Job Hunt Thread

[HuskyCaucasian]

Depends on the employer, but email is perfectly acceptable almost everywhere today. One thing I have been told is only send emailed documents in PDF format. Never in Word.

I never email word docs unless it's a collaborative document.

[DBAHO]

I'm currently working for one of the biggest banks in the UK here, but my contract finishes in December, and I'm going to be moving back home to Melbourne in early Feb, after doing some travelling across Europe in Jan.

 

My plan is to try and find work in Melbourne, and after 3 months if I can't, I am going to move in with a friend in Los Angeles and try and find some work there. Visa wise it's complicated, but I can get a 2 year visa for a job that requires a Bachelor's Degree in something to do it.

[The Beast]

Recently, I took State Farm's Sales and Leadership test and got a letter back saying that I'm not Sales material. I wasn't surprised - you expect a closet introvert to do Sales when he asks you what other positions are within your organization? I bet I'd be okay with doing that for a job since you are creating customer relationships with people and providing value for their lives. Also, I'm meeting with Northwestern Mutual for a preliminary interview in Gurnee when I return home for Thanksgiving Break. Not sure if I'll be all that interested but it would be great experience to interview with a second employer (I have previously interviewed with Hy-Vee).

 

On the more exciting front, I'm trying to get an interview with the Lewis University Sports Information director for my HR Management class so that I go through the university's selection strategy and (with a hidden agenda) showcase my skill set for him since he might think that Business majors can't write well and wouldn't fit in a PR/Media Relations role. I'm excited, especially if I get the chance to interview with him - the sports information gig I have now allows me to produce what I believe to be good work and it would be ideal to enhance my skills further with an entry-level position in sports information. I have also thought about being an academic advisor or admissions counselor (or taking a university office job) to stay around the university setting so that I can get that sports information job and also take graduate courses to continue my education beyond May of 2011 when I'm set to graduate.

Edited November 7, 2010 by MuckFinnesota

[HuskyCaucasian]

If I applied for a job and was never contacted for an interview, and the job has been reposted since they didnt hire anyone from the first round of applications, is it in bad taste to apply AGAIN, maybe with an updated cover letter and resume?

[maggsmaggs]

If I applied for a job and was never contacted for an interview, and the job has been reposted since they didnt hire anyone from the first round of applications, is it in bad taste to apply AGAIN, maybe with an updated cover letter and resume?

Not at all. What's the worst that happens?

[G&T]

If I applied for a job and was never contacted for an interview, and the job has been reposted since they didnt hire anyone from the first round of applications, is it in bad taste to apply AGAIN, maybe with an updated cover letter and resume?

 

Reapply. You don't even know if they saw your resume. And I doubt they remember.

[HuskyCaucasian]

Not at all. What's the worst that happens?

 

Reapply. You don't even know if they saw your resume. And I doubt they remember.

 

Good points

[The Beast]

Update: Did an informational interview with two colleges and people who liked what my resume said and how I came across. I was told I could come ask for work when I got back in town and the other guy told me I could freelance for his university unless a position opened up. This seems like a better option than going to grad school right away. Also interviewed with Northwestern Mutual and had a good interview, but was turned off by the "unlimited earning potential." I wonder if there's jobs in insurance that aren't sales related. Seemed like a great organization but I don't want to be a Financial Sales Rep. Backup plan is to just get a part-time job, study for the GRE or GMAT and volunteer with the universities that I impressed. I've got nothing other than that...other than jumping into the MBA program at my school and being a GA for sports information...the only problem is that I don't know that I want to get an MBA.

[HuskyCaucasian]

Another quick question:

I am applying for jobs near Iowa City, which is where my wife is from. I feel like i should mention in my cover letter or follow up email that relocation will not be a problem and that I can start almost immediately (I would live with my in-laws). Should i include something to this effect?

 

I would hate to be put aside because they might think relocation would be hard.

Edited December 8, 2010 by Athomeboy_2000

[The Beast]

I'm in a bit of a rut. Graduating in May with a degree in Business Administration/Management, and have no interest in pursuing sales, accounting, finance or marketing related jobs. My passion is still there for sports and I've decided that sports information at the university level is the way to go, or to get a job within the university setting closer to home. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if there are any jobs in that. I write well. I communicate decently but I am not energized by people. I was offered a graduate assistantship here but I am not sure if I can stomach two more years of business courses that I won't ever use just to stay here...the only other program is the Master's of Organizational Leadership and I don't think that is helpful to employers. Are there any PR/Communications related jobs or should I just go get a Master's in PR/Sport Management? Also have an interest in education again. Does this situation sound familiar where you're about to graduate and have no idea of what to do next, but want to avoid getting sucked in by these crappy jobs with "unlimited earning potential" or jobs at Enterprise where you are working 50+ hours a week? My only ideas are to either take the grad assistantship and stay in school till I'm 25 for a degree I won't use and will put a C effort into in exchange for work experience in something that I want to do, go home and work part-time while I get an internship or volunteer in the field I'm interested in, or should I just enter the full-time work force doing whatever "they" tell me to do? The economy dictates that you can't be 100% happy in what you're doing anyway since if you have a job you should be happy about it...

 

EDIT: Also thought about career counseling, as sad as that is.

Edited December 9, 2010 by MuckFinnesota

[bmags]

I'm in a bit of a rut. Graduating in May with a degree in Business Administration/Management, and have no interest in pursuing sales, accounting, finance or marketing related jobs. My passion is still there for sports and I've decided that sports information at the university level is the way to go, or to get a job within the university setting closer to home. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if there are any jobs in that. I write well. I communicate decently but I am not energized by people. I was offered a graduate assistantship here but I am not sure if I can stomach two more years of business courses that I won't ever use just to stay here...the only other program is the Master's of Organizational Leadership and I don't think that is helpful to employers. Are there any PR/Communications related jobs or should I just go get a Master's in PR/Sport Management? Also have an interest in education again. Does this situation sound familiar where you're about to graduate and have no idea of what to do next, but want to avoid getting sucked in by these crappy jobs with "unlimited earning potential" or jobs at Enterprise where you are working 50+ hours a week? My only ideas are to either take the grad assistantship and stay in school till I'm 25 for a degree I won't use and will put a C effort into in exchange for work experience in something that I want to do, go home and work part-time while I get an internship or volunteer in the field I'm interested in, or should I just enter the full-time work force doing whatever "they" tell me to do? The economy dictates that you can't be 100% happy in what you're doing anyway since if you have a job you should be happy about it...

 

EDIT: Also thought about career counseling, as sad as that is.

 

I would say to keep your mind a bit more open. There are a lot of things you think may suck that are actually pretty interesting when you have your own stake in the claim. You probably will find the stuff you think is interesting kind of sucks. 2 years later I wouldn't have imagined how interested i'd be in internet start-ups and planning on going back for an MBA.

[iamshack]

I would say to keep your mind a bit more open. There are a lot of things you think may suck that are actually pretty interesting when you have your own stake in the claim. You probably will find the stuff you think is interesting kind of sucks. 2 years later I wouldn't have imagined how interested i'd be in internet start-ups and planning on going back for an MBA.

I concur.

 

Ross, just to add to what BMags has stated, you never know where life is going to take you. I have a career in an industry now that I hardly knew existed 3 years ago. I'm doing things I never thought possible, even more astounding, never even knew were possible, when I graduated from law school. So don't necessarily worry about particular fields or areas or paths, but rather focus on finishing your schooling, making good connections in any way possible, and just being open to as many possibilities as you can.

 

Very few people know exactly what they want to do, or what they will ultimately end up doing, when they graduate college, let alone before that. Sure, there are cases where someone always knew they wanted to be a lawyer or a doctor or an actor, but for the most part, we all just go through life trying to make the best decision we can, with the information available to us, at that particular time. This is really all you can ask of yourself. And as long as you work hard, try to be friendly to those who treat you with respect, you'll find your way to something that you like doing and that pays reasonably well.

Edited December 9, 2010 by iamshack

[SnB]

I would say to keep your mind a bit more open. There are a lot of things you think may suck that are actually pretty interesting when you have your own stake in the claim. You probably will find the stuff you think is interesting kind of sucks. 2 years later I wouldn't have imagined how interested i'd be in internet start-ups and planning on going back for an MBA.

This.

 

5 years after college, I would bet that almost everyone is somewhere they didn't expect. Myself included. You don't have to have your life figured out by the time you're 22.

[farmteam]

I concur.

 

Ross, just to add to what BMags has stated, you never know where life is going to take you. I have a career in an industry now that I hardly knew existed 3 years ago. I'm doing things I never thought possible, even more astounding, never even knew were possible, when I graduated from law school. So don't necessarily worry about particular fields or areas or paths, but rather focus on finishing your schooling, making good connections in any way possible, and just being open to as many possibilities as you can.

 

Very few people know exactly what they want to do, or what they will ultimately end up doing, when they graduate college, let alone before that. Sure, there are cases where someone always knew they wanted to be a lawyer or a doctor or an actor, but for the most part, we all just go through life trying to make the best decision we can, with the information available to us, at that particular time. This is really all you can ask of yourself. And as long as you work hard, try to be friendly to those who treat you with respect, you'll find your way to something that you like doing and that pays reasonably well.

 

Considering I'm planning on being in law school, would you mind telling me where you ended up/how you got there? You can do it in a PM if you like.

[SoxFan1]

I'll be attending the Winter Meetings next year to try and attain a job broadcasting something somewhere within the MLB.

[IlliniKrush]

This.

 

5 years after college, I would bet that almost everyone is somewhere they didn't expect. Myself included. You don't have to have your life figured out by the time you're 22.

You need to check your birth date/graduation date

[Rowand44]

You need to check your birth date/graduation date

Steve's aging pretty damn quick apparently.

[iamshack]

Considering I'm planning on being in law school, would you mind telling me where you ended up/how you got there? You can do it in a PM if you like.

Farmteam,

I went to law school with the full intentions of practicing law afterwards. Ideally, I wanted to become active in sports and entertainment law, but then again, what twentysomething male law school student doesn't? I quickly realized that without any serious connections to that industry, it was probably a bit of a pipedream. So I began concentrating on IP law, as I wanted to do something that was sort of on the cusp of technology. Problem is that I didn't really find it all that interesting as I often got bored with all the technical cyberspace jargon.

 

As for work experience, I worked as an intern for Mayor Daley for a few years, and then for a pretty prominent PI firm for another year. I enjoyed the experiences, but I found that I was sort of turned off by the culture of attorneys in Chicago...it's just very cutthroat, lots of big egos, lots of self-righteousness, etc.

 

After I graduated I decided to take a look around at non-traditional fields before taking any position in the legal field I could find. I wanted to give myself a chance to do something I really liked before I immersed myself in the legal industry because I figured once I got in, I would never get out. So while I was poking around, I found an opportunity to work for a start-up in the green energy industry, something I was really interested in. I did all kinds of research into municipal, state, and federal incentives packages for green technologies, worked on power purchase agreements, and all kinds of other research we needed to get the company started.

 

Meanwhile, I had been playing fantasy baseball in a keeper league for several years with some random guys. Got to being friends with a couple guys that ended up becoming energy traders here in Las Vegas. When I took the job with the startup company, they started asking lots of questions...we bounced a lot of ideas off eachother when we weren't trading Carl Crawford back and forth to one another. Eventually, they started recruiting me to come work with them out here. Long story short, I eventually took the position and moved out to Vegas. I've been trading electricity for over two years now and I have recently been asked to interview for two senior analyst positions, one in our renewables division, and another in our portfolio analytics division, both of which I am very interested in, and both of which willl open up a world of other opportunities for me, even outside the energy industry. All the sudden I look up and I'm in the middle of one of the hottest industries in the world right now, while many of the lawyers in Chicago and other big cities are really having to hustle for work right now (although some are undoubtedly doing very well still). So I guess I couldn't be more excited about where I am and the decision I made not to just leap in to the legal industry.

 

While I am not practicing law currently, and really don't have much intention of doing so, my schooling definitely has come in handy and it is definitely something my employer calls upon on a regular basis. My experience will most likely give me an edge when I interview for other positions here. So while paying the loans each month really puts a dent in my bank account, I am still very happy I attended law school.

 

I guess the moral of the story is that you never know where life is going to take you. You have to follow your heart with a good helping of your brain, and do the best to make good contacts along the way. Then make the best decisions you can with the information you have at the time. I can't stress that enough.

 

Let me know of any questions you may have...

[SnB]

You need to check your birth date/graduation date

I WAS SPEAKING IN GENERAL.

 

I'm 2.5 years out of graduation and in place I never thought I'd be.

Edited December 9, 2010 by SnB

[southsider2k5]

So tomorrow starts my adventure in teaching. Prepare for the right-winging of high school econ students!

[HuskyCaucasian]

I applied for a job at the University of Iowa and was just told they are "very interested in (my) candidacy and will begin checking your references quite soon"

 

 

Wooo hooo! (Ok, not the part about having to possibly move if I am hired freaks me out a bit. lol)

Edited February 9, 2011 by Athomeboy_2000

[iamshack]

I applied for a job at the University of Iowa and was just told they are "very interested in (my) candidacy and will begin checking your references quite soon"

 

 

Wooo hooo! (Ok, not the part about having to possibly move if I am hired freaks me out a bit. lol)

Congrats, AHB, always good to be wanted...going through the process will be good and allow you to ask a lot of questions that you might not ordinarily have thought about the answers to.

 

Regardless of whether you take the job ultimately, it should be a productive process.

[The Beast]

I wrote admissions counselors to ask about their daily job at universities and I got a helpful, lengthy response back from Northern that indicated they had an opening. I wrote a carefully constructed reply back to them last Saturday and didn't get a response yet. I'm thinking about calling and leaving a voicemail with the woman I have been emailing back and forth with to see if I can come in on spring break and learn more about the job opening...or at least to see where I should forward my resume/cover letter.

 

Outside of that, my current school is wanting me to be a graduate assistant for sports information, while paying for the MBA. I would gladly go through with the assistantship if there were different programs available, but it appears that the MOL/MBA is the only thing that they'll pay for. I am a bit concerned that when I would get out of that program I would be a newly aged 25 year old without any work experience except for all that I did in undergrad and the potential graduate. So I was thinking of taking the GMAT and seeing if I could get in...and see how my work experience could get me into university work later on, since I have no interest in Deere or going international with the MBA degree. I also look at it from the social standpoint - most of my friends will be graduating and there's about 3,000 other kids that go here...about 400 grad students, most of who are probably not on campus. So I'm fairly certain for as social as I am (I can be real social), that it might be difficult to connect with the younger "kids."

Edited February 9, 2011 by MuckFinnesota

[PeavyTime]

I have an bachelor's and master's in accounting and can't find a job! No intern experience is killing me I think (and the economy)

[bigruss]

From everything that I have heard from people higher up the chain and those in MBA programs/have gone through them, I would highly suggest getting work experience before you get an MBA.