Job advice

OK I can see that he may have meant that after re-reading his post.

First of all, school should teach you how to count. Second of all, if your employer is supposed to teach you your job, why doesn't everyone just get a General Ed Degree? Universities could save millions of dollars by closing all the other departments and have everyone in one big building. I have been expected to know how to do my job everywhere I have ever gone. The only thing I have ever needed to be taught by my employer is any process that is specific to that organization.

How could you spend four or five or six years striving towards the goal of a college degree in a specific major of your choosing and not know how you are going to use it? Let's see, he's got a Poly Sci degree, it’s an election year, hmmm may be he could work for a campaign of some type? Not to mention, he got his degree in May, May!!! What the hell did he do with the past half year? Surly he could have spent some of that time thinking about what he wanted to do with his life. He's a fricking adult, cut the damn umbilical cord and act like one.

 

But people can do exactly what you just saidbut without getting a degree. You can get an entry level job and show that you are capable of handling more and then receive more responsibility.

I also do not advise anyone to go into a job interview and act like you know it all. When I said learn the lingo, I meant be educated in what you are applying for. There is nothing worse than going to a job interview and the interviewer ask you a relative easy question and not knowing what the hell they are talking about. I also said do not act cocky. You can act like you have a clue without acting like an ass. There is a fine line between confident and cocky. People like confident and loathe cocky.

 

Here are some random thoughts.

Do you know someone who has a job you might like or a company you would like to work for? See if they can print out their company's job listing. Among equally qualified employees, personal references like this can go a long way.

Temp agencies are a good fit if you are unsure of what you want to do or what company to work for. It is sort of a try out both ways. I temped around until I found a company I liked and it worked out great for me and the company.


Good luck.

 

I completely agree. College is not meant to be a trade school. If the sole purpose of going to college is getting a job, then there would probably not be majors like philosophy, history, political science.

 

Yeah, that's my current plan now that I'm out of the military. If I don't get into the education faculties I applied for, I'll be doing the teaching English overseas thing.

This is a great line, especially if it was unintentional.

 

try the Peace Corps.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/

 

Nobody caught my typo, but I thought I'd come clean. Clearly, my college education did not perfect my proofreading skills.

As far as a HS grad having the same opportunity as a college grad to earn his way up, I have to disagree. First, very few people have the basic skills (that I listed above) when coming out of high school. College (if you're not a total screwup) does build these skills. Second, employers know this and thus aren't willing to hire HS grads when they want the new employee to eventually take on new responsibilities. That's probably not fair, but it's how things are.

MB, I think your perspective is different than mine because you are in a 'specific' field that requires certain information. However, when a company is hiring entry level administrative employees, they're going to look for more basic skills. And a college degree implies that a candidate has those skills (although it's not a sure thing).

PEF, when I said school, I meant college. If you have to learn how to count in college, you're ****ed.

 

With a poli sci degree I suspect that you had something in mind other than generic corporate apprentice.

Get a job at the food stamp office, unemployment office, child welfare etc. . Those type of jobs take bare college graduates. aren't glamorus, and have high turnover, but they will teach you a lot about life than being a college student. I would argue perhaps more than as an entry level widget marketer or bean counter from an elite school. Try the America Corp. My niece with a B.A. in government did just that.

In a fairly similar situation I worked in the food stamp office and learned Spanish. It turned out to be an extremely educational valuable job for my career.

Get a job even part-time in a computer or book store, get a job as a delivery driver, bartender etc. while looking for something. Even those jobs will make it easier to move on when applying for more "career" jobs. If 6 months of doing nothing is what you have done, you need to hide those months and employers won't hold any of those jobs against you when interviewing as they show a work ethic and a need for money which the interviewer also has.

Don't expect much with your BS in Government at first.. Get going it can be done.

 

He was calling you out on your typo.

Maybe I am just more ambitious than others. I work because I like money not because I love to work. I hate working actually. I could think of a million better things to do. It is a means to an end. I try to learn more about my job so that I can make more money. I try to learn more about areas not related to my job so that I can be more diverse and therefore make more money. I learn about investing and managing money so that my money works harder for me and so in the end I do not have to work as long. I think anyone on this earth could do what I do. It is not rocket science. Would you expect two guys named Master Baiter and PieEatinFattie to make six figure incomes? Hell no but we do. The reason I make the money I do is because I have experience, not a college degree. Anyone can work their way up if they want it. A degree is just icing and may open more doors.