Final Year @ Uni, Getting a job

angel00079

I am currently completing an IT degree and in my last year. I would appreciate a viewpoint on getting a job. My friends have added their 2p worth.

At the moment I am still working at my work placement. I was due to finish in April, which would have tied in nicely with finishing my uni work. This has now been brought forward to February due to the current financial situation.

I have been getting quite a lot of conflicting advice. Some people have said that as I have a HND and a few of years experience at work placement I should I should only look at IT jobs. Others have said just get any job. Some have said offer to work somewhere for free. Others have said don’t do that as it makes you look like you do not value your skills.

My thinking at the moment is to look at IT and non-IT jobs. I think that in the current climate a job is a job. I am not of the opinion that qualifications/experience mean that you should only look at jobs at a certain level. Any other viewpoints appreciated.

soolin

My son graduates this year as well and has had no luck at all so far for jobs where his degree is useful. However as an emergency backup he has approached the warehouse where he does his holiday job and it seems they will take him on as a manual labourer for just above minumum wage.

It seems horrible to me that you cna leave uni with a very good degree and end up in a factory doing basic manual work, but it seems that or nothing. At least he will be earning while he tries to get a job where his degree will be useful, the warehouse know he will be looking for office work and are happy with that.

So my view has to be that any job is better than no job in this current climate, but to keep searching for that perfect job for the future.

Horace

Speak to your Uni Careers Office - they also hold job fairs for graduates which may help in your search for a job.

Also look at the RAF (you don't have to be a pilot) or even the civil service. Try looking at Quinetiq - they do a lot of specialist IT work.

Look at everything - utilise your transferrable skills as this will widen your job search.

Good luck.

poker_face

angel00079 wrote: »

I am currently completing an IT degree and in my last year. I would appreciate a viewpoint on getting a job. My friends have added their 2p worth.

At the moment I am still working at my work placement. I was due to finish in April, which would have tied in nicely with finishing my uni work. This has now been brought forward to February due to the current financial situation.

I have been getting quite a lot of conflicting advice. Some people have said that as I have a HND and a few of years experience at work placement I should I should only look at IT jobs. Others have said just get any job. Some have said offer to work somewhere for free. Others have said don’t do that as it makes you look like you do not value your skills.

My thinking at the moment is to look at IT and non-IT jobs. I think that in the current climate a job is a job. I am not of the opinion that qualifications/experience mean that you should only look at jobs at a certain level. Any other viewpoints appreciated.

No doubt its the worst time to graduate at the moment. I'd get out there and start talking to company's as soon as

whitfreak

Don't restrict yourself to IT only jobs, unless that is ALL you want to do. Very few students end up doing anything related to their degree. Although to be fair IT is a more vocational degree than say history but still. Your work placement puts you in a better position than those without as all employers to ask about work experience, and the workplace gives you transferable skills.

Any job/volunteer work is useful for your CV and employers perfer there to be no gaps in the dates on your cv. Also useful at the interview stage to show that you've kept busy and productive, if the response to my personal long term gap of doing very little was anything to go by. I'd hope most employers would understand that bills need paying, so while you should aim at an appropaite level they shouldnt hold a low end job on your cv against you.

angel00079

Thanks for the posts. I want a job in IT but I am going to start looking at other jobs. Some of my friends said that taking a job in another area might make it look like you don't know what you want to do and that you have no direction. I however, think that it shows that you do not think you are entitled to a job just because you have a qualification/experience in X.

I have no gaps in my CV at the moment and I would like to keep it that way. The shortest period of work was eighteen months and the longest four and half years. If I can get another job I would try and stay at least six months if I can. At the moment there are things that will be out of my control but I do not want to flit from job to job if possible. It is for that reason I am trying to plan what I am going to do.

I have got a day off tomorrow so I will start job hunting in earnest.

mellymeep

My fiancee graduated with a first in Computer Science last year, and had 5 months of looking for a job in the computer industry, apparently its the worst to get into because there really aren't very good jobs around.. most likely you'll be stuck in an IT job as a technician for offices full of people who have no clue what a computer is!

He eventually got a job in alarms engineering, I'd just recommend not sticking yourself into one type of profession, having an open mind about where you'll end up will be best for you.

angel00079

I think that whatever I do an employer may take their own viewpoint on the decisions I have made. I have decided while my friends have raised some good points I have to go with what I think. I think that I need to look outside IT for earning a living (at the moment) and perhaps some experience from free IT work if I can get it.

The more that I think about it, there is the short-term and the long-term. I am lucky in that I know that the degree I have taken is what I want to do in the future, perhaps that is because I am a mature student (29, LOL). In my teens I knew what I did not want to do but not want I wanted to do. I know a few people who are going to be finishing their degree and going in completely the opposite direction because it is not what they thought it would be.