Job Hunt

[anadventure]

I'm starting to understand why they call it that; the HUNT part, that is. It feels like I'm playing some bizarre death match with other potential employees. It frustrates me because I know recruiters think I'm young, but I'm so capable. I'm stuck in the "can't get experience" because all the postings expect experience cycle.

Just finished my Masters in a TV oriented path. I never thought it would be so hard to get in even for an internship! Yikes. Anyone else have this experience? How long did it take you to get a job?

[Restless&Lost]

I'm starting to understand why they call it that; the HUNT part, that is. It feels like I'm playing some bizarre death match with other potential employees. It frustrates me because I know recruiters think I'm young, but I'm so capable. I'm stuck in the "can't get experience" because all the postings expect experience cycle.

Just finished my Masters in a TV oriented path. I never thought it would be so hard to get in even for an internship! Yikes. Anyone else have this experience? How long did it take you to get a job?


I feel your pain. Media is not the friendliest field for new people. It took me a good 4-5 months just to get an internship after graduation -- and my resume at that point was pretty strong.

Hang in there. All you can do is network and stay persistant. Once you get your first job/strong internship, job hunting won't be nearly as hard as the first time around.

[erika36]

I had a job I hated for like three years, and I stayed because I felt stuck, and I didn't want to deal with the job hunt because it was so hard for me just to get that job. My social skills suck which I believe adds to my obstacles. And now that I've been looking for work for quite awhile now, I'll tell you, I'm so sick of job-hunting I've had enough of it to last me a flipping LIFETIME! I'm starting to remember why I was so hesitant to quit my last job, even though it was sucking the life out of me. :mad:

[anadventure]

Thanks for your replies. Just had a pretty bad interview, so I'm trying not to get depressed... it's just hard because it feels like there's no end in sight.

I'm sure I'll find something eventually.

[gemma-dahl]

It depends. The longest I was unemployed was three months. It felt like an eternity. I felt like the world's biggest loser, having nothing to do each day. I was tutoring on the side just to pick up some cash to pay the bills and to supplement my unemployment checks. When I finally got a job (at a pretty cool regional weekly newspaper), I was so happy; however, I also kept thinking, "Damn, finally." Media is a tough nut to crack, and the job stability is not so fantastic. There are tons of layoffs and buy-outs, and after a while, you get really jaded, whether you have a job and are just looking for an upgrade, or have been out of work for months.

If you would like me to look at your resume and offer suggestions, I certainly can; just PM me. My other recommendation is to not limit yourself to one geographical area. Smaller or more rural markets are where the majority of entry-level jobs are. If you live someplace where you can rent a 1 br apt. for 300 a month (as I do), it makes the first year or two of low pay a little bit more bearable.

[IntheMiddle85]

This is definitely me! No matter how hard I try to market myself or show off my qualifications, I barely get any job calls. It's hard to believe I busted myself for four years on the college paper and did an internship to get a lot of clips and then can't get a job to show for it. I am trying other fields besides journalism, but can't crack those either...like PR, professional sports, even Internet marketing/copywriting.

And following up with employers doesn't seem to be the answer. The follow ups I put in get ignored! And I don't have the energy to follow up every week...why should I waste my time if an employer won't even take a minute from their day to give me a response on whether or not a decision has been made? I don't care if I'm rejected or they're not hiring; at least I would know instead of having to chase them down all the time.

[Akamaru]

"This is definitely me! No matter how hard I try to market myself or show off my qualifications, I barely get any job calls. It's hard to believe I busted myself for four years on the college paper and did an internship to get a lot of clips and then can't get a job to show for it. I am trying other fields besides journalism, but can't crack those either...like PR, professional sports, even Internet marketing/copywriting.

And following up with employers doesn't seem to be the answer. The follow ups I put in get ignored! And I don't have the energy to follow up every week...why should I waste my time if an employer won't even take a minute from their day to give me a response on whether or not a decision has been made? I don't care if I'm rejected or they're not hiring; at least I would know instead of having to chase them down all the time."

I'm in the same position. I have a strong GPA from a University of California school in a "marketable major", Business Management Economics and Accounting. I was treasurer of a student organization related to my major and I was an accounting TA for a professor. As far as skills, I have visual basic for applications programming skills which helps immensely when you are preparing financial spreadsheets in Excel.

I also had a high profile internship at a Big 4 accounting firm and a full time job for 1 year at the same firm. I had to leave because I couldn't deal with 65+ hour work weeks with no overtime and a 2-2.5 hour round trip commute over a mountain pass.

And yet I'm not getting interviews for jobs in accounting that want people with AA degrees, high school diplomas, or no education... but in the same listing some of them will want 5 years experience minimum.

How do these mythical individuals get experience in the first place when they have no education? Some of the job requirements seem like a joke. No one with a CPA certification that I worked with at Big 4 would settle for 14 dollars and hour.

Can anyone see a problem with my situation? Am I just not qualified enough to do work that doesn't really need a university degree at all?

I'm starting to think that spending $80,000 on my 4 year university degree was a mistake. I should have spent $60,000 traveling the world for 3 years living it up, then blowing through an AA degree in one year with the rest of the money.