[OliveOyl3471]

Today I got an email from the lady at the job placement place at our college. She's been helping me look for a job. She got an email from a place I applied to, saying they require their programmers to have experience, but I could go and apply for a job at their store. That's right, I got a degree in programming just so I could go be a cashier again.

How are you supposed to get experience if nobody will hire you without experience?


</rant>

[BetaWar]

Well, at least you have been lucky enough to get a reply from the places you have applied to. I have been applying to variousjobs (all non programming) over the summer and haven't got any replies whatsoever. A "we're sorry" would be better than nothing.

I am unsure how you are supposed to get experience without getting a job; it makes it that much harder when you can't even get a first job... I am still applying for my first real job in life, and thus far I haven't gotten a single reply... It is just sad.

[no2pencil]

OliveOyl3471, on 26 Jun, 2008 - 04:24 PM, said:

How are you supposed to get experience if nobody will hire you without experience?

1.) Freelance
2.) Volunteer

[BenignDesign]

Yup. No2 got it right. I finished college YEARS ago. I didn't manage to land a "real" full-time programming position until I spent a couple years freelancing. You don't have to make a full living with freelance... just enough to tack on your resume and build up a small portfolio. It will make a world of difference.

[Tom9729]

Paid internships?

[Arhineus]

no2pencil, on 26 Jun, 2008 - 01:41 PM, said:

1.) Freelance
2.) Volunteer

I completely agree with this recommendation. I've done side-work for years, and have established myself a fairly extensive body of work, most particularly in server administration and management, and have only just recently landed myself a job in the field.

I wish you all the best in your search for employment.

[nirvanarupali]

Quote

How are you supposed to get experience if nobody will hire you without experience?

Here in the Philippines is different. You need to have numbers of hours to take your OJT (On the-Job-Training) before you can graduate to any college course. So you get work experience with that. Besides if you have a good record the company will absorb you, or transfer other company for good.

[Ellie]

nirvanarupali, on 27 Jun, 2008 - 06:26 AM, said:

Quote

How are you supposed to get experience if nobody will hire you without experience?

Here in the Philippines is different. You need to have numbers of hours to take your OJT (On the-Job-Training) before you can graduate to any college course. So you get work experience with that. Besides if you have a good record the company will absorb you, or transfer other company for good.

That sounds like a good way to combine the two things employers are looking for.

OliveOyl, sorry no handy job finding techniques from me, but good luck.

This post has been edited by Ellie: 27 June 2008 - 04:07 AM

[NickDMax]

First off. Does your resume document the experience that you do have?
* Did you work on any project in school?
* Have you worked on any personal significant projects (significant meaning anything at or above about 1000 lines of code)?
* Did you work on any team projects while in school?

Part of how I landed my current job (what grabbed the attention of the human resources person who initiated the process) was a stupid project in my software development class.

Secondly there are a number of open source project looking for developers. This can be an excellent place to start learning all the things that they don't teach you in school.

You will find that many companies who hire jr. developers right our of school tend to do it in batches -- this mitigates the cost of training and the unfortunate reality that a number of them will either quit or not be up to par. This means that there is a "window" where they are accepting resumes for review. (generally at the end of the school year).

Get out lots of resumes. Try to tailor them but I found that you need to find a I needed to find a balance between quality and quantity. What I had was about 3 - 4 version of my resume and I gave out the version that I thought would best apply.

Don't make excuses for lack or experience. Highlight what experience you do have (if you can't find any, then I would not hire you either).

[OliveOyl3471]

NickDMax, on 27 Jun, 2008 - 07:07 PM, said:

First off. Does your resume document the experience that you do have?
* Did you work on any project in school?
* Have you worked on any personal significant projects (significant meaning anything at or above about 1000 lines of code)?
* Did you work on any team projects while in school?

Don't make excuses for lack or experience. Highlight what experience you do have (if you can't find any, then I would not hire you either).

Thanks everyone for your responses and for the encouragement. Knowing I am not the only one with this problem makes a difference.


I didn't put school projects down as experience, but I guess you are right, it is experience. I just didn't think employers would count it.

[Martyr2]

For those who have the option of doing Co-op during their program, I strongly recommend it. As an International student in Canada I even had to pay 4 times as much to do a co-op during my degree but when I got out I already had 2 years worth of on the job experience because of a co-op program.

[Mallstrop]

Not sure how it all works over in the USA but here in the UK there's a lot of Opertunities where companies are looking specifically for graduates. They're not always exactly what you want from a first job but they're a good way to get the experience you need to get the job of your dreams.

[captainhampton]

It seems to be a pretty prominent catch 22 in our society I've noticed as well, the best thing to do is to beef up your resume and track record with whatever you can do immediately to help your situation and make yourself more marketable.

[modi123_1]

Tom9729, on 26 Jun, 2008 - 06:50 PM, said:

Paid internships?

I second the internship.

Or look for a software quality assurance testing job... then use that as a side step to programming.. that's what I did.. sorta.

[OliveOyl3471]

I got a letter a couple days ago that says I passed the test to get on the waiting list for a Programmer job for the state of Alabama. I didn't take a test for it. lol. I guess they base it on your experience/education level.