How long did it take you to land on your first job?

[JZStudios]

I suppose it depends on where you live, but where I live it's notoriously hard to get even a minimum wage job. I had to search for months to no avail, having to apply online since nothing does in person applications anymore.

In the end, I got my first job at an airport, where my sister already worked and pulled some strings. After 3 months I "failed" the introductory probation period presumably because some girl thought I was racist for not wanting to go to Mexico. Despite the fact that I'm Mexican. Anyways, I already had a job lined up where my brother was working that was also significantly closer to my house (Like, less than 5 miles compared to 20) so as soon as I left the airport the next day I was working somewhere else. Every job I've had after that has been pretty much an immediate hire.

 

There's nothing wrong with working with your dad, assuming he's paying you. I worked for my dad for a few years and basically didn't get paid at all.

[Danioki]

uff i have never been unemployed, i begin working as soon as i graduate, and after that jump between jobs without idle time.

 

i think it's just luck.

[JZStudios]

8 hours ago, Danioki said:

uff i have never been unemployed, i begin working as soon as i graduate, and after that jump between jobs without idle time.

 

i think it's just luck.

Where I am they won't even hire you as a busser without experience. How destroyed have we become that you need experience to clean tables?

[Shammikit]

3 hours ago, JZStudios said:

Where I am they won't even hire you as a busser without experience. How destroyed have we become that you need experience to clean tables?

I believe thats the same issue we got here. i read some advertisements of some IT jobs and according to their descriptions and requirements even an Intern should be able to do it, but they still ask like 2-3 years experience. I applied to those jobs as well. no response. 

[GenericFanboy]

Currently doing an internship at a school as a system admin, One of our collagues is leaving this year. I finish college this year. So its yknow, quite likely that i'll work here.

[flashiling]

my first part time job was as a cashier at a grocery store for 3 months, but since i turned 18 they would have to increase my pay by 1.6x and pay higher insurance and stuff for me to work there so when i got the job my boss and i agreed that i would be there till i was 18.

I got a job just before i turned 18 at an ice hockey team,  well i didn't work at the team as much as i worked for them since i just sold beer and merch.

But my first "actual" job i've been at since mid september as an intern at a company in their IT department.

Quite fun to work so far and get paid a lot, just a bit dangerous since i don't have any monthly expenses other than my phone bill.

[Samfisher]

Got hired within a month after graduation?  That was 10 years ago tho.  It's pretty rare to get absolutely no responses at all however.

[NineEyeRon]

I got a job with the company I interviewed with first, just not the job I interviewed for. I interviewed a couple of months out of university but didnt start until the following March, 9 months after leaving Uni.

 

I had worked part time before that, straight out of university to get some experience, as a lab rat prepping samples.

 

Even better the job I got was 10x better than the job I originally interviewed for and paid a bit more too.

[wasab]

5 hours ago, JZStudios said:

Where I am they won't even hire you as a busser without experience. How destroyed have we become that you need experience to clean tables?

Depends on the economy. Currently here in America unemployment rate is so low even former convicts are getting hired according to the news. 

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/business/economy/labor-market-inmates.amp.html

[wasab]

1 hour ago, Samfisher said:

Got hired within a month after graduation?  That was 10 years ago tho.  It's pretty rare to get absolutely no responses at all however.

Plenty of my classmate get job offer before graduating. In this day and age, you don't wait till you get your degree to apply for jobs. People usually started applying around late January if they are graduating in June. Recruiters know this and they usually start visiting the campus around late january and then started right away interviewing candidates in job fairs(which these companies need to pay $500 to attend) and other networking events. Many of the students get full time job offers even earlier back in fall or in their junior years from internships. Companies offered them full position after they received their degrees. 

[wolfxtr3m]

Like many of the previous people said, work experience in most cases matters more then a degree. Although I always was lucky, I worked during high school Summers Breaks at a coffee shop cuz they were short handed and they liked me so they wanted me to coninue there. As soon I finished High School I wanted something more related to my area as well, In my country you can choose to go to a professional course and get a some kinda of degree and high school completion, I applied many CV's and nothing, I was able to get to work in a office of a delivery company it's been 2yrs and 4months since I started to work here. I was able to get this job cuz my mom coworker husband was in need of someone and I was able to get the place.

 

Sometimes is more about good timing really

[Samfisher]

6 minutes ago, wasab said:

Plenty of my classmate get job offer before graduating. In this day and age, you don't wait till you get your degree to apply for jobs. People usually started applying around late January if they are graduating in June. Recruiters know this and they usually start visiting the campus around late january and then started right away interviewing candidates in job fairs(which these companies need to pay $500 to attend) and other networking events. Many of the students get full time job offers even earlier back in fall or in their junior years from internships. Companies offered them full position after they received their degrees. 

This is not the practice here.  They have job fairs but companies never go to universities looking for job seekers where I'm from.

 

There's some stats somewhere, and I've been personally told this from recruitment firms and HR onboarding/offboarding services that personal and professional contacts make up about 80% of job hires.  It's been true for me personally as well.

[wasab]

11 minutes ago, Samfisher said:

This is not the practice here.  They have job fairs but companies never go to universities looking for job seekers where I'm from.

 

There's some stats somewhere, and I've been personally told this from recruitment firms and HR onboarding/offboarding services that personal and professional contacts make up about 80% of job hires.  It's been true for me personally as well.

I am not speaking from stats, I literally see them setting up booths and recruiting on campus. Actually, not really like hiring, more like talking to as many potential candidates as possible and telling them to how to apply. The real interview are to be schedule elsewhere. Many of these recruiters are former alumni and well connected to the schools alumni network. Like I said, they paid the school $500 just to set up booths there and to talk to students. Most won't go through such trouble if their contacts can find them qualified candidates. 

[Anomnomnomaly]

On 1/4/2020 at 4:39 AM, wasab said:

What's wrong with that? Let's say you have a company and need to hire someone. You have a nephew who just graduated with a degree in the industry that this job position required. You know him since his childhood that he is a hardworking and bright lad. Wouldnt you just hire him instead of spending resources to interview, do background checks, qualification verifications, ect for total strangers who you do not know? 

I can understand the reluctance to include it because it could have seemed like nepotism, but a job is a job and you can word your resume in such a way as to avoid mentioning you only got it because of a family member.

 

You resume is part fact, part fiction anyway... you include only stuff that is relevant to the job you are applying for. You should have several versions of it stored that emphasise different strengths.

[JZStudios]

8 hours ago, wasab said:

Depends on the economy. Currently here in America unemployment rate is so low even former convicts are getting hired according to the news.

"Currently here in America" is like saying "Currently in the entirety of Europe." On the whole unemployment has gone down but not everywhere is so peachy. It might be better here now though than when I was first looking, but that doesn't change the fact that all these places wanted previous experience for what's supposed to be entry level jobs.

 

7 hours ago, Samfisher said:

This is not the practice here.  They have job fairs but companies never go to universities looking for job seekers where I'm from.

 

There's some stats somewhere, and I've been personally told this from recruitment firms and HR onboarding/offboarding services that personal and professional contacts make up about 80% of job hires.  It's been true for me personally as well.

When I went to job fairs they were all either call centers or insurance companies. Y'know, those places with ridiculously high turnover rates where no one works for more than 6 months tops.

[wasab]

6 hours ago, Anomnomnomaly said:

I can understand the reluctance to include it because it could have seemed like nepotism. 

Only if you pick your family member over more qualified candidates for no other reason than family connection. 

 

Besides, if nepotism is so frown upon, maybe we ought to campaign to shut down all the family run businesses. 

[wasab]

1 hour ago, JZStudios said:

"Currently here in America" is like saying "Currently in the entirety of Europe." On the whole unemployment has gone down but not everywhere is so peachy. It might be better here now though than when I was first looking, but that doesn't change the fact that all these places wanted previous experience for what's supposed to be entry level jobs.

Yeah, as if there are plenty of experienced candidates going around applying for jobs. Supply and demand works both ways. You may have hard time finding jobs and employers may have hard time finding qualified candidates. This is why staffing agency exists and are a viable bussiness. Chances are if a bussiness is asking for years of experiences for entry level jobs, either the HR doesn't know what he is talking about or the job market is simply oversaturated. 

 

1 hour ago, JZStudios said:

When I went to job fairs they were all either call centers or insurance companies. Y'know, those places with ridiculously high turnover rates where no one works for more than 6 months tops.

Idk. Job fairs at my school and elsewhere are classify by the nature of recruitment. It will be named IT job fair, engineering job fair, bussiness job fair ect. I get to see recruiters from companies like yahoo and Lockheed Martin. 

[Anomnomnomaly]

1 hour ago, wasab said:

Only if you pick your family member over more qualified candidates for no other reason than family connection. 

 

Besides, if nepotism is so frown upon, maybe we ought to campaign to shut down all the family run businesses. 

I said it could appear to be... not that it was. Including those details on a resume is a mistake for that reason... You can't dictate how another person will interpret the facts being presented. A resume is supposed to present the absolute best side of you and your experience... So including anything that could be interpreted otherwise is foolish.

 

This is from a person who's had extensive training on how to teach people to write their CV (as it's called here in the UK)