Success after graduate school?

[della_anne]

Has anyone here been successful in getting into your chosen field after graduate school? If so, how did you break into your field? Is there anyone here who is having a tough time getting into their chosen field after grad school?If so what are your next plans as far as a career?
I just like to see how others are dealing with this as I am currently in Grad school for a Masters degree in Human Resources...


Danielle

[winneythepooh7]

I feel I have been pretty successful. I contribute that to the fact that I worked in my field for some time before deciding to pursue a Master's in it. I also have a lot of good contacts. I feel like if I wanted to, I could probably get a job making a whole lot more money in my field too, but that would entail becoming an administrator and doing the whole 24/7 work/corporate thing. I am just not interested in that..........I have a supervisory/management position now, and that is challenging enough most days. I have no desire to be THE BOSS BOSS though.

[cheshrcarol]

I was able to get a job even before I finished grad school, but I did a lot of research before I chose the degree/field. I'm in a specific area of software development and it's kind of specialized. So I ended up having to move to a larger metropolitan area for an internship, which turned into a full time position.

[dacrunkest]

I have a friend who has a master's degree who still can't find a job. I also have a friend with a GED who, until very recently, was the regional manager of a large retail chain and did quite well for himself. It's how you use your degree...whatever degree you have...that will determine your path. I listened to a successful businessman tell me once that he doesn't care what people got their degree in. He only was concerned about their dedication to the job and ability to perform. He said that he didn't have a college degree, and that he had to just go and be succesful without one. And he was.

It's the contacts you make and the path you blaze that determines where you want to go...

[NewMrs.]

My sister has an MLS and she received multiple job offers. She received at least one of the offers while she was still in grad school. She decided not to take that job for several reasons, and kept looking. She found her current job as a librarian about a month after she graduated.

However, from what she has told me and what I already knew about her, I believe that the following factors all contributed to her job search:

1.) She sent out something like 50 resumes in the months leading up to her graduation.
2.) She worked in a library while she was in grad school.
3.) After my sister received her B.S. in a natural sciences-related field, she took several years off from school, built up some work experience, and spent some time thinking about what she really wanted to do.
4.) After she completed her B.S., she moved several hundred miles away from our home in Western PA to pursue a job opportunity. She came back to PA to get her MLS at Pitt. However, she didn't hesitate to pick up and move several hundred miles away after graduation from Pitt so that she could accept a job in her field. My sister would really like to come back to Pittsburgh, but she doesn't have a job in her field here, so for right now she is living someplace where she can have one.

[TinyDancer]

I've been successful. . . but it still wasn't easy by any stretch. Grad school definitely isn't a ticket to a job. I'll pm you more specifics of my story. (Sorry, gotta leave you all in suspense!) :cool:

[Pol]

I can count two dozen people I know that have their degrees and cannot or did not find a job in their field. The problem is that they feel that they HAVE to get a job in their field, or they wasted 6 years of study.

You're lucky in that you have a degree that has a very wide application, and can work in almost any company.

I know a guy with a law degree who is a fundraiser for non-profit agencies.

[yankeeyosh]

No. I picked a field where there are few jobs and far too many applicants (meteorology). Not to mention the fact that due to a disability, I have trouble at job interviews. I had trouble finding entry level work that required just a bachelor's degree.