Tfw just got a rejection from the last possible job I'd applied for

You should never stop applying until you are hired..

Engineering is gey

thread

You give up too easily. I apply for 150+ temp jobs a year as a biologist desperately chasing that sweet sweet permanent position (and I might of found it after 4 years).

What did you study?

Should of studied math I heard it's 300k starting senpai

>He fell for the STEM meme
wew lad

It's not who you know,
It's who you blow.

If any of the following statements are true then you did this to yourself:

>You do not have a straight A record
>You did not do summer internships
>You did not do part time work in your field
>You did not attend speeches or other events related to your field hosted at your university so that you could network with professors and maybe even employers

I mean, what were you expecting? Having a STEM degree literally means nothing. STEM is the place of geniuses and innovators. If you are not in the top 10% of intellect then you can have as many degrees as you want, you are still not getting in.

How should I do part time work in my field? I'm a third year CE but there aren't any jobs in my country in that field so would something like webdev be good experience?
Apart from that I'm pretty good on all the other points and I'm hoping to do a summer internship soon.

>How should I do part time work in my field?

Look for it as hard as you can. You say you are doing CE so you are literally in easy mode because software is so easy to get in to even as a student because it has a culture where even people with only high school degrees can get in.

I am a math major and all of my current work experience is in software. It is just so easy to get software jobs.

But if you live in El Congo and literally cannot find any position then to employers having a rich github page is equivalent experience. I mean, not really but in software you are usually against mediocre CS people so all you need to do to get ahead of them is to literally not be mediocre and have something to show.

When I was interviewed the fanciest thing I had to show was a phone app that did some interaction with a server I programmed in PHP and a MySQL database. Literally programming 101 stuff and that was enough to get me the position.

Just do it.

i fucking love these threads.

which of the following didn't you do?

>internships
>joining a professional organization
>reading related industry periodicals
>getting third party certifications (industry software, practices, licensure)
>documented side projects
>volunteer work
>a slick portfolio that contains documentation of all this plus samples of your work and letters of recommendation

not even going to mention GPA.

so anyways, if you didn't do all this shit i just listed you have nobody but yourself to blame.
this user is being a bit hyperbolic, but is mostly correct.

getting good grades isn't enough. going to a good school isn't enough. for those of you thinking you can go through college without doing any of that shit i said and still get a good job, good fucking luck.

but go ahead and don't listen. see you back here on graduation day when you are whining about being unemployed.

Welcome to the post-Recession
Jobless Recovery, user.

i bet you filled out less than 20 applications didn't you?

Next question, how the fuck do you do these things???
What internships? Where? How do you find out/apply?
What do you mean professional organisation? How do you join?
Why read related industry periodicals?
How do you get third party certifications? In what?
What kind of documented side projects? What kind of volunteer work?
And how the fuck am I meant to do any of this when I already feel completely overwhelmed by my standard course load and I'm trying to also juggle work/a life????

Both. Get to sucking and brown nosing OP

Getting a job these days is 100% luck or nepotism.

Get sucking.

>What internships? Where? How do you find out/apply?

use the internet. make phone calls. literally google "[Insert Major] Internships" and spam applications to any company that even vaguely sounds like they could use you. do the same for local companies. pound the pavement around town and drop off resumes. 100 applications a semester is what i recommend.

>What do you mean professional organisation? How do you join?

engineering is a good example. each discipline has its own organization. ASME for mechanical, IEEE for electrical, etc. i guarantee your major has an organization if its STEM related. memberships is like 20$ and they invite you to things.

>Why read related industry periodicals?

because its something you can do while your taking a shit. in these periodicals are articles about new technology, which companies are making moves in the industry, future outlooks, and more importantly they have company advertisements which is a great way to compile a "want to work for" list. its also beneficial to be able to walk into an interview and say "hey, i read your company started doing X! i'd really like to get on board with that". its a small time investment for quite a bit of professional knowledge.

>How do you get third party certifications? In what?

do people in your major use a specific brand of technology? if they do, there is probably some sort of certification of competency offered by the company that manufactures it. i'm talking about things like CAD/Simulation software and industry specific machines or instrumentation. once again, this is where those industry periodicals come in handy, you get to see whats "hot" right now.

>What kind of documented side projects?
whatever interests you. joining a club is good for these. make something tangible related to your major, and make it look professional. the idea is to produce a tangible product that is up to par with industry standards and document it. doesn't have to be super complicated.

>13 years of compulsory education + 4 years extended high school society fear mongered you into attending
>can't use it to pick up women
>need another degree to be allowed to even teach people
>all you can do is beg for a job
>homeless musician makes more money playing on the street and would be hired to teach if he took a shower and stopped drinking
>17 fucking years and you can't even do anything fun with it
>time would have been better spent learning how to juggle

Yeah. You keep defending that false idol of yours.

But... I did learn how to juggle.

>all the effort including working for free just to become a wage slave

Explaining how to network in academia would have been much more useful than encouraging masochism and inefficiency.

This. The real reason for going to university is that it gives you a chance to network. The ivy leagues don't offer a better education than a normal university, rather they offer a more exclusive group of wealthy people to network with.

If you go through university without networking at all then you're kind of squandering it, especially if you're some nobody that no one wants to network with.

>100 applications a semester is what i recommend.

Good goy. Beg x 100 and if you're lucky you will be able to work for free.

>What kind of volunteer work?
big name volunteer work. what you are trying to get out of volunteering is a letter of recommendation. you should be stuffing your portfolio with these. from bosses, from professors, anyone with a name that sounds impressive. also, working with kids makes you seem trustworthy.

>And how the fuck am I meant to do any of this when I already feel completely overwhelmed by my standard course load

take fewer classes. stop trying to burn through your education like the piece of paper is the ultimate goal. its not. marketable skills are the ultimate goal. keep that in mind.

Ah but can you juggle three ball + OP's degree?

I have a degree, and could do mill's mess with my diploma and society certificate cases.

>you will be able to work for free.
>working for free
>in STEM
>ever

i never said unpaid. in fact NEVER take an unpaid internship unless its in academia. it basically tells all future employers that you are worth 0$ and are barely worth the cost of training you.

>What internships? Where? How do you find out/apply?
Your campus probably has/had a career services desk where you could apply to them. They're a damn good way to at least look like you have some industry experience prior to graduation. If you're out of school, then take a vaguely somewhat related entry level job just so you can move closer and closer to where you want your career to take you.
>What do you mean professional organisation? How do you join?
One type would be your campus' engineering/physics/chemistry/biology club. That's the obvious and most related organization that you can join. Another fantastic networking opportunity is club sports or social organizations like Greek life (if you're in the US or Canada).
>Why read related industry periodicals?
Because industry funds a lot of academic grants if you're sticking in the university circuit, and plan on getting a PhD. If you plan on going into industry, with or without your doctorate or master's, you're going to want to know what related projects your employer is looking to put you into.
>How do you get third party certifications? In what?
Usually through work. Personally, I'm studying chemistry, but before going to college, I was in the military and got several certifications relating to Hazmat and first aid before even going to school. Other options you could have would be if you're looking to work in physics/engineering to try and work at an optometrist to get some lab certifications, especially relating to optics. If you're in chemistry/biology look into becoming a pharmacy technician or an EMT during college.
>What kind of documented side projects?
Talk to some of the professors in your department, and they'll be more than happy to have free labor for their lab work. You may even get/have to take a 1 or 2 credit research class for it. In the long run research experience only can help you in applying for jobs or academic opportunities.

1/2

>What kind of volunteer work?
Honestly, anything. If you can find related work then all the better, but very little is there in the way of STEM volunteering, unless you're studying ecology or something. Cleanup events, helping out with cancer research fundraising events, hell I know some people who would go to the local library and read to kids for 2 hours every week. Anything that will make you look like you're not a shit pile excuse for a human is good.
>And how the fuck am I meant to do any of this when I already feel completely overwhelmed by my standard course load and I'm trying to also juggle work/a life?
I don't know how everyone else does it, but I only do part time schooling. It sucks to have to deal with an extra year but worth it in the long run. Most internships are over the summer, so you'll just avoid summer session, and you'll be fine on that front. Depending on the professional organization, they may or may not be a major time commitment (Greek life is, but subject matter clubs usually aren't more than an hour or two per month). Reading up on what different industries are doing is something you can save until your senior year or when you start looking for a job, obviously researchers may not always stick to the same project for 4 or 5 years straight. Choose a job that actually compliments your career, I know in college that's hard to do, but it's well worth it in the long run. Doing research is something that's great if you can do in the first couple years of school, but don't feel too pressured until your third or fourth year. By that point you'll be better at time management and you'll already understand a lot of your course material, and you may even have to be part time due to course/credit restraints (I was). Volunteer work is something that you can do any time at all, and often it doesn't even need to be some big grandiose thing, just helping out in your community and making a note of what you've done.
2/2

that's.... terrible.

>what you are trying to get out of volunteering is a letter of recommendation. you should be stuffing your portfolio with these
I would argue against trying to get a letter of recommendation from a lot of your volunteer work. One or two is fine if it's a charity you've been involved with on a consistent basis, but if you're stuffing your portfolio with every time you spent an hour doing something good for your community, employers will start thinking you're doing charity work for your resume and not because you're helping the cause you had volunteered with. I would say if you did do big name work like this guy said, then ask about it, but you also want to supplement that with other things. Throwing something like "community services" under your volunteer section on your resume isn't a bad idea, especially if you can rattle off 3 or 4 different things you'd done throughout your collegiate career.
True as fuck.

GPA and Uni?

True. I would never do an unpaid internship, my ancestors didn't survive rape and genocide (or commit rape and genocide, history is a mess)
so they could spawn someone who works for free.

i honestly don't know where the "internships means free work" comes from. probably _______ Studies majors. 15$/hr is standard for even shit tier students where im at. i myself made 32$/hr this past summer.

How the hell do you get undergraduate research opportunities?

I just transferred and know none of the professors in the department I want to do research in. I really have nothing to advertise myself with save for a shitty GPA and outdated letters of recommendation.

just bug all of them till someone says yes. do a good job on the first one and word will get around that you aren't a shitter.

all you do is go in during office hours and ask if they need help on their research. i guarantee you one of them has bitchwork for you to do. you usually don't get into the "research" right away.