I just graduated from college with a B.S. in Computer Science and now I’m looking to get a job. I did very well in college and I was hoping that my GPA would give me a lot of interviews, but boy, was I wrong. I’ve applied for several jobs, but only two of them called me. The only thing is, many of the jobs I’ve seen online and applied for are through recruiters. I had an interview about a week and half ago with a recruiter, but they still haven’t called me back. Also, another recruiter called me on the phone on Wednesday (day before yesterday), and we had a nice 20 minute interview and he said he would try to help me out, but he still hasn’t called. I really don’t have much experience except for doing a 5 month software engineering project at my college. I feel like as a recent graduate with barely any experience, recruiters will overlook me and not recommend me to any of the employers they’re working for since I have no experience and since the whole point for recruiters is to get the best candidates for the employers and to get the commission from their clients. My friends have said that they got a job directly from their employers (without recruiters) and they either have as much or less experience than me. I feel like I’m not going to get a job anywhere and I feel like crap. I graduated from college about 2 weeks ago and my parents are constantly bugging me and asking if I got a job yet. I’ve explained to them many times that around this time it’s going to be slow because of the holidays and everything, but they still keep annoying me. For example, I got a call from a recruiter on Wednesday (New Year’s Eve) and my parents woke me up early in the morning (today, Friday) to ask if I got anymore calls. I keep telling them that “I’ll let them know if I get any calls”, but they still keep asking me. They also expect me to get a good job right off the bat. My dad just cares about the salary I would get, and my mom just cares about if it’s at a reputable company so she can brag to her friends about it. They pretty much expect me to make $80,000+ a year (starting) just because I have a degree. I’ve explained to them that in reality, just because you have a degree, it’s not going to guarantee you a high paying job from the beginning. But they don’t care about that and they accuse me of not trying hard enough while looking for jobs and they start losing confidence in me. Every time I say I haven’t gotten a call from an employer yet, they drop their heads down and start panicking and get depressed as if I’ll never get a job. Every time they get mad and depressed, I lose confidence in myself and I feel more pressure to get a job. How can I get a job (if I have no experience) and how can I deal with my parents? Note: Please don’t say doing volunteering or non-paid internships because my parents won’t let me do work if it doesn’t pay. I’ve asked my friends and some relatives about opportunities out there as a software developer, but all the jobs they email or tell me about either require a lot of experience or require you to know a crap load of technologies which I really don’t think any recent graduate would know…Help!
You won’t get any answers here that will resolve your problem right away.
So don’t expect an overnight solution, especially in these times when people with experience are getting laid off.
With that said, your best luck would be through your school. That is how I got my job.
If your school is half-decent, it should have some sort of career services.
In my school, a student could post a resume and companies will set up interviews with them.
I didn’t have to deal with recruiters and dealt directly with HR from the company itself. Not really sure what’s up with that.
If you have friends or classmates that already have jobs, make sure to pass on your resume to them. You just never know how your old connections can land you a job.
The average starting salary for CS is around 65k. I don’t think any sort of advice will actually change your parent’s attitude, so just bear with it for a while.
The MOST important thing you can do right now is to involve yourself in as many projects as possible during your down-time. Pick up a pet project, join an open-source community, whatever. Just something you can sell to the recruiters to show that you really like CS and are good at it. It also shows that you take initiative.
Best of you luck to you in looking for a job.