After College, What Type of Jobs Should One Seek?

Sushant Bhatia asks: "I'm coming to the end of my Masters degree, and I'm on the prowl for jobs. However, there are so many types out there it's just overwhelming for someone who's never had to go through the job-hunting process before. So, what should I do? Should I go for a full-time, contract, half-time, or something else? Also, what kind of position should a person with a Master's in Computer Science be looking for (other than dish washer)? I've been looking at senior software developer positions, but is that too high up the ladder for someone 'fresh' to cope with? My current manager (research lab) says that 'You should always find a job that is above your skill level so that you can learn and be challenged.' I think he's right, but is that something Slashdot readers agree with? What was your job coming out of university?"

Stay away from games...

[Pete Brubaker]

From someone who is in the industry, stay away from games. You are only signing yourself up for long hours for lackluster compensation.

--P

two words: self employment

[ubiquitin]

That's one way to prove yourself and learn all the parts of a business directly. Or rotate through divisions of a larger company that involve marketing, product design, business development, channel relations, advertising, tech support, etc. If you take this approach, one thing is for sure: you won't wind up a tax-and-spend Democrat. (!)

Re:Sit over here, sonny.

[Hadley]

You really don't *want* a senior position. Even if you can negotiate the higher salary, make sure you get a job title without "Senior" in it. That way, if you're any good at your job, you can get an easy promotion and raise soon after you join.

Also, you need to work a permanent job for a couple of years before you've got enough experience to do contracting.

If your goal is to do contract work, the ideal job might be with a services company that takes you on as a permanent member of staff, and then contracts you out to their clients.

Re:Cupstacker

[Cutting_Crew]

Cupstacking is for real. You can become famous if you beat Emily Fox [speedstacks.com], the worlds fastest cup stacker.

Re:Master's in Computer Science, eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Only at their Arkansas headquarters. Field IT is done by guys who just travel full time. You don't want to work for them anyway, at least not corporate. The benefits absolutely suck, and the pay is rock bottom. Their "do everything as cheaply as possible" philosphy also applies to HR.

Re:Sit over here, sonny.

[ksb]

Excellent advice imo.

I've been a contractor for the last 7 years and before that I worked for a sub-contracting company and I feel it helped prepare me for the frequent change in environment a contractor typically experiences.

It may be different elsewhere but in the UK I would be very suprised if any company employed a grad in a 'senior' position and the parent poster is on the ball, go for the money, not the title and give yourself more rungs in the ladder.

Re:Master's in Computer Science, eh?

[RickPartin]

Only at their Arkansas headquarters. Field IT is done by guys who just travel full time. You don't want to work for them anyway, at least not corporate. The benefits absolutely suck, and the pay is rock bottom. Their "do everything as cheaply as possible" philosphy also applies to HR.

Doesn't surprise me. As evil as Wal-Mart is they are interesting. They really believe in the "do everything cheap" philosophy. Have you seen the head office? Even the CEO's office looks like that of a used car salesmen. Nothing fancy what-so-ever.

Steve Jobs just talked about this at Stanford

[ScaredSilly]

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/ jobs-061505 [stanford.edu]

Re:One step at a time!

[vanye@home]

Agree 100%.

As a engineering manager I expect to see a good 10 years of relevent operating system experience before I'd even consider you for a senior position. Applying for a senior position as a new gradutate will lose you credability, in fact you may even become a laughing stock (but I'm evil)

You're too young to specialise, find a company that wants general engineers so you'll get to try a number of things (kernel/user/network/admin/testing).

I consider myself very lucky, but...

[Mr.Bananas]

After graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, I was very fortunate to have been noticed by a recruiter of a large software company and through him, I was hired into a software development job that I love so far and that I will stick with as long as I can. However, I do know very well that things don't often turn out as nicely. I have many friends, most about as qualified as I am, that did not have it so easy and spent a very long time going through interviews and much frustration to find a respectable job. What I have learned from what they went through and from being in a demanding software development job for a couple of years can be summed up in the following- never give up and never sell yourself short. Job searching is a very difficult and trying process, and it requires lots of self-confidence and patience. Aim for the highest position and try to get into the exact field you are most interested in (since you will probably be most successful there anyway) and be very forward and direct about it. Someone in a previous post mentioned that employers' decisions are most affected by the image you portray of yourself, and nothing portrays a stronger image than a high level of self-confidence and a strong love and enthusiasm for what you do. If you truly love what you do, try to maintain this attitude for as long as possible and try very hard not to be discouraged by initial failure. By following this, and by using anyone you may know in any capacity who is in any position to help you, your chances of landing a great job will dramatically increase. Things are tough right now, but keep your chin up!

Re:Learn people skills

[innocent_white_lamb]

The only thing cheaper than french fries in a resturant is the soda pop.

Depends on whether it's bottled, premix or postmix.

Some very small restaurants purchase their soda pop in either single-serving cans or bottles (quite expensive) or 2 liter bottles (slightly cheaper).

Most restaurants use either premix or postmix. Premix is, as the word suggests, pre-mixed with water at the bottling plant. It costs about 10x as much as postmix but it tastes a lot better. Chain restaurants and whatnot use postmix where a syrup is mixed with water on-site. This is the cheapest but least "tasty" option. The contents of cup of postmix costs very little; the cup costs something though.

Re:Start with CEO

[carlvjack]

Actually this person does realize that she needs to start lower but in reality if she is a hard worker and have decent people skills could advance pretty quickly. I sense some jealousy on the part of some of the slashdotters on here, degrees let alone masters degrees are rare in the IT field from my experience. Too many times when we have interviews and we get people fresh out of college they are discriminated by my coworkers because in my opinion they feel that they are a threat since corporate likes us to have degrees. If this person plays their cards right and works hard and listens and learns she will advance probably far quicker than most people. When I earned my degree while working I received a 28 percent raise. I changed places of work and earned another 20 percent with the change. I started my Masters Degree part time and will be completed next year and was hired for a senior engineer position making 30 percent more than my last job. College gets you noticed if combined with experience. If you have a bunch of resumes that are equally qualified and only one of the bunch has a degree then you have a definate advantage over the rest.