/2015 at 00:59

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I'm the director of career services at a 2-year tech school. People will tell you lots of things about what supposedly is the best way to get a job, but what it really boils down to is a numbers game. At best, you're going to see a 20% response rate to the number of jobs you apply to. Which means in order to get an interview, you need to apply to at least 5 jobs. Hiring processes can take a while, and you may not get responses particularly quickly. Which means you should apply to 5 jobs every week . Career fairs are all well and good, but at the same time, they're not going to really help you hit that 5 applications a week.

So.

Make sure you have a decent resume. Since you don't have much (if any) work experience yet, you've got to focus on other areas that give people a reason to call you back when you apply. The very first thing you should have is an objective statement. Once you get experience, objectives are worthless. But for your first real job out of school, put an objective on there and say something like, "I am a student at (your school) working on my Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry. I will graduate in (month/year you're graduating) and am looking for an entry-level chemistry job."

Next, say your education, list your school, say you're a current student and list your expected graduation date. Yes, this is redundant. Include a part of this section that says Coursework, and list some of the courses you've taken.

Work experience comes next, and put whatever random-ass jobs you've had. It's ok if they're not relevant to chemistry.

Hit up Indeed and SimplyHired, and search for 'chemist' in your area. Any job that requires a Bachelor's degree and not something higher, and asks for up to 3 years of experience, apply. Obviously you don't have 3 years of experience, but that doesn't matter. Job descriptions are never written in stone. Especially if you see something under requirements like "3 years chemistry experience or equivalent combination of experience and education." That "or equivalent" part means "yes we just said 3 years of experience required, unless of course it isn't, maybe we'll talk to you anyway."

Many job postings will give you the opportunity to include a cover letter. You should always include one. I worked in staffing & HR before this job and I never once ever hired someone based on a cover letter, because in reality cover letters are completely worthless. But that doesn't mean there aren't a bunch of people out there who do hiring and look negatively upon candidates who don't take the time to include a cover letter. These people are stupid assholes and should really spend more of their energy focusing on things that are more important in selecting candidates for jobs, but hey, they're the gatekeepers to potential jobs, so do the damn cover letter.

Topics to include in your cover letter, many of which are completely redundant with your resume, and are exactly why cover letters are pointless except to get you past the assholes who turn their noses up at applications that don't have cover letters, are pretty basic. It should look like:

Dear (company name),

I am applying for the (job title) job posted on (job board you found it on). As soon as I saw the (job title) job, I thought it would be the perfect job for me, and that I could be a great solution to your (job category) needs.

(Talk here about your school, degree you're about to get, some of the courses you studied. Say you want an entry-level chemistry job.)

(Talk here about some of your strengths. "I'm particularly good at pulling covalent bonds out of my ass," or some such chemistry nonsense. I haven't done any chemistry since I was in 9th grade which was, ah shit, that was in 1996, I just remember covalent bonds were a pain in the ass.)

(Talk about a couple things about the company you find appealing. Do a little poking around their website, their wikipedia page, the reviews on Glassdoor, whatever. "Sounds good to me!"—don't actually say "Sounds good to me!")

I appreciate you taking the time to review my application, and I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my skills and experience with you in more detail.

Sincerely,

(Name)
(Phone)
(Email)

Apply to a minimum of 5 jobs a week, every week. Even if it's not quite an exact fit. You never know if that company will be a little flexible on their requirements, or have some other position that's not posted yet that they think you might be good for.

You'll start getting requests for interviews, and then you just have to muddle your way through those. Some interview tips:

Make eye contact, but not too much eye contact. Remind yourself to look people in one eye, then the other. Look away from them occasionally. If asked a question where you have to think for a sec, look up, not down.

Don't talk with your hands. Keep your hands in your lap. Some people hate hand-talkers.

Dress nice, groom yourself, smell nice.

When asked a question "tell me about a time when you had to do blah blah blah," always give a specific example. Never say "that hasn't happened to me." It doesn't matter if your example really matches the question. It's all about being able to come up with an example and explain how it relates to the question. Give STAR answers. Situation - describe the overall situation that was going on; Task - the specific thing you were responsible for; Action - what you did; Result - duh.

Never ask how much they're going to pay you, but feel free to talk about money once they bring up money.

ALWAYS ask them at least a question or two when prompted. You can always ask questions like:

"What's expected of a person in this position within the first 6 months?"

"What's the biggest potential challenge for someone coming into this position?"

You can obviously get more specific about chemist-y crap but those are the two easiest fallbacks that don't make you sound like you're just pulling questions out of your ass for the sake of having something to ask.

If they give you a card, or you have their contact info from some other means like they emailed you to schedule the interview and included their signature, ALWAYS send a thank-you email the next day after an interview.

Thanks again for taking the time to meet with me yesterday about the (job) job. I'm really excited about the opportunity to work at (company) and I look forward to hearing back from you regarding next steps.

Sincerely,

You

Nobody's going to reply to your thank you email—well, hardly anyone, I once got a job offer in reply to my thank you but that's the exception. But it shows them you're conscientious and trying to be professional.

Same as with applications, if you have a 20% success rate in interviews, you're doing good.

You may not want to do chemistry type jobs for a long time, but hey, it's what your degree is in, and it's what you'll have the best shot at getting a job in. Play the numbers game, and eventually something will break loose.

TDIGuy > AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC 02/26/2015 at 01:04

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I'm not entirely sure how I think they took hist credits as if he was transferring with a degree from a community college so he basically had to just take all the stuff for the major with minor BS classes. I'll have to ask him tomorrow if I remember though but I agree with you except I would be a code monkey, not really what I want to do but if that where I have to start I suppose I will that's why I decided I was going to devote 8 hours to applying to jobs yesterday and applied to 9 jobs in the same day. Definitely pushed me in the right direction

AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC > Textured Soy Protein 02/26/2015 at 01:10

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Wow thank you for actually taking the time to write all that out! I will definitely keep all this in mind. I wish the career center was actually half this helpful at my school.

Would you say it is worth the time to rearrange and customize a resume to each job posting? Or is it better to get a higher application count to play the numbers game more extensively?

Textured Soy Protein > AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC 02/26/2015 at 01:16

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As a soon-to-be graduate with little to no work experience, there's not really going to be much of anything on a resume that can be customized. The customizing is mostly in the cover letter.

Short-throw Granny Shifter is 2 #blessed 2b stressed > AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC 02/26/2015 at 08:10

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I had a weak resume and was a bit of a knucklehead in college so I had a tough go job hunting. As for resumes, I didn't change them each time, but I made sure to write individual cover letters or personalized emails. And quick was a typo, I work for Siemens, which I enjoy immensely.