College Degree: A Complete Waste so far

[3v0]

I can not know, but I do not think the people at your school were stupid enough to actively and openly attempt to prevent you from getting a job. That could be grounds for a lawsuit. What possibly used words like competent rather then excellent and outstanding. We are in the middle of a depression and it takes more the competent to get a good job.

Why do you see this as their fault.

 

[mneary]

You could consider updating your LinkedIn page. I don't know if anyone looks there, but if an employer googles you it would be nice to have something positive there instead of the tiny amount you currently have.

 

[Marks256]

Let me know how your SCORE experience goes, DigiTan. I am interested in starting my own business after college, myself. Let us know what you learn.

 

[DigiTan]

Thanks. Some of my highschool friends are finishing their EE programs and returning to Austin. They're already considering starting a company (if they haven't already). The way I see it, that's just 3 weeks to come up a viable startup plan and hope we can put something together.

I'd like to start up something related to my training. All the success stories seem to dictate that to retire young, you either capture a "trend market," or find ways to cash in on a commodity. That part seems easy enough, but it's the startup costs/time that has me worried. But I guess that's what the Score appointment is for.

I can not know, but I do not think the people at your school were stupid enough to actively and openly attempt to prevent you from getting a job. That could be grounds for a lawsuit. What possibly used words like competent rather then excellent and outstanding. We are in the middle of a depression and it takes more the competent to get a good job.

I think it's more likely someone did it unilaterally. There's only 2--possibly 3--people I know who would motivated enough to go on a character assassination campaign. The other possibility is a mistake in my academic/job records that's making it look like I lied on my resume. Whatever happened, something about my personal records seems to be making all these companies behave the same way. But all this is just 1 possibility. What I need to do is run a comprehensive background check and start interviewing people to flush out anything suspicious.

In either case, you seem to be looking backward instead of forward.

On a positive note, many inventions have licensing value. Are any of your 13 inventions possible candidates?

I'm betting it's a mix of both. What I don't see are other graduates going through this. There were other grads very similar to me in both personality and experience, and none of them are unemployed.

Well, for the licensing, I'd say there's at most 3 licensable, marketable ideas in there. Coming with consumer-quality prototypes for all three would cost less than $2500 as far as I can tell. One of the first things I want to do if we start a business is look into getting all them licensed and certified. I need to ask SCORE about patent law too.

 

[Hank Fletcher]

All the success stories seem to dictate that to retire young, you either capture a "trend market," or find ways to cash in on a commodity. That part seems easy enough, but it's the startup costs/time that has me worried.

Don't forget that a lot of money can be made doing something that already has a considerable market. For instance, some markets seem incapable of saturation, such as pizza joints and coffee shops. What does it cost to start a lemonade stand? Start small, start successfully, by making sure your risk is always within your means. That way, success is inevitable, instead of just a lottery.

My problem was I spent all this time trying to find a job instead of tracking down the people who ruined me. They're obviously well-organized so this needs my undivided attention.

You've got that wrong. You're getting paranoid, because you're stressed and in what seems to you to be a tighter spot than it actually is. Let it go. Mulling over potential vendettas is a form of self-hypnosis. You're repeating a negative mantra that will negatively influence your abilities as an entrepreneur if you persist.

Be mindful of when the negative thoughts are knocking at your mind's door. I know at times it can seem like they're always there, but exercising your ability to focus on the positive can start small, and soon becomes addictive because of the rewards associated with thinking positively. For a fraction of the time and effort thinking negatively requires you can easily become a successful businessman. Abandon your interests in vengeance.

The best revenge is living well.

 

[DigiTan]

No, someone needs to pay for this. I was a fool to think I'd ever get hired. For the past 6 months, I've been trying enter a system that's been groomed for years to exclude me. No one sends out 300 applications without an offer. The very least I can do for myself is start fighting back. I'm going to take from them what they took from me. And I'll have no regrets doing it.

 

[rjvh]

No, someone needs to pay for this. I was a fool to think I'd ever get hired. For the past 6 months, I've been trying enter a system that's been groomed for years to exclude me. No one sends out 300 applications without an offer. The very least I can do for myself is start fighting back. I'm going to take from them what they took from me. And I'll have no regrets doing it.

It's good to see that you have at least still the fighting spirit but please for your self put that energy in something for youself and don't waste it on other people that you think they oposed you in the past

it won't bring you where you want to go and as hank already said being sucsessfull and happy is the best revenge that you can give them

Robert-Jan

 

[phalanx]

As of June 1st, I'm giving up the job search.

Now that's the go-get'em attitude you need to succeed!

 

[phalanx]

No, someone needs to pay for this. I was a fool to think I'd ever get hired. For the past 6 months, I've been trying enter a system that's been groomed for years to exclude me. No one sends out 300 applications without an offer. The very least I can do for myself is start fighting back. I'm going to take from them what they took from me. And I'll have no regrets doing it.

You come off as someone who thinks they are entitled to a job because of meeting a degree requirement. If you are sending out as many applications as you say you are and they are all going unnoticed, that is a very strong argument towards you not presenting yourself properly. No one needs to pay for your inability to get a job other than you and you alone. If anything the system is designed to scoop up minorities with an engineering background because they are far less common in the workplace than your average white land owning male. If you can not make potential employers see what you are capable of it is completely your fault and you need to take actions to correct that.

Perhaps you should post your resume and a typical cover letter here so people can try and figure out why you are going unnoticed.

Also, if I were an employer and could link your name to the posts you made here, I wouldn't hire you either. You may want to think about that next time before posting about getting revenge on people that haven't done anything wrong.

 

[mneary]

You still have a blank LinkedIn page. It might be worth enhancing it.

 

[DigiTan]

Yeah, I'll post up the resume excerpts sometime soon. And I don't know who started the LinkedIn page. I might have done it in 2004, but I don't know if anyone reads that stuff.

Now that's the go-get'em attitude you need to succeed!

I've been fighting the wrong battle. If someone's sabotaged my reputation, they need to be exposed and punished. I've only made their job easy by not posing a threat. My advantage is that this blacklisting network is massive to a fault. But still illegal. All I have to do is put enough careers in peril to trigger a panic. Seriously: Who's going to touch a blacklisting network that puts their own job at risk? By the time I'm through, they'll be so busy washing their hands of it, the system won't sustain itself. You don't have to get off the list. You make people quit using it.

But what the heck. It's still May 22nd, and that happens in June. I've still got nine more days to lay to waste sending out pointless resumes and emails. If nothing else, I can just widen my list of suspect companies.

 

[rjvh]

Yeah, I'll post up the resume excerpts sometime soon. And I don't know who started the LinkedIn page. I might have done it in 2004, but I don't know if anyone reads that stuff.


I've been fighting the wrong battle. If someone's sabotaged my reputation, they need to be exposed and punished. I've only made their job easy by not posing a threat. My advantage is that this blacklisting network is massive to a fault. But still illegal. All I have to do is put enough careers in peril to trigger a panic. Seriously: Who's going to touch a blacklisting network that puts their own job at risk? By the time I'm through, they'll be so busy washing their hands of it, the system won't sustain itself. You don't have to get off the list. You make people quit using it.

But what the heck. It's still May 22nd, and that happens in June. I've still got nine more days to lay to waste sending out pointless resumes and emails. If nothing else, I can just widen my list of suspect companies.

Sorry to here that you still think like that

personaly i think you will not do yourself a favour going that way

Robert-Jan

 

[Hank Fletcher]

But what the heck. It's still May 22nd, and that happens in June. I've still got nine more days to lay to waste sending out pointless resumes and emails. If nothing else, I can just widen my list of suspect companies.

I've thought about this a little more, taking into consideration your 200+ applications, and the specific market (Pacific coast) you're applying to. My conclusion is that your level of success (or failure, if you insist on being a pessimist) is entirely consistent with a fairly-run job market.

When I was looking for work that resulted in my present position, I paid for the use of an agency. This particular agency had a monopoly on teaching positions in Ontario - just about every district website insisted it was the only way they would accept applications. So I paid for an agency service that still required me to do all the job hunting, setting up of interviews, etc myself. The result? I got a handful of interviews that were essentially a waste of my time, because the hiring schools were required to interview at least three people for any position, even though they'd often decided before-hand who they would hire (some of the position-winners I know for a fact were children of the people hiring).

To cut to the chase, what's that all mean to me? If it's a rotten game, but it's the only game in town, what can you do? Answer: change towns. Think of it like a pick-up game of basketball (or perhaps more apt to this forum's clientele, a multi-player FPS). If a group of people are playing, and you start playing with them, and they start acting like jerks, what would you do? Out of pure self-interest (your health, your happiness, your resources) your best option is to simply find another game.

What you want me to tell you (or someone else, I don't know) is that railing against the machine, or system, or a group of people, or one person in particular will result in some kind of cathartic climax of resolving justice. What I'm going to tell you is: you're wasting your time and energy if you're expecting, or even just trying, to make that happen. There's a time for protest. There are battles (even just metaphorically) to be fought. But this isn't one of them, at least, it's not in your own interest to fight. Don't make your life a battlefield, just move on.

If there are no jobs, or the competition is higher than you're willng to tolerate in a given market, move on. It's nobody's fault that that's the way the cookie crumbles in various markets every now and then. Regardless of what you may have endured in the past, there are no guarantees against your having to deal with adversity at any given time.

Get to the facts, stick to reality, and stop wasting your time on these stupid revenge fantasies. If you think about it, the revenge fantasies are just another way people, systems, or whatever you want to call it are wasting your resources. So just avoid it. Drop it. You can rail, but you can make your life a rail and not get what you want, need, or will make you happy.

Post your resume, and where you've been applying. There's more to this story than what you're letting on, perhaps more to it than you're immediately aware of (for instance, you haven't really responded to the challenge of looking for a job in a fairly specific geographic region).

If your resumes ****, and you're making ridiculous applications, you've got no case and you're wasting my time.

 

[DigiTan]

Here it is: Resume 2008, revision D. I've had this thing reviewed by the university career center, the undergraduate Dean, the engineering internship coordinator, a former professor, Score 22, and my own parents. The February - May revisions leading up to this one included tab/margin adjustments, removal of two irrelevant jobs (cashier), and generalizing the skills list ("Eagle and PSpice" -> "CAD").

I've only been using the cover letter since March, but I get the same positive feedback. Everyone says it's one of the more laudable resumes to come from an undergrad. And I'm not exactly showing up for these interviews in tennis shoes either, it's always the suit and tie. Yet my resume always lands in the hands of some dumbass HR clown. They should cut themselves on it and get a MRSA infection. That's my career goal.

May 23, 2008

To whom it may concern,

Is your firm searching for a highly-motivated, energetic design engineer? In my years of electrical engineering, programming, and technical writing, I’ve worked with a diversity of systems, and an equal diversity of skilled teams that studied them.

This experience combined with a strong work ethic, energetic style, and desire for precision and success, makes me a strong candidate for your consideration.

I would appreciate any opportunity to further discuss how my background could meet the diverse needs of your company. To view my engineering background, visit **broken link removed** . If you have any questions, I may be contacted 24 hours a day, and through (XXX) XXX-XXXX.

Sincerely,

 

[DigiTan]

Anyway, please don't it as a rejection of your advice. Maybe this situation will resolve itself. Maybe it will turn out better than I expected. But these "people" are making it impossible to hold back. If nothing else, a lot of people owe me some answers. Their actions are inexcusable.

I've already applied all over the US. The Southwest, Midwest, East Coast, West Coast, even Coast Rica. If there's one thing I learned to recognize in college: it's a futile situation. ...The absence of progress, the endless setback, the failed attempts to reinvent oneself. I can spot it at a glance. I've sacrificed too much for too long to just let a world of arrogant, bigoted engineers throw my life away. I don't know if I said something the other day to suggest I'm on some fantasy mission. I mean, you should be as pissed off about this as I am. For crying out loud: there's a class of people out there making a sport of shattering young lives. People need to have their eyes opened. What I need here is just job search advice so that when someone asks, I can say I tried everything. I'll deal with the others on my own terms.

 

[Miles Prower]

Well, I finally finished up the engineering program, and so far I've gotta say the 5 years in college was a complete of time and money. I doubt my diploma's worth whatever paper it's printed on.

[...]

Has anyone else had this happen after graduation? Or catch someone trying trying to sabotage your hiring chances?

Yeah. I also did the whole EE school route, and that's exactly how I look at it: waste of time and money. Believe me, I learned onehelluvalot more sitting in the basement with a hot soldering iron and a big stack of Rat Shack components than I ever did sitting in some classroom with a hundred other guys (and a few gals) listening to some TA drone on and on. I can tell you that for what I do, there was not thing one ever even mentioned about it. I had to learn it all on my own because there was no other alternative: nothing, nothing, nothing about how audio equipment works, how it should be designed right, how distortions affect the sonics. Is it any wonder why all "Big Box" amps sound so terrible these days?

"...and being a minority automatically cuts my opportunities down to half."

I doubt it. The problem is that the kinds of jobs you want have long been outsourced. They aren't here anymore. I gave it up a long time ago to work on my own. Still, the &^%$*$# gov't seems determined to louse me up every step of the way.

 

[DigiTan]

I doubt it. The problem is that the kinds of jobs you want have long been outsourced. They aren't here anymore. I gave it up a long time ago to work on my own. Still, the &^%$*$# gov't seems determined to louse me up every step of the way.

I used to believe that was true, but I factored in all the times I can waltz onto Indeed.com or CareerBuilder and find 20 open positions that I'm perfectly qualified for. People always say "It's the job market. It's a slow market," but if that were true, there wouldn't be postings. They just don't want me around.

I really don't care that my school didn't offer me anything. I've been a peace with that for years. What burns me is every recruiter on the planet wants to throw my life away. I was gonna be an adventurer in life. Travel to Europe, do volunteer research, start my own business, and even try a marathon before age 28. All I need the smallest spark. Even at only $48k/year (well below average pay for engineers), it puts every goal in reach before 2011. I've calculated it a hundred times.

Now I'm gonna be trapped making minimum wage the rest of my life.

 

[zanes]

Digitan, I'm not sure how the resume/CV thing works in the US of A, but I'll make an observation on it from the perspective of me in the UK:

What about other things? Although it's a massively strong engineering CV, there is practically nothing that isn't electronics/engineering related on there, ie. sport and other activities.

As I said I don't know how it works over there, but if I submitted that to an average HR department (sorry, but it'll nearly always be processed/passed through HR) they'd look at it, and think "Hold on, this guy does x,y,z etc, but what does he do when he's not doing electronics?" They're probably worried about burnout/stress levels- Doing electronics to get away from electronics will not sit right with an HR bod.

It doesn't have to be massive things, just things to show a more diverse you.

Keep your chin up, life has an odd way of sorting itself out no matter what happens.

I'm not having a go, and as I mentioned maybe over there a resume is only focused on job skills, and all I've written could be totally irrelevant, but that is what struck me when I read it. Life WILL improve.

 

[DigiTan]

Another rejection email:

Dear Brady

Engineer, College Entry-Level Program XX68518

Thank you for your recent application for the above position.

We regret to inform you that after careful consideration we have
decided not to pursue your application any further. Due to the high volume of
applicants we are unable to provide detailed feedback at the
resume/application stage. I can assure you that your resume has received full
and fair consideration. We would like to keep your details to review
against further suitable vacancies.

We would like to thank you once again for your application and wish you
every success in your career search.

Regards,

Verizon Business
US Staffing

To learn more about Careers at Verizon Business please view our current
opportunities at: **broken link removed**

Please do not reply to this e-mail, it was sent by an automated system.
Incoming e-mails will not receive a response.

Translation: "Thanks for letting us get your hopes up. You are useless to us. Go somewhere else."

Today I had to sell my television and Nintendo Wii to cover my bills, which was basically the last of what I have that's worth anything. I would literally have to resort to crime to pay off any additional bills. I've calculated my budget dozens of times and there's no way out.

Amazing. Simply amazing. You start electronics at age 10. Build your first state machine at age 12. Start a GPS internship at 17. Invent 30 devices before you're 24. Graduate. And this is how you're treated.

If that's not blacklisting or racism, nothing is. Jesus Christ! Why does everybody hate me?

 

[DigiTan]

Digitan, I'm not sure how the resume/CV thing works in the US of A, but I'll make an observation on it from the perspective of me in the UK:

What about other things? Although it's a massively strong engineering CV, there is practically nothing that isn't electronics/engineering related on there, ie. sport and other activities.

As I said I don't know how it works over there, but if I submitted that to an average HR department (sorry, but it'll nearly always be processed/passed through HR) they'd look at it, and think "Hold on, this guy does x,y,z etc, but what does he do when he's not doing electronics?" They're probably worried about burnout/stress levels- Doing electronics to get away from electronics will not sit right with an HR bod.

It doesn't have to be massive things, just things to show a more diverse you.

Here's my 5th revision. This format was suggested to me by the Undergraduate Dean and Associate Dean. The "activities" section is more reminiscent of my 1st revision, where it list more "past time" activities and not just the student orgs. The pitfall is that no one gives you straight answers as a job applicant, just generic rejections. Even if asked directly, the response is always "We're not allowed to say" or some garbage to that effect. They would literally have to be bribed or coerced before you can figure out the why behind their reasoning.

But anyway, here it is. 5th revision...

SUMMARY: A recent Electrical Engineering graduate applying for hardware engineering opportunities.

EDUCATION
The University of Angst
Bachelors of Science (BSEE)
Electrical Engineering. Graduating class of December, 2007
Government and Politics Minor

ACADEMIC PROJECTS
Senior Design Project
Lead a team of five students as a digital specialist. Invented an FPGA-based system to correlate instrumental music to stored melodies using a streaming Fourier Transform. The 8-month project was awarded 1st-place by the Industrial Advisory Board for its exceptionally difficult fusion of science and the arts. For a summary of this and other projects, visit my engineering portfolio at: http://

INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE
Reverse Engineering/Electronic Prototyping Internship (6/06 – present)
Company X
Successfully engineered, programmed, and built a prototype field programmer for iButton technology that allowed diagnosis of industrial lasers. Reverse-engineered and unlocked several secured memory devices using a data capture/encoder interface I designed. Revised company training manuals, Work-In-Progress forms, Spreadsheets, and Traveler documents. I currently respond to on-call technical assignments while living in Dallas.

Global Positioning Systems Internship (6/99 – 8/99)
Company Y
Received a technical internship with the Differential GPS engineering firm while still in high school. Trained in component-level design, object-oriented and console C++, and network file management under Windows NT. Collaborated with the engineering mentors to learn GPS/DGPS standards conformance and industry trends.

Independent Projects and Fabrication (2/01 – present)
Invented 33 mixed-signal devices. I regularly use CAD, Spice, C/C++, HTML, VB.2005, multiple variants of assembly code, plus various HDLs. Gained a high level of experience in RISC embedded programming of microcontrollers and hardware drivers. I work in applications ranging from radio telemetry/RFID, control systems, audio amplifiers, robotics, and alarms systems. Web-mastered DigiTan: Programming and Hardware Center, where I document these systems and collaborate with students worldwide.

OTHER EXPERIENCE
Sales Associate (3/08 - present)
Radio Shack
Presently working at Radio Shack to support living expenses and job search.

ENGINEERING SKILLS
Analog and digital test equipment. Mixed signal analysis, test, and prototyping. EDA software, including: schematic and PCB drafting (Spice, Labview, ModelSim, CAD). Programming in C/C++, Assembly, VB2005, HTML, CSS. Numerical analysis using MATLAB and SCILAB. All windows versions, MS Office Suite.

ACTIVITIES
Leadership and team positions in student NSBE, K5UOA Ham Radio Station, AUV Robotics, SWE, IEEE, and ACM. Engaged in speed-reading, composition, game design, cross-country running, Parkour and freerunning.

...maybe there's some minor parts that needs improving, spelling or whatever. But there's positively no excuse for the rejection patterns I've had to put up with. There HR recruiters are blithering imbeciles! I mean...what do I have to do to get through to these idiots? Build a freaking space shuttle? What the hell do they want from me?

I mean...I've tried everything. I even researched the supernatural possibility and read books on prayer, Ch'i, and curse removal spells. I can't do anymore!