To start off, I am someone with 2 years of working experience. Most positions require a minimum of 5 years of experience, so that automatically prices me out of those jobs. All of the new grad jobs that I’ve applied for (12 of them), the HR have all told me I am not qualified because they are looking for specifically graduate engineers that are graduating in May 2016. They couldn’t care less about the fact that I have previous experience in that exact field. I don’t know what to do now… Too under-qualified for normal engineering jobs, too overqualified for new grad jobs. Any suggestions?
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Your best bet is to start networking at Walmart.
From my observations on this board, it's painfully obvious that the younger generation and old farts do not mix well at all.
New grads? There's no reasoning with you. Just accept that you're entering a world of pain. Am I wrong, here?
And evaluate the requirements for top secret clearance. Do not engage in smoking pot until after you have landed a new job. The companies contracted to the us government often require top secret clearance of the employees.
WHy are you guys trying to apply for Sinking Ship ? If you are Engineer go to Northrop and Lockheed and other aerospace companies .. They are hiring tons of new graduates. Recently Northrop won a big contract. So, lot of jobs will be coming may be as a contractor at Oklahoma city or California.. ..
Spoken for or not the application is an opportunity to network with recruiters and hiring managers. Zero opportunity for the job without completing the application. Approach the application with the expectations the first choice will die of a heart attach (quietly while sleeping). The spoken for posting is very common for both public sector and private sector.
Hot tip: most of the jobs posted on the US government website are actually already spoken-for; the only reason those jobs are posted is because that US labor anti-discrimination require public postings of all available jobs prior to the position being filled.
The noted coder camp (or similar) is a excellent idea but at a cost of $10,000 to $25,000 and the end result is a skill set of value for perhaps 6-12 month after completing the camp. Employers focus on experience and not on training. The federal jobs are also an excellent idea but expect 6 months lead time to a permanent offer and another 6-12 month for clearance (if required). I think the best thing you can do is continue to pursue a role in the career field with the expectation the process is 2-6 months minimum. And during the 2-6 months add the to the resume with additional education in the career field. Master one career prior to pursuing another career. I have not idea what encompasses "make yourself indispensable" as the individuals involved in the layoffs included endless indispensable employees. The indispensable employees were replaced with zero experience new hires or contractors.
I went through something similar than you. In 2008/2009 I was offered a job, I canceled job interviews thinking my job search was done, and subsequently my job offer was rescinded. So you are not going through anything others haven’t been through. So as far as what you can do: join the military, go back to graduate school (I did), get a government job (I did) (IRS, BLM, BSEE, BOEM, Texas RRC and more all hire petroleum engineers), go to coder camp (I did) (Google ‘coder camps’, ‘1150 Academy’, ‘General Assembly’, ‘Coder Camps Houston’). There are many things you can do to improve yourself. I have learned that what you must do is make yourself indispensable. Did I have to go to coder camp? No, but if I ever lose my job I can easily transition to Data Science or web development (not to mention network with those people). To think that you can take a job and be taken care of for the rest of your career is insane. Good Luck.
The term is "bench strength" and the concept is to measure the skills sets associated with the individuals in the organization. Unfortunately the noted on campus recruits do not have experience and the skills sets associated with the experience. In theory the individuals can be quickly trained for a new role as the individuals are high performers. Upper management considers the process of right of passage. Upper management and HR need to find a new mode of management of human resources as the individuals on the bench have no marketable skills sets in the event of a termination of employment.
To the IT new hire, you may or may not have employment with ConocoPhillips. No guarantee of a job day one or day two. But I can confirm one goal is to keep competent staff on the bench so to speak. The issue for the new hire is the dead end role associated with on the bench. A career in IT is not a career managing user accounts for email 8 hours a day for 6-12 months. Endless on campus recruits stuck in roles of no career significance for 6-12-18 months. The individuals involved with university recruiting have metrics associated with acceptance and so are obligated to speak out of turn on the status of old and new employees. The company is hiring on campus recruits and paying the on campus recruits $80,000 annually with $10,000 sign on bonus only to have the staff work in a roles with an educational requirement of a high school diploma.
Wow... What a great impression they are making on campus.
P.S. Before I get jumped on for grammer, I meant to say "precedent", autocorrect let me down.
That is what the recruiters told our professors.
197367 - did they really tell you that COP let go there higher paid experience staff so they could replace them with lower paid juniors? I know first hand that HR types are as dumb as they come, but this would be setting a new president, even for them!
I just accepted a fulltime new hire position in IT with ConocoPhillips. Reading all these posts makes me nervous that I should keep looking and withdrawl my acceptance. I was told they had to let go the higher paid, more experienced workers and were highing lower paid graduates to replace them. Just now reading that they let new hires go makes me nervous!
The contractor roles are a challenge to find. The company does not want to publicly post the contractor roles and the 3rd party recruiters are provided limited information as such. Unfortunately the roles posted are often ambiguous so the candidate is relatively unaware of the role until onsite working the job. And the contract roles are not contract to hire despite the advertisements from the 3rd party recruiters. The contract roles are good experience.
usa jobs dot gov for federal jobs as an engineer. The process is not quick but no harm in the efforts.
Anonymous197010, did not think it needed to repeated. I had 3 jobs in less than 3 years. Having worked and paying my way thru college - no loans or any other financial aid and growing up on a farm, I knew how to work and not worrying how dirty the job got.... The initial company I worked for out of college was taken over and was laid off. Went to work for a service company - driving a truck and working as a member of a frac crew. Then worked for an independent that went broke and laid off. They even wanted to dispute unemployment benefits. So, you asked how we did it. We did what we needed to do to continue to work be it hard work as a contractor or even a sales clerk. We went looking for work not expecting a handout.....Some of us were inexperience collage graduate engineers too.....You ask, we did what we needed to do to put food on the table without griping....
Keep at it, network, reach out to people, be open to other industries, be open to other cities, be open to a lower starting salary, starting out as a contractor can be a good choice, and look at placement agencies.
It's Walmart for you boy
Dont laugh.. lot of companies lay off employees and then hires contractors.. including this..
Yep,... I'd definitely consider the Military. Pick the right MOS (usually possible to do this) and you might find some wonderful new horizons. Too,... they'll stomp all of the "brat" out of you, in very short order. Am I wrong, here?
Interesting the note of a prior downturn in the industry but no information on how you managed the downturn in the industry. Odd the same issue with the senior employees and the not so senior employees. The senior employees will note time and time again experience with a situation but will not relay insight into the experience to the not so senior employees. At some point right of passage is no longer a successful business model.
Welcome to 1983-1986......A bunch of us experienced it! Wish you well!
Just join as a contractor hahaha ??? All I smell is budget cuts everywhere.
Just join as contractor first and then try to get full time.. Look at those foreign contractors how they get in without any experience and some how prove their way ..
I have 1 :'(
Expand the horizons. Expand to different industries and different states. Engineering jobs are not limited to USA so do not hesitate to explore options elsewhere.
The US military needs engineers.
Move back in with your parents and enjoy the easy life. They love you in spite of all the warts.
boohoo !!! grow up
Yes ConocoPhillips screwed new graduates as the new graduate status ended with the hire. Credit where credit is due for recognizing the situation. Welcome to the wonderful world of reality check. Yes you are correct the roles advertised are for on campus hires or experienced hires. The conversations with the recruiters are of great value as you have the opportunity to build a relationship with the recruiter at the company. The recruiters are more often than not responding to the application via process and procedure and not with the expectations of a hire. The fact you are not qualified for the role is obvious to the recruiter so pointing out the obvious is of no value to you or the recruiter. One option is the government roles such as state and federal roles. The oil and gas industry are relatively consistent with the hiring requirements but the government roles not so much so. And expect 2-6 months or longer prior to landing a new role outside the noted new hire or experienced hire. Focus on endless applications as you are dead to the university recruiting staff now that you have been hired once as an on campus recruit.