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Covering your bases sounds like a good idea. I feel like I spend way too much time slaving over cover letters. I know they don't really make a difference, but I can't not put that time into them just in case... Plus I've got a degree in Physics/Astronomy but I've been applying to some Data Analyst/Programming positions. People don't realize that Astronomers in particular do a TON of programming, data analysis, data mining, statistics etc. I feel like I have to explain this all in the cover letter so they don't just toss my resume in the trash when they see "Astronomy" or "Physics".  I think that's the main think keeping me from sending off 3-4 resumes every morning. I spend about an hour on each cover letter alone even though I already have a template, then tweak each resume individually. Plus some companies have HORRIBLE job application systems up online that take tons of time to fill out and make it really hard to search for jobs. Seriously, you'd think that some of these companies could easily whip up something much more efficient in like 10 min... Re-reading this is making me realize that maybe I overthink my applications, but I see employers complain everywhere about people who "obviously don't care or do their research" and am worried about being seen as one of these people.
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Mar 20, 2012 02:16
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I just used a boiler plate cover letter for each type of job I was applying to and then edited it to reflect the employer, exact position I was applying for, and maybe some of the language in the job description. e: Regarding recruiters - I was contacted by internal recruiters for 3 out of the 4 interviews I got. Two of them were really good and did an excellent job as acting as a liaison between the hiring manager and me and also provided good feedback after each interview. Interestingly enough, one of them told me that she was prepared to draft up a formal offer, but that the salary was too low for my qualifications and that I should really aim higher, so I took her advice and eventually got two offers for much better jobs the same week. It was really nice to have that level of candor. I was also working with some headhunters, but most of them were useless. I did have one in particular that was actually interested in helping me get into a job that would have been a good fit, but I already had two offers by the time he was able to get me an interview. All of this was in the IT sector, particularly in government contracting. YMMV. psydude fucked around with this message at 04:26 on Mar 20, 2012 |
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Mar 20, 2012 04:18
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I know most new grads will ignore this advice but... You say that you're treating your job search as your full time job, and if that's the case, then what I'm about to say should be easy. The best way to show a prospective employer that you're serious about your field is to actually do work in your field. You don't need to have a job to do so. Start a blog. Put your current projects online. Do new work every week - and update the blog. Make it look professional, but not overly designed. Write about the work you're doing in the blog. The work you're doing doesn't have to be "real" as in - a real gig that you're getting paid for. But if should be something that you're really good at - it should show off the same kind of skillsets that you brag about in your cover letter or CV. Why tell a hiring manager about your skills when you can show them? That way, when you get to the part about what you've been doing for the past 29 months, you can tell the interviewer that you worked on a dozen different projects in your field, and finished them on schedule. Here are the specs/stats/proofs. Interviewers will get that you were doing this work in order to impress them. They won't actually believe that you wrote an ad for Coca Cola or you photographed the Golden Gate bridge for Time Magazine. But they'll also see a candidate who honestly gives a poo poo about the field they're hiring for. New grads are a dime dozen. but if you can show your prospective employers that you have initiative and drive - and an inkling of skills, then you'll stand out.
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Mar 20, 2012 04:33
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tiananman posted:
Listen to tianaman, this is great advice! I joined a great meetup.com group of coders who run study/learning sessions on different programming languages. Through them, I'm learning Python and Django and we're building a website for ourselves. The one contact that did give me good advice said something similar to you- work on building a portfolio to show employers, it'll really stand out. I'd totally recommend meetup.com to any job searchers out there. You can find both functional and fun groups that give you an opportunity to learn new skills, but also give you a break from the monotony of job searching. There are lots of contacts to be made in these groups too! Plus it's not as high pressure as a "networking event" where you're introducing yourself cold to people and giving your job spiel. It's a lot easier to network when you're getting to know people while working on a project or at a meeting or talk.
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Mar 20, 2012 16:33
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http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/insiders-kit/dreamjob/ This guy gives a lot of good info that I've personally used successfully. His main blog also has a lot of good stuff, most of it is related to personal finance but he sometimes talks about job hunting. Lots of good things if you're willing to search for it.
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Mar 22, 2012 06:08
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Is there a primer on how to network out there?  Because it seems very complicated to me and I've never been good at socializing or conversation or anything.Also, does anyone know any good sites for finding biotech/biomedical engineering jobs? I know Biospace got mentioned last page.
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Apr 1, 2012 21:27
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I was pretty successful with a google search (something like "networking advice", "how to network", "sample networking questions"). Also my college career center has some info about how to network up on their website- you should check yours out. If you didn't go to college or your college doesn't have something like that, look at other college websites- usually they have public info up on there and it can be extremely helpful. Obviously you have to weed through some content-farm useless websites but there's some good stuff out there too. What helped me most was looking up sample questions, then repeating those to people I was networking with. It may seem false and fake at first, but it's a great way to get used to going up to people and talking to them without the added anxiety of thinking about what to say. Sample questions like "I'm interested in your field, could you tell me a little bit about how you got to where you are now?" or "what advice would you give someone who's interested in breaking into your field" are great conversation starters, people love to talk about themselves. I have these standard questions in the back of my mind ready to use, so it makes things less intimidating. It's easier to transition into a natural conversation if you get someone talking first. Another thing you should work on is what my college calls your "elevator speech". Basically, it's a little speech about yourself that's short enough to tell someone in an elevator ride. It covers what you've done, what you're doing, and what you're looking for. If you have this down, then you already have a great answer to the "what do you do" question that gives people all the info they need upfront. For example, the shorter version of my elevator speech is something like "I'm a recent grad with an MS in Physics looking for a job in the X city tech industry". You should prepare a slightly longer version too and throw in details when it's appropriate- like specifically the type of job you're looking for (ie, R&D jobs in the tech industry) or details about previous experience/schooling (ie, MS in Physics, but my thesis research was in Galatic Astronomy ...other details).
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Apr 2, 2012 01:14
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Pollyanna posted:Is there a primer on how to network out there? My most reliable contact I found going to a corn maze and bonfire organized by a mutual friend. Turns out we're both world travelers and have a passion for poo poo disturbing and a hatred for republicans and financial elites. She hooked me up with a pretty sweet internship and sent my résumé around her own circle, so hopefully something comes out of that. It was a chance meeting, and my privileged background contributed immensely to our getting along and meeting. It's pretty much a crapshoot since if I hadn't been to europe and vacationed globally with parents and friends we would've just been friendly, but not professional contacts.
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Apr 2, 2012 01:29
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I noticed the one thing that keeps coming up over and over is "network!", how exactly would you go about that if you are already out of school?SchrodingersFish posted:Listen to tianaman, this is great advice! I joined a great meetup.com group of coders who run study/learning sessions on different programming languages. Through them, I'm learning Python and Django and we're building a website for ourselves. The one contact that did give me good advice said something similar to you- work on building a portfolio to show employers, it'll really stand out. Thanks for this, I will give it a try. some6uy008 fucked around with this message at 11:04 on Apr 2, 2012 |
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Apr 2, 2012 11:02
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I would suggest you read this book if you can: http://www.amazon.com/The-Start-up-You-Yourself-Transform/dp/0307888908/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333395800&sr=8-1 I'm not a self-help guy, this is first self-help book I've read in awhile. But it's very good and up to date. It has some great ideas. The key is to network. Networking doesn't have to be some slimy repulsive thing where you try to collect as many business cards as you can. That's how I treated it. But it should be fun.
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Apr 2, 2012 20:50
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Does anyone know what a good benchmark for what wait times on a response are? I got a callback Friday morning on a job I applied for earlier that morning.The recruiter seemed enthusiastic and forwarded my resume to the hiring manager for further review. This is a good sign, right?
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Apr 2, 2012 22:18
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COUNTIN THE BILLIES posted:I would suggest you read this book if you can: Thanks! That looks like a good read. Never Eat Alone is another great book on networking that I read. If you can get past the author constantly tooting his own horn, it really helps solidify a different way of thinking that doesn't really come intuitively to most people. It's nothing revolutionary, but if you don't know how to approach networking it is a good overview on how many successful people expand and leverage their personal networks.
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Apr 2, 2012 22:19
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I actually have a question about the timing for job applications. I'm at school in Philly and have to take two summer night classes through mid-August to graduate. Chances are I'm going to end up in NYC for full-time due to my industry preference (tech/media - mostly startups), so I can't start working there until then. I'm not sure how to properly time this. Should I apply to local internships for over the summer to build up some extra experience and wait until May/June/July to start looking for full time? Most of the places I want to apply to seem to hire as-needed for full-time, so I'm not sure if I'm wasting my time applying for current openings when I won't be able to work for at least 4 months.
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Apr 2, 2012 22:50
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If I accept a 3month internship and after a month I get a job offer, how bad would that be if I moved on?
some6uy008 fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Apr 3, 2012 |
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Apr 2, 2012 23:21
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some6uy008 posted:If I accept a 3month internship and after a month I get a job offer, how bad would that be if I moved on? Could you negotiate with the company that offered you the job to start in two months instead of immediately?
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Apr 3, 2012 01:05
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Pollyanna posted:Is there a primer on how to network out there? I desperately need something like this as well. Absolutely nobody I know personally knows anything about anything that might get me the sort of job I'm looking for.
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Apr 3, 2012 01:40
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OctaviusBeaver posted:Could you negotiate with the company that offered you the job to start in two months instead of immediately? To be honest, I'm completely new at this. I ask this question because I have a couple of interviews for internships coming up and if so happens I land one, I'd be ecstatic. However, I made it past the first phrase of a government job and if by some long shot I'm able to land that job down the road, it'd be too good to pass up. I'm just concerned about burning bridges.
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Apr 3, 2012 04:14
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some6uy008 posted:To be honest, I'm completely new at this. I ask this question because I have a couple of interviews for internships coming up and if so happens I land one, I'd be ecstatic. However, I made it past the first phrase of a government job and if by some long shot I'm able to land that job down the road, it'd be too good to pass up. I'm just concerned about burning bridges. If you quit the internship the worst that can happen is somebody that works there talks poo poo about you to other people in the field, but realistically most interns aren't really important enough to where anyone would bother or remember. If you work in a field where everyone knows everyone then that could be bad, but normally I think that you would be ok taking the job and abandoning the internship if the job is good enough. Big organizations take a long time to do things though. I think it was about 6 weeks between me getting invited to an interview and actually getting an offer, and this was at a company that I was currently working part time for after interning there. And even then they were fine with waiting a few months before my actual start date. I wouldn't start worrying yet if I were you.
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Apr 3, 2012 04:29
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OctaviusBeaver posted:If you quit the internship the worst that can happen is somebody that works there talks poo poo about you to other people in the field, but realistically most interns aren't really important enough to where anyone would bother or remember. If you work in a field where everyone knows everyone then that could be bad, but normally I think that you would be ok taking the job and abandoning the internship if the job is good enough. Thanks for your reply, it has set my mind at ease.
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Apr 3, 2012 21:51
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Cockmaster posted:I desperately need something like this as well. Absolutely nobody I know personally knows anything about anything that might get me the sort of job I'm looking for. I think new graduate networking is really different from established career networking. This is just my personal experience, maybe I am a bad networker but when you're a fresh graduate, its not like you're going to have people who have enough pull to get you a job on the speed dial. It is pretty likely the most experienced person you know is going to have, what like 2-3 years of experience? You're really only looking at extended networks: friends of your parent's friends, professor's connections, stuff that just isn't super useful. Maybe new grads in better economic climates had it better, but when I got out of school everyone I talked to really wanted to help but had nothing to actually offer.
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Apr 4, 2012 14:43
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some6uy008 posted:Thanks for your reply, it has set my mind at ease. Most companies won't fault you for leaving an internship for a full time job offer. To further set your mind at ease... a friend of mine accepted a job offer from a company during his senior year and 3-4 months later received a job offer from a company he'd rather work for. He pulled his acceptance from the first company and they were pissed, but it has never affected him once in his life since then.
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Apr 4, 2012 14:54
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I must be missing something job search wise, cause I'm just not sure I'm doing it correctly. So far I've been searching on Indeed and LinkedIn, but there are few jobs that I'm really qualified for. What kinds of keywords should I be punching in? What's this "Research Technician I/II' thing? Am I just looking in the wrong places?
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Apr 6, 2012 00:16
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So I submitted a resume and a recruiter for the organization got in contact with me. After forwarding my resume to the hiring department's manager the response was that they were enthusiastic and would like to schedule a phone interview. I inform them I was free later that evening (they are in Seattle and I am in the midwest, so it would be in their late afternoon and the rest of the day wednesday as I do not have class then). They thank me and I never got a call back. Am I pretty much toast?
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Apr 6, 2012 00:32
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Pollyanna posted:I must be missing something job search wise, cause I'm just not sure I'm doing it correctly. So far I've been searching on Indeed and LinkedIn, but there are few jobs that I'm really qualified for. What kinds of keywords should I be punching in? What's this "Research Technician I/II' thing? Am I just looking in the wrong places?
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Apr 6, 2012 00:46
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Peven Stan posted:So I submitted a resume and a recruiter for the organization got in contact with me. After forwarding my resume to the hiring department's manager the response was that they were enthusiastic and would like to schedule a phone interview. I inform them I was free later that evening (they are in Seattle and I am in the midwest, so it would be in their late afternoon and the rest of the day wednesday as I do not have class then). They thank me and I never got a call back. Am I pretty much toast? Almost the exact same thing happened to me twice. Both times they changed their minds and decided not to hire someone after all. Send them an e-mail saying you're still interested and here's your number but I wouldn't get your hopes up.
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Apr 6, 2012 00:51
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Dik Hz posted:What's your background and what type of job are you looking for? Biomed Engineering/Biotech. I'm taking advantage of my image processing experience to get a technologist-y job in medical centers or labs. I've applied to places like Northeastern U and Beth Deaconess. Nothing that's more like nursing or customer service, I'm definitely not skilled in that regard.
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Apr 6, 2012 01:20
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Pollyanna posted:Biomed Engineering/Biotech. I'm taking advantage of my image processing experience to get a technologist-y job in medical centers or labs. I've applied to places like Northeastern U and Beth Deaconess. Nothing that's more like nursing or customer service, I'm definitely not skilled in that regard. I see those northeastern and Beth Deaconess openings all. The. Time. Because I search for similar sciencey stuff in new England. I just started connecting with recruiters on linkedin for the companies I apply to and join the groups they are in for the field I'm looking for a job in. I've gotten a few profile views that way and have bothered a few people but I haven't heard back yet, been about 4 days since I've employed this strategy, so we will see. This may help you out
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Apr 6, 2012 01:34
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Pollyanna posted:Biomed Engineering/Biotech. I'm taking advantage of my image processing experience to get a technologist-y job in medical centers or labs. I've applied to places like Northeastern U and Beth Deaconess. Nothing that's more like nursing or customer service, I'm definitely not skilled in that regard. Tech jobs are notorious for filing their dream wishlist as requirements. Apply even if you only fulfill 2 of 20 "requirements". They're most likely flexible. What they're really looking for is someone who fits their system. Just keep putting yourself out there. The people reading your application likely have no formal management experience. Don't take it personally, just keep applying.
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Apr 6, 2012 02:18
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Dik Hz posted:If you're open to relocation, look at craigslist in any local market you're willing to live in. Despite the sketchy reputation, tons of tech jobs get filled through craigslist. Would this apply to business/marketing analyst too from what you know? It seem like every entry level job listing is requiring at least 2 years exp, even for recent college grad.
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Apr 6, 2012 20:07
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some6uy008 posted:Would this apply to business/marketing analyst too from what you know? It seem like every entry level job listing is requiring at least 2 years exp, even for recent college grad.
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Apr 6, 2012 22:51
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some6uy008 posted:Would this apply to business/marketing analyst too from what you know? It seem like every entry level job listing is requiring at least 2 years exp, even for recent college grad. I have a family member in HR, they do those idiotic requirements so they aren't legally required to hold on to your resumes for one year to demonstrate that they aren't discriminating against people.
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Apr 7, 2012 19:52
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What kind of entry level salary do I want to put for a biotech-type job? I'm applying for a data analyst position at a neuroscience imaging center, and it has a field for salary preference. What should I enter? And what do I need to keep in mind when I'm trying to get into biotech jobs in general? I'm new to job hunting, so I don't know too much about this.
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Apr 8, 2012 20:34
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Pollyanna posted:What kind of entry level salary do I want to put for a biotech-type job? I'm applying for a data analyst position at a neuroscience imaging center, and it has a field for salary preference. What should I enter? I'm not looking for bio-tech jobs, but what I've done to look for salary preference is go on glassdoor.com and see what the usual salary is at the company I'm applying for, or at least for a similar position at another company if it's not listed.
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Apr 8, 2012 23:42
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Pollyanna posted:What kind of entry level salary do I want to put for a biotech-type job? I'm applying for a data analyst position at a neuroscience imaging center, and it has a field for salary preference. What should I enter? Don't be afraid to apply for temp jobs. Getting your first job with no experience is the toughest part. Even completing a 3 month contract will make you >200% more hireable.
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Apr 8, 2012 23:52
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Dik Hz posted:Don't be afraid to apply for temp jobs. Getting your first job with no experience is the toughest part. Even completing a 3 month contract will make you >200% more hireable. This is true. I took a contract job a few months ago since it was better than nothing and I wanted a job offer in hand at graduation, realized I hated it, then started job searching again. Just having a few months of a "real" job on my resume has generated more interest than my handful of internships had before. Sometimes contracts can turn into full time positions and/or get you contacts for that ever so important networking.
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Apr 9, 2012 05:08
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Pollyanna posted:Is there a primer on how to network out there? Networking for biotech/biomedical involves going to evening and charity lectures and talking to the doctors and research teams after hearing their presentations. Also volunteering in an area of your interest. You'll end up meeting people just by being around the field. The conversation part is simple. Don't sell yourself. No one important cares about some out of college dude/gal. Instead, focus on understanding what people have to say about their work. Identify some things: what are they doing, why are they doing it, how are they doing it, who are they doing it with/for, and when is the research going to be complete. If you get those out of the way with a lab manager or small business owner, you'll probably have spent 10-30 minutes taking interest in their work. And if you paid attention in school, I bet you'll have related to something they have done. My first interview was at a lab that I learned had just opened, and I had happened to have an internship which involved me working with a lot of brand new equipment so we talked about how the new lab is going to work and that took a good 10 minute chunk of me knowing what I was talking about. That made my interview stronger because I demonstrated my competency. It should be natural. Just take a breath and think about all the schooling you have gone through, and all of the things you learned. Remember that potential employers aren't going to give you a test asking specific facts. They'll want to know you're competent, which is why you should be asking questions about their work. And they'll want a friendly person who can communicate to their team and not murder them. You'll learn how to do the job once you show you're competent and friendly. I'll post another good networking story for biotech: I ended up taking a job completely out of my degree field of biotech/bioinformatics because it was available and promised lots of real-world business experience and travel. I set up conferences and doing taping/lights/sound for the company. At one event we had a former NASA astronaut who headed up the biomed engineering lab at NASA Johnson Space Center. After his presentation, I ended up talking to him briefly and just mentioned how cool his speech/video was. He asked me why I cared so much to talk to him and I told him my background. He didn't have an open spot, but asked for me to forward my resume just in case one opens up. I didn't even know who he was before he walked up on stage, but just saying "hi that was cool" got me somewhere. Doubt I'll ever get a job opportunity because gently caress the government, but it was awesome nonetheless. Apok fucked around with this message at 20:26 on Apr 9, 2012 |
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Apr 9, 2012 20:14
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Thanks for the advice. So far, I've been applying to research technician jobs like the one at Beth Deaconess and NE and a few imaging related stuff with Goodrich and the like. Is that a good place to start, at least? Is that what I should aim for right now?Apok posted:It should be natural. Just take a breath and think about all the schooling you have gone through, and all of the things you learned. Remember that potential employers aren't going to give you a test asking specific facts. They'll want to know you're competent, which is why you should be asking questions about their work. And they'll want a friendly person who can communicate to their team and not murder them. You'll learn how to do the job once you show you're competent and friendly. I was actually wondering about this. I see lots of job ads where they're looking for someone trained in something obnoxiously specific, like "the candidate will be experienced in constructing easily portable C# code for use in untangling nematodes in binary images on a PACS workstation while juggling an orange" or something. Is stuff like that what you mean by learning how to do the job? Cause it always seems really odd to me to look for stuff that's dictated entirely by what your group or research team does. They would explain how to do it, right? They don't expect you to already know how to do it, right?
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Apr 9, 2012 20:34
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tiananman posted:I know most new grads will ignore this advice but... I've been looking into doing just this. I've gotten into building robots, and I was wondering how best to show them off to prospective employers. Would Facebook work decently for this sort of thing, or would an actual blog really be the way to go? If the latter, is there any any meaningful guide to blogging out there geared towards this sort of thing?
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Apr 10, 2012 01:12
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Send the robot to the interview. Duh
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Apr 10, 2012 14:38
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Pollyanna posted:Thanks for the advice. So far, I've been applying to research technician jobs like the one at Beth Deaconess and NE and a few imaging related stuff with Goodrich and the like. Is that a good place to start, at least? Is that what I should aim for right now? They put specific skills in there with the hope that MAYBE some savant will fit the requirements to a T and be perfect for the job. It also tends to scare off people with no meaningful experience. If you have experience that you think is relevant and a good resume, most places will at least talk to you. You might not fit the current need but they like to have talented people in their back pockets.
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Apr 10, 2012 15:37
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