Ask HN: How to find the right job as new graduate?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4806334

by gradthrowaway • 14 years ago

9 5 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Obviously, the best way to find the right job is through your network. But what about when you're first starting out and your network is small, largely still in college and mostly ineffective?

Among the classmates that I've talked to – at least among the ones who view it as more than "just a job" – it's a frustrating experience. If you look at job boards, most of them are either asking for an entry level .NET developer with 3 years of experience with UML modeling, which sounds like a terrible fit, or they want a senior engineer.

One friend got hired at a megacorp in Seattle and is trying to lure me in that direction, but as someone who doesn't live in Seattle, NY or the Bay Area and likes where he lives, that reduces the number of attractive megacorps that I know of to zero. Don't get me wrong, I live in one of the major tech centers of the U.S., just not one of those three.

When I was looking for internships, I had very occasional luck just sending out random emails to attractive companies, but the hard part is finding those attractive companies. In the end, I ended up taking something that wasn't right for me because I had to support myself through college. (It's also a big part of the reason I'm a month from graduating and don't have any significant side projects to show.)

What if I want to hack JS/Ruby/Python instead of translate UML to Java and .NET? Is it unrealistic to find something along those lines if the vast majority of my experience is Java and C? Is a recruiter the right answer, or should I just suck it up for 6 months or so while I get some personal projects under my belt in the technologies I want to use? Do I need to be more open to relocation?

nk421• 14 years ago

I would try to send out cold emails to startups/small companies that you would like to work for and tell them what you WANT to work on. You are much more likely to get their attention and open yourself up to opportunities to work remotely than just applying to job boards/etc.

jkaykin• 14 years ago

This is a problem I am actually trying to solve. I would love to help you find a job but if I were you I think the best thing is to 1) work on your own startup/side project or 2) join some startup. Where are you located?

gradthrowaway• 14 years ago

Starting a startup probably isn't financially feasible at this time, but I otherwise agree that joining a startup, or relatively small company would be best for me. There's probably a megacorp out there that would be good for me, but the ones that I'm willing to work at are the Googles of the world, and those aren't in Austin, which is where I live.

eshvk• 14 years ago

This thread is interesting because I was in a similar (or worse of) situation as you. I was sort of clueless about what sort of company I wanted to join, I loved living in Austin but Austin has a distinct lack of interesting (to me anyway) C.S. jobs. I finally bit the bullet and decided to move to the bay.

The truth of the matter is that there is no easy way of finding an ideal job: Although we are in Hacker News, I am not going to tell you to join a start up because I feel that the nature of the way start ups operate requires hands on personnel. On the other hand, you might get lucky and get into a start up which lets you do remote. There are some big companies (e.g Mozilla) that have a culture of being OK with remote folks but Mozilla is a big company. On the other hand, I have a sneaking sympathy for the idea that investing 2-3 years in a Megacorp learning best practices for large systems is a useful tool before one goes out and wreaks havoc for some startup (This is an idea which I personally haven't implemented yet).

However, part of finding an ideal job is making yourself an attractive candidate. In that regard, having a bunch of open source projects on github, a social media profile etc can help. I know there were a bunch of tech meet ups happening at UT, try to go to as many as possible and meet people whom you might potentially want to work for or might know interesting people. Free coffee/beer will help :)

nab1• 14 years ago

The best way to find job is to make your profile on online site which gathers information about job vacancies. You should apply to a job relevant to your qualification and skills. Employer also searches for hiring employees on these sites online so, may be, they will found you right and suitable person for hiring to any job or task.

Ask HN: How to find the right job as new graduate?

Related Stories